2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k) in Massachusetts

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

In 2019-2020, 6,199 people earned their degree in public policy, making the major the 116th most popular in the United States. In 2017-2018, public policy graduates who were awarded their degree in 2015-2017, earned an average of $52,077 and had an average of $35,743 in loans still to pay off.

Across Massachusetts, there were 562 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $54,833 and $39,641 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 106 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $42,887 and $24,387 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking analyzed 2 colleges that offered a degree in public policy. Not only do the schools that top this list have excellent public policy programs, but they also cost less that schools of similar quality.

Some of the factors we look at when determining these rankings are overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost of the school after aid is awarded among other things. For more information, check out our ranking methodology.

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 Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k” list to help you make the college 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. Test it out when you get a chance! You may also want to bookmark the link and share it with others who are trying to make the college decision.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k.

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k) in Massachusetts

#1

Brandeis University

Waltham, Massachusetts

#1 in overall quality

$13,567 Average Net Price

$38,906 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Brandeis University. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k list. Brandeis is a private not-for-profit institution located in Waltham, Massachusetts. The school has a medium-sized population, and it awarded 88 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

Brandeis also took the #1 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” ranking. It costs about $13,567 for massachusetts bachelor’s degree public policy students whose families make $0-$30k per year to attend Brandeis University.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 90%. With a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, it’s easy to see that the school is committed to helping their undergraduates succeed. 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%.

Read more about Public Policy at Brandeis University

#2

Suffolk University

Boston, Massachusetts

#2 in overall quality

$27,748 Average Net Price

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Suffolk University. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Massachusetts For Those Making $0-$30k list. Suffolk University is a medium-sized school located in Boston, Massachusetts that handed out 5 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Suffolk also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Massachusetts” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for Suffolk is $27,748 for Massachusetts Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 4.0%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full Suffolk Public Policy Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k) in the New England Region
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (Income $0-$30k)

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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