by our College Data Analytics TeamPublic Policy is a major offered under the public administration and social service program of study at Southern Methodist University. We’ve pulled together some essential information you should know about the bachelor’s degree program in public policy, including how many students graduate each year, the ethnic diversity of these students, and more.
If there’s something special you’re looking for, you can use one of the links below to find it:
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
BS in Business Administration - Public Administration
Prepare yourself to make the decisions that best serve a community, its constituents and its economic growth with this specialized business degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
In order to help students and their parents find the best school for them, we have created several different types of college rankings, which are updated yearly. The bachelor's program at SMU was ranked #51 on College Factual's Best Schools for public policy list. It is also ranked #2 in Texas.
Here are some of the other rankings for SMU.
In 2019-2020, the average part-time undergraduate tuition at SMU was $2,171 per credit hour for both in-state and out-of-state students. The average full-time tuition and fees for undergraduates are shown in the table below.
| In State | Out of State | |
|---|---|---|
| Tuition | $51,958 | $51,958 |
| Fees | $6,582 | $6,582 |
| Books and Supplies | $800 | $800 |
| On Campus Room and Board | $17,110 | $17,110 |
| On Campus Other Expenses | $2,600 | $2,600 |
Learn more about SMU tuition and fees.
You may also want to consider how much in student loans you’ll need when thinking about the overall cost to attend a school. Students who received their bachelor’s degree at SMU in Public Policy walked away with an average of $14,000 in student debt. That is 30% lower than the national average of $20,109.
The median early career salary of public policy students who receive their bachelor’s degree from SMU is $38,289 per year. That is 7% lower than the national average of $41,244.
SMU does not offer an online option for its public policy bachelor’s degree program at this time. To see if the school offers distance learning options in other areas, visit the SMU Online Learning page.
Women made up around 63.4% of the public policy students who took home a bachelor’s degree in 2019-2020. This is higher than the nationwide number of 61.2%.
Around 36.6% of public policy bachelor’s degree recipients at SMU in 2019-2020 were awarded to racial-ethnic minorities*. This is about the same as the nationwide number of 39%.
| Race/Ethnicity | Number of Students |
|---|---|
| Asian | 6 |
| Black or African American | 3 |
| Hispanic or Latino | 6 |
| Native American or Alaska Native | 0 |
| Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander | 0 |
| White | 24 |
| International Students | 2 |
| Other Races/Ethnicities | 0 |
Public Policy students may decide to major in one of the following focus areas.
| Focus Area | Annual Graduates |
|---|---|
| General Public Policy Analysis | 22 |
| International Policy Analysis | 19 |
*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.
More about our data sources and methodologies.
