I did end up at Maxwell. Avoid if you get an equivalent offer; if you want a cheap program, this is it, but be forewarned you get what you pay for. The core courses in the MPA, specifically Management, Leadership & Public Policy, Public Administration and Democracy, and the MPA Colloquium overlap significantly, down to many individual assignments. Furthermore, there does not seem to be an emphasis on the scientific method, if you will, in this program. In all of the aforementioned core classes, we have taken numerous "personality tests" and "self-assessments" that are, frankly, pseudo-science. Much of the material seems to not have been updated since about 2003, and it shows. Furthermore, many courses tend to be surface-level and lack the deep dive into public administration that I and many of my peers had certainly hoped to experience.
Additionally, the administration at Syracuse is a joke. One of my peers attempted to discuss the overlap among core classes with the Dept. Chair and was essentially told, in 'kinder' terms, to buzz off, and that their criticisms weren't valid due to 'not understanding' the field of Public Administration, due to the younger age of the cohort in the times of Covid. The folks that run this program are, to put it bluntly, members of the 'old guard' and could be more aware of what goes on in the outside world in the 21st century. The registrar's office has also been exceptionally strict when it comes to adding or dropping classes, and has needlessly screwed over several of my peers by failing to process add/drop requests by the deadline, despite these requests being filed well before the deadline.
My GA-ship has been nonexistent. Despite reaching out to my professor consistently since OCTOBER, I have not received a response after doing about 6 hours of clerical work for him. I've been ignored, and while I don't believe my experience is typical of GA-ships, it has sucked, to put it bluntly. I've repeatedly gone through the Department attempting to reach out to my professor, to no avail. At this point, I've basically given up on the GA-ship. I do still get my stipend though, which is a decent consolation prize I guess.
There's been three upsides to Syracuse--my peers are AMAZING, and are quite literally some of the finest people I've ever met. I have made some amazing lifelong friends here, and I am so grateful for that. As well, Profs. Rothbart (budgeting) and Wilcoxen (economics and policy analysis/programming) have been so beyond amazing it's ridiculous. I love them both to death and am so happy I have taken their classes. Finally, the University has been very good about Covid, and we have been in person nearly the entire time since last fall. That is not something much of the country has experienced, and for experiencing it myself, I am grateful.
That said, in spite of the bright spots, if you have an offer from any DC school, any Ivy League, NYU, or any of the other major players, I'd strongly consider skipping Syracuse. The pandemic has turned things upside down everywhere, but this program has dropped the ball on many occassions and I do regret going here quite often. Grad school should be an amazing learning experience. Again, while the pandemic has diminished that somewhat everywhere, I have not had that at Syracuse.
