2025 Best Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region
a master's degree in
public policy is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #55 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.
College Factual reviewed 6 schools in the Southwest Region to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of public policy. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 243 master's degrees in public policy during the 2021-2022 academic year.
Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology
Choosing a Great Public Policy School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of public policy for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public policy program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
- Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to public policy students as compared to other majors.
- Major Demand - How many other public policy students want to attend this school to pursue a master's degree.
- Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
- Student Debt - How much debt public policy students go into to obtain their master's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
- Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized public policy related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best colleges for public policy students working on their master's degree.
More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools
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 Best Public Policy Master's Degree Schools in the Southwest Region list to help you make the college decision.
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Featured Public Policy Programs
Learn about start dates, transferring credits, availability of financial aid, and more by contacting the universities below.
MBA in Public Administration
Fit new strategic skills into your public service passion and goals when you earn an MBA in Public Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.
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