Public policy & social services

Public Policy Analysis

Pennsylvania State University-Penn State Harrisburg · Middletown, PA

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$26,668Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Grouped debt estimate$32,632Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · bachelor's
Annual credentials awarded3Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

USD · Bachelor's · 2 years after completion
Same source release. National references exclude this degree.

Selected degree estimate$30,047
Same subject · national$41,165
Public policy & social services · national$32,711

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · bachelor's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $28,734–$34,271.

Historical earnings archive. College Scorecard legacy FOS archive (file dated 2022-01-19; cohorts vary). Do not interpret this as today's graduate salary. Further study and career changes are not modelled by this early-career figure.

Bachelor's outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
Alabama State UniversitySocial Work$28,055
Metropolitan State UniversityHuman Services, General, Social Work$38,450
West Virginia State UniversitySocial Work$29,685
Colorado State University GlobalHuman Services, General, Public Administration$44,628
Black Hills State UniversityCommunity Organization and Advocacy$33,138
Tennessee State UniversitySocial Work$29,141
Texas Woman's UniversitySocial Work$32,569
East Stroudsburg University of PennsylvaniaSocial Work$28,960
Texas Southern UniversitySocial Work$30,409
Jackson State UniversitySocial Work$25,194
College of Coastal GeorgiaPublic Administration and Social Service Professions, Other$21,508
University of Wisconsin-SuperiorSocial Work$37,671
How matching & uncertainty work

We first look for the same subject code (or exact subject name), qualification, country, currency, source release and earnings horizon. Peer institutions are matched using admissions selectivity, completion rates, undergraduate size and institution type, with a small preference for the same region. These are institutional proxies, not a ranking of programme quality.

If subject-matched peers are sparse, we try related subjects at closely matched universities, related degrees at this university, then an explicitly labelled national reference. We never multiply a salary by a university prestige score.

Peer and national estimates give each reporting institution one vote, after taking the median of its related programmes. Shared branch-campus outcomes count once. The middle-half range describes variation between reporting institutions. It is not an individual salary range or a statistical confidence interval.

Evidence labels describe match quality and coverage, not validated prediction accuracy. Admissions and size are undergraduate institutional measures, so graduate-degree comparisons are especially approximate.

Historical cohort outcomes are not promised salaries or a causal effect of attending this programme. College Scorecard earnings cover eligible federal-aid recipients, not every graduate or international student. Source definitions ↗