Public Policy at Duke University

If you are interested in studying public policy, you may want to check out the program at Duke University. The following information will help you decide if it is a good fit for you.

Duke is located in Durham, North Carolina and approximately 16,172 students attend the school each year. Of the 2,319 students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 2021, 190 of them were public policy majors.

Want to know more about the career opportunities in this field? Check out the Careers in Public Policy section at the bottom of this page.

Duke Public Policy Degrees Available

• Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy
• Master’s Degree in Public Policy
• Doctorate Degree in Public Policy

Duke Public Policy Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the public policy progam at Duke compares to programs at other colleges and universities.

Note: Rankings don't always give a complete picture of a school's strengths and weaknesses, so it's a good idea to extend your research and also look at other factors when trying to decide if the school is right for you.

Bachelor’s Degree Overall Quality & Other Notable Rankings

The public policy major at Duke is not ranked on College Factual’s Best Colleges and Universities for Public Policy. This could be for a number of reasons, such as not having enough data on the major or school to make an accurate assessment of its quality.

Ranking Type	Rank
Most Popular Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools	1
Most Focused Public Policy Doctor’s Degree Schools	28

In 2021, 76 students received their master’s degree in public policy from Duke. This makes it the #12 most popular school for public policy master’s degree candidates in the country.

There were 3 students who received their doctoral degrees in public policy, making the school the #31 most popular school in the United States for this category of students.

Earnings of Duke Public Policy Graduates

The median salary of public policy students who receive their bachelor's degree at Duke is $51,435. This is 37% higher than $37,566, which is the national average for all public policy bachelor's degree recipients.

Public Policy Student Demographics at Duke

Take a look at the following statistics related to the make-up of the public policy majors at Duke University.

Duke Public Policy Bachelor’s Program

Of the 190 students who earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy from Duke in 2020-2021, 44% were men and 56% were women. The typical public policy bachelor's degree program is made up of only 39% men. So male students are more repesented at Duke since its program graduates 5% more men than average.

Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 10% more racial-ethnic minorities in its public policy bachelor's program than the national average.*

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Duke University with a bachelor's in public policy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	24
Black or African American	21
Hispanic or Latino	34
White	93
International Students	4
Other Races/Ethnicities	14

Duke Public Policy Master’s Program

During the 2020-2021 academic year, 76 public policy majors earned their master's degree from Duke. Of these graduates, 38% were men and 62% were women.

The following table and chart show the race/ethnicity for students who recently graduated from Duke University with a master's in public policy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	5
Black or African American	10
Hispanic or Latino	8
White	38
International Students	9
Other Races/Ethnicities	6

Duke also has a doctoral program available in public policy. In 2021, 3 students graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

Careers That Public Policy Grads May Go Into

A degree in public policy can lead to the following careers. Since job numbers and average salaries can vary by geographic location, we have only included the numbers for NC, the home state for Duke University.

Occupation	Jobs in NC	Average Salary in NC
Health Specialties Professors	10,090	$134,300
Medical and Health Services Managers	9,230	$117,650
Education Professors	2,500	$66,990
Social Scientists	1,130	$73,420
Political Science Professors	440	$90,070

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
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• Image Credit: By Bjoertvedt under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.