SerenityNow!

@Chalupa9! I was in your exact shoes a few years ago and chose SPEA for the following reasons: 1) there are good energy faculty like Sean Nicholson Crotty, Sanya Carley, shazeen Attari, and more - they are all super accessible have labs and frequently work on projects with graduate students. You can definitely get some interesting policy experience with them and plan to work with them for your capstone. 2) you’ll still get a good technical training especially if you take the statistics sequence and you will have to take applied math. While this seems technical it will only help you on the job market! 3) funding funding funding!!! MPA jobs, even in the private sector, don’t pay like MBA jobs. You don’t want to be in debt forever, no masters degree (MBA aside) is worth it. SPEA made me an awesome offer, I paid for the entire portion I owned from the money I made during a summer internship and graduated with $0 debt. Not many people can say that! I now have savings, can buy things, paid for a wedding etc... while my friends who took on a bunch are stuck in this weird purgatory where they have a decent salary but so much goes to loans they can hardly do anything. These friends and I have all had about the same job outcomes, if not me having better, so I haven’t paid a price at all for choosing the cheaper school. 4)I know it seems like Duke has an awesome name but I have been working in DC for years and have never had anyone look down on SPEA. People are usually impressed and DC is crawling with SPEA alumni, there are also a ton in Chicago and around the Midwest, less on the west coast but that is the same with Duke. 5) SPEA is fun! I’m sure Duke is as well, I just don’t have a comparison, but I met some of my closest friends there, made amazing connections with professors, and just enjoyed the school traditions. Bloomington is a small down but there is actually a decent amount to do, concerts at the blue bird, tasty resteraunts, hiking, and if you need a bit city Indy has broad ripple for higher end shopping and more big city fun, and if you need even more Chicago is like 3.5hrs away and a great place to go for the weekend. You’ll be pretty busy though with school and friends so you will hardly notice your in a small town in Indiana though! If you have specific questions feel free to PM me! I really enjoyed SPEA even though I really just picked it for the money, by the time I graduated I was so happy with my choice!

@vikinggrad1 good to know that co-authoring is more the norm there than the exception. Thank you for sharing!

I'm in a somewhat similar position deciding between A&M and another school plus some waitlists so I appreciate hearing everyone's thoughts on A&M! I was able to speak with my ideal advisor before applying and he sounded like they had a solid track record of co-authoring with their students and while their students didn't get "amazing" placements right out of the gate they did get TT positions at decent schools in geographically desirable locations which is honestly about all I'm looking for and it sounded like their results were about on par with others in their sub-field. I'm coming from a totally different field though so I'm very curious to see what they say during the admitted students day next week.

Hey! There is a whole government affairs sub-forum filled with people applying to MPA/MPP programs

I’m still waiting to hear back from Duke’s University Program in Environmental Policy - through the Nicholas School. I’ve seen rejections from the program on the results board in early Feb and their website says they will provide decisions by mid-February but I haven’t received anything and there have been no changes made to my portal. I haven’t seen anyone else posting about this program and was hoping to connect with anyone else who applied to I can just know this silence is a soft rejection and move on. Thank you!!

Two other considerations I would through out there is in a two year program you will be able to do a summer internship, which depending on how much work experience, can be a good way to bolster your resume and potentially get your foot in the door for a job upon graduation. Also DC and NYC are very different in terms of city culture and the immediate job prospects you will have available to you - I think it is worth considering whether you want to work for the federal government and essentially be surrounded by it, have the opportunity to intern there, or at other government adjacent places like federal consulting firms. In NYC you will have a different set of opportunities and people to network with - my guess would be slightly more private sector focused? I think when it comes to the total bill 8K, while it isn't nothing, shouldn't be enough to make you not attend your top choice program. I do think that prestige doesn't matter that much, and its not like you are comparing Columbia with Eastern Illinois, for example I went to a big Midwest state school and regularly work with people who went to Harvard for their MPAs and we get paid the same amount/get promoted at the same rate.

I applied to their environmental policy PhD program which looks to be on a slightly different timeline that their public policy PhD program.

I applied to and attended an MPA program a few years ago and it seems that this conversation hasn’t changed at all in the last 5 years. I just wanted to share a middle ground perspective between “follow your dreams whatever the cost” and “debt is too burdensome - don’t go!” 1) before you even apply think about what kind of debt your willing to take on. For me the answer was minimal so I didn’t apply to any programs in NYC or SF because I knew the COL was really high and would become a huge chunk of my debt while schools like Duke and Michigan were, to me at least, comparable to NYU and Columbia but with way lower COLs. 2) if you can save a little money before attending - anything you can pay up front and reduce your debt by is great because you will never have to pay interest on it. I had about $10k saved and that was immensely helpful. 3) take a paid summer internship, if you have that opportunity available to you. I know lots of summer internships are unpaid in this field but I needed the money and when it came down to it I choose between working at OMB for free and a consulting firm. While OMB was “cooler” to my friends I have no regrets - I made another $10k over the summer while living frugally in DC and therefore didn’t take on additional debt over the summer and was able to use my left over money to pay for things during my 2nd year. I think people put prestige as the driving force behind many things but I think it’s fine to let money play a factor. I also got a job offer at the end of the summer and was able to have a stress free 2nd year which allowed me to pick up an extra job for their reducing my debt burden. 4) this one is a little contravertial but I think gradcafe is a bubble and it is really easy to get caught up in the rankings of schools and the prestige of HKS,SAIS, SIPA etc... on this board. I however, went to a well ranked but less frequently discussed school on gradcafe, SPEA. I graduated with multiple friends who had PMF, most friends had good jobs in fields they wanted that paid well and put them in the city of their choice, usually DC. I enjoyed my time there and while I don’t brag about it the way I might had I gone to HKS I work with plenty of HKS people now and can say our education was comparable and we ended up in the same place with the same salaries. Prestige matters a lot less in public policy than for MBA or PhD programs. while I do want to caveat this by saying I received a very generous financial aid offer from SPEA, I really think if you give some financial consideration on the front end of things you can, as they say “have it all” (follow your dreams and afford it )

Claiming an acceptance to George Mason on Feb 16th. I am still waiting for Duke which is freaking me out since there are acceptances, rejections, and waitlists posted in the results!

Thank you, @StrengthandHonor for your thoughtful and encouraging response!

Is it appropriate to ask current students, if they came with a partner, how difficult it was for their partner to find a job? I've read on other PhD related websites that you should essentially never mention your personal life but at the same time I want to try and pick a school/location that doesn't totally suck for my partner and want to get some boots on the ground intel during my visits.

I received an acceptance from Texas A&M on January 30th but it was a personal email from the department chair w/ a letter attached. Nothing in my portal has changed so they might be sending out official notices later? If it makes you feel better I'm still waiting on Duke, which seems to have sent out acceptances, rejections, and waitlists.

For me the inactivity is regret - I wish I had applied to more programs. My mentors said it was crazy to apply to more than 5 but nearly everyone on here applied to 8-9+! With that said I got into the program that has the professors who's interests match perfectly with mine (American local government, innovation, and water politics) but at the same time I wish I had applied to more so I could have options to weigh.

Good reminder! As an I was rejected from USC on 1/25 and Michigan on 2/8 (they accepted 3 people so who knew is was SUCH a crapshoot) but I was accepted to Texas A&M on 1/30. I get the feeling that USC and Michigan set all decisions out, rejections and acceptances, at once while I think Texas A&M is more staggered. I'm still waiting to hear back from Duke and George Mason but there are a bunch of people who posted rejections from Duke's Environmental Policy PhD program around 2/2 which makes me wonder what is going on with that program. My interests and geographic needs really limited where I could apply but my interests are in American local government, water resource management, and the impact of social networks on resource and local government management. I think another reason for the limited data is the significantly smaller cohort sizes like 3 at Michigan, 3-4 at USC, and etc... these are way smaller than most political science departments, which, for example George Washington University accepts about 35-40 students, ! I think this is because most MPA/MPP programs use other masters students as their TAs instead of PhD students thus greatly decreasing their need for TAs whereas political science departments need plenty of TAs and research assistants because their masters programs, if they have them at all, are much too small to fill all their TA needs. That is just an observation from chatting with my professors which is why they recommended I also apply to a few political science programs with public policy focuses, they thought the odds are actually slightly better with some of these programs. I'm just using political science as a comparison because I think it is the closest to public policy but I think similar things could be said of economics PhD programs. However, it is a different training so you have to weigh that in your decision making. If any future applicants stumble across some feel free to PM me as well!

@skhann apologies for the inappropriate post! It was absolutely not my intention to increase other's anxiety level or make light of the feelings that have been expressed on this forum.

@hs2011 @audre.bored Thank you for posting those threads! Very helpful! Looks like I have a little shopping to do since I don't have a anything between suits/pumps and workout/lounge clothes. The only non heels I have are ratty gym shoes and over the knee boots (which I love but, which sadly, probably aren't visit appropriate). I am 100% sure I am over thinking this - which is what everyone on the other threads also says - I think it is just a combination of excitement and nerves manifesting itself in a weird way!

Question about visit days: Does anyone have any idea what the dress code is for these weekends? I have spent a few years in the working world at an extremely formal office (suits/designer dresses/NO casual Fridays/heels every day/etc...) and have essentially forgotten that my TAs in college wore. I know it is always better to be more formal rather than too casual but I also don't want to be the only lady in a pants suit and pumps when everyone else is in jeans and sneakers. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

@possibleirphd yes! After seeing all three options (r/a/w) on the board I wonder if they have just completely forgotten about our apps! I know they at least looked at mine because they had a question about my UG transcript - I had to transfer during UG and one of the transcripts represents that weirdly. I was trying to tell myself I haven’t received it yet because I’m at the very end alphabetically (a classic reason for getting things late) but that no longer seems very plausible haha. I’m just glad I’m not alone!

Is anyone else still waiting to hear from Duke or Michigan? I haven’t received an email from either, even checked spam, and both portals are unchanged with no option to view decision. I have even cleared the cookies and caches, tried different browsers etc... anyone else in this situation?

I think you are going to want to tweak it at least a little bit - at least in my SOP for PhD applications when asked about professional aspirations I said I wanted to become a professor (duh), however, when I applied to masters degrees I essentially said my professional aspirations were either to set myself up to work at a policy think-tank (fill in the blank for whatever your might be) and possibly to be a competitive PhD applicant. So in regards to the professional aspirations/what you hope to do with your degree portion I think you would want to tweak that. I think the majority of your SOP can be the same though - even if the same people are reading the applications your reasons for attending the program are still the same, same professors, location, etc... For my school it was a little different since my masters was in public affairs but they applications for masters students were less reviewed by professors and more so reviewed by an admissions team that included more administrative staff and then professors reviewed top applicants for fellowships and things like that.

@deutsch1997bw IU wanted to speed up their timeline this year so they could be real. IU also offers a dual Public Policy/Political Science PhD program and they wanted to start getting the decisions for both programs out at around the same time, I guess there was a gap between when decisions were released in past years. I earned my MPA as IU and knew some faculty with dual appointments but that totally could have just been gossip/what they wish they were doing since I have already graduated.

For folks thinking of learning statistical packages prior to entering PhD programs I would highly recommend this course for learning R: https://www.coursera.org/learn/r-programming While you can learn R on your own if this is your statistical package I think it helps to be guided through! However, not all schools like R so before you devote a lot of time to a specific language you may want to see what programs your PI or the department you plan to join generally favor. E.g. where I earned my masters everyone used SAS and R was rarely used and essentially only for graphics. I only have a masters and while this isn’t a skill exactly, I would recommend getting your personal life in order. I did this before my Masters and it made a huge difference in my quality of life. If you always wanted to workout regularly begin NOW, if you wanted to start stretching start TODAY, stop eating junk food, or even something as simple as beginning a new skincare routine! Once your program begins it will be really hard to develop those good habits with the pressures of coursework, research, TA’ing etc... Again, huge grain of salt because I only have a masters! But in my experience having those good routines and habits really improved my quality of life during my program.

@E-P thank you for the insight! I didn't think many people made that commute but thought I would ask anyways. He is a lawyer so I'm not sure how possible remote working would be but I guess I'll find out as he begins searching for jobs.

Reviving this thread! I am considering attending Texas A&M for a PhD program and, if I attend, will be moving to Texas with my husband and dog. I'm concerned he wont be able to find a job in College Station and will need to work in Houston or Austin. I know they are each about a 2 hour drive away so I was wondering if anyone has commuted between CS and one of these major cities or compromised and lived somewhere in the middle so each commute is about ~45mins. We have never even been to Texas before, both East Coast folks, so this is all new! Thank you!!

Not sure if anyone else applied to Texas A&M but I just received an acceptance via email! The email was from a professors account though so they may be trickling out instead of coming out in a blast.