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Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee

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2023 Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee

Highlighting Quality Schools With More Affordable Pricing

4 Colleges
$22,151 Avg Tuition & Fees*
$45,998 Avg Salary

Finding the Best Public Policy School for You

With 66 degrees and certificates handed out in 2020-2021, public policy is the #52 most popular major in Tennessee.

Today's students have lots of options to pick from when considering higher education opportunities. With more and more schools offering online options, you could even register for a great program on the other side of the country. On top of that, there are a considerable number of trade schools that offer fast-track entry to many fields.

The Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee ranking is one of many tools that Grad Degree Search has developed to help you make your educational decision. Our analysis looked at 4 schools in Tennessee to see which programs offered the best value experiences for public policy students with the aim of identifying those quality schools that are more affordable than some of their counterparts.

When determining this ranking, we place a high emphasis on the school's quality as well as its sticker price. Even though a college may be affordable, it may not offer value. Specifically, our score for quality is discounted by the published tuition and fees charged by the given college. This gives the cost per unit of quality for each college. The more quality your dollar buys, the better the value.

Our calculations use out-of-state tuition and fees in our nationwide and regional rankings. For statewide rankings, we use average in-state tuition and fees.

2023 Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee

The following schools top our list of the Best Value Public Policy Colleges.

Best Tennessee Schools for Affordable Quality in Public Policy

#1

Tennessee State University

Nashville, TN
$8,336 Average Tuition & Fees

Our 2023 rankings named Tennessee State University the best value school in Tennessee for public policy students. Tennessee State University is a medium-sized public school located in the large city of Nashville.

Tennessee State University undergraduate students pay an average of $8,336 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

Full Public Policy at Tennessee State University Report

#2

University of Memphis

Memphis, TN
$10,056 Average Tuition & Fees

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend University of Memphis. The school came in at #2 on this year’s Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee list. Located in the city of Memphis, UofM is a public school with a very large student population.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at UofM are $10,056 a year.

Read full report on Public Policy at University of Memphis

$13,244 Average Tuition & Fees

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend The University of Tennessee - Knoxville. The school came in at #3 on this year’s Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee list. UT Knoxville is a very large public school located in the medium-sized city of Knoxville.

UT Knoxville undergraduate students pay an average of $13,244 in in-state tuition and fees each year.

UT Knoxville did well in our overall quality rankings, too. It placed #5 on our Best Public Policy Schools in Tennessee list.

Full Public Policy at The University of Tennessee - Knoxville Report

#4

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN
$56,966 Average Tuition & Fees

You’ll join some of the best and brightest minds around you if you attend Vanderbilt University. The school came in at #4 on this year’s Best Value Public Policy Schools in Tennessee list. Vanderbilt is a fairly large private not-for-profit school located in the city of Nashville.

The average tuition and fees for an in-state undergraduate at Vanderbilt are $56,966 a year.

Vanderbilt also took the #1 spot in our Best Public Policy Schools in Tennessee rankings.

Full Public Policy at Vanderbilt University Report

Best Value Public Policy Colleges in the Southeast Region

Explore all the Best Value Public Policy Colleges in the Southeast Area or other specific states within that region.

State Degrees Awarded
Virginia 278
Florida 13
Georgia 28
North Carolina 87
Kentucky 22
Louisiana 8
Alabama 7
South Carolina 2
Arkansas 8
West Virginia 23

Public Policy is one of 5 different types of programs to choose from.

Related Major Annual Graduates
Social Work 33,631
Public Administration 13,571
Human Services 1,277
Community Organization & Advocacy 741
Other Public Administration 295

Notes and References

*These averages are for the top 4 schools only.

  • The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a branch of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) serves as the core of the rest of our data about colleges.
  • Some other college data, including much of the graduate earnings data, comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s (College Scorecard).
  • Credit for the banner image above goes to The Official CTBTO Photostream.

More about our data sources and methodologies.

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