2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in Massachusetts

It’s not easy to decide which college to attend when there so many options available for students. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts” 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 Massachusetts, there were 562 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $54,833 and $39,641 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 106 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $42,887 and $24,387 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts” ranking, we looked at 2 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.

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

When choosing the right school for you, it’s important to arm yourself with all the facts you can. To that end, we’ve created a number of major-specific rankings, including this “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts” list to help you make the college decision.

In addition to College Factual’s rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts

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

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in Massachusetts

#1

Suffolk University

Boston, Massachusetts

#2 in overall quality

$30,701 Average Net Price

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Suffolk University. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts list. Suffolk University is located in Boston, Massachusetts and, has a medium-sized student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 5 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

Suffolk also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” list, coming in at #2. The yearly cost to attend Suffolk is $30,701 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students.

The student loan default rate at the school is 4.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%.

Full Suffolk Public Policy Report

#2

Brandeis University

Waltham, Massachusetts

#1 in overall quality

$31,165 Average Net Price

$38,906 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Brandeis University. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts list. Brandeis University is located in Waltham, Massachusetts and, has a medium-sized student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 88 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

In addition to being on our massachusetts bachelor’s degree public policy students list, Brandeis has also earned the #1 rank in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Brandeis is $31,165 for Massachusetts 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 impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 90%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read full report on Public Policy at Brandeis

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in the New England 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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