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

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 North Carolina” 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 North Carolina, there were 481 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $54,533 and $30,428 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 401 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $35,192 and $24,368 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina” 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.

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. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

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 North Carolina”.

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. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina

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

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

#1

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

#2 in overall quality

$12,352 Average Net Price

$37,980 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a large school located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina that handed out 168 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

UNC Chapel Hill also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in North Carolina” ranking. It costs about $12,352 for North Carolina Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students per year to attend UNC Chapel Hill.

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 1.9% 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%.

Full University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Public Policy Report

#2

Duke University

Durham, North Carolina

#1 in overall quality

$27,020 Average Net Price

$53,358 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Duke University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in North Carolina. Duke is located in Durham, North Carolina and, has a fairly large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 233 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

Duke did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in North Carolina” list. It costs about $27,020 for north carolina bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend Duke University.

With a student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 97%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. 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%.

Full Duke Public Policy Report

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