2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia

Students have lots of options to chooose from today when trying to decide which college to attend. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia” 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 District of Columbia, there were 329 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $64,367 and $57,344 respectively. At the master’s degree level specifically, there were 317 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $61,525 and $61,455 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia” ranking, we looked at 3 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.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

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 Master’s in District of Columbia” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia

The colleges and universities below are the best for district of columbia master’s degree public policy students.

Top 3 Best Value Master’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in District of Columbia

#1

George Washington University

Washington, District of Columbia

#1 in overall quality

$31,824 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

$70,863 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend George Washington University. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia list. George Washington University is located in Washington, District of Columbia and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 86 masters’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

GWU did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in District of Columbia” list. Although you might pay more or less depending on your area of study, average graduate tuition and fees at GWU are $31,824.

Read more about Public Policy at GWU

#2

American University

Washington, District of Columbia

#3 in overall quality

$35,524 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

$59,485 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend American University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia. The American University is a fairly large private not-for-profit school situated in Washington, District of Columbia. It awarded 54 masters’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

The American University also made our “Best Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in District of Columbia” list, coming in at #3. Average graduate tuition and fees at The American University are $35,524, but some majors have different tuition rates.

Full The American University Public Policy Report

#3

Georgetown University

Washington, District of Columbia

#2 in overall quality

$53,591 Avg Grad Tuition & Fees

$75,149 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Georgetown University. It ranked #3 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Master’s in District of Columbia list. Washington, District of Columbia is the setting for this fairly large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out masters’s public policy degrees to 177 students in 2019-2020.

Georgetown did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Public Policy Master’s Degree Schools in District of Columbia” list. Although you might pay more or less depending on your area of study, average graduate tuition and fees at Georgetown are $53,591.

Full Georgetown University Public Policy Report

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