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eakatz123

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  • Gender
    Man
  • Application Season
    2019 Fall
  • Program
    Sanford MPP

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  1. Glad I checked my undergrad email for the first time in months today, otherwise I never would've seen this message. I ended up choosing Sanford, and I'm quite happy with my decision. My heart had been set on McCourt before I even started applying to MPP programs, in part because I wanted to end up in DC and in part because Georgetown was my dream school for undergrad (and I didn't get in). But I decided to visit Durham for admitted students' day and fell in love with both the campus and program. Sanford did a stellar job selling themselves; the admissions ambassadors and faculty made me feel like I was being welcomed into a tight-knit, engaged community, and Duke's campus is phenomenal. I ultimately picked Sanford over McCourt for two reasons. First, the Duke name carries a lot of weight, and the alumni network is exceptional. I managed to land a job in consulting because of Sanford's strong pipeline to the most prominent government consulting firms, and I scored a prestigious internship because of previous connections the career services office had with the company. Second, despite wanting to end up in DC, I found that Durham was actually in a better location for me. I'm driving distance from both DC and my family, and there are ample ways to get involved in state and local government here in North Carolina that I might not have had in DC. From my experience, if you are interested in going into consulting, want to study social/health/technology policy, are looking for opportunities to work in state/local government, or crave nice weather, Sanford is a fantastic choice.
  2. Did anyone attend Georgetown's open house(s)? I went to Duke's on April 5th and really liked it, but I'm still stuck between McCourt and Sanford.
  3. @3dender thanks for the insight! I'm visiting Duke next weekend so I'm looking forward to getting a better feel for the program and campus. Any suggestions for what to look out for while I'm in Durham?
  4. I got into Georgetown's McCourt School, Duke's Sanford School, and Michigan's Ford School for an MPP starting in Fall 2019 and am struggling with making a decision. Financially speaking, the programs are comparable in cost after factoring in fellowships and cost of living, so that's not a determining factor. I know that all of them are well renowned, but I don't know a whole lot about the specifics of each program or what differentiates one from the others and was hoping to get some insight from here. A few questions: 1) Does one school have a significantly better reputation than the others? I know some programs have stronger quantitative curricula and others are good at certain policy areas (e.g. social, environmental, health). I'm not sure which area I want to concentrate in yet, but I'd like to have some idea of where each program stands. 2) Ideally I'd like to end up in the DMV area, so McCourt obviously has that going for it. How much does being in DC help with securing a job there versus coming from a school like Michigan that's way outside the district but has a massive alumni network? 3) How much does ranking matter? For example, based on my research, McCourt is ranked considerably lower than both Ford and Sanford some of the categories that USNWR covers (e.g. public policy analysis, social policy). 4) Are there any other selling points I'm not considering? Anything from student organizations to career services to stuff external to the university itself (e.g. Research Triangle is really cool, winters in Michigan are terrible). Thanks in advance!
  5. I got into Georgetown's McCourt School, Duke's Sanford School, and Michigan's Ford School for an MPP starting in Fall 2019 and am struggling with making a decision. Financially speaking, the programs are comparable in cost after factoring in fellowships and cost of living, so that's not a determining factor. I know that all of them are well renowned, but I don't know a whole lot about the specifics of each program or what differentiates one from the others and was hoping to get some insight from here. A few questions: 1) Does one school have a significantly better reputation than the others? I know some programs have stronger quantitative curricula and others are good at certain policy areas (e.g. social, environmental, health). I'm not sure which area I want to concentrate in yet, but I'd like to have some idea of where each program stands. 2) Ideally I'd like to end up in the DMV area, so McCourt obviously has that going for it. How much does being in DC help with securing a job there versus coming from a school like Michigan that's way outside the district but has a massive alumni network? 3) How much does ranking matter? For example, based on my research, McCourt is ranked considerably lower than both Ford and Sanford some of the categories that USNWR covers, but I figure since it's a newer school it might rise in the rankings over time (like it did recently). 4) Are there any other selling points I'm not considering? Anything from student organizations to career services to stuff external to the university itself (e.g. Ann Arbor is really cool, winters in Michigan are terrible). Thanks in advance!
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