scholl43

Many people are offered a TA position after having taken a class (and having done well in it). I'm not sure if I've ever heard of any 1st year Masters students getting TA position in the first semester, but definitely in the second.

Very flexible. Many people swap to/from the DC track, typically when they're unsure of what they want going into the program. Some have even switched to 3 semester DC or even Australia.

Hi MJA, I don't think that your job prospects are hurt by doing the 4 semester PGH track at all. There are plenty of people that do the 3 or 4 semester track there and then go to DC. Obviously the DC track will give you 1-3 experience (Summer before, Fall, and Spring) that could then set you up for a job offer during or after your second year. On the other hand, you have a lot less freedom in terms of course selection (no choice 2nd year, limited based on class exemptions in first year). I don't have feelings about job prospects because I have a job offer and that's not uncommon. Many people already have job offers from federal agencies, Deloitte consulting, NGOs, think tanks, and IBM. That's just what I know of (for PGH and DC MSPPM). Those offers probably range in pay from a GS-9 Step 1 ($52k/year, great federal benefits) to $100k (Deloitte, but more so IBM, with great benefits as well).

1. Mid-20's, a few years of experience in international work with a social sciences background. Did not go to a prestigious university (went public), but did a lot, had above a 3.5 GPA, and held many part-time jobs and a fellowship to help me out. 2. NGO operations work domestic and abroad. 3. You'd really have to ask an int'l student since it's such a different situation.

Just bumping this thread in case people want to ask questions about CMU. Feel free to send a private message as well.

Current CMU student here. Assuming you're talking about the Heinz College's MSPPM, here goes: The curriculum (like any) has it's strong and weak points. If you're in the 4 semester Pittsburgh track, you'll spend a lot of the first year getting the core required courses out of the way (micro econ, database management, writing, presentation, statistics, and management science). You have the opportunity to test out of any/all of those (and one or two I'm forgetting) and you definitely should if you can. No reason to waste your time. Don't take the writing class if you think it would be useful to brush up on writing; it's too simple of a course. Presentations only if you're a shaky-handed, shaky-voiced presenter. Database management - test out if you know Access. Management Science will kick your ass, but Jon Caulkins (used to head the Rand office) is brilliant and has done great work on drug policy. Outside of the core you can take SAS, R, GIS, Cost Benefit Analysis, and more advanced courses in econ, stats, management science, and predictive analytics. There are plenty regionally focused policy courses (think shale gas, Pennsylvania politics, etc.), but relatively little on the federal or international front. Heinz is all about eating up your time so don't expect to do much outside of school, especially if you're doing 54 or 60 credit semesters (6 credits per mini, which is half a semester and 12 credits for full semester). If you'd like, you can also apply to the DC track, which severely limits your choice in classes during the first year (no choice in the second year). Plenty of people swap out once they've accepted, sometimes very late. The advantage to this is that you work part time (or full) during your second year and likely get a job offer from your employer. Placement is more on your back, but if there are alumni connections where you're looking that helps. The career office isn't very useful, but the alumni network is. The nice part is that you can do anything with the MSPPM. People leave and work in local, state, federal, and international governments, non profits, and consulting firms (Deloitte, Booz Allen, and some smaller firms recruit heavily). The administration of the program is severely lacking so definitely confirm everything you can on your own. You see some of this in the career office staff (although it has improved), the financial aid/admission staff, and the IT support staff. Definitely leverage other admissions offers to negotiate more $$ from Heinz.

I haven't heard of anyone working outside of Heinz as a TA or RA. I would talk to admissions or the program director/coordinator to see if that ever happens. I don't personally have any experience with the TA/RA process so you'd have to talk to the school about that as well. If you'd rather talk to a student, go through the Ambassador info and request a TA or RA specifically.

They're very good for second year students that do well in classes during the first year. Many of my current TA's are 2nd year PPM's, but a few are PhD's. Some first year students end up as TA's in classes like Presentation Skills and Writing (separate classes). If you're strong in one/both of those, it may be possible to test out of them and TA for them in your first year, but you'll need to approach the professors about that. It's likely that they'll line up TA's from first year students for the first semester of the 2nd year, but it never hurts to try. @Crazy Bird, I would call someone in Career Services and try to connect to the Heinz Ambassadors to have them connect you to international PPM's to talk about their experiences.

I am someone who had been away from quant work for a while and I did well in Stats. Stats shows up again in the second semester in Management Science and (for me) SAS. In Stats we used Mini tabs using problems in the book and problems developed by Dan Nagin (he's kind of a big deal these days). Overall, the coursework is challenging both in its content and volume. If you're admitted, nothing should really be beyond your reach, but classes like Management Science, Data Analytics, and Econometrics will be more challenging. Some people balance this out with Acting for Management (seriously), Multimedia, etc. where you're learning great skills, but it's a different type of work. As to your last question, I think it depends on your specialized interest. If you're in the DC track, that's not really possible because of core requirements. I think as a two-year, there's more flexibility and professors do bring students on for independent studies and as research assistants. I actually just heard an alum talk about how she got to work with Jon Caulkins on drug trafficking in Colombia.

I'm a current first years student and I thought I'd just note a few things based on what I've read. Just to be clear, this is a new track and not a new program. There's always a bit of switching going on within Heinz during the first year so if you didn't get into the DC track or POLA, that doesn't mean you can't when you get to Pittsburgh. I know at least three people have dropped out of DC and those spots have been filled. My impression is that employers are well aware of the value of this track, but with any program, you're still going to have to highlight your experience and education and how it's relevant to whatever position you're applying to. That said, Deloitte heavily recruits from Heinz for different programs in different areas of their practice. If you're unfamiliar with Deloitte, you can do state/local, federal, and international govt. work there in addition to the more popularly known private sector work they do. Reach out to Jon Caulkins and discuss the program with him. This program (and track) is very different from Harvard's MPP, but I really enjoy it because the skills are very transferable whereas a straight policy school isn't going to give you as much breadth.

I think there's a full range of tuition assistance, but I honestly don't really ask too many people about it. That's mostly because I have a very good financial aid package (large % of tuition waived, stipend, work study, and loans were all in my financial aid package). I haven't been able to keep up with as much work study work as I had initially hoped so I won't max that out, but I've unexpectedly been able to borrow a little bit of money from my parents (sub-$5k) and stay debt free when it comes to bank/govt. loans so far. That will likely change in my second year. I'm generally unfamiliar with the TA positions. Some first year students end up becoming their colleagues' TA if they have experience or you can become a TA after taking a class (and doing well). I think the full tuition in exchange for constant/full time TA positions is something reserved for PhDs. That doesn't mean that you can't get full tuition, but you need to have the right package (great letters of rec, great statement, great GPA, preferably some relevant work experience). Since I have nothing to do with admissions, I couldn't tell you what mix of those things you need (they don't all need to be great), but the more you have, the more Heinz will want you.

I hope admissions results are going well for everyone. Since I got a lot out of these forums in the past, I just wanted to offer to talk to anyone about life as a first year at CMU/Heinz College if interested. I can also talk about my decision process, but that's probably less relevant since it's so subjective. Just PM me if you're interested.

MPP Gal has a great suggestion. Don't go to U of Chicago or Columbia because they don't fund students. You sound like me (quite debt averse) and taking on that kind of debt, especially if you don't have a very clear path of what you want to do with a professional degree, doesn't make any sense. Rankings are kind of garbage so don't buy into them. Just reach out to alumni of the programs you're looking at to get their perspectives on the program. That will be really valuable to know if the school is worth it. Talk to a few people from the schools you're really interested in since experience varies. I've talked to plenty of people that have radically different experiences within one program and the differences often amount to a lack of focus/goals from the outset minimal professional experience before grad school poor planning overall (course selection, internship search/application process) If you know what your dream job is, go look at the people doing it. You might be able to find their full resume or some kind of interview with them (alumni article from their alma mater) where you can see what kind of degree/what school helped them get to where they are. I've been surprised to find a bunch of "no-name" schools behind great people in my life, which just goes to show what motivation, initiative, and intelligence can do for you beyond credentials.

I don't think I can say anything on #2, but in terms of where to apply, I'd shoot for everything. Even if you don't plan on going to Harvard, but think you can get in and possibly get funding, apply to Harvard. That way you can use Harvard (or whatever school) as leverage with other schools. I don't think prestige is a big deal unless you want to be in the upper echelons of some of the most powerful institutions in the world, but even then it's more about performance and network. If you want to be a local city/state worker, prestige will matter much less.

If you know you have two really solid recs and the third is more or less icing on the cake, I'd go with the academic side. First off, if you have less than 3 years of professional (paid, not internships), I'm not sure your resume warrants more than 1 professional letter. Having two references from the same workplace could potentially say to someone, "This person didn't have enough options for references." For that reason, I think it would be stronger to get another academic reference, especially if that person can really personalize it. I had 2 years of experience and went with 1 academic (undergrad), 1 professional (current job), and 1 that was a past internship coordinator/supervisor and had become a colleague through a related organization. That last one probably is rare, but it was nice to have as it was someone who knew me really well and had worked with me as both a subordinate and as a colleague of equal status.

Good points above on the internship opportunities. The extent of the alumni network in DC and perception of your school/program can help you get a job. Call different schools' Career Services and peruse their websites for clues to this. You're going to find plenty of Harvard, Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, and Columbia students in DC. I've actually run into a lot of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt alums in DC working for the federal govt. ( a few in non profits). I've only run into a couple Harvard students, but that's all anecdotal anyways.

I don't know your background or potential safety net (parents being the most common), but if you lack any real savings, I'd be extremely cautious to go to JHU. I'm sure it's a great school, but $80k+ is a lot to pay off. Is that just $80k in loans or is that what you'd pay after X years? Make sure you plug your loan amounts into a calculator to see what monthly payments would look like and then look at the potential salaries you'll be pulling in in your first few years. Option JHU: You get a great education and meet a lot of people in DC during school, developing a solid network in a city that you will likely work in. You will also likely have a lower standard of living for the first few (minimum) years out of grad school. Option Korbel: You walk away with little debt, giving you the freedom to go work at lower paying jobs (or no pay) to get inside somewhere you really want to be. If you want to do a PhD after this degree, I don't think you'd be able to do that until middle age based on the debt load from JHU. Academic jobs are in high demand so don't let some dream professorship at some dream school lead you down a path to high debt and working at the University of Minnesota - Duluth (no offense Duluth). I say this because I know quite a few young scholars who are finishing PhDs, in post doc, or young profs and they're all a bit terrified and depressed by their situation. When I mentioned that I was applying to grad school a couple immediately told me not to do a PhD.

I'm internationally focused so take this opinion with that in mind. I would take WWS because it's a great school. I think reputation is overblown in many ways and it's irrelevant if you do your job right. Yes, I've heard of some people that hire in specific departments of massive institutions favor certain schools, but I think that's the exception to the rule. I'm a very debt averse person so I'd personally go to a school that's not as exactly on the mark for what I want to do if it meant saving tons of money. 50k or even 30k is "tons" to me. In ten years looking back it may be a kind of funny thing to think about, but right now I don't know what's down the road. In terms of the personal stuff, if it's a relationship, two years could be tough. I'm going to be doing one year apart, but we're setting up a schedule with a 5hr Megabus ride involved. It's a burden, but at the end of the day, a year (and really two) isn't long. It's not like you're going to Med School. If it's not a relationship and more of a family thing, then that could be very different. Good luck with your decision.

Interesting. Maybe different programs within SIS have different dates. Seems like an odd thing to do, but mine definitely says April 15th.

SIS is today. If anyone has and reservations, you can always ask for a decision extension, but they probably won't give you much time.

I don't know much about the UT program since I looked at it a few years ago. I think I would either do the UT program for flexibility to focus on local governance issues or transfer to the 2 year Pittsburgh degree (or 3 semester) to get more flexibility at CMU. From my perspective, the only reason to do the DC track with its set concentration is if you want to work for the city in DC. Cost of living is also going to be significantly higher in DC compared to UT or Pitt.

I'm weighing my options like so many of you right now and would like to hear if anyone else has applied to the Development Management program at American. What other factors are you considering with other programs? I'm looking at CMU's MSPPM, Syracuse's MPA, and Georgetown's GHD programs as the main competition for me. Right now I feel like Syracuse and CMU are winning out for several reasons, but I've also had less time to investigate SIS and the program specifically (talking to alumni, looking at syllabi).

Just want to be clear that I don't want to play into that douche-tastic troll's game. Just expressing my opinion. I will add that for anyone that was waitlisted and would die if they didn't get in, SAIS may offer you admission during the summer. I was waitlisted in 2010 and they were willing to let me in if I wanted to pay full price. Again, pretty debt averse so that's not going to happen at SAIS or any other school. Good luck with your decisions everyone.

I won't be attending SAIS (DC program) because of the combination of fit and lack of funding. I considered Bologna, but was kind of put off when I went to an info session last fall and all of the students who had done it made it seem like a cult. They were overselling it and it almost seemed like I was hearing a woman describe how much she loved her husband even though their three month marriage was clearly in shambles. I'm not saying that the program is actually bad, but I just got a really weird vibe from the combination of former students talking about it. I'm being pragmatic about my choice so lack of funding really puts SAIS out of the running for me. I don't think the name/education will be that much different from other schools, especially if I'm putting decent effort into pursuing my goals.

I regret applying to one school that I really didn't feel strongly about. Not applying would have saved me a lot of time that I didn't really want to invest anyway. I started working on my apps in August because I knew I was applying. That said, I still came up to the deadline on some because I wrote and rewrote and rewrote SOP's, plugging in specific professor's names and other details about the programs. SOP's word limitations vary so much that for the most part, I couldn't just reuse the bulk of the content that I had written.