Political Science & Government is of the hottest bachelor's degree programs in the United States, coming in as the #12 most popular major in the country. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 71 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Political Science & Government Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 7,268 bachelor's degrees in political science & government to qualified students.
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 Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of political science & government for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality political science program can vary widely even among the top schools. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Earnings
To determine the overall quality of a graduate school, one factor we look at is the average early-career salary of those receiving their bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 - How many other political science & government students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor's degree.
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 much debt political science & government students go into to obtain their bachelor's degree and how well they are able to pay back that debt.
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 bachelor's degree.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Political Science & Government Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you.
When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.
DEBUG: Raw major_slug = "social-sciences//political-science-and-government"
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.
Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Political Science & Government in the Far Western US Region
Explore the top ranked colleges and universities for political science & government students seeking a a bachelor's degree. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.
14 Top Far Western US Region Schools for a Bachelor's in Political Science
University of California - Los Angeles is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in political science & government. Located in the city of Los Angeles, UCLA is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the political science program earn about $34,392 for their early career.
University of California - Berkeley is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in political science & government. UC Berkeley is a fairly large public university located in the medium-sized city of Berkeley.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government program at University of California - Berkeley get $9,597 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in political science & government needs to take a look at University of California - Davis. Located in the suburb of Davis, UC Davis is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the political science program report average early career earnings of $36,208.
It is hard to beat University of Southern California if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in political science & government. USC is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Los Angeles.
Those political science & government students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Southern California make $2,242 more than the typical political science student.
Stanford is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Stanford.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government degree program at Stanford University make $23,476 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Seattle, UW Seattle is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government major at University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $5,425 more than the average college grad with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the medium-sized suburb of Santa Barbara, UCSB is a public university with a very large student population.
Those political science & government students who get their bachelor's degree from University of California - Santa Barbara receive $3,583 more than the typical political science student.
Located in the medium-sized city of Santa Clara, SCU is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Those political science & government students who get their bachelor's degree from Santa Clara University earn $21,290 more than the average political science graduate.
Located in the suburb of Claremont, Claremont McKenna is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Political Science & Government bachelor's degree recipients from Claremont McKenna College receive an earnings boost of about $6,731 above the average income of political science & government majors.
DEBUG: No relevant offers, showing generic ESYOH widget
Additional Noteworthy Schools
Here are some additional great schools for Political Science & Government students in the Far Western US Region that almost earned our Best Political Science & Government Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region award.
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).