Where can your student actually get into political science?

• 1079 colleges nationwide offer a bachelor's political science program: 1067 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 1 more report a political science admit rate in the UC/CSU data; 11 more carry program earnings in federal outcome data but no 2022-23 degree count under these program codes.
• Largest programs by graduates in 2022-23: George Washington University (737), Florida State University (630), University of California-Los Angeles (601).
• 67 of them are in California, the one state whose public systems (the University of California and the CSU) publish an admit rate into the major.
• Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): University of California-Berkeley — Political Science, Fall 2025: 4,295 applied, 477 admitted (11%).
• Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Monterey Bay — 100.0% (20 applied, 20 admitted, Fall 2025).
• 1 CSU campus report political science on the transfer side only: freshmen enter as a pre-major and apply into the program later.
• Highest median earnings four years after the degree: Johns Hopkins University, $121,729.
• Lowest average net price with aid: Texas A&M University-Central Texas, $1,300 per year.

At the UC, admission at most programs is to the campus rather than to the major, so the number next to political science mostly tells you how hard that campus was to enter. A campus with no first-year row is not closed to freshmen: the CSU reported the major on the transfer side only, which means a freshman enters as a pre-major and applies into it later. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · California only (67 colleges, with the UC and CSU gates) →

Every college, one row each

Colleges with a reported gate into the program come first, hardest first; the rest are sorted by earnings, then by graduates. Degree awarded is the program the college conferred bachelor's degrees in during 2022-23, with the number of graduates (federal IPEDS completions). Program admit rate is the college system's own number for this major (UC Information Center, CSU Chancellor's Office). Net price is the average paid by aid recipients; full price is the cost of attendance. Earnings are federal College Scorecard medians four years after the degree.