ropeladder

Good question. I'm still trying to decide between SAIS, AU MPP, and IU SPEA. I get a bit longer to decide since none of them offered me any money. (though SPEA is in-state so it would be quite cheap)

I didn't get into Ford, but I just turned down Heinz (and their money) because I felt the program was too focused on skills. Though you could take classes at Pitt, CMU had very little to offer in terms of interdisciplinary classes, especially leaning toward the softer side of social science, e.g. political science or sociology. Unfortunately that was a deal-breaker for me, but I wished it hadn't been because otherwise it seemed like a great program, great city, great price, etc...

I was just at the admitted students weekend and somebody asked your question. They said they have a limited number of slots in the DC program (25?), so switching is possible only if another student drops.

You don't mention what you want to do your Ph.D in. Public Policy? Why don't you just go straight for a Ph.D? My impression of SPEA is that you are right and it's geared more toward creating government employees than policy analysts or academics. On the other hand, I recently spoke with someone who attended SPEA and is now getting his Ph.D (in Economics) at Michigan. SPEA's program has a decent amount of flexibility.