justMPPgoofin

@indecisivemf I'm not 100% committed, but I think I will attend more likely than not.

I was net positive about Harris as a whole, and very positive on my particular program (CAPP) Cons: Full group parts had the staff in full sales mode, which was annoying. Ranjan Daniels, the head admissions guy, would like filibuster through questions he didn't like (debt ones, basically), which really bugged me. The class is really large, especially for the MPP, which seems to make it harder to form relationships with professors. Pros: - The admissions staff you interacted with during the process clearly remembered you and your concerns, which was appreciated. - Professors clearly cared about teaching - Current students seemed to genuinely enjoy each other and the atmosphere of the program. Honest about what is challenging and which challenges are rewarding or frustrating. - CAPP faculty panel was refreshingly honest and open. Professors were extremely forward about what you get, trade offs you will make regarding cs knowledge or policy area expertise, etc. - I liked a lot of the other admitted students a lot.

Seconded, they matched my other offer pretty quick. They didn't communicate anything very well and except to say that i shouldn't get my hopes up about funding, but then never even asked to see my other offers and just matched without a problem.

Do you mind sharing the strategy you used to negotiate funding? I want to negotiate my funding up at Harris but all my funding offers are essentially the same as I got from Harris or worse.

@coolguyz they included your funding in the admissions letter? Guess I didn't get any, was really hoping i'd get some so i could leverage it to increase my scholarship for Harris.

Got an email to check the portal for my mpp decision. Admitted! No mention of funding

cc @acerbicb

First, just want to be clear that I think CMU is a good program and that the MSPPM-DA definitely has value. Don't want anyone reading to get the wrong idea, since I know when I'm stressed I put too much stock on what strangers on the internet say. To your actual question, yes, I was told the application was narrow and I didn't want to invest my time, money, and effort to something that I was not 100% comfortable with. The gist of what I was told was certs focus disproportionately on understanding specific algorithms, but if I want to build a sustainable, easy to use application for end users or recipients of my work, those certs might leave something to be desired.

@bluelarkspur I had the opportunity to talk with two people whose opinions I trusted, both of whom said that certificate programs wouldn't give me the foundation I needed to be adaptive and make the most use of those skills across a variety of applications. It was really important to me that the scope of technical and quantitative development have as much breadth and depth as possible, so Georgetown and Harris were the two options left to me.

@nellolikejello I didn’t apply to the others. I had the opportunity to talk with a policy analysis PhD candidate at CMU and he kind of turned me off from the MSPPM-DA. Then the one at Georgetown had some requirement that I didn’t fit (maybe that I haven’t taken linear algebra? Can’t remember exactly), so I applied for the regular MPA there. Now that I’m in at Harris I don’t mind, because I felt MSCAPP was best for me anyway, but I did like Georgetown’s program a lot too and was bummed about not having all the pre-reqs I needed.

got in for MSCAPP with a 10k scholarship. This was my dream program so I am super psyched. A little worried about funding but hopefully i can negotiate and, regardless, beggars can't be choosers. Good luck to those still waiting!

A little late to the party, but also got in for MPP with no funding.

@FujiShe I applied for the MPP, haven't heard anything

you might owe me a new F5 key.