The 50 colleges that score highest for Political science on public federal data: selectivity, graduate earnings, program size, academic strength and graduate depth. It is a starting point for your research, not a judgment of quality.
50 colleges · each name links to its page, with sources · data snapshot October 2, 2026 · Updated October 2, 2026
How we rank programs · showing the top 50 of 50 core colleges ranked, those with enough graduates and earnings data · All top-programs lists
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| Rank | College | State | What we measured | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard University | MA | Median earnings $95,838 · 157 graduates last year · 7% of the school's degrees | |
| 2 | Columbia University in the City of New York | NY | Median earnings $100,245 · 225 graduates last year · 8% of the school's degrees | |
| 3 | Stanford University | CA | Median earnings $104,653 (field-wide) · 88 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 4 | Johns Hopkins University | MD | Median earnings $121,729 · 36 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 5 | Princeton University | NJ | Median earnings $88,576 · 58 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 6 | University of Chicago | IL | Median earnings $87,869 · 102 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 7 | Yale University | CT | Median earnings $90,764 · 129 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 8 | University of Pennsylvania | PA | Median earnings $93,033 · 111 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 9 | Duke University | NC | Median earnings $88,459 · 99 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 10 | Vanderbilt University | TN | Median earnings $102,789 · 114 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 11 | Cornell University | NY | Median earnings $95,391 · 123 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 12 | Brown University | RI | Median earnings $85,388 · 63 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 13 | Rice University | TX | Median earnings $87,804 · 30 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 14 | New York University | NY | Median earnings $80,957 · 221 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 15 | University of California-Los Angeles | CA | Median earnings $74,202 · 723 graduates last year · 7% of the school's degrees | |
| 16 | Northwestern University | IL | Median earnings $73,231 · 103 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 17 | University of California-Berkeley | CA | Median earnings $75,128 · 403 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 18 | University of Notre Dame | IN | Median earnings $94,297 · 177 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 19 | Washington University in St Louis | MO | Median earnings $90,778 · 82 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 20 | Dartmouth College | NH | Median earnings $106,153 · 149 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 21 | Emory University | GA | Median earnings $94,001 · 80 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 22 | Pomona College | CA | Median earnings $96,702 (field-wide) · 25 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 23 | Georgetown University | DC | Median earnings $79,502 · 278 graduates last year · 13% of the school's degrees | |
| 24 | Northeastern University | MA | Median earnings $73,539 · 140 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 25 | Williams College | MA | Median earnings $88,339 · 28 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 26 | Bowdoin College | ME | Median earnings $89,253 · 73 graduates last year · 11% of the school's degrees | |
| 27 | Colby College | ME | Median earnings $96,621 · 49 graduates last year · 7% of the school's degrees | |
| 28 | Boston College | MA | Median earnings $86,537 · 173 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 29 | University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | MI | Median earnings $77,480 · 277 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 30 | Barnard College | NY | Median earnings $77,805 · 67 graduates last year · 7% of the school's degrees | |
| 31 | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | NC | Median earnings $72,001 · 401 graduates last year · 6% of the school's degrees | |
| 32 | University of Southern California | CA | Median earnings $75,090 · 148 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 33 | Claremont McKenna College | CA | Median earnings $73,826 · 42 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 34 | Tufts University | MA | Median earnings $78,180 · 67 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 35 | Middlebury College | VT | Median earnings $77,444 · 42 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 36 | Hamilton College | NY | Median earnings $88,019 · 25 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 37 | Washington and Lee University | VA | Median earnings $95,190 · 58 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 38 | Colgate University | NY | Median earnings $83,188 · 99 graduates last year · 11% of the school's degrees | |
| 39 | Boston University | MA | Median earnings $66,373 · 131 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 40 | Wellesley College | MA | Median earnings $72,830 · 40 graduates last year · 5% of the school's degrees | |
| 41 | University of Virginia-Main Campus | VA | Median earnings $78,310 · 110 graduates last year · 2% of the school's degrees | |
| 42 | The University of Texas at Austin | TX | Median earnings $75,988 · 312 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 43 | Bates College | ME | Median earnings $80,714 · 54 graduates last year · 10% of the school's degrees | |
| 44 | Hillsdale College | MI | Earnings not published · 33 graduates last year · 8% of the school's degrees | |
| 45 | Davidson College | NC | Median earnings $81,400 (college-wide) · 55 graduates last year · 9% of the school's degrees | |
| 46 | University of California-San Diego | CA | Median earnings $67,713 · 353 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 47 | University of Maryland-College Park | MD | Median earnings $74,437 · 276 graduates last year · 3% of the school's degrees | |
| 48 | Amherst College | MA | Median earnings $63,754 · 30 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 49 | Villanova University | PA | Median earnings $83,179 · 85 graduates last year · 4% of the school's degrees | |
| 50 | George Washington University | DC | Median earnings $79,692 · 291 graduates last year · 11% of the school's degrees |
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