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

With all of the options students have for higher education today, it can be tough to choose which direction to take. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Tennessee For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking as one item you can use to help make this decision.

Public Policy is the 116th most popular major in the country with 6,199 degrees awarded in 2019-2020. 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 Tennessee, there were 92 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $56,300 and $37,495 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 39 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $0 and $0 respectively.

This year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Tennessee For Those Making $0-$30k” ranking looked at 2 colleges that offer degrees in a bachelor’s 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.

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 policy program at the school. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we’ve developed the “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Tennessee For Those Making $0-$30k” 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. Test it out by comparing your favorite schools against others you are considering, or bookmark the tool so you can experiment with it later.

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

The colleges and universities below are the best for tennessee bachelor’s degree public policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

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

#1

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee

#1 in overall quality

$3,156 Average Net Price

$42,682 Average Early-Career Earnings

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Vanderbilt University. It ranked #1 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Tennessee For Those Making $0-$30k list. This fairly large school is located in Nashville, Tennessee, and it awarded 37 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Vanderbilt also made our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Tennessee” list, coming in at #1. The yearly cost to attend Vanderbilt is $3,156 for tennessee bachelor’s degree public policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

The impressive student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1 means that students may have more opportunities to work more closely with their professors than they would at other schools. The student loan default rate at the school is 1.0%, which is quite low when compared to the national default rate of 10.1%. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 96%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read more about Public Policy at Vanderbilt

#2

Trevecca Nazarene University

Nashville, Tennessee

#2 in overall quality

$15,228 Average Net Price

You’ll be in good company if you decide to attend Trevecca Nazarene University. It ranked #2 on our 2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Tennessee For Those Making $0-$30k list. Located in Nashville, Tennessee, this small private not-for-profit school awarded 2 degrees to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.

As a testament to the quality of education offered at TNU, the school also landed the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Tennessee” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for TNU is $15,228 for Tennessee Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students whose families make $0-$30k.

Read more about Public Policy at TNU

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