2022 Best Value Colleges for Public Policy in Washington (With Aid)

When pursuing a degree in today’s world, students have many different options to choose from. College Factual was founded, in part, to help students make the decision as to what would be the best school for them. Our “Best Value Public Policy Schools in Washington For Those Getting Aid” ranking is part of that endeavor.

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 Washington, there were 48 public policy graduates with average earnings and debt of $40,100 and $44,441 respectively.

For this year’s “Best Value Public Policy Schools in Washington For Those Getting Aid” ranking, we looked at 2 colleges that offer a degree in public policy. This ranking identifies schools with high-quality public policy programs that also have a lower cost than 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. See our ranking methodology to learn more.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we’ve developed a number of rankings, including this “Best Value Public Policy Schools in Washington For Those Getting Aid” list, to help you choose the best school for you.

You can create your own custom comparison that focuses on the factors most important to you using our tool, College Combat. 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 in Washington For Those Getting Aid

The following schools top our list of the Best Best Value Public Policy Schools in Washington For Those Getting Aid.

Top 2 Best Value Colleges for Public Policy in Washington (With Aid)

#1

Central Washington University

Ellensburg, Washington

#1 in overall quality

$15,397 Average Net Price

$38,608 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools in Washington For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, Central Washington University landed the #1 spot on the list. CWU is located in Ellensburg, Washington and, has a fairly large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 6 ’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

CWU also made our “Best Public Policy Schools in Washington” list, coming in at #1. The estimated yearly cost for Central Washington University is $15,397 for washington public policy students with aid.

Read more about Public Policy at Central Washington University

#2

Washington State University

Pullman, Washington

#2 in overall quality

$16,358 Average Net Price

$49,622 Average Early-Career Earnings

Out of the 2 schools in the Best Value Public Policy Schools in Washington For Those Getting Aid that were part of this year’s ranking, Washington State University landed the #2 spot on the list. Washington State University is located in Pullman, Washington and, has a large student population. In 2019-2020, this school awarded 24 ’s public policy degrees to qualified students.

Wazzu did well in our major quality rankings, too. It placed #2 on our “Best Public Policy Schools in Washington” list. The estimated yearly cost for Washington State University is $16,358 for washington public policy students with aid.

The low student loan default rate of 4.6% 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 Washington State University

• Best Value Colleges for Public Policy in the Far Western US Region (With Aid)
• Best Value 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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