Public Administration is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #103 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. So, you have a fair amount of options to choose from when looking for a school.
In 2025, College Factual analyzed 8 schools in order to identify the top ones for its Best Public Administration Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. Combined, these schools handed out 220 bachelor's degrees in public administration to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Public Administration School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of public administration for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public admin program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
Overall Quality Is a Must
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 ranking. This ranking considered factors such as graduation rates, overall graduate earnings and other educational resources to identify great colleges and universities.
Average Early-Career Salaries
Average early-career salary of those graduating with their bachelor's degree is one indicator we use in our analysis to find the schools that offer the highest-quality education. After all, your bachelor's degree won't mean much if it doesn't help you find a job that will help you earn a living.
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 - The number of public administration students who choose to seek a bachelor's degree at the school.
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 much debt public administration students go into to obtain their bachelor'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 bachelor'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 Bachelor's Degree Schools in California list, to help you choose the best school for you.
To further help you make the college decision, we've developed a unique tool called College Combat that allows you to compare schools based on the factors that matter the most to you.
Go ahead and give it a try, or bookmark the link so you can check it out later.
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California State University - Northridge is one of the finest schools in the country for getting a bachelor's degree in public administration. Located in the large city of Northridge, CSUN is a public university with a very large student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the public administration program at California State University - Northridge earn $20,124 more than the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
It is difficult to beat California Baptist University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in public administration. Located in the city of Riverside, Cal Baptist is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Public Administration bachelor's degree recipients from California Baptist University get an earnings boost of around $12,757 over the typical income of public administration majors.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in public administration needs to check out San Diego State University. SDSU is a very large public university located in the city of San Diego.
Soon after graduation, public admin bachelor's recipients generally earn around $41,020 in their early careers.
California State University - Fullerton is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in public administration. Located in the large suburb of Fullerton, Cal State Fullerton is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Bachelor's students who receive their degree from the public admin program earn an average of $36,626 in the first couple years of working.
Located in the city of San Diego, National University is a private not-for-profit university with a fairly large student population.
Those public administration students who get their bachelor's degree from National University earn $21,152 more than the standard public admin student.
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 bachelor's degree school matters. Important measures of a quality public admin program can vary widely even among the top schools. Below we explain some of the most important factors to consider before making your choice:
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