2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in the Southwest Region

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region” ranking is part of that endeavor.

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 Southwest region, there were 536 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,050 and $23,421 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 285 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $38,896 and $23,899 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region” ranking looked at 3 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s 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. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

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 the Southwest Region” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region

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

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in the Southwest Region

#1

Arizona State University - Skysong

Scottsdale, Arizona

#3 in overall quality

$13,971 Average Net Price

$37,110 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region that were part of this year’s ranking, Arizona State University - Skysong landed the #1 spot on the list. This large school is located in Scottsdale, Arizona, and it awarded 84 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

ASU - Skysong also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” list, coming in at #3. It costs about $13,971 for southwest region bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend ASU - Skysong.

Read full report on Public Policy at ASU - Skysong

#2

The University of Texas at Dallas

Richardson, Texas

#2 in overall quality

$15,232 Average Net Price

$35,060 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend The University of Texas at Dallas. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region. Richardson, Texas 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.

In addition to being on our southwest region bachelor’s degree public policy students list, UT Dallas has also earned the #2 rank in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for UT Dallas is $15,232 for southwest region bachelor’s degree public policy students.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 4.9%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 90%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Full The University of Texas at Dallas Public Policy Report

#3

Southern Methodist University

Dallas, Texas

#1 in overall quality

$36,222 Average Net Price

$38,289 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Southern Methodist University. It ranked #3 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in the Southwest Region list. Located in Dallas, Texas, this fairly large private not-for-profit school handed out 41 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.

SMU not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in the Southwest Region” list. It costs about $36,222 for southwest region bachelor’s degree public policy students per year to attend SMU.

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 school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 4.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Policy at SMU

• 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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