Pound Cake

Thanks so much for that thorough summary! Really helpful! The econ/stats aspect of the program is keeping me on alert at the moment. Would you say that the econ/stats part of the program has been challenging for many because a lot of those students had never had experience with econ/stats during their undergrad? Just trying to gauge the difficulty of it in the context of the MPP program. I took a handful of econ courses and basic stats during my undergrad (from 1st micro/macroeconomics to 3rd year courses on international finance and trade).

I was only able to defer because I told SPPG that I had a job offer at the time. The job was relevant to the program, as I'm currently doing policy work for government, and I also made the argument that the job would be a benefit for me in terms of finances, so I guess that made them willing to permit the deferral.

Don't think so. From what I've seen in past threads, 3k seems to be the standard amount of funding for students.

Okay, that's good to know. Thanks! What did you do for funding throughout the program? Apparently UTAPS is only available for the 2nd year of the MPP program, and I'm not eligible for OSAP since I'm not from Ontario. Are there any other possible funding sources for the MPP? For those who just got accepted to UofT MPP, did you guys get offered any funding? I was told that my funding would be assessed at a later time...

Yeah, last year I got my admission offer on March 14. So maybe that's the timeframe UofT is aiming for again this year.

Was the econ in the UofT MPP program very quant-heavy? Or did the courses just utilize a lot of econ concepts (that you would learn in undergrad) in general?

Just an FYI for UofT applicants. I just received my admission offer. Although, keep in mind, mine is a deferred one so timelines for yours may be different. But it probably means that UofT will be sending out admission offers soon.

Looking forward to seeing all of the successful UofT MPP applicants in September! I was accepted in 2017, but got my admission deferred to this year.

I'm going to have to agree with this. High grades during your undergrad isn't going to be as helpful as real work experience when you get to grad school. Especially in the case with MPA/MPP programs because they're professional degrees.

I don't know how it is in other places like the U.S, but in Canada, employers (i.e. governments) don't seem to care where you get your public policy/admin. degree from as long as you have a graduate level degree in public policy/admin. That's the impression I've been getting so far throughout my co-op experiences in government as an undergrad.

Just out of curiosity, did you have any relevant work experience prior to being accepted to the program? This is an interesting perspective, as UofT's program has been on my radar for a while now. It would be great to get other perspectives on this program.

If you don't mind to share, what was your GPA for your application? Any work/volunteer experience?

That's pretty early. Where did you apply to? Most of the schools seem to have a deadline in late January...so results probably won't be out until around March.

Hey guys, I'm beginning to work on my grad school applications for Public Policy/Admin. If any of you could provide any general advice on public policy programs around the country that would be awesome, particularly on Letters of Intent/Statements of Interest for applications. I'm scheduled to finish my undergrad in May 2017 from UBC with a double major in Political Science and International Relations. I've actually been pretty set on UofT's MPP program for a while. In fact, I've been intending to only apply to UofT, as I don't feel like spending money on application fees on schools I'm not fully interested in. This is probably not the best justification, but my preference is mostly because I've been wanting to live in Toronto for some time now. The program has courses that greatly interest me as well, but location is playing a pretty huge role in my choice for grad school, and I feel that this isn't the approach I should be taking with grad school selections. I realize that there are some other great programs out there such as Queens, Carleton, and even UVIC which would be very close for me, being from Vancouver and all. Having said all that, I don't mind getting into grad school a year later (Sept. 2018), as I'm trying to get a years worth of relevant work experience before heading into grad school, so not getting into UofT this year wouldn't be tragic by any means, but at the same time, there's still this concern in the back of my mind with the risky path I'm taking by not opening up to other options and only applying to one school. Any advice for my situation would be much appreciated! Perhaps this could even become a general thread for Canadian public policy/admin. programs, but I just wanted to get some of your guys' thoughts. Thank you so much! EDIT: I realize that there's an "Am I Competitive?" sticky thread, but it seems to be greatly focused on U.S schools. Not sure, if I should just post my applicant "stats" here in this thread instead...