2025 Best Public Administration Doctor's Degree Schools

Public Administration is of the hottest doctor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #65 most popular major in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 2 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Administration Doctor's Degree Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 329 doctor's degrees in public administration during the <nil> academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How much a school focuses on public administration students vs. other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other public administration students want to attend this school to pursue a doctor's degree.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized public administration related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for public administration students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Public Administration Schools

The public admin 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 the Best Public Administration Doctor's Degree Schools.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Public Administration in the United States

Below you'll see a list of the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in public administration.

Top Schools for a Doctorate in Public Admin

1

California Baptist University
Riverside, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

14 Annual Graduates

It is hard to beat California Baptist University if you want to pursue a doctor's degree in public administration. Cal Baptist is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Riverside.More information about a doctorate in public administration from California Baptist University

2

Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

11 Annual Graduates

Liberty University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in public administration. Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg.More information about a doctorate in public administration from Liberty University

Public Administration by Region

View the Best Public Administration Doctor's Degree Schools for a specific region near you.

Region
Southeast
New England
Rocky Mountains
Plains States
Middle Atlantic
Far Western US
Southwest
Other U.S. Territories
Great Lakes

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Rankings in Majors Related to Public Admin

One of 3 majors within the Public Administration area of study, Public Administration has other similar majors worth exploring.

Notes and References

• The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
• 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 the rest 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). More about our data sources and methodologies.