thismustbetheplace

I attended the admitted students day this weekend and I think I'm mostly sold on Heinz. But I recently read about how Carnegie Mellon has had issues with a "culture of stress" where there seems to be pressure to take on more than you're capable of - does anyone know if that's more of an undergrad thing or if that's how Heinz students approach school as well?

First time posting in this thread but agreed, thanks so much to the current Sanford MPP students for all of the info! I unfortunately am not able to attend the Open House, but I visited campus last week and the current MPP students were very helpful and the campus community seemed really great. Regarding negotiating for scholarships, since I can't attend the Open House, should I just email the MPP Director of Admissions and Scholarships directly?

Hope it worked out! They accepted you and invited you to admitted students day so I'm sure that they're happy to have you, especially if you sincerely tried to register. I would take it as a red flag if they turn you away, personally

Thanks for the info! I actually had an email drafted responding to that welcome email asking some of the same questions, so I can now pair it down a little . Do you know if first years typically get TA positions / campus jobs, or is it common to hold off on work-study in general until the second semester?

I was accepted to the MSPPM Data Analytics track too, congrats to everyone else accepted! Does anyone know if research opportunities are available to Masters students or reserved for PhDs? Some of these research centers look extremely interesting https://www.heinz.cmu.edu/faculty-research/research-centers. I'm also worried about fitting research time in given the per-semester unit requirements for the data analytics track.

I didn't get in either but am fortunate to have some great options. Congrats to those who were accepted!!

I found this link to the student handbook for last year which lays out the CMU MSPPM data analytics requirements by semester, I found it helpful to use alongside the syllabi link that you provided. You mentioned that both are extremely rigorous, did you get a sense of how much time to devote to research outside of classes? If I choose CMU over Duke, it will ultimately be for the research opportunities, but I'm concerned I'll be too bogged down with classwork to take advantage of them while still having some kind of social life.

I think informal "Yes!" emails are informal for a reason, and it's not worth driving ourselves crazy. I'm just going to hold out hope that I get good news tomorrow and try not to think about it (he says as he posts on this board instead of doing work)

I don't think a school will increase an offer on their own, but they'll be more likely to offer you more if you try to negotiate.

I'm trying to decide between two very different programs - Sanford's MPP and CMU's MSPPM data analytics track. I work as a data analyst right now and I definitely enjoy being able to perform my own analytical legwork, but I've always been more interested in theory and tended to perform better in those classes. CMU's program seems really oriented toward practical data skills that I think would really help with job placement after graduating, but seems pretty light on theory. Duke's program seems more balanced between theory and quantitative skills, but I'm nervous about turning down the marketability of the skills I would gain through focused data analytics coursework. Ultimately after graduating I'd like to work on policy research that incorporates solid theory and strong quantitative analysis. Their scholarship options were comparable so cost isn't a big factor, and unfortunately both have admitted student days on the same day. I've heard awesome things about both cities, and overall think I would be happy at either program... which is great but also makes the decision tougher!