2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in Virginia (With Aid)

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. At College Factual, we’re committed to helping you make that decision by providing information such as that found in our “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid” ranking.

In 2019-2020, 17,269 people earned their degree in public administration, making the major the 58th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, public administration graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $48,859 and had an average of $42,077 in loans still to pay off.

Across Virginia, there were 515 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $49,860 and $39,579 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 96 public administration graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 3 colleges that offer a degree in public administration. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great public administration programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

To come up with these rankings, we looked at factors such as the cost to attend the school after aid is awarded and overall quality of the public administration program at the school. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid” ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

To further help you make the college decision, we’ve developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don’t forget it.

Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid

The colleges and universities below are the best for virginia bachelor’s degree public admin students with aid.

Top 3 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in Virginia (With Aid)

#1

James Madison University

Harrisonburg, Virginia

#1 in overall quality

$22,169 Average Net Price

$41,406 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend James Madison University. The school came in at #1 for the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid. Harrisonburg, Virginia is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The public school handed out bachelors’s public admin degrees to 59 students in 2019-2020.

JMU also made our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Virginia” list, coming in at #1. The estimated yearly cost for James Madison University is $22,169 for virginia bachelor’s degree public admin students with aid.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 2.3%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. With a freshman retention rate of 89%, the school does an excellent job of retaining its students.

Read more about Public Administration at JMU

#2

George Mason University

Fairfax, Virginia

#2 in overall quality

$21,048 Average Net Price

$43,798 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend George Mason University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid. George Mason University is a large public school situated in Fairfax, Virginia. It awarded 23 bachelors’s public admin degrees in 2019-2020.

GMU also made our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Virginia” list, coming in at #2. It costs about $21,048 for Virginia Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students with aid per year to attend GMU.

The student loan default rate at the school is 2.6%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 86%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Public Administration at George Mason University

#3

Liberty University

Lynchburg, Virginia

#3 in overall quality

$28,903 Average Net Price

Out of the 3 schools in the Best Value Public Admin Schools for a Bachelor’s in Virginia For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, Liberty University landed the #3 spot on the list. Liberty University is located in Lynchburg, Virginia and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 7 bachelors’s public admin degrees to qualified students.

Liberty University did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #3 on our “Best Public Administration Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Virginia” list. The estimated yearly cost for Liberty University is $28,903 for Virginia Bachelor’s Degree Public Admin students with aid.

Full Liberty University Public Administration Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration in the Southeast Region (With Aid)
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Administration (With Aid)

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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