Public Policy at Vanderbilt University

If you plan to study public policy, take a look at what Vanderbilt University has to offer and decide if the program is a good match for you. Get started with the following essential facts.

Vanderbilt is located in Nashville, Tennessee and approximately 13,537 students attend the school each year. In 2021, 35 public policy majors received their bachelor's degree from Vanderbilt.

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.

Vanderbilt Public Policy Degrees Available

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

Vanderbilt Public Policy Rankings

The following rankings from College Factual show how the public policy progam at Vanderbilt 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 Vanderbilt 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
Best Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools	23
Most Popular Public Policy Bachelor’s Degree Schools	24

In 2021, 24 students received their master’s degree in public policy from Vanderbilt. This makes it the #33 most popular school for public policy master’s degree candidates in the country.

Earnings of Vanderbilt Public Policy Graduates

The median salary of public policy students who receive their bachelor's degree at Vanderbilt is $31,717. This is less than $37,566, which is the national average of all public policy majors in the nation who earn bachelor's degrees.

Public Policy Student Demographics at Vanderbilt

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

Vanderbilt Public Policy Bachelor’s Program

Of the 35 students who earned a bachelor's degree in Public Policy from Vanderbilt in 2020-2021, 37% were men and 63% were women.

About 54% of those who receive a bachelor's degree in public policy at Vanderbilt are white. This is typical for this degree on the nationwide level. Prospective students may be interested in knowing that this school graduates 9% 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 Vanderbilt University with a bachelor's in public policy.

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	6
Black or African American	5
Hispanic or Latino	4
White	19
International Students	0
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

Vanderbilt Public Policy Master’s Program

In the 2020-2021 academic year, 24 students earned a master's degree in public policy from Vanderbilt. About 75% of these graduates were women and the other 25% were men.

Of the students who received a public policy master's degree from Vanderbilt, 75% were white. This is above average for this degree on the natiowide level.

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

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Students
Asian	1
Black or African American	3
Hispanic or Latino	0
White	18
International Students	1
Other Races/Ethnicities	1

Vanderbilt also has a doctoral program available in public policy. In 2021, 0 student graduated with a doctor's degree in this field.

Related Majors

• Community Organization & Advocacy

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 TN, the home state for Vanderbilt University.

Occupation	Jobs in TN	Average Salary in TN
Medical and Health Services Managers	10,320	$101,550
Health Specialties Professors	5,690	$102,310
Education Professors	690	$68,690
Social Scientists	590	$61,800
Legislators	560	$41,470

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 Dansan4444 under License

More about our data sources and methodologies.