2023 Best Value Colleges for Public Policy in the Rocky Mountains Region (With Aid)

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking is part of that endeavor.

Public Policy is the 113th most popular major in the country with 6,430 degrees awarded in 2020-2021. In 2019-2020, public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $49,451 and had an average of $21,866 in loans still to pay off.

Across the Rocky Mountains region, there were 46 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in public policy. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality public policy programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

The public policy school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we’ve developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of “Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid”.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.

Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Public Policy in the Rocky Mountains Region (With Aid)

1

University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah

#2 in overall quality

$13,572 Average Net Price

$51,388 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Utah. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid. University of Utah is a large school located in Salt Lake City, Utah that handed out 9 ’s public policy degrees in 2020-2021.

U of U not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #2 on our “Best Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” list. The estimated yearly cost for University of Utah is $13,572 for rocky mountains region public policy students with aid.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 89%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 1.7%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Policy at U of U

2

University of Denver
Denver, Colorado

#1 in overall quality

$33,830 Average Net Price

$51,736 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Denver. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region For Those Getting Aid. DU is a private not-for-profit institution located in Denver, Colorado. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 26 ’s degrees in 2020-2021.

DU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Schools in the Rocky Mountains Region” list. The estimated yearly cost for DU is $33,830 for rocky mountains region public policy students with aid.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 1.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Denver

• Best Value Colleges for Public Policy (With Aid)

Notes and References

References

• The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of our data about colleges.
• Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
• Information about the national average student loan default rate is from the U.S. Department of Education and refers to data about the 2016 borrower cohort tracking period for which the cohort default rate (CDR) was 10.1%.

Read more about our data sources and methodologies

Footnotes

• *Average salary, average net price, and average tuition and fees are for the top schools only.
• Some schools otherwise deserving of recognition may have been removed from this ranking in the event that new data identified post-publication warranted it, or at the request of the school.

Credits

• Credit for the banner image above goes to The Official CTBTO Photostream.