Boolakanaka

If forestry is your area of interest, then its Yale--it has a long storied history and many of the leaders in this space, all went to the previous YSF. I also would say its overall program is much established and comprehensive.

Although you specifically mentioned MPP programs and the like, I would say the leader in non-profit executive management is Yale SOM. In fact, SOM was not a traditional MBA school until the 1980s, and has an institutional and historical conflation as a cradle to executive leadership within the non-profit world. Now, the fairly recent Jackson School has an international focus, so it might be compatible to your career goals. But something to think about...

Congrats to all the YSE admits. 
Perhaps, I will see some of you as I will be teaching a seminar class and conducting a clinic there.
Best to all of you.

Congrats to all the YSE admits. 
Perhaps, I will see some of you as I will be teaching a seminar class and conducting a clinic there.
Best to all of you.

Jackson/SPIA funding seems excellent. It is shocking to me that HKS as a policy school doesn't offer funding for its 50k plus per year degree. It seems reckless to offer a service oriented degree and charge 100K+ tuition. I remember at one of their info sessions that stated less than 40% of students were on aid meaning people either have outside funding (slim minority), are self-funded (even slimmer minority), or are just going into colossal debt. 
Why---with all due respect, but Harvard in many ways has turned into an exercise of how to monetize elite education---and the ultimate proof is in the pudding. Dollars to doughnuts, within the next five years, all graduate programs--even those under the umbrella of "professional degrees" will be entirely underwritten by Yale. So, while HKS has a large advantage in terms of both name and historical track record in public policy, mark my words, the entire apparatus of Yale will be behind making Jackson a success. Consider, it already has a decided advantage in ancillary programs such as YLS and YSE---further, YSM is already the b school leader in non-profit management and has been for the last five decades.  Summarily, Yale, in my estimation, has greater institutional symmetry and on a per capita basis, much more resources.

In past years, it has hovered around 15% or so, give or take a couple of ticks.

Good luck to all applying YSE--for those admitted and accept, I look forward to seeing you as I will be a visiting scholar of practice next fall!
 

In past years, it has hovered around 15% or so, give or take a couple of ticks.

In past years, it has hovered around 15% or so, give or take a couple of ticks.

You might be in the wrong section. This is governmental affairs, there is a specific section for CS.

Seems unlikely...

Having been around for both the original (2015 was my first year of my doctorate), and being currently on the job market (30 applications, 1 interview, 8 outstanding, in case you want to know how that is), some thoughts in no particular order:
A PhD from a program with substantial resources (note: this is not equivalent to a top program, though there is substantial overlap) is still a worthwhile experience in and of itself. $30-35k yr plus good health insurance isn't nothing in this pre-postapocalyptic hellscape. Plus, I've had multi-month paid trips to Europe each year. My teaching load was light but engaging, and I thoroughly enjoyed the process of researching and writing my dissertation. The experience wasn't stress free, but it wasn't a bad sort of stress. A PhD in the humanities takes more than 5 years. Make sure you're funded accordingly (part of the first point). Going to a program without those resources, one where you have to scrape and claw and hustle to get even your basic needs met, is not a worthwhile experience. It's just volunteering to be exploited based on a lie as to future possibilities. The actual line between the two situations is a bit fuzzy, but err on the side of caution. Do not apply to programs just to make sure you go to grad school. I have very little sympathy for those who have recently finished their PhD and are left jobless or in adjunct hell. This includes some of my own friends. Yes, that's more than a bit brutal to say. But at this point, if you didn't know what the academic job market looked like going into it, that's on you. There are abundant resources that not only provide ample warning as to what lies ahead, but that also explain how to set yourself up for a non-academic career outside the academy, or at least outside a traditional professorship track. If the state of the world on the other side of your degree blindsides you, that's because you ignored several hundred flashing neon warning signs accompanied by air-raid sirens, or thought that, for some reason, they were trying to warn everyone else besides you. Have a plan for your post-degree future before you apply. That plan should both identify several possible career paths, most of which should not be "be a professor", and have intermediate goals that set up those career paths roughly mapped out.  Do not adjunct. Do anything other than adjunct. Hopefully that's useful.

@ratatatis an amazing duo and I'm from the Pacific Northwest so I thought I'd try to answer this! The Evans School is a 30-minute drive from my house. 
I would really look into the GSI/GSR and tuition remission policies at UW, because that can end up covering the entire cost of your entire degree. I think Berkeley is the best about this, but it looks like Washington does something similar. The question would be how difficult these grad TA/RA positions are to get, because I know at Michigan it's unfortunately not that easy. 
If it looks like they're pretty much equal on that front, and Michigan's offered you more funding (and you're not really considering reapplying), I would probably choose SEAS. I think their program is stronger, there's a broader alumni network, and they have a stronger social science/environmental justice emphasis for sure. I think Evans is a lot more quantitative and most people tend to stay in the area after they graduate.
Ann Arbor is awesome! I might be biased because I went to undergrad in a similarly crunchy college town, but it's a lovely place to spend two years. Good luck with your decision! 

In all of my graduate and/or professional programs (three of them) there have been convicted felons (and a couple of them had their convictions erased and/or overturned along the way) ranging from serial bank robbers to manslaughter. 
 
All told, they added much to the program and a rare and unique  perspective, often vastly different from the  persnickety affectations of an Ivy/elite education. Several of whom I was actually pretty tight with and they had unusual close relationships—for instance the bank robber was very close to a former NYC police detective and a night out with those two always resulted in the missing of any morning classes.
Perhaps my take is different than others, but being a man of color who grew up in a rough public housing, they often times more resembled my own upbringing and an actually a respite from the tight formulations and attitudes of academia. Finally, for me,  what is the purpose of a stint in a correctional institution if not to correct and rehabilitate and offer the chance to move-on. This in and itself speaks to some of the institutional bias that we are grappling with as a nation...

That is like placing NAS with Biggie...

YSE poached Dorceta this year

While certainly cumbersome and probably not the most efficient, I doubt that these remotely approaches the threshold of being something that can be litigated.
 

Two words—Dorceta Taylor.

Two words—Dorceta Taylor.

Hmmmn, I can’t speak to every organization (I did previously work for Boston Consulting) but if you are coming out of undergrad, much of it is limited to the school you attended. Thus, places like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, etc....are part of the usual suspects. More  than a few of these are not STEM or from the business side; so there is an appreciable deference to the quality of the undergrad education.

Hmmmn, I can’t speak to every organization (I did previously work for Boston Consulting) but if you are coming out of undergrad, much of it is limited to the school you attended. Thus, places like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Stanford, etc....are part of the usual suspects. More  than a few of these are not STEM or from the business side; so there is an appreciable deference to the quality of the undergrad education.

In all of my graduate and/or professional programs (three of them) there have been convicted felons (and a couple of them had their convictions erased and/or overturned along the way) ranging from serial bank robbers to manslaughter. 
 
All told, they added much to the program and a rare and unique  perspective, often vastly different from the  persnickety affectations of an Ivy/elite education. Several of whom I was actually pretty tight with and they had unusual close relationships—for instance the bank robber was very close to a former NYC police detective and a night out with those two always resulted in the missing of any morning classes.
Perhaps my take is different than others, but being a man of color who grew up in a rough public housing, they often times more resembled my own upbringing and an actually a respite from the tight formulations and attitudes of academia. Finally, for me,  what is the purpose of a stint in a correctional institution if not to correct and rehabilitate and offer the chance to move-on. This in and itself speaks to some of the institutional bias that we are grappling with as a nation...

Ditto ditto to GSG.  Not every institution and program is created equally—is it fair or even accurate—no—but it is the reality of the situation. The name of the institution will not carry you through your entire career, but a very small group of those on the tippy top, will allow you an entrance and an appreciable conversation to certain opportunities that most will not ever be able to entertain, this is especially true in the first five years of post-graduation. I mentioned earlier that the Jackson School at Yale, which is IR focused just  got an internal infusion of 150 million, a significant portion of this will go to full fellowships-which in return, will greatly impact their  recruiting. At a place like Yale, and in the same regards HKS and Princeton, professional placement is not just within the confines of the public policy school, but really the entire apparatus of the intuition.

Just to chime in, but I have many colleagues and friends that work for larger non-profits, think along the lines of Ford, Hewlett, MacArthur, Rand, Walton, Gates—all doing serious policy level work, and without exception, they all make 200,000 plus a year.

While an entry level position is certainly obtainable with just an undergraduate degree, if you look at most of the larger foundations and their senior and executive staff, you will find come some of the most educated individuals in any sector —many with multiple professional and graduate degrees. It is one of the most over-educated industries around....