mppm

Current Harris Student here. I'm really sorry to hear about the delays. I have brought it to the attention of the administration so that it won't happen again in the future. The admissions department is currently undergoing some personnel/process changes, and I think this is what is causing the delays. I urge potential students to look beyond this and keep in mind all that Harris has to offer. The admissions process is not indicative of the value of a Harris MPP degree.

Looks like there are a lot of current/former Harris people on here now! I'll take a stab at this one, even though I'm not primarily interested in international work. There are still a lot of opportunities to study international issues. You can take a look at the courses offered online, and you'll see that there are courses on international poverty/development, international health, international education, and security/terrorism. In addition, there is a international policy practicum open to second year students in which the class explores issues in one or two countries chosen in advance, then visits the country over winter break and writes a policy memo summarizing their finding. This year the class went to Rwanda and Madagascar. I can't really give much more detail about the class, but I think it is a really unique opportunity for people interested in international work. I can't speak very well to the trajectory of the international side of the MPP program, but I am sure the school is committed to maintaining a strong offering in this area. Other Harris people: please add anything I might have left out! I hope that is helpful. Let me know if you have further questions.

1) The nice thing about Harris is that there are two tracks in the statistics and in the microeconomics sequence, a "regular" version and a "advanced" version. The regular version does use some calculus, but I think the material is still very accessible. The advanced versions will use quite a bit of calculus and will be challenging. Math camp will be a good refresher and there are algebra and calculus courses in the fall for people who need more background. I do think that learning the micro and stats, while sometimes painful, is important for someone who wants to do policy work, even someone interested in communications and management. 2) The first two quarters are very structured, as you will probably have no choice in your classes. However, after that you will have 11 classes to elect entirely on your own. While having a lot of abstract material up front was sometimes frustrating, I do think there is sufficient time for electives. The quarter system gives you a lot of opportunities to take a range of classes, which people at Harris use to take classes across the university (at the business school, the law school, the econ department, foreign languages, etc.) 3) A lot of students do internships in DC and for the last several years there has been a winter quarter DC networking trip to facilitate this and job hunting. Students this year met with Harris alums in positions around DC (IMF, World Bank, etc.) and also used the trip to arrange their own interviews on the side. I did not go, but I heard from those who did that it was a really valuable experience.

I believe that a lot of students in the program do not have funding. Unfortunately, I don't know very much about outside funding sources. My guess is that most do not have outside funding, but I applied for and received a scholarship from a foundation in my home town so you should definitely pursue that kind of option. I don't think students are reconsidered for funding during their second year.

As I understand, people from Harris go into a wide range of fields including private sector, government, and non-profit. Unfortunately, I really can't speak to what current placement rates are like. I do know a number of students signed on quite early to work with Deloitte doing public sector consulting after graduation, but I'm just not that well informed about other second years' plans (I'm a first year student). Obviously, debt is an issue and you'll have to decide what you're comfortable with. But I do think that with its quantitatively rigorous program, Harris prepares students to be competitive on the job market.

Hi All, I'm a current Harris School student and I'd like to offer to answer any questions people might have. Please feel free to PM me if you prefer.