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.
For its 2025 ranking, College Factual looked at 9 schools in the Middle Atlantic Region to determine which ones were the best for public policy students pursuing a bachelor's degree. Combined, these schools handed out 580 bachelor's degrees in public policy to qualified students.
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Choosing a Great Public Policy School for Your Bachelor's Degree
Your choice of public policy for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. 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 bachelor'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 college's overall Best Colleges 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 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
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 policy students vs. other majors.
Major Demand - The number of public policy students who choose to seek a bachelor'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 easy is it for public policy to pay back their student loans after receiving their bachelor's degree.
Accreditation - Whether a school is regionally accredited and/or accredited by a recognized public policy related body.
Our full 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.
Since the program you select can have a significant impact on your future, we've developed a number of rankings, including this Best Public Policy Bachelor's Degree Schools in the Middle Atlantic Region list, to help you choose the best school for you.
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.
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Prepare yourself to make the decisions that best serve a community, its constituents and its economic growth with this specialized business degree from Southern New Hampshire University.
It is hard to beat Cornell University if you want to pursue a bachelor's degree in public policy. Located in the small city of Ithaca, Cornell is a private not-for-profit university with a very large student population.
Public Policy bachelor's degree recipients from Cornell University receive an earnings boost of about $22,456 over the typical income of public policy graduates.
Princeton University is a good choice for individuals pursuing a bachelor's degree in public policy. Located in the city of Princeton, Princeton is a private not-for-profit university with a medium-sized student population.
Bachelor's recipients from the public policy degree program at Princeton University earn $18,180 above the typical college grad with the same degree shortly after graduation.
Any student who is interested in a bachelor's degree in public policy needs to take a look at University of Maryland - College Park. Located in the large suburb of College Park, UMCP is a public university with a fairly large student population.
Students who graduate with their bachelor's from the public policy program report average early career income of $45,642.
Hamilton College is one of the best schools in the United States for getting a bachelor's degree in public policy. Located in the suburb of Clinton, Hamilton is a private not-for-profit college 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 $56,158.
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 policy for getting your bachelor's degree school matters. 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:
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