mavsfan

Hey, guys, first post on this site. Felt like I had to contribute since I'm pretty much in the same boat as many of you. Hopefully, my grad school selection process sheds some light on your situations. Some background: I'm a senior in my undergraduate studies, and wanted a grad program that'd give me some good ol' hard skills in energy policy/analysis. I was accepted to UChicago's Harris School (MSESP), Duke Nic (MEM), UCSB Bren (MESM), SPEA (MSES), UMich SEAS, and CU Boulder (MENV). Ultimately, I decided on the Nic School. I could eliminate several programs quite easily. While UChicago Harris seemed to have an AMAZING public affairs program (when I visited, the faculty and students were so driven and ambitious that it was almost overwhelming), it was out of my price range and the environmental policy program was quite small (roughly 15 students total in the entire Harris School). Michigan and CU Boulder gave me no funding at all. So it was basically down to Duke, UCSB, and SPEA. Duke has a low cost-of-living and gave me good funding, UCSB offered rad TAships, and SPEA gave me decent aid, so the financials for all three programs were roughly the same. While I was quite impressed with SPEA's public affairs program and email correspondence, I didn't want to attend another gigantic public school (since I am coming from one) and their energy/environmental concentration seemed to wane in the face of their much larger public affairs program (although I suspect an MSES-MPA dual at SPEA would be a very wise option, especially since I think it's just as expensive as getting either degree by itself at SPEA?). So I rejected SPEA. Now it's down to Nic and Bren. I was able to visit both during their admitted students weekend/day, and came out pretty much equally impressed by both programs. Ultimately, however, I had to persuade myself Nic was the way to go. Since I was looking specifically at energy, Duke came out on top unequivocally. Energy seemed much more integrated across Nicholas and Duke's other professional schools (Fuqua, Sanford, Engineering, etc.), demonstrated by the fact students take courses outside of Nicholas. It's also the most popular concentration at Nicholas; the same can't be said for Bren. Also, a Bren professor who previously taught at Duke said to me that "energy is better at Duke" and that energy is probably the weakest concentration at Bren. Professionally, Duke seemed to have a greater national/global network, while a high majority of Bren students stick to California (which is fine!). But, career services at Bren is much, much better than at Nic. Also, more clubs/student organizations at Duke than Bren. Finally, cost-of-living is crazy high at Santa Barbara, and UCSB is widely known as a party school. I guess I just didn't want that reputation. Plus, a Bren TAship would be a lot of extracurricular work I'd have to do, while Duke's aid came in the forms of scholarships and grants. On to Duke!