Recent MIIS alum here. It really depends on what you want to do after graduation. If you want to work in think tank/gov/int’l org then choose any decent East Coast school over MIIS. Expanding DC networks have been the top 3 priority of MIIS’ operation in the last few years, but there’s no comparison between a small grad institution on the central coast of California, and a East Coast school with a sizable pool of alums and a recognized name. If California is where you want to work after graduation then MIIS is a good choice. They have some pretty solid connections within the State especially in the Bay Area and San Diego. Consider the policy/non-profit related opportunities have been booming in the Bay Area over the last decade, it may not be a bad place to go (if you’re paid enough to afford living there).
My major frustration during my time at MIIS is their tradition of mismanagement (which is ironical for a policy and management school). They went into debt and got acquired by Middlebury College in Vermont for that reason, and things did not get better almost 15 years after that—lately all the back and forth a between Vermont and California has added to the frustration. Among all this and that, it is also hard for the school to make its name beyond certain parts of CA and the bubbled LAC circles, making it harder for them to attract enough students, despite having a rolling admission that admits almost everyone until the last minute. When you admit almost everyone, you basically need to teach them from the scratch. At least in some of my classes, the first two weeks of lectures did nothing but reviewing the very basic stuff that should be learnt in the 100 level undergrad classes. And with 90% of your assignments in the teamwork form, you overall grad school experience could really vary depending on your luck of getting teammates.
It is not to say that MIIS is no good. It’s a good school in terms of education quality: some really experienced faculties in the field, real project-centered pedagogy, and some really unique and interesting initiatives/programs (like their Non-Proliferation Research Center—known for tracking North Korean nuclear plants using satellite images, Center for Blue Economy, some training programs related to M&E and Program Designing that’s more relatable to MPA people). But you really have to know what you want and make great hustle both on and off campus.
P.S. They decided to grant 10k to everyone going this year after seizing a major donation (the school policy is that multiple scholarships can be combined, but only up to 40% of the tuition can be covered by scholarship), so if you originally have to pay out of your pocket that could be a great benefit.
