2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. Our mission at College Factual is to arm you with as much information as we can to help you make that decision. Our “Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia” ranking is one tool we have developed to help in this regard.

Public Policy is the 113th most popular major in the country with 6,484 degrees awarded in 2021-2022. In , public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in , earned an average of $49,451 and had an average of $32,327 in loans still to pay off.

Across District of Columbia, there were 211 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $67,076 and $69,288 respectively.

For this year’s “Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in public policy. This a ranking of the schools where the largest percentage of students has enrolled in public policy.

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 “Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia” 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. 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.

Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia

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

Top 3 Most Focused Colleges for Public Policy in District of Columbia

1

Georgetown University
Washington, District of Columbia

#1 overall quality in District of Columbia

$69,885 Average Early-Career Earnings

$58,147 Average Student Debt

Out of the 3 schools in the Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia that were part of this year’s ranking, Georgetown University landed the #1 spot on the list. Georgetown University is a large school located in Washington, District of Columbia that handed out 59 ’s public policy degrees in 2021-2022.

The undergrad student loan default rate at the school is 0.2%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 98%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students.

Read full report on Public Policy at Georgetown

2

American University
Washington, District of Columbia

#3 overall quality in District of Columbia

$50,575 Average Early-Career Earnings

$39,485 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend American University. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia list. Located in Washington, District of Columbia, this fairly large private not-for-profit school awarded 64 diplomas to qualified ’s public policy students in 2021-2022.

With a freshman retention rate of 90%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The low undergrad 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%.

Read more about Public Policy at The American University

3

George Washington University
Washington, District of Columbia

#2 overall quality in District of Columbia

$65,148 Average Early-Career Earnings

$46,805 Average Student Debt

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend George Washington University. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Schools Highly Focused on Public Policy Major in District of Columbia list. Washington, District of Columbia is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out ’s public policy degrees to 81 students in 2021-2022.

The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 91%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only 0.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Read more about Public Policy at George Washington University

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

• *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate 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.