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

4 Ranked Colleges
98 Degrees Awarded
$29,100 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor's in Pennsylvania

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

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 Pennsylvania, there were 308 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $66,300 and $48,733 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 98 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania” ranking looked at 4 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s in public policy. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality public policy programs that also have a lower cost than schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the public policy program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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 for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania”.

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 for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania

The colleges and universities below are the best for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree public policy students.

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in Pennsylvania

#1

Dickinson College

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania that were part of this year’s ranking, Dickinson College landed the #1 spot on the list. Dickinson College is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 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 #3 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Dickinson is $29,452 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.

With a student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed.

Full Dickinson Public Policy Report

#2

Gettysburg College

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Gettysburg College. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania list. Gettysburg College is located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 16 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

Gettysburg not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #4 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The yearly cost to attend Gettysburg College is $26,513 for pennsylvania 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. 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 student loan default rate at the school is 1.2%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Policy at Gettysburg College

#3

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#2 in overall quality

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania that were part of this year’s ranking, Carnegie Mellon University landed the #3 spot on the list. Carnegie Mellon is a fairly large school located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania that handed out 14 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Carnegie Mellon also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. It costs about $34,508 for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend Carnegie Mellon.

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%. 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. With a freshman retention rate of 96%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Full Carnegie Mellon University Public Policy Report

#4

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
#1 in overall quality

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Pennsylvania landed the #4 spot on the list. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 23 students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at UPenn, the school also landed the #1 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UPenn is $25,802 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.

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 low student loan default rate of 1.4% 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%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 95%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about Public Policy at University of Pennsylvania

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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.

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