2025 Best Political Science Doctor's Degree Schools in California

If you pursue a doctor's degree in political science, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #42 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 4 schools in California to determine which ones were the best for political science students pursuing a doctor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 119 doctor's degrees in political science to qualified students.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Doctor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Political Science School for Your Doctor's Degree

The poly sci doctor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. This section explores some of the factors we include in our ranking and how much they vary depending on the school you select. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.

A Great Overall School

A school that excels in educating for a particular major and degree level must be a great school overall as well. To take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges for a Doctor's Degree ranking which itself looks at a collection of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.

Other Factors We Consider

The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.

• Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to political science students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - The number of political science students who choose to seek a doctor's degree at the school.
• Educational Resources - How many resources are allocated to students. These resources may include educational expenditures per student, number of students per instructor, and graduation rate among other things.
• Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized political science related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for political science students working on their doctor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Political Science Schools

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Political Science Doctor's Degree Schools in California ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Doctorate Students to Study Political Science in California

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a doctor's degree in political science.

Top California Schools for a Doctorate in Poly Sci

1

Stanford University
Stanford, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

19 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in political science needs to look into Stanford University. Located in the suburb of Stanford, Stanford is a private not-for-profit university with a large student population.More information about a doctorate in political science from Stanford University

2

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

19 Annual Graduates

Any student who is interested in a doctor's degree in political science needs to take a look at University of Southern California. Located in the large city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in political science from University of Southern California

3

University of California - Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

17 Annual Graduates

University of California - Los Angeles is one of the best schools in the country for getting a doctor's degree in political science. UCLA is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Los Angeles.More information about a doctorate in political science from University of California - Los Angeles

4

University of California - San Diego
La Jolla, CA

Doctor's Degree Highest Degree Type

10 Annual Graduates

Any student pursuing a degree in a doctor's degree in political science has to take a look at University of California - San Diego. Located in the city of La Jolla, UCSD is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a doctorate in political science from University of California - San Diego

Best Political Science Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Political Science Colleges in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	216	10
Oregon	145	5
Nevada	111	6
Hawaii	65	4

View All Rankings >

Political Science Related Rankings by Major

One of 4 majors within the Political Science & Government area of study, Political Science has other similar majors worth exploring.

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to UKWiki at English Wikipedia. More about our data sources and methodologies.