a master's degree in political science & government is more popular than many other degrees. In fact, it ranks #71 out of 343 on popularity of all such degrees in the nation. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Political Science & Government Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 254 master's degrees in political science & government during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Gain a solid understanding of American political history, the current political landscape, and the major political parties with this online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
Choosing a Great Political Science & Government School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of political science & government for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality political science program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To make it into this list a school must rank well in our overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their master's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your master's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
Other Factors We Consider
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to political science & government students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - The number of political science & government students who choose to seek a master's degree at the school.
Educational Resources - The amount of money and other resources allocated to students while they are pursuing their degree. These resources include such things as number of students per instructor and education expenditures per student.
Student Debt - How easy is it for political science & government to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized political science & government related body.
Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for political science & government students working on their master's degree.
The political science school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Political Science & Government Master's Degree Schools in District of Columbia.
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Gain a solid understanding of American political history, the current political landscape, and the major political parties with this online bachelor's from Southern New Hampshire University.
Georgetown University is a good option for students pursuing a master's degree in political science & government. Located in the city of Washington, Georgetown is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those political science & government students who get their master's degree from Georgetown University make $4,416 more than the typical political science grad.
It is hard to beat George Washington University if you wish to pursue a master's degree in political science & government. GWU is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
Master's recipients from the political science & government major at George Washington University make $3,539 more than the standard college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.
American University is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in political science & government. The American University is a large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Washington.
After graduation, political science master's recipients typically make around $60,976 in the first five years of their career.
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 political science & government for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality political science program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
