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.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 11 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the New England Region ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 962 master's degrees in public administration to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Public Administration School for Your Master's Degree
Your choice of public administration for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public admin program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
A Great Overall School
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 for a Master's Degree ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
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
In addition to the above, you should consider some of the following factors:
Major Focus - How many resources a school devotes to public administration students as compared to other majors.
Major Demand - How many other public administration students want to attend this school to pursue a master'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 easy is it for public administration to pay back their student loans after receiving their master's degree.
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.
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 the New England Region 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 has to look into Anna Maria College. Located in the rural area of Paxton, Anna Maria is a private not-for-profit college with a small student population.
Public Administration master's degree recipients from Anna Maria College earn a boost of about $37,854 above the average earnings of public administration graduates.
It is difficult to beat University of Connecticut if you want to pursue a master's degree in public administration. Located in the town of Storrs, UCONN is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their master's from the public admin program report average early career income of $65,364.
Northeastern University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in public administration. Northeastern is a fairly large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Boston.
Master's students who receive their degree from the public admin program earn around $66,436 in the first couple years of their career.
Located in the large suburb of Kingston, URI is a public university with a large student population.
Master's recipients from the public administration program at University of Rhode Island get $2,262 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
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).
Your choice of public administration for getting your master's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public admin program can vary widely even among the top schools. To make it into this list, a school must excel in the following areas.
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