Ranked #12 in popularity, political science & government is one of the most sought-after bachelor's degree programs in the nation. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 45 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Political Science & Government Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,042 bachelor'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 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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 take this into account we include a school's overall Best Colleges ranking which itself looks at a host of various factors like degree completion, educational resources, student body caliber and post-graduation earnings for the school as a whole.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of bachelor's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their bachelor's degree to be worth something, and salaries are one measure of determining that.
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 colleges for political science & government students working on their bachelor's degree.
More Ways to Rank Political Science & Government Schools
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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States Region.
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.
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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.
Every student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in political science & government has to look into University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. UMN Twin Cities is a fairly large public university located in the large city of Minneapolis.
Political Science & Government bachelor's degree recipients from University of Minnesota - Twin Cities get an earnings boost of around $6,099 over the typical earnings of political science & government graduates.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in political science & government needs to check out University of Iowa. Located in the small city of Iowa City, Iowa is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Political Science & Government bachelor's degree recipients from University of Iowa earn a boost of approximately $5,024 above the average income of political science & government graduates.
Any student pursuing a degree in a bachelor's degree in political science & government has to take a look at University of Missouri - Columbia. Located in the medium-sized city of Columbia, Mizzou is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government degree program at University of Missouri - Columbia get $3,613 more than the average graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Located in the large city of Lincoln, UNL is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government major at University of Nebraska - Lincoln make $2,255 more than the typical graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Grinnell is a small private not-for-profit college located in the remote town of Grinnell.
Bachelor's recipients from the political science & government degree program at Grinnell College get $2,553 more than the average graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
Located in the large city of Saint Paul, Macalester is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Those political science & government students who get their bachelor's degree from Macalester College make $5,330 more than the standard political science student.
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Honorable Mentions
Here are some additional great schools for Political Science & Government students in the Plains States Region that almost earned our Best Political Science & Government Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Plains States 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).
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
