If you plan on majoring in public policy, you won't be alone since the degree program is ranked #113 in the country in terms of popularity. As a result, there are many college that offer the degree, making your choice of school a hard one.
College Factual looked at 57 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Public Policy Schools ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 6,484 degrees in public policy annually.
Your choice of public policy school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Public Policy School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
In order to find the schools that are the best fit for you, you may want to filter to one of the degree levels below.
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 Public Policy Schools list to help you make the college decision.
If you'd like to restrict your choices to just one part of the country, you can filter this list by location.
In addition to our rankings, you can take two colleges and compare them based on the criteria that matters most to you in our unique tool, College Combat.
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 Schools for Public Policy in the United States
Although we recommend filtering by degree level first, you can view the list below to see which schools give the educational experience for the public policy degree levels they offer. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
University of Chicago is one of the best schools in the country for getting a degree in public policy. UChicago is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Chicago. A Best Colleges rank of #3 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UChicago is a great university overall.
There were approximately 363 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UChicago in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the public policy degree program at University of Chicago make $12,482 more than the average college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
It's difficult to beat Duke University if you want to pursue a degree in public policy. Duke is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Durham. A Best Colleges rank of #7 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Duke is a great university overall.
There were about 288 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Duke in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the public policy major at Duke University get $13,985 more than the average college grad in this field when they enter the workforce.
BS in Business Administration - Public AdministrationProgram Name
Prepare yourself to make the decisions that best serve a community, its constituents and its economic growth with this specialized business degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
Cornell University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in public policy. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #9 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Cornell is a great university overall.
There were about 67 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Cornell in the most recent year we have data available. Those public policy students who get their degree from Cornell University earn $21,870 more than the standard public policy graduate.
University of Southern California is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a degree in public policy. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #13 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means USC is a great university overall.
There were about 199 public policy students who graduated with this degree at USC in the most recent data year. Public Policy degree recipients from University of Southern California earn a boost of approximately $9,760 over the average earnings of public policy graduates.
Located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley, UC Berkeley is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #14 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UC Berkeley is a great university overall.
There were about 119 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UC Berkeley in the most recent year we have data available. Those public policy students who get their degree from University of California - Berkeley make $32,069 more than the average public policy grad.
Located in the midsize city of Ann Arbor, U-M is a public university with a fairly large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #22 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means U-M is a great university overall.
There were about 206 public policy students who graduated with this degree at U-M in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the public policy major at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor earn $9,907 more than the standard college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the city of Princeton, Princeton is a private not-for-profit university with a moderately-sized student population. A Best Colleges rank of #27 out of 2,152 colleges nationwide means Princeton is a great university overall.
There were about 210 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Princeton in the most recent data year. Those public policy students who get their degree from Princeton University earn $23,389 more than the average public policy student.
Fit new strategic skills into your public service passion and goals when you earn an MBA in Public Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.
Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #38 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means UNC Chapel Hill is a great university overall.
There were about 172 public policy students who graduated with this degree at UNC Chapel Hill in the most recent data year. Students who receive their degree from the public policy program earn around $48,252 for their early career.
Located in the city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population. A Best Colleges rank of #5 out of 2,152 schools nationwide means Northwestern is a great university overall.
There were about 47 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Northwestern in the most recent year we have data available. Soon after graduating, public policy degree recipients generally earn an average of $48,558 in their early careers.
Brandeis is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Waltham. This university ranks 15th out of 63 colleges for overall quality in the state of Massachusetts.
There were roughly 219 public policy students who graduated with this degree at Brandeis in the most recent year we have data available. After graduation, public policy degree recipients typically earn an average of $48,352 in their early careers.
Located in the large suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a fairly large student population. This university ranks 4th out of 57 schools for overall quality in the state of Virginia.
There were about 92 public policy students who graduated with this degree at GMU in the most recent data year. Degree recipients from the public policy program at George Mason University make $18,580 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
The bars on the spread charts above show the distribution of the schools on this list +/- one standard deviation from the mean.
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 the rest 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).
Your choice of public policy school matters, so we have put together these rankings to help you make your decision. We derive our Best Overall Public Policy School rankings by rolling up our degree-level rankings after weighting them by the number of degrees awarded at each school.
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