2022 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in Maryland (With Aid)

When it comes to choosing a college, students have a lot of options - but not all of them are good. College Factual has developed its “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Maryland For Those Getting Aid” 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 Maryland, there were 223 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $49,250 and $28,785 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 78 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,371 and $23,982 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Maryland For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer 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. Check out our ranking methodology for more information.

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 Maryland For Those Getting Aid” list to help you make the college decision.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.

Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Maryland For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Maryland For Those Getting Aid.

Top 2 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in Maryland (With Aid)

#1

University of Maryland - College Park

College Park, Maryland

#1 in overall quality

$19,045 Average Net Price

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Maryland For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Maryland - College Park landed the #1 spot on the list. Located in College Park, Maryland, this large public school awarded 68 diplomas to qualified bachelors’s public policy students in 2019-2020.

UMCP did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Maryland” list. The yearly cost to attend University of Maryland - College Park is $19,045 for Maryland Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid.

Students who start out at the school are likely to stick around. The freshman retention rate is 95%. The low student loan default rate of 2.4% is a good sign that students have an easier time paying off their loans than they might at other schools. For comparison, the national default rate is 10.1%.

Read more about Public Policy at University of Maryland - College Park

#2

St Mary's College of Maryland

St. Mary's City, Maryland

#2 in overall quality

$19,369 Average Net Price

$47,260 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Maryland For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, St Mary’s College of Maryland landed the #2 spot on the list. SMCM is located in St. Mary’s City, Maryland and, has a small student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 10 bachelors’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

SMCM also took the #2 spot in our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Maryland” ranking. The estimated yearly cost for SMCM is $19,369 for maryland bachelor’s degree public policy students with aid.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 3.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 9 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Full SMCM Public Policy Report

• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in the Middle Atlantic Region (With Aid)
• Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy (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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