Public policy & social services

Public Policy Analysis

The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley · Edinburg, TX

Medium evidenceMatched peers12 institutions · related subjectsSee the evidence

The degree in numbers

Cost & earnings.

Annual tuition$19,939Institution-level tuition; programme fees may differ · before aid
Annual credentials awarded3Average of available recent award years; not the earnings sample size.

Earnings context

One career stage.
A clearer comparison.

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

Selected degree estimate$50,604
Same subject · national$60,896
Public policy & social services · national$47,268

Behind the number

Your comparison group.

Medium evidence

Related subjects at 12 matched peer institutions · master's

Grouped estimate. Middle half of comparison values: $46,314–$51,894.

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.

Master's outcomes · 2 years after completion
Institution & subjectReported earnings
Sam Houston State UniversityPublic Administration$63,005
The University of Texas at San AntonioPublic Administration, Social Work$50,618
The University of Texas at ArlingtonPublic Administration, Social Work$52,251
University of Massachusetts-BostonHuman Services, General, Public Administration$57,770
University of Nebraska at OmahaPublic Administration, Social Work$50,590
Western Michigan UniversityPublic Administration, Social Work$47,277
East Tennessee State UniversitySocial Work$37,907
University of Wisconsin-MilwaukeePublic Administration, Social Work$50,792
Indiana University-IndianapolisPublic Administration, Social Work$48,328
Texas State UniversityPublic Administration, Social Work$51,775
Stephen F Austin State UniversityPublic Administration, Social Work$43,426
Boise State UniversityPublic Administration, Social Work$43,168
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 ↗