sanraymond

Hi Kd7432, Here's Ray. I am Chinese and I was an undergrad from Duke Sanford Public Policy. I can't really provide you anything with NUS, which is definitely a great school. But I can share you with a bit of my perspectives on Duke. Duke Sanford is definitely one of the best in the US. The variety of class, and the faculty are great. You can learn from leading academic experts, think tank professionals, as well as experienced senior government officials. So you can have a lot of opportunities to talk to people from different backgrounds about career options. (Many students have strong and diverse working experiences as well so you can talk to them as well). My friend in the master program also say there is a lot of research opportunities with faculties, though that is usually the second year. Seems like your interest is in International Development, I know this is a big part of Sanford. There is a specialized master program in International Development, which I am not so familiar with. But I know there is also the center of international development that carries out excellent research and offer training to policy professionals (there is a rotating group of Chinese / India officials to come and get trained in Fall/Spring semester, there are a lot more from other countries). In terms of the school life, the Gothic Architecture of Duke Campus is beautiful, and the structure Sanford School itself is amazing and always to pleasure to be in. You are next to the Law School, Business School and Poli Sci department, so most things you need is in reach. Durham isn't a big city but it is a jewel with great weather. There are two points you may want to keep in mind though. Even though there is a center dedicated to international development, that is likely to be something you have to explore by yourself. The curriculum for MPP student is more oriented for domestic policy. Many of my international peers in both undergrad and master program feels like Public Policy classes are oriented to the US. There are a lot of emphasis on political procedures in the Congress and Government. To be honest, this can be true for the majority of Public Policy Study in the US. My personal focus was on the environment, so many issues are based on US cases, but not exclusive to US political structure. The second issue is that the MPP program is professional master degree, meaning that many people here have working experience and will return to work upon their graduation. PhD is definitely an option, but you will have to make this choice proactively. I also talked to a professor about this and there is no short cut to transfer from MPP to PhD in Sanford so you have to reapply. Though studying in Sanford and the personal contact with the faculty is an implicit advantage.

Is it a PhD or Master Program your are applying? Do you know if there is a waitlist for the program

Realized that I made a really long post, so maybe its slightly better that I separate it into to posts Reasons for CMU 1. Commitment: By now I feel I am fairly committed to the school. Not only that I have accept their offer, I actually just made class selection this morning. There is nothing about the program that I dislike so I feel really bad to pull myself out from it. 2. Energy specific focus: both programs are sort of Engineer and Public Policy program, but ESTP was specifically designed for energy focus, and I feel I will much more likely to find like-minded people there. It offers a whole list of courses in energy and power. Energy was a theme for the technical emphasis of the MIT program, but nothing is formalized and I energy and grid research doesn’t seem big at MIT’s electrical engineering department. Moreover, the CMU program is part of the Engineering School, whereas the TPP program seems to be rooted in the Institution of Data Science and Society. Considering the relative autonomy of MIT departments, I may not have a lot of exposure from the energy science studies. Reasons for MIT 1. Program length: the two-year program at MIT would give me more time to learn that the 1.5 year CMU program. Considering that I am switching field, 1.5 year is really quite short to build anything from ground zero in electrical engineering. I had taken classes in energy and interned in the field, but I am definitely lacking the technical knowledge in electrical energy. I fear that I may not gain as much as I would like at CMU. 2. Prospect for PhD and research: This one is kind of tough to say. While CMU has focuses specifically on Energy, its more professional oriented. The program was originally 1-year pure course program and only last year they established an “applied study” focus on research/project. On the other hand, MIT TPP may not give my many exposures to energy study and research, it had an embedded thesis component in every semester so I will likely to come up with a more polished research product in the end when going into PhD. 3. Reputation: CMU is definitely famous, but there are very few schools that can compete with MIT. But this mostly concerns the two programs. The MIT TPP program was established back in 70s, whereas the ESTP program at CMU is only 6 years old and definitely less recognized. I am actually worried that this can cause problem within the University when competing for class and research opportunities with actual ECE students.

Hey everyone, this is Ray. I am an environmental chemistry and public policy major in college and looking to switch into power and energy field. I was looking for a master program that may better train me in this field and eventually help me get into PhD. I was committed to CMU until I woke up this morning to find a post April-15 admission to MIT that really struck me off balance. Back in February I was placed on Waitlist by the MIT Technology and Policy Master Program (TPP) and was told that I will be notified before April 15th. I was later admitted by Carnegie Mellon’s Energy Science Technology and Policy (ESTP), with concentration in Electrical and Computer Engineering and had a month to make a decision before their April 5th deadline. Thinking there is basically no prospect of getting into MIT from the waitlist, I accept the admission at CMU. But yesterday I decided to send an email to MIT just hoping to get a definitive answer, like a formal rejection. But I woke up this morning to find an admission letter. The program director said then had sent me the admission in March but apparently it never landed in my Hotmail (same thing happened to my Duke decision) and April 15th was their decision deadline. Nevertheless, the director is still willing to extend this offer. Here are some break downs for the two programs. I will really appreciate if some of you may help me a bit with making the decision. Thanks!

Congrats Cloutma, Betun and Ophiiopogon! Unfortunately I am rejected by the program... Sad... Wish you all the best and best of luck to Ambessa!

Applied to concurrent programs from MIT. Got waitlisted by 1 and rejected by the other. They said I will hear back by April 15th, but my current best choice (CMU) requires answer by April 1st. Wondering if its still worth waiting for?

MEM student reporting in. So far there has not been any news on my side. I also applied for MEM at Duke and go an email saying they are starting to send out decisions today. Fingers-crossed.