2025 Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region

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.

In 2025, College Factual analyzed 54 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 2,722 master's degrees in public administration during the 2022-2023 academic year.

What's on this page: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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 school's overall Best Colleges for a Master's Degree 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 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.

More Ways to Rank Public Administration 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 Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region list to help you make the college decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Public Administration in the Southeast Region

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in public administration. Only those schools that rank in the top 20% of all the schools we analyze get awarded with a place on this list.

10 Top Southeast Region Schools for a Master's in Public Admin

1

Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, VA

17 Annual Graduates

$74,121 Median Starting Salary

Virginia Tech is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in public administration. Virginia Tech is a very large public school located in the city of Blacksburg.

Master's recipients from the public administration degree program at Virginia Tech make $20,754 more than the average graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in public administration from Virginia Tech

2

George Mason University
Fairfax, VA

70 Annual Graduates

$78,076 Median Starting Salary

George Mason University is a wonderful choice for students pursuing a master's degree in public administration. Located in the suburb of Fairfax, GMU is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the public administration program at George Mason University make $24,709 above the standard college graduate in this field when they enter the workforce.

More information about a master’s in public administration from George Mason University

3

Liberty University
Lynchburg, VA

139 Annual Graduates

$57,882 Median Starting Salary

Liberty University is a wonderful decision for individuals interested in a master's degree in public administration. Liberty University is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the small city of Lynchburg.

Master's recipients from the public administration degree program at Liberty University make $4,515 more than the average college graduate with the same degree shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in public administration from Liberty University

4

Florida International University
Miami, FL

85 Annual Graduates

$59,096 Median Starting Salary

Every student who is interested in a master's degree in public administration has to check out Florida International University. Located in the large suburb of Miami, FIU is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Master's recipients from the public administration degree program at Florida International University get $5,729 above the typical college graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in public administration from Florida International University

5

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC

63 Annual Graduates

$66,534 Median Starting Salary

Located in the city of Chapel Hill, UNC Chapel Hill is a public university with a very large student population.

Public Administration master's degree recipients from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill get an earnings boost of about $13,167 over the average income of public administration graduates.

More information about a master’s in public administration from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

6

James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA

19 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Harrisonburg, JMU is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in public administration from James Madison University

7

Auburn University
Auburn, AL

25 Annual Graduates

Located in the small city of Auburn, Auburn is a public university with a fairly large student population.More information about a master’s in public administration from Auburn University

8

University of Central Florida
Orlando, FL

106 Annual Graduates

$59,742 Median Starting Salary

Located in the large suburb of Orlando, UCF is a public university with a very large student population.

Master's recipients from the public administration program at University of Central Florida earn $6,375 above the standard graduate in this field shortly after graduation.

More information about a master’s in public administration from University of Central Florida

9

University of Georgia
Athens, GA

73 Annual Graduates

$54,613 Median Starting Salary

UGA is a very large public university located in the midsize city of Athens.

Master's graduates who receive their degree from the public admin program earn about $54,613 for their early career.

More information about a master’s in public administration from University of Georgia

10

Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

137 Annual Graduates

$56,061 Median Starting Salary

Florida State is a fairly large public university located in the midsize city of Tallahassee.

Public Administration master's degree recipients from Florida State University earn a boost of around $2,694 over the typical income of public administration graduates.

More information about a master’s in public administration from Florida State University

Honorable Mentions

These are some additional schools worth mentioning that are also great but just didn't quite make the cut to earn our top Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in the Southeast Region award.

Rank	College	Location
11	North Carolina State University	Raleigh, NC
12	Virginia Commonwealth University	Richmond, VA
13	Barry University	Miami, FL
14	Tennessee State University	Nashville, TN
15	Arkansas State University - Main Campus	Jonesboro, AR
16	University of South Carolina - Columbia	Columbia, SC
17	Florida Atlantic University	Boca Raton, FL
18	University of Kentucky	Lexington, KY

Best Public Administration Colleges by State

Explore the best public administration colleges for a specific state in the Southeast Region .

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Florida	208	514
Georgia	190	379
Virginia	182	394
North Carolina	178	341
Tennessee	166	69
Alabama	151	335
Kentucky	147	112
Louisiana	147	113
South Carolina	146	83
Mississippi	145	66
Arkansas	121	165
West Virginia	112	132

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Public Admin

One of 4 majors within the Public Administration & Social Service area of study, Public Administration has other similar majors worth exploring.

Public Admin Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
Public Administration	2,716
Public Administration (Other)	6

Majors Similar to Public Admin

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Public Policy	492
Community Organization & Advocacy	129
Human Services	103
Other Public Administration	93

Notes and References

• 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).
• Credit for the banner image above goes to The Official CTBTO Photostream. More about our data sources and methodologies.