2023 Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in Pennsylvania
3
Ranked Colleges
125
Degrees Awarded
$50,129
Avg Salary
When pursuing a degree in today’s world, veterans have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.
In 2020-2021, 6,430 people earned their degree in public policy, making the major the 113th most popular in the United States. In 2019-2020, public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in 2017-2019, earned an average of $49,451 and had an average of $21,866 in loans still to pay off.
Across Pennsylvania, there were 330 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $57,423 and $0 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 125 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,741 and $27,572 respectively.
For this year’s “Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in public policy. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent public policy programs, but they also offer a lot of support to veterans and active service members.
To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as veteran satisfaction, veteran affordability, and overall quality of the public policy program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.
One Size Does Not Fit All
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 “Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s”.
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. We encourage you to try it out and pit your favorite colleges and universities head to head! If you don’t have time right now, you can bookmark it for later.
Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s
The colleges and universities below are the best for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree vets studying public policy.
Top 3 Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Veterans in Pennsylvania
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Carnegie Mellon University. It ranked #1 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s list. Carnegie Mellon is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and, has a fairly large student population. In 2020-2021, this school awarded 11 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.
As a testament to the quality of education offered at Carnegie Mellon, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking.Of the 13,519 students enrolled at Carnegie Mellon University, 117 were GI Bill® students, according to our most recent data. Out of that number, 72 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $18,422. In addition to receiving other benefits, 36 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program.
The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year. The low undergrad student loan default rate of [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]% 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%. The undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one.
[Read full report on veteran student life at Carnegie Mellon]](/colleges/carnegie-mellon-university/student-life/veterans/)
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend University of Pennsylvania. It ranked #2 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s list. University of Pennsylvania is a large private not-for-profit school situated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It awarded 27 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2020-2021.
UPenn did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list.According to our most recent data, University of Pennsylvania supports 26,552 students, and 324 of those are GI Bill® students, of which 131 are Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average tuition and fees award for the Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients was $19,383. In addition to receiving other benefits, 78 students qualified for the Yellow Ribbon Program.
The school has an impressive undergrad student loan default rate. It’s only [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 95%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its undergraduate students. The impressive undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools.
Full University of Pennsylvania Veteran Student Life Report
You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Dickinson College. It ranked #3 on our 2023 Most Veteran Friendly in Pennsylvania for Public Policy for a Bachelor’s list. Located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, this small private not-for-profit school handed out 16 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2020-2021.
Dickinson also took the #3 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” ranking.Our most recent data shows that 30 of the 1,932 students enrolled at Dickinson College were GI Bill® students, of which 22 were Post-9/11 GI Bill® recipients. The average Post-9/11 GI Bill® award for tuition and fees at the school was $25,185. To help with additional expenses, 20 students received funds through the Yellow Ribbon Program.
With a undergrad student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. The low undergrad student loan default rate of [DEFAULT_RATE_STRING]% 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 full report on veteran student life at Dickinson]](/colleges/dickinson-college/student-life/veterans/)
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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).
- Veteran-specific data can be found at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs.
- 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
- *Avg Salary and Avg 4-Year Grad Rate are for the top schools only.
- **GI Bill® student total includes all chapters of the GI Bill® program (e.g., Post-9/11, Montgomery GI Bill, Reserve Education Assistance Program, and Veteran Readiness and Employment)
- 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
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