MPP 2016

I think that's a personal choice, and depends on your preferences! I think Harvard has fantastic name recognition, and is recognized as one of the best. Most of my friends who are at HKS are enrolled in the dual MPP-MBA program, and I think it's definitely the best for the dual program if that's what you are interested in. If it's just the MPP, take into account that most policy programs with good name recognition (eg HKS, Ford, Harris, Goldman, McCourt, among others I'm missing) will get you the jobs you want as long as you network, get the right internships and make the right connections. Most of the policy people I've come across in DC went to Ford, HKS, or Georgetown (and other DC schools)...and your salary is based on years of prior work experience + degree, not the school you come from. It also depends on what you want to do- for ex, if you're interested in consulting at McKinsey or Bain, then you should go to HKS. But if you're interested in federal consulting, like at Deloitte, I would choose Georgetown. I think it also depends on the amount of debt you're willing to take on, and where you plan to work after graduation. If you're looking to go back to your home country, then perhaps Harvard is worth it because it'll be more recognized. If you want to stay in the US, Georgetown is very highly regarded as well and its DC location is a huge asset. So Georgetown wasn't ranked as highly in the 2012 rankings (which was the last time US news did policy school rankings) because it was still an institute at the time, and not a separate policy school. McCourt was GPPI up until Oct 2013, when Frank McCourt gave Georgetown a $100M donation to establish the McCourt school. The creation of the policy school & the additional funding (there was a lot of $$ donated to create new institutes at the beginning of the year in addition to Frank McCourt's donation) will no doubt increase McCourt's ranking in future US news reports. My cohort is the first official class of the McCourt school and the funding and creation of the new school has attracted a lot of very smart people and big names to supplement the already-great faculty - George Akerlof joined at the beginning of this year. It's a lot newer than other policy schools, but the administration's looking to create the best policy school they can, and with the means to do so they're doing a lot of great things and it's an exciting place to be. It was a concern initially when I was making a decision, because Ford is so highly ranked and I was worried I wasn't making the right choice. What helped me was to look at the job placements and check out career services- looking at those alleviated my worries because McCourt has phenomenal job and internship placements. I also talked to a lot of people who told me that McCourt is highly regarded for policy analysis and known for its quant rigor, and they were right. And McCourt is part of Georgetown, which carries its own weight in name recognition. There are a lot of Ford grads in DC though, and I think other policy schools might be better if you are 100% certain you want to be in a specific region; for example, if you want to work in TX, I would say go to LBJ or if you want to work in California, Goldman or Price. I chose Georgetown because I like DC and also because its reputation is solid enough that it would be recognized anywhere! Re: internships & jobs- you're correct that US gov't jobs aren't available, but most of the international students here are interested in development and economics, etc so they're looking to be at the World Bank, think tanks, other NGOs/non-profits, and some are looking into consulting for the summer. Interning during the year is really difficult with visas, etc for international students, so most of my friends have taken RA jobs for professors or are doing things at Georgetown. While it's difficult during the year, it's not impossible- I do have a couple of friends who are working at the Bank this semester and worked with supervisors & McCourt to sort out the visa situation! Hey Francopan- I'm not sure what you mean by the Columbian school, but if you look at the admitted student site, you should find a contact at admissions for funding & scholarships or an associate director for admissions that you can contact with your request, which is what I did. I did my request via email!

From what I remember, I do know people who took the Berkeley course. I had an econ minor from undergrad and didn't need to take a course over the summer, but really wish I had brushed up on my econ before starting school! The quant's pretty hard core here, even for people with a background in it, so I think you'll find it really helpful to take the micro class. Those who did take it could recall information much better and were probably better prepared than I was. You'll get a math camp packet over the summer that will do a math refresher + math boot camp during orientation to fresh your algebra & basic calc skills like derivatives. I'm not sure what other schools you're looking at, but for any school with a high quant rigor, I would recommend putting the time in to brushing up on econ, math or stats before attending. It'll make your fall easier! If you've gotten your funding offer already, I would say approach them now and let them know your situation. If you haven't gotten your McCourt funding offer already, then I would say it depends upon your timeline and when you'd like to make a decision by. I believe I waited until the first week of April to ask, and heard back from Georgetown the day before I had to make a decision (about a 7-10 day turnaround). So it was a bit stressful, but ultimately paid off. I was deciding between Ford, Harris & McCourt last year, and I can understand the full funding for a good program is hard to turn down esp in policy! It was what drove me to ask Georgetown for more funding. Good luck with the decision!

Hi all- I'm a current MPP student as well, and found this board helpful last year when making a decision, so thought I would return the favor. Re: funding- Georgetown considers funding a negotiation. I really wanted to attend Georgetown and be in DC, but with the funding I got from other schools needed more from Georgetown to be able to choose it. I spoke to people at admissions and told them my other offers and they were able to increase my award to match! So if McCourt is really where you want to be, I would highly recommend talking to someone and saying you've gotten other offers at X amt from other schools. Also, the reason why it takes longer to get your $$ offers is because it has to be processed through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences as well, which I believe is who dispenses the money. Georgetown & McCourt were 100% the right decision for me, and it's lived up to (the very high) expectations I had. I will say that one of the reasons I picked McCourt was because of its student body and how active it is- everyone has amazing internships (have friends at Brookings, the World Bank, consulting, on the hill, Urban Institute, etc), there's at least 5 events every week, and the people are great - our class is 40% international and there's a lot of diversity in terms of experiences and cultures. Georgetown has a fantastic reputation, and is highly regarded by everyone in DC. It's known for it's quantitative rigor, and while classes can be tough, the professors are supportive and the work has paid off. The network is great- I've found McCourt alums everywhere and got both my internships this year because of the McCourt network. It does skew younger than other policy schools (average age is 25-26), but that's one of the reasons I chose it. I'm in that age range, and I appreciate the fact that the class is more social than other ones because of it. This is solely my opinion, but when I visited other schools and heard from friends at other schools, it wasn't as social, either due to competitiveness, other priorities (like family), or location. Which isn't a bad thing at all, it just wasn't the right fit for me (I'm probably biased as well, because I'm a city person). I've found that at McCourt, everyone wants to do well and it's definitely an ambitious group, but it's also supportive- people help each other out and are happy to make connections for you.