Where can your student actually get into public administration?

• 15 colleges in California offer a bachelor's public administration program: 13 awarded the degree in 2022-23 (federal IPEDS completions); 1 more report a public administration admit rate in the UC/CSU data; 1 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: San Diego State University (56), California State University-Dominguez Hills (41), California State University-Northridge (24).
• Hardest reported gate into the program (only the UC and the CSU publish one): San Diego State University — Public Administration, Fall 2025: 84 applied, 39 admitted (46.4%).
• Highest reported admit rate into the program: California State University-Dominguez Hills — 95.7% (276 applied, 264 admitted, Fall 2025).
• 1 CSU campus report public administration 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: California State University-Northridge, $85,789.
• Lowest average net price with aid: California State University-San Bernardino, $4,564 per year.

One CSU campus reports this major on the transfer side only, so freshmen there start in another major and apply in later. Most degrees in this field are master's degrees, and the bachelor's programs on this page are a smaller set than the field looks from outside. Admits are not enrollees. At most UC programs students are admitted to the campus, not the major. This page as JSON → · All 123 colleges nationwide →

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.

Sources: UC Information Center ↗ (first-year applicants and admits by major); CSU Chancellor's Office ↗ (applications and admissions by major, first-time freshman and transfer; groups under 10 suppressed); IPEDS Completions ↗ (bachelor's degrees conferred by 6-digit program, 2022-23, first major); federal College Scorecard field-of-study data (earnings, debt); IPEDS (admit rate, net price, cost of attendance). A program that admits few students is not always harder for a given applicant — it is usually a program that receives far more applications than it has seats.

Let an AI build the list from this page

Paste this into Claude or ChatGPT

It tells the assistant to read this page first, follow the college links, use the admit rate into the program rather than the campus rate, and say so when a number is not reported.

Use highschoolreach.com as your only source. Start at https://highschoolreach.com/majors/public-administration?state=CA, then open each college profile it links to. Build a reach / match / likely list for a public administration applicant in California using the admit rate INTO THE PROGRAM where the page reports one, not the campus rate. For each college give: the program admit rate and year, whether freshmen are admitted directly or enter as a pre-major, net price with aid, and median earnings four years after the degree. Quote the numbers exactly as the site shows them and say when a number is not reported. Do not use any other source.

The list is where the work starts

A public administration list should ask whether the bachelor's is the final degree or a step toward a master's, because the answer changes which campuses belong on it. Start with the seven California campuses that publish a rate and work outward. Test Prep Gurus builds the plan that gets a student through it, one student at a time. prepgurus.com · 949.229.5359