SUMMARY
Choosing to study Political Science and Government is a valuable choice and generally a requisite first step for students planning to begin a career as an associate attorney, a government affairs specialist, or a regulatory affairs specialist. Interestingly, political science and government is a surprisingly popular major choice, coming in at the 14th most popular major. Last year, there were 41,811 political science and government degrees conferred. In-state tuition for political science and government at private universities is, on average, 4.1 times more spendy than their public peers.
With an impressive 1126 schools having programs for political science and government chances are that any colleges you are interested in will have a degree program for you. If you're hoping to immerse yourself with other political science and government majors, consider institutions in California which have the most undergrads admitted to political science and government annually. More generally, the top region to major in political science and government is in the Southeast region with Florida State University, University of Florida, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill best representing the region. Interestingly, our pick of the best conference to study political science and government is the Pacific-12 Conference with University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles, and University of Washington-Seattle Campus representing the conference. From our comprehensive list on the best colleges, our choice for the best university for political science and government is Stanford University.
The overall best school might not actually be the best school for you. There can be a bunch more factors to consider when choosing institution. External stuff like campus amenities, transportation services, and food would definitely refashion your thoughts of which university to attend. At Authority, we weighed the pros and cons for you. If, as an example, you are intrigued by which political science and government college boasts the top campus, the answer is Harvard University. If, for example, you are very interested in which school is home to the best campus, we have an entire page dedicated to that. We have carefully pored through professor reviews, student reviews, government databases, and more in order to compare all U.S. majors in an unbiased and informative way. You can find our well researched list for the universities with the best student life here and from that list, our choice for the school with the best student life for political science and government is Cornell University. Are you curious why? Continue reading to learn more about Authority's top recommendations. Many of our picks will probably shock you.
If expense is a primary influence in your choice of where you attend college, you might consider avoiding Columbia University in the City of New York. Columbia University in the City of New York appears to be the most expensive university for political science and government, at least for out of state students. That being said, we have a page for the most expensive schools that might put the cost at Columbia University in the City of New York into perspective. For more context, you could be interested to know that political science and government is the 11th most expensive major in the United States, with an average expense of $54,500. On a broader scale, the most expensive state for political science and government nationally is Vermont with tuition and fees at the primary three institutions equalling $55,790 at Middlebury College, adding up to $45,050 at Saint Michael's College, and costs amounting to $45,050 at University of Vermont. To zoom out even further, the most expensive region of the country for political science and government is the New England region which is best demonstrated with Amherst College with a cost of $57,640, Tufts University with a cost of $57,324, and Brown University with a cost of $57,112.
Our cheapest region for political science and government is the Rocky Mountains region which is represented by Brigham Young University-Idaho with a cost of $4,208, Brigham Young University-Provo with a cost of $5,790, and Weber State University with a cost of $14,973. In better news, the most affordable university for political science and government is University of Florida. Authority's entire list of the most affordable universities can be found here.
In-state attendees can anticipate paying around $9,900 for a degree in political science and government. The price inflates substantially to a median of $22,400 for the out-of-state public-school undergraduate. Our choice for the school representing the best value for political science and government: Stanford University. Through this link you can see our comprehensive list on the schools we believe to be the best value overall. Do know, this list is predicated on being an out-of-state student. A discussion of value changes when in-state tuition costs are considered, but we do not know where you live (and are not trying to collect that kind of data).
Earnings for political science and government students differ widely, but two years after finishing the degree graduates will often earn in the neighborhood of $45,800. There can be a lot of variation in pay; top positions can make up to $109,200. Right out of college, the lowest end opportunities within the political science and government field make $19,000, which could be worse. The highest earning grads from political science and government attended Stanford University and if you want to find the schools with all of the highest earning graduates, we have that too.
The all-around diversity of political science and government ranks near the top, ranking in the 77th percentile of all majors. The college with the most composite diversity for political science and government is New York University and here you can find our general list for the universities with the most diversity. The overall financial diversity of the Political Science and Government major ranks only in the 26th percentile compared to all other majors. Racial diversity is actually above financial diversity, in the 63rd percentile. White students compose the largest proportion, 57%, of those majoring in political science and government. Additionally, 50% of undergrads pursuing a political science and government degree are women.
The median ranking for political science and government's professors is 4 stars, a rating that is right on the average score for every major; this is a fine. If you are interested in the most popular political science and government professor in the country, consider looking up Jeff Lee at Blinn College. It may come as a shock, but the highest ranked professors of political science and government according to students are at Houston Community College. If we consider data other than basic rankings we find that the school with comprehensively the best instructors for political science and government is Stanford University. One will find an explanation of our ever evolving ranking methodology of the best overall professors here, along with many of the finest instructors in the U.S.
Finally, the hardest university to get into for political science and government is Stanford University. While we think of this list more as a novelty, we do have an extensive list for the hardest colleges to get into. Although, we hope you believe that considering university through a lens mainly built on superlatives could be said to be the root of many of higher education's fundamental issues. We at Authority encourage you to look at some of our other pages on different schools and peruse a couple of our background articles on beneficial things to consider as your college search develops.