Howie

Hi all, I'm about to wrap up my MPA and I only have two classes left to take. The first class will be the required capstone class. I have a choice between two classes for my second class. The first candidate is Urban Planning and Social Policy. The second candidate is Non Profit Management. Due to the course offerings and the classes I have already taken, I am stuck taking one of these two classes. The catch is I have little interest in either subject. Upon consulting the syllabus, the Urban Planning and Social Policy class appears to be a study of welfare, poverty, and social justice (with little emphasis on land use or urban design, a topic which I do actually find interesting). The Non Profit class does not appeal to me either in that my focuses have been on local government and general public administration. Therefore, in your opinion, which class do you believe may prove more useful in my career or future endeavors? Do you have any experiences with such classes? I know this is inquiry a stretch but thought I'd reach out here.

How many classes per semester is a full load in your respective programs?

After quitting your job, how do you guys plan on staying afloat financially while in grad school? Working part time? And potentially in a different field? I am in a similar situation.

I bet your local community college has online math classes. It will probably be much cheaper than taking the class through a 4 year school. I took my stats requirement online at Foothill College in CA I'd recommend it to others.

So the MPA is either useless or irrelevant now?

UConn seems like a dream situation. You may not want to live in Connecticut long term but you may decide that about Indiana as well. You should stay at UConn.

Pi Alpha Alpha is the national honor society for students of public administration. Is anyone involved with this organization? Or is it a $70 resume line item?

About $350.

http://www.fedsdatacenter.com/federal-employee-counts/ I realize that not everyone who is getting an MPA or MPP wants to become a federal employee. However, I'm surprised that the top California policy schools (USC and UCLA) don't get more love on here, while lesser schools that are "close to DC" get more publicity. Thoughts?

Only do Peace Corps if it's something you really want to do, not because it MAY slightly increase your application status at a grad school. A 2+ year commitment isn't worth that.

Alot of work experience might get you out of a otherwise mandatory internship. One girl in my cohort got into the program straight out of undergrad. The rest have several years of work experience (I had 5 at my time of admission).

Strange. As you know, I'm also attending USC but I am taking a $200 class at a CC.

Everyone agrees that US News' rankings should be taken with a grain of salt. That was never the issue. Does anyone want to share their personal or perceived rankings?

Care to elaborate?

How would you rank the MPA programs? US News' top 25 rankings are below. What are your top 5? Top 10? Top 25? What makes a MPA program better than others in your mind? Rank School name Score #1 Syracuse University (Maxwell) Syracuse, NY 4.5 #2 Indiana University–​Bloomington Bloomington, IN 4.4 #3 Harvard University (Kennedy) Cambridge, MA 4.3 #4 University of Georgia Athens, GA 4.2 #5 Princeton University (Wilson) Princeton, NJ 4.1 #6 New York University (Wagner) New York, NY 4.0 #6 University of California–​Berkeley (Goldman) Berkeley, CA 4.0 #6 University of Southern California (Price) Los Angeles, CA 4.0 #9 Carnegie Mellon University (Heinz) Pittsburgh, PA 3.9 #9 University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 3.9 #9 University of Washington (Evans) Seattle, WA 3.9 #12 American University Washington, DC 3.8 #12 George Washington University (Trachtenberg) Washington, DC 3.8 #12 University of Michigan–​Ann Arbor (Ford) Ann Arbor, MI 3.8 #12 University of Wisconsin–​Madison (La Follette) Madison, WI 3.8 #16 Arizona State University Phoenix, AZ 3.7 #16 Duke University (Sanford) Durham, NC 3.7 #16 Florida State University (Askew) Tallahassee, FL 3.7 #16 University at Albany–​SUNY (Rockefeller) Albany, NY 3.7 #16 University of Kentucky (Martin) Lexington, KY 3.7 #16 University of Minnesota–​Twin Cities (Humphrey) Minneapolis, MN 3.7 #16 University of Texas–​Austin (LBJ) Austin, TX 3.7 #23 Georgetown University Washington, DC 3.6 #23 Georgia State University (Young) Atlanta, GA 3.6 #23 Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey–​Newark Newark, NJ 3.6