2025 Best Public Policy Bachelor's Degree Schools in California

Public Policy is above average in terms of popularity with it being the #121 most popular bachelor's degree program in the country. This means you won't have too much trouble finding schools that offer the degree.

College Factual looked at 3 colleges and universities when compiling its 2025 Best Public Policy Bachelor's Degree Schools in California ranking. When you put them all together, these colleges and universities awarded 305 bachelor's degrees in public policy during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Jump to one of the following sections: * Our Methodology

• Best Bachelor’s Degree Schools List

Choosing a Great Public Policy School for Your Bachelor's Degree

The public policy bachelor's degree program you select can have a big impact on your future. Important measures of a quality public policy 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 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 bachelor's degree from the school. This is because one of the main reasons people pursue their bachelor'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 policy students as compared to other majors.
• Major Demand - How many other public policy students want to attend this school to pursue a bachelor'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 much debt public policy 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 policy related body.

Our complete ranking methodology documents in more detail how we consider these factors to identify the best schools for public policy students working on their bachelor's degree.

More Ways to Rank Public Policy Schools

The public policy school you choose to invest your time and money in matters. To help you make the decision that is right for you, we've developed a number of major-specific rankings, including this list of the Best Public Policy Bachelor's Degree Schools in California.

In addition to College Factual's rankings, you may want to take a look at College Combat, our unique tool that lets you pit your favorite schools head-to-head and compare how they rate on factors that most interest you. When you have some time, check it out - you may want to bookmark the link so you don't forget it.

Best Schools for Bachelor’s Students to Study Public Policy in California

Learn about the top ranked colleges and universities for public policy students seeking a a bachelor's degree.

Top California Schools for a Bachelor's in Public Policy

1

University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA

41 Annual Graduates

$52,403 Median Starting Salary

University of Southern California is a great decision for students pursuing a bachelor's degree in public policy. USC is a very large private not-for-profit university located in the large city of Los Angeles.

Public Policy bachelor's degree recipients from University of Southern California earn a boost of approximately $9,017 above the typical earnings of public policy graduates.

More information about a bachelor’s in public policy from University of Southern California

2

University of California - Riverside
Riverside, CA

87 Annual Graduates

$39,867 Median Starting Salary

$7,203 Median Student Debt

University of California - Riverside is one of the finest schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in public policy. Located in the city of Riverside, UCR is a public university with a very large student population.

Bachelor's graduates who receive their degree from the public policy program earn around $39,867 in their early career salary.

More information about a bachelor’s in public policy from University of California - Riverside

3

University of Redlands
Redlands, CA

17 Annual Graduates

$37,888 Median Starting Salary

University of Redlands is a wonderful choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in public policy. Located in the small city of Redlands, University of Redlands is a private not-for-profit university with a small student population.

Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the public policy program state that they receive average early career wages of $37,888.

More information about a bachelor’s in public policy from University of Redlands

Best Public Policy Colleges in the Far Western US Region

Explore all the Best Public Policy Schools in the Far Western US Area or other specific states within that region.

State	Colleges	Degrees Awarded
Washington	226	10
Oregon	185	3

View All Rankings >

Rankings in Majors Related to Public Policy

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

Public Policy Focus Areas

Major	Annual Graduates
General Public Policy Analysis	300
Health Policy Analysis	5

Most Popular Related Majors

Related Major	Annual Graduates
Human Services	467
Public Administration	220
Other Public Administration	43
Community Organization & Advocacy	33

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.