2025 Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in Arizona

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.

For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 6 schools in Arizona to determine which ones were the best for public administration students pursuing a master's degree. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 494 master's degrees in public administration during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Master’s Degree Schools List

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. When choosing a school we recommend considering some of the following factors:

Quality Overall Is Important

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.

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

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.

One Size Does Not Fit All

Since picking the right college can be one of the most important decisions of your life, we've developed the Best Public Administration Master's Degree Schools in Arizona ranking, along with many other major-related rankings, to help you make that decision.

Best Schools for Master’s Students to Study Public Administration in Arizona

The following list ranks the best colleges and universities for pursuing a master's degree in public administration.

Top Arizona Schools for a Master's in Public Admin

1

Arizona State University - Tempe
Tempe, AZ

73 Annual Graduates

$55,985 Median Starting Salary

Any student pursuing a degree in a master's degree in public administration has to look into Arizona State University - Tempe. ASU - Tempe is a very large public university located in the medium-sized city of Tempe.

Students who graduate with their master's from the public admin program report average early career earnings of $55,985.

More information about a master’s in public administration from Arizona State University - Tempe

2

University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ

23 Annual Graduates

$49,900 Median Starting Salary

University of Arizona is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a master's degree in public administration. Located in the large city of Tucson, University of Arizona is a public university with a fairly large student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the public admin program state that they receive average early career income of $49,900.

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

3

Grand Canyon University
Phoenix, AZ

234 Annual Graduates

$63,014 Median Starting Salary

Grand Canyon University is one of the best schools in the country for getting a master's degree in public administration. Located in the large city of Phoenix, Grand Canyon University is a private for-profit university with a very large student population.

Those public administration students who get their master's degree from Grand Canyon University earn $6,314 more than the average public admin graduate.

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

4

University of Phoenix - Arizona
Phoenix, AZ

118 Annual Graduates

$58,617 Median Starting Salary

It's hard to beat University of Phoenix - Arizona if you want to pursue a master's degree in public administration. UOPX - Arizona is a very large private for-profit university located in the city of Phoenix.

Students who graduate with their master's from the public admin program state that they receive average early career earnings of $58,617.

More information about a master’s in public administration from University of Phoenix - Arizona

5

Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ

35 Annual Graduates

Located in the city of Flagstaff, NAU is a public university with a very large student population.More information about a master’s in public administration from Northern Arizona University

6

Arizona State University - Skysong
Scottsdale, AZ

11 Annual Graduates

$55,985 Median Starting Salary

Located in the medium-sized city of Scottsdale, ASU - Skysong is a public university with a very large student population.

Students who graduate with their master's from the public admin program report average early career income of $55,985.

More information about a master’s in public administration from Arizona State University - Skysong

Best Public Administration Colleges in the Southwest Region

Explore all the Best Public Administration Schools in the Southwest Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Texas	235	725
Oklahoma	153	54
New Mexico	114	54

View All Rankings >

Public Administration Related Rankings by Major

Public Administration is one of 4 different types of Public Administration & Social Service programs to choose from.

Public Admin Concentrations

Major	Annual Graduates
Public Administration	494

Majors Similar to Public Admin

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Public Policy	67
Community Organization & Advocacy	29
Human Services	4

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.