Think T@nk

A little late to the game here but I'd echo the general consensus on admitted students day being a positive experience. Perhaps the day could have been a bit more organized, but it was clear that the crowd pretty dramatically exceeded expectations. Understandable that things got a little chaotic with so many people showing up. Either way, on the stuff that actually matters, I was very impressed by Harris. The current students that I met were great--down to earth, very sharp, and enthusiastic about the experiences they'd had so far. The faculty that presented were excellent. I particularly enjoyed the presentations by Ethan Bueno de Mesquita and James Robinson, and the fact that both are in leadership roles at Harris seems to bode well for the direction of the school. The administrators that presented--the director of recruitment, the director of career services, and the director of student life--were also very good. Having cruised through these forums seemingly endlessly over the past few months, it seems like there have been major concerns in the past about the people who have occupied these kinds of roles. I am pretty sure that all the administrators who presented were hired in the past few years, and seeing these folks in action assuaged my concerns--these guys clearly have their shit together now. All in all, I came away from the day feeling confident that Harris would be a great place for me. I'm almost certainly going to enroll. The school clearly has a huge amount of positive momentum and energy, particularly compared to some of the other policy schools I've visited. Yes, it does seem like it will be a challenging two years, particularly with the quarter system--it seems like most professors basically are trying to get you to learn a semester's worth of material in 10 weeks or so. But isn't that a good thing? If we're paying all this money to get a masters degree, shouldn't we be pushing ourselves to learn as much as possible? Maybe it's just a personal preference, but having worked for several years before going back to school, I want my MPP to be an intense academic experience that equips me with a wide range of skills and tools that I didn't have before. I have no doubt that Harris will provide me with that. Also, for any forum readers interested in urban policy (as I am), Harris has a huge amount of opportunities in that space. A ton of coursework geared towards urban and municipal topics, great opportunities to do applied stuff via the Policy Labs, and an array of organizations to get involved in outside the classroom (the Urban Labs, the Place Lab, perhaps the new Mansueto Institute for Urban Innovation?). Harris--and the University of Chicago more broadly--seems to recognize that they have a serious competitive advantage in addressing a wide range of city-related topics, and they've clearly been making major investments to back that up. If you're interested in city stuff, come to Harris and lets hang out!