Public Admin

Types of Degrees Public Admin Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many public administration graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Master’s Degree	11,984
Graduate Certificate	969
Doctor’s Degree	329

What Public Admin Majors Need to Know

O*NET surveyed people in occupations related to public admin and asked them what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important for their jobs. The responses were rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being most important.

Knowledge Areas for Public Admin Majors

According to O*NET survey takers, a major in public admin should prepare you for careers in which you will need to be knowledgeable in the following areas:

• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.

Skills for Public Admin Majors

The following list of skills has been highlighted as some of the most essential for careers related to public admin:

• Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.

Abilities for Public Admin Majors

Public Admin majors often go into careers where the following abilities are vital:

• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.

What Can You Do With a Public Admin Major?

Below is a list of occupations associated with public admin:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Compliance Managers	8.0%	$107,480
General and Operations Managers	9.1%	$100,930
Investment Fund Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Legislators	7.0%	$24,670
Logistics Managers	6.8%	$94,730
Regulatory Affairs Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Social and Community Service Managers	18.0%	$65,320
Supply Chain Managers	8.0%	$107,480
Transportation Managers	6.8%	$94,730

Who Is Getting a Master’s Degree in Public Admin?

This is one of the most frequently chosen graduate majors. It is the 19th most popular in the country with 12,290 students graduating with a master’s in public admin in 2021. The major attracts more women than men. About 60% of the recent graduates in this field are female.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of public admin majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	522
Black or African American	1,992
Hispanic or Latino	1,740
White	5,309
International Students	1,266
Other Races/Ethnicities	1,155

Geographic Diversity

Americans aren’t the only ones with an interest in Public Admin. About 10.6% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Public Admin

Some careers associated with public admin require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. Whatever the case may be, pursuing more education usually means that more career options will be available to you.

Find out what the typical degree level is for public admin careers below.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	14.5%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	2.8%
Some College Courses	5.9%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	7.9%
Bachelor’s Degree	43.4%
Post-Baccalaureate Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Baccalaureate degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees carrying the title of Master.	5.6%
Master’s Degree	15.4%
Post-Master’s Certificate - awarded for completion of an organized program of study; designed for people who have completed a Master’s degree but do not meet the requirements of academic degrees at the doctoral level.	3.6%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.5%
Doctoral Degree	0.8%

Online Public Admin Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	7	0
Certificate (2-4 Years)	1	1
Associate’s Degree	24	7
Bachelor’s Degree	125	37
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	381	128
Post-Master’s	20	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	46	7
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	1	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Public Admin

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to public admin.

Major	Number of Grads
Human Services	11,596
Public Policy	6,740
Community Organization & Advocacy	2,557
Other Public Administration	553

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020
• Image Credit: By The Official CTBTO Photostream under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.