If you pursue a master's degree in public administration, you won't be alone. The field of study is the #19 most popular program in the country. This means there are lots of options to choose from when you decide to get your degree.
College Factual reviewed 8 schools in Illinois to determine which ones were the best for master's degree seekers in the field of public administration. Combined, these schools handed out 295 master's degrees in public administration to qualified students.
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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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
The overall quality of a master'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 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.
Early-Career Earnings
One measure we use to determine the quality of a school is to look at the average salary of master's graduates during the early years of their career. That is, everyone wants their master'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 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 colleges for public administration students working on their master'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 Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in Illinois list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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Any student who is interested in a master's degree in public administration needs to check out Northwestern University. Located in the small city of Evanston, Northwestern is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Public Administration master's degree recipients from Northwestern University earn a boost of about $13,742 above the typical earnings of public administration majors.
It's hard to beat University of Illinois at Chicago if you want to pursue a master's degree in public administration. Located in the large city of Chicago, UIC is a public university with a very large student population.
Master's graduates who receive their degree from the public admin program make around $59,815 in their early career salary.
It is hard to beat University of Illinois at Springfield if you wish to pursue a master's degree in public administration. UIS is a small public university located in the city of Springfield.
After graduation, public admin master's recipients usually make around $61,014 in their early careers.
Aurora University is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a master's degree in public administration. Aurora is a moderately-sized private not-for-profit university located in the suburb of Aurora.
Soon after graduation, public admin master's recipients typically earn about $42,605 in their early careers.
Located in the small suburb of Dekalb, NIU is a public university with a large student population.
Public Administration master's degree recipients from Northern Illinois University get an earnings boost of approximately $3,331 above the typical income of public administration majors.
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. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
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