Bachelor's · earnings grade

Is a Public Administration degree worth it?

Graduates earn a median $41,193 two years after finishing, more than 55% of bachelor's majors. Measured across 188 US programmes by the Department of Education — real graduate pay, not survey answers.

C

The verdict on the money

It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label.

Median earnings $41,193 2 years after finishing · per graduate
Typical range $34,526–$42,682 middle half of US programmes
Over no degree +$1,673 vs $39,520 high-school median
Graduates a year 2,383 188 programmes

Where a Public Administration degree pays best US programmes ranked on their own graduates' median earnings two years out.

#University1 yr out2 yrs out3 yrs outGraduates/yr
1 National University cost & debt at this university → $61,249 $74,576 not published 14
2 West Texas A & M University not published $69,338 not published 2
3 California Baptist University cost & debt at this university → $51,784 $69,338 not published 16
4 Upper Iowa University cost & debt at this university → $53,774 $61,516 $61,156 17
5 Colorado State University Global cost & debt at this university → $68,522 $61,020 $58,303 2
6 University of La Verne cost & debt at this university → not published $60,094 not published 17
7 Barry University cost & debt at this university → $71,434 $58,673 $58,008 25
8 University of Phoenix-Arizona $52,336 $54,494 $49,868 56
9 Western Carolina University cost & debt at this university → $55,712 $52,107 $53,171 120
10 George Mason University cost & debt at this university → $39,354 $48,823 $59,691 29
11 Indiana University-Bloomington cost & debt at this university → $44,780 $45,034 $53,502 420
12 California State University-Dominguez Hills cost & debt at this university → $37,105 $43,240 $43,352 42

What this figure does and does not tell you

Two medians are worth separating. $41,193 is what the typical graduate earns — each programme counted in proportion to how many students it graduates. $39,074 is what the typical programme reports, counting a class of twenty the same as a class of two thousand. The weighted figure is higher here, which means the larger programmes in this field are the better-paying ones.

It is the median of what real graduates of this exact major earned, taken from tax records two years after they completed. It is not a starting salary, not an average of job adverts, and not a projection. The median bachelor's major in this dataset reports $36,497, so Public Administration sits above the middle by $4,696.

Two years is early in a career. Fields with long training pipelines — medicine, law, research — look weaker at this point than they will at ten, while trades and applied technical fields peak sooner. Read a low figure in a long-pipeline subject as "slow start", not "bad degree".

There is no debt figure here on purpose. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not borrowing, so nobody can honestly tell you the debt of a specific major. Debt is published per institution — that is where our university cost pages carry it.

Public Administration at other levels

Master's — $51,482 (C)

Scholarships for Public Administration students

Whatever the subject pays, the money you do not borrow is the money you keep.

Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships Executive MPA Scholarships for International Students at Herti... 15 University of York Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarsh... MPA Scholarships for International Students at SDA Bocconi Sch... China Fully Funded SUFE Chinese University Postgraduate Schola... The Management Centre of the Mediterranean Scholarship for Mas...
See all Public Administration scholarships →

Study Public Administration Programmes listed on ScholarshipsAds.

Political Science and Public Administration — Bilkent University Information combined with Public Administratio... — Dalhousie University Juris Doctor / Master of Public Administration... — Queen's University Public Administration — University of Winnipeg Public Administration - Feminist and Gender St... — University of Ottawa Public Administration — University of Ottawa

Majors that pay more at this level Closest first — useful if you are still choosing.

Physics — $41,193 Business Management — $41,725 Business Administration — $41,937 Business — $42,154 Marketing — $42,154 Systems Science and Theory — $42,425

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Public Administration: the questions people ask

How much do Public Administration graduates earn?
The median bachelor's graduate earns $41,193 two years after finishing (weighting each programme by how many students it graduates), across 51 US programmes that publish the figure. One year out it is $39,354.
Is a Public Administration degree worth it?
It pays around the middle. What you earn will depend more on where you study and what you do with it than on the subject label. The median graduate earns $1,673 a year more than a US worker whose highest qualification is a high-school diploma.
What is the salary range for Public Administration?
Half of US programmes report medians between $34,526 and $42,682. Where you study moves this figure more than most applicants expect.
How many people graduate in Public Administration each year?
About 2,383 students complete a bachelor's in this field each year across 188 US programmes.
Does this include student debt?
No — and deliberately. The Department of Education publishes earnings by field of study but not debt, so any "debt by major" figure you see elsewhere is an estimate. Debt is published per institution, which is why our university pages carry it and this page does not.
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Source: US Department of Education College Scorecard, field-of-study earnings (median earnings of graduates who received federal financial aid, measured 1–3 years after completion). Figures are per major and credential level, pooled across US programmes. Information only, not financial advice.