2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2019-2020, 6,199 people earned their degree in public policy, making the major the 116th most popular in the United States. 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 New Jersey, there were 280 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $63,100 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 139 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $39,288 and $24,807 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey” ranking, we looked at 3 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.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

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 New Jersey” 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. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in New Jersey

#1

Rutgers University - New Brunswick

New Brunswick, New Jersey

#2 in overall quality

$21,654 Average Net Price

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Rutgers University - New Brunswick. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey list. New Brunswick, New Jersey is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 25 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at Rutgers New Brunswick, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in New Jersey” ranking. The yearly cost to attend Rutgers New Brunswick is $21,654 for new jersey bachelor’s degree public policy students.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 93%. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 3.6%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Policy at Rutgers University - New Brunswick

#2

Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey

#1 in overall quality

$11,317 Average Net Price

$51,273 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Princeton University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey. 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 did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in New Jersey” list. The yearly cost to attend Princeton is $11,317 for new jersey 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.

Full Princeton University Public Policy Report

#3

Rider University

Lawrenceville, New Jersey

#3 in overall quality

$27,964 Average Net Price

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Rider University. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in New Jersey. Rider University is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Lawrenceville, New Jersey. It awarded 2 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Rider did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in New Jersey” list. It costs about $27,964 for New Jersey Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students per year to attend Rider.

With a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Read more about Public Policy at Rider University

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in the Middle Atlantic Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy

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.

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