Urban Plannerd

I would recommend checking CMU's MSPPM program. You don't need to apply to the "data analytics" track specifically to take their classes.
I've written some pros/cons here:
  Since CMU's MSPPM program is housed in the same college as the information science program, you'll have access to a wide range of data-related courses, from the more social science-oriented like econometrics to programming courses in machine learning. Courses at the School of Computer Science are available as well if you're up for them. When I was applying to other policy schools, I compared the curriculum with other programs, and I must say that the breadth and depth of CMU's courses in data science far exceeds that of any public policy program and even many data science programs. Most topics you might be interested in--from data warehousing to unstructured data mining and from visualizations to operations research--are available, and pretty much any other topic you can think of is covered in the computer science department.
If you have any questions, feel free to message me.

Cafe-ers, cafites, and connoisseurs of quality conversation! Thought it might be interesting to create a space for folks interested in pursuing domestic policy jobs/research, particularly given the general conversation here in Government Affairs tends to lean IR. Come, introduce yourself, explore specific policy interests, what you're doing/looking forward to/worried about, or predict where you feel the field is headed under the Trump administration and beyond... 
For me, I'll be starting my MPP program at Duke in the fall, believe the United States is due for a serious re-tooling of government's organizational structure to reflect the third-industrial-revolution economy, and think state government and action-oriented think tanks are where most innovation will take place in the next decade-plus. 
What about you?

Basically, whenever I look at the most serious issues -- environment, education, healthcare, poverty, unnecessary war, mass incarceration, etc. -- I notice that in large part the political will is never there to fix them.  The reason the political will isn't there is that politicians know who butters their bread (and it's not their constituents). Until that changes, I don't believe anything else will.  So by my logic, getting money out of politics is the single most crucial issue of them all, the first domino if you will.  Figuring out how to do that and working toward it will make for constructive and fulfilling work.
But yes as a tangential concern I'm very interested in voter suppression and gerrymandering, and I'm particularly interested in the work they're doing at POLIS. I saw that course you're talking about, and will take it if at all possible. I guess you could say my primary interest is democracy-boosting.  

I recommend working for longer than a year or two before applying not because the work experience will impress an admissions committee, but rather because it helps you pick a career.
You may have an idea of what'd you like to focus on in an MPP program, but actually working in a field—in terms of the actual work, quality of life, security, and so on—is very different from studying it. You grad school experience will be much more rewarding and secure if you can really focus on an area you have prior experience in, which lets you not only focus your studies but also network more successfully. 

I graduated from a top IR program in 2015, and before that was an anxiety-ridden gradcafe poster under another handle (trying to retain a little anonymity here). 
Scrolling through these anxious posts on a lazy Saturday morning, I want to assure that it's not as hard to get into these programs as many gradcafe posters seem to think.
I had a solid GRE, mediocre GPA, decent but not exceptional work experience. I worked hard on my essays and two of my professional recommendation letter writers definitely liked me a lot (although I never saw their letters), but I was a number of years out of undergrad and the academic reference I got was from a professor in a totally unrelated field who probably barely remembered who I was. I had never had a proper IR job, had never lived in DC. It was a mixed application. But it got me into Johns Hopkins SAIS with a hefty scholarship, and a number of other top programs most of which gave me money.
This is not Yale Law. You don't need a 3.96 GPA from an elite undergrad and a 98th percentile GRE/LSAT. One of my good friends at SAIS once casually referenced being happy about having cracked the 50th percentile on the math portion of the GRE. I have a number of friends that came from no-name undergrads (and of course some from Princeton, Vanderbilt, Middlebury, Boston College, Brown, etc.). 
If you're looking for $$$, then you probably want to pump up your GRE scores and write the best letters you possibly can. 
ETA: Most gradcafe-ers are probably some of the top applicants to these schools. That's why when results season comes around, you'll see lots of posts like "I can't believe I got into X school with Y dollars!"