If you pursue a bachelor's degree in political science & government, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #12 most popular program in the country. So, there are lots of possibilities to explore when you're trying to determine where you want to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 20 schools in Virginia to determine which ones were the best for bachelor's degree seekers in the field of political science & government. Combined, these schools handed out 1,621 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
The political science bachelor'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
The overall quality of a bachelor's degree school is important to ensure a quality education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To account for this we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of different factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor'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
The metrics below are just some of the other metrics that we use to determine our rankings.
Major Focus - How much a school focuses on political science & government students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of political science & government students who choose to seek a bachelor'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.
Student Debt - How easy is it for political science & government to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized political science & government related body.
Our full 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.
More Ways to Rank Political Science & Government Schools
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 Political Science & Government Bachelor's Degree Schools in Virginia list to help you make the college decision.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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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.
University of Virginia - Main Campus is one of the best schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in political science & government. University of Virginia is a very large public university located in the suburb of Charlottesville.
Political Science & Government bachelor's degree recipients from University of Virginia - Main Campus receive an earnings boost of approximately $6,103 above the typical income of political science & government majors.
Virginia Tech is a great decision for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in political science & government. Virginia Tech is a fairly large public school located in the city of Blacksburg.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government program at Virginia Tech earn $2,342 more than the typical graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.
It is hard to beat William & Mary if you wish to pursue a bachelor's degree in political science & government. William & Mary is a medium-sized public school located in the suburb of Williamsburg.
After graduating, political science bachelor's recipients typically earn around $41,317 at the beginning of their careers.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in political science & government needs to look into George Mason University. Located in the large suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Political Science & Government bachelor's degree recipients from George Mason University earn a boost of around $6,074 above the typical income of political science & government graduates.
Located in the small city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those political science & government students who get their bachelor's degree from James Madison University make $2,356 more than the typical political science graduate.
Located in the midsize city of University of Richmond, URichmond is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.
Those political science & government students who get their bachelor's degree from University of Richmond earn $3,481 more than the typical political science student.
Located in the midsize city of Newport News, CNU is a public university with a small student population.
Political Science & Government bachelor's degree recipients from Christopher Newport University earn a boost of approximately $3,736 over the average earnings of political science & government graduates.
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).
The political science bachelor'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. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
