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2022 Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid

4 Ranked Colleges
98 Degrees Awarded
$29,100 Avg Net Price*
Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor's in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid

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 Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid” 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 Pennsylvania, there were 308 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $66,300 and $48,733 respectively. At the bachelor’s degree level specifically, there were 98 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 Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid” ranking analyzed 4 colleges that offered a degree in public policy. The schools that top this list are recognized because they have great public policy programs and cost less that schools of similar quality.

When determining these rankings, we looked at things such as overall quality of the public policy program at the school and the cost to attend the school once aid has been awarded. 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 Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania 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. If you’re torn between two schools, you can use it to help you see how they stack up against one another. Bookmark it so you can compare any new schools that might interest you.

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

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

Top 4 Best Value Bachelor’s Degree Colleges for Public Policy in Pennsylvania (With Aid)

#1

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
#1 in overall quality

Out of the 4 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, University of Pennsylvania landed the #1 spot on the list. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is the setting for this large institution of higher learning. The private not-for-profit school handed out bachelors’s public policy degrees to 23 students in 2019-2020.

UPenn did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #1 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The yearly cost to attend University of Pennsylvania is $25,802 for Pennsylvania 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 student-to-faculty ratio of 6 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 1.4%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%.

Full University of Pennsylvania Public Policy Report

#2

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#2 in overall quality

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Carnegie Mellon University. The school came in at #2 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid. Carnegie Mellon University is a private not-for-profit institution located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school has a fairly large population, and it awarded 14 bachelors’s degrees in 2019-2020.

Carnegie Mellon did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The estimated yearly cost for Carnegie Mellon University is $34,508 for pennsylvania bachelor’s degree public policy students with aid.

The student-to-faculty ratio of 5 to 1 is a sign that students will have more opportunities to engage with their professors one-on-one. The student loan default rate at the school is 0.6%, 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 full report on Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University

#3

Gettysburg College

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Gettysburg College. The school came in at #3 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid. Gettysburg College is a small private not-for-profit school situated in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. It awarded 16 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Gettysburg did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #4 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. The estimated yearly cost for Gettysburg is $26,513 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid.

The school has an impressive student loan default rate. It’s only 1.2%, which is much lower than the national rate of 10.1%. Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 10 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors. The school has an excellent freshman retention rate of 90%, which means students like the school well enough to return for a second year.

Read full report on Public Policy at Gettysburg College

#4

Dickinson College

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around if you attend Dickinson College. The school came in at #4 for the Best Value Public Policy Schools for a Bachelor’s in Pennsylvania For Those Getting Aid. This small school is located in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and it awarded 18 bachelors’s public policy degrees in 2019-2020.

Dickinson not only placed well in this ranking. It is also #3 on our “Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools in Pennsylvania” list. It costs about $29,452 for Pennsylvania Bachelor’s Degree Public Policy students with aid per year to attend Dickinson.

Since the school has a student-to-faculty ratio of 8 to 1, those pursuing a degree will have more opportunities to interact with their professors.

Full Dickinson Public Policy Report

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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.

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