[The (un)official Duke Sanford MPP Thread!]

Hey David, 

 

Thanks for the great questions! I definitely know where you are coming from as I certainly asked myself the same questions before coming back to school.  In general, I think policy school is pretty heterogeneous in terms of backgrounds and experiences.  Here at Sanford, there are a lot of very bright and impressive people - some of which came in with strong quant skills and others who might have only taken one or two stats/econ classes in undergrad.  Given the wide range of quant experience, I think our quant (e.g., stats and econ) professors do a really good job with the pace and content of the courses to make sure that all students are keeping up and learning.  Plus, there are several opportunities to receive instruction or help outside of class through TA sessions and office hours with the professors.  Students form study groups almost immediately and in the second semester there are several group assignments for the quant classes.  In the end, given the tight-knit nature of the academic community here at Sanford, even if you wanted to, I think it would be very difficult to not perform at a high-level because your professors, TAs, fellow classmates wouldn't let you! 

 

In terms of the difficulty of the program, it is challenging but manageable.  I have definitely been pushed, but have never felt that I have been given impossible tasks.  I do not have official statistics about dropout rates but I assume they would be almost 0.  I don't know anyone who has dropped out of my class and my sense is that the overwhelming majority of folks in my class really like it here.  Unfortunately, I also don't know how many students need more than 2 years to complete the program - although, I would guess it's probably a pretty low number. 

 

I hope this is helpful and please feel free to shoot any additional questions my way!

 

Best,

mppbluedevil13

 

Thanks so much for this response!  You've been very helpful. -David

[The (un)official Duke Sanford MPP Thread!]

Greetings mppbluedevil13,

 

I'm a little concerned about the rigor of Sanford's program.  It's been a while since I've been in school, and it worries me that I'll have to take so many credit hours per semester.  I'm confident in my abilities, but my background is in the humanities.  Can you speak to the difficulty of the program, especially for those students that lack a background in quantitative analysis?  Are there many students that drop out after their first year?  Are there many students that need more than two years to complete the program?  Thank you so much for your help. -David

[Ford School Michigan 2013]

No funding for me either. I thought this would make things easier, especially given that I've received a huge chunk of money from Cornell, but for some reason I'm still drawn to Ford. I'm really interested in higher ed. policy, and Michigan clearly has Cornell beat in this area. I just wonder whether it is worth taking on more than twice as much debt to attend there?

 

I too am very interested in higher education policy.  I too did not receive any funding from Michigan!  I will be accepting a funded offer from another school.  My sense is that you would be able to pursue your interests through internships and practium-based experiences at almost any top program. The possibility of 120-130k of debt scares me to death.

[Ford School Michigan 2013]

I haven't heard anything either. 

[Ford School Michigan 2013]

i've heard nothing on funding yet:(  It's very discouraging to hear about the mistake in admissions processing.  I hope that will not affect funding or the funding notification process.  I also was not very impressed with the phone call I received last night:/  The student was very nice but did not do very well at answering the questions I'd prepared.  The student also seemed uncomfortable.  Oh well, hopefully we'll get our emails tomorrow!

On the other hand, the Duke Sanford admissions process has been an absolute dream.  The application was extremely efficient, and I already feel like I'm a welcomed member of their community (facebook page, admitted students webpage, multiple phone calls, email from alumni, admitted student internet chats, etc.)  I understand that Michigan is a larger program, but Michigan should model their admissions process after Duke's.