2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region
Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.
Public Policy is the 116th most popular major in the country with 6,199 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. In 2017-2018, public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $52,077 and had an average of $35,743 in loans still to pay off.
Across the Middle Atlantic region, there were 1,533 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $58,789 and $38,708 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 588 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $39,278 and $24,587 respectively.
For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking, we looked at 14 colleges that offer a degree in public policy. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great public policy programs and cost less that 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.
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Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region” list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat. 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 for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region
The colleges and universities below are the best for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students.
Top 14 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in the Middle Atlantic Region
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend SUNY Empire State College. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region. SUNY Empire is a fairly large school located in Saratoga Springs, New York that handed out 51 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.
SUNY Empire also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list, coming in at #13. The estimated yearly cost for SUNY Empire is $12,142 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
Out of the 14 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region that were part of this year’s ranking, University at Albany landed the #2 spot on the list. UAlbany is a public institution located in Albany, New York. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 54 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.
As a testament to the quality of education offered at UAlbany, the school also landed the #11 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UAlbany is $18,577 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students.
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Rutgers University - New Brunswick. It ranked #3 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region list. Rutgers University - New Brunswick is a public institution located in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The school has a large population, and it awarded 25 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.
Rutgers New Brunswick did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #9 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. It costs about $21,654 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend Rutgers New Brunswick.
Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%. The student loan default rate at the school is 3.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
Read full report on Public Policy at Rutgers University - New Brunswick
Out of the 14 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region that were part of this year’s ranking, St Mary’s College of Maryland landed the #4 spot on the list. SMCM is located in St. Mary’s City, Maryland and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 10 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.
In addition to being on our middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students list, SMCM has also earned the #12 rank in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for St Mary’s College of Maryland is $19,369 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 3.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.
You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of Maryland - College Park. The school came in at #5 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region. UMCP is located in College Park, Maryland and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 68 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.
UMCP did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The yearly cost to attend UMCP is $19,045 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 95%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low student loan default rate of 2.4% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.
University of Delaware ranked #6 on this year’s Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region list. Newark, Delaware is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 37 students in 2019-2020.
UD not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #10 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The estimated yearly cost for University of Delaware is $17,220 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
The low student loan default rate of 2.4% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 90%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.
With a ranking of #7, Siena College did quite well on the 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region list. Located in Loudonville, New York, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 18 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.
Siena not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #7 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The estimated yearly cost for Siena is $27,479 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students.
The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.5%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 90%.
Princeton University landed the #8 spot on the 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. Princeton, New Jersey is the setting for this medium-sized institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 108 students in 2019-2020.
Princeton also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list, coming in at #2. The yearly cost to attend Princeton University is $11,317 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students.
The low student loan default rate of 0.9% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The student-to-faculty ratio of 4 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.
Rider University came in at #9 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. Rider University is a small school located in Lawrenceville, New Jersey that handed out 2 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.
Rider did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #14 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The yearly cost to attend Rider University is $27,964 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students.
Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.
Dickinson College ranked #10 on this year’s Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region list. This small school is located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 18 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.
As a testament to the quality of education offered at Dickinson, the school also landed the #6 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking. It costs about $29,452 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend Dickinson College.
Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.
Gettysburg College did quite well in the 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, coming in at #11. Gettysburg is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It awarded 16 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.
Gettysburg did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #8 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The yearly cost to attend Gettysburg College is $26,513 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 90%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low student loan default rate of 1.2% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%. The student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.
Carnegie Mellon University did quite well in the 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, coming in at #12. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 14 students in 2019-2020.
Carnegie Mellon also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list, coming in at #4. The yearly cost to attend Carnegie Mellon is $34,508 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
With a student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. The student loan default rate at the school is 0.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.
Cornell University did quite well in the 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking, coming in at #13. Cornell University is located in Ithaca, New York and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 58 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.
Cornell also took the #1 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” ranking. It costs about $40,126 for middle atlantic region bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend Cornell.
The student loan default rate at the school is 1.1%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.
University of Pennsylvania came in at #14 in this year’s edition of the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Middle Atlantic Region ranking. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this large private not-for-profit school awarded 23 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.
UPenn did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region” list. The yearly cost to attend UPenn is $25,802 for Middle Atlantic Region Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 95%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The student loan default rate at the school is 1.4%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.
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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
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