Ranked #19 in popularity, public administration is one of the most sought-after master's degree programs in the nation. This makes choosing the right school a hard decision.
College Factual looked at 24 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 1,752 master's degrees in public administration during the 2022-2023 academic year.
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Choosing a Great Public Administration School for Your Master's Degree
The public admin master'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
Quality Overall Is Important
The overall quality of a master's degree school is important to ensure a good education, not just how well they do in a particular major. To take this into account we consider a college's overall Best Colleges for a Master'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.
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 master's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their master's degree is to enable themselves to find better-paying positions.
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 public administration students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of public administration students who choose to seek a master'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 much debt public administration students go into to obtain their master'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 public administration related body.
Our full ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for public administration students working on their master's degree.
The public admin 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 Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the Far Western US Region.
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University of Southern California is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in public administration. Located in the city of Los Angeles, USC is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Those public administration students who get their master's degree from University of Southern California earn $11,156 more than the average public admin grad.
Every student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in public administration needs to take a look at University of Washington - Seattle Campus. UW Seattle is a very large public university located in the large city of Seattle.
Those public administration students who get their master's degree from University of Washington - Seattle Campus make $3,095 more than the typical public admin graduate.
It's hard to beat California State University - Northridge if you wish to pursue a master's degree in public administration. CSUN is a very large public university located in the city of Northridge.
Master's recipients from the public administration degree program at California State University - Northridge earn $10,662 above the average college graduate with the same degree when they enter the workforce.
California State University - Long Beach is a wonderful decision for individuals pursuing a master's degree in public administration. Located in the city of Long Beach, CSULB is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's students who receive their degree from the public admin program make an average of $64,423 in their early career salary.
Cal Baptist is a large private not-for-profit university located in the city of Riverside.
Those public administration students who get their master's degree from California Baptist University receive $12,655 more than the typical public admin student.
National University is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of San Diego.
Public Administration master's degree recipients from National University receive an earnings boost of about $5,908 above the typical earnings of public administration graduates.
Located in the city of San Diego, SDSU is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Public Administration master's degree recipients from San Diego State University get an earnings boost of around $4,513 above the typical earnings of public administration graduates.
Located in the city of Carson, CSUDH is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Those public administration students who get their master's degree from California State University - Dominguez Hills receive $5,589 more than the typical public admin grad.
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 public admin master'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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:
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