cityplace_uptown

Hi. Not sure what gave me the urge to log on here for the first time in forever just now, but glad I saw this thread. My answer is a resounding yes, it is worth it! I think some people will tell you otherwise; that rankings are meaningless in this field or that you shouldn't base your schools on a number but based on location or goals. While that's true to an extent, it's not like Planetizen is putting arbitrary numbers together to sell their book. The rankings themselves don't matter too much, but the numbers that go into creating them (and that make the meat of the Guide) are there to help you determine where to apply. Outside of a few schools (MIT, Berkeley, Harvard), planning schools aren't too competitive to get into. As long as you have a decent application you can get in pretty much anywhere. Of course, the process isn't just about getting in but about landing funding and assistantships. The higher ranked schools — i.e. the most established programs with money, accomplished faculty, modern facilities etc. — will be more likely to give you these opportunities than a smaller unknown program with less to offer. In this sense the rankings are something that should help you rather than hurt you, and those accustomed to hearing about competitive degrees in business or law or whatever may carry over the idea of 'rankings = prestige' which doesn't translate much to planning. Again I highly recommended the book, I made my decisions based on the 5th edition and my process turned out way better than I expected last year. What I recommend doing is find schools near cities/regions where you'd like to work, and use info in the guide — notably the number of students, faculty/publications, maybe a few more things, and very importantly the tuition and average amount of financial aid — to narrow down your list. Best of luck! ?

Same for Rutgers! I'm beyond excited, this offer just made my decision way way easier as they're my top choice. Ready to commit!

Well this weekend I'm taking a trip to Austin, partially to see UT again but mostly just for a change of scenery lol. I was also enormously lucky because I got to visit Northeast programs I had in mind, right before the virus hit last year. ? Edit: "Caffeinated," huh. I officially have no life.

Thanks! ? The application itself was pretty standard, it was the same client that NYU and I'm sure lots of other schools use. But they did ask for a work sample so I included a short academic paper and a few products from my GIS and urban design classes (none of which I thought were particularly impressive). They also asked a few (rather intrusive) questions about financial status as a part of their scholarship application but from what I can tell my award is merit-based. The Columbia name has "it-factor" for sure. But as a planning program I wasn't sold on them — you can see I even threw some shade over in the discussion thread for its cost-benefit. But I'd be lying if I said this offer isn't changing my mind fast!

...5 for 5! In at Columbia with $28k/year! Still gonna wait on all financial offers until deciding, but am psyched to end the admissions process on such a high note!

I'm in the same situation. Based on what I was told, you shouldn't count yourself out yet! I'm definitely getting impatient about it though so I was wondering what others had to say.

For everyone who has gotten funding or assistantship info from Rutgers so far, when did you get notified? Their admissions rep told me they started releasing this info in small batches on Wednesday without a particular order in mind.

@lululadybug, I didn't mention the adcoms because of you, don't worry... it's more an acknowledgement of my paranoia, lol. Appreciate the heads-up though! And @CanPlan, thanks for the excellent (and sobering) advice. I don't want to do anything stupid, but at the same time I don't want to count anything out before funding offers come in.

At the risk of being identified by adcoms (as I think my profile is pretty recognizable)... my definition of "decent scholarship" really depends on the school. For context, I'm looking study and build a career in the NYC area/Northeast, and am greatly fortunate not to have undergrad debt to build on so I have some wiggle room for loans. However, anything that would require me to take out more than the federal max $20k/year just seems extremely impractical. My top choice, Rutgers, has significantly better job placement and salary statistics than most planning programs, so I don't mind having to take out a little bit more to go there. Through scholarships/assistantships, etc., I'd be very happy to have $15-20k/year or better (about half tuition for OOS first-year), and I applied with the expectation that Bloustein would have more resources for funding opportunities than other schools. I'm also hoping to move and establish residency there so I can have instate during my second year, and of course expect other opportunities to be made available for that time as well. Conversely, NYU and especially Columbia seem like cash cows, so I'm wary of paying a similar amounts to go to those places unless funding offers bring a price tag significantly lower than Rutgers. I got $10k/year from NYU (my only funding offer so far), which is nice but only covers around 20% of tuition. Don't get me wrong, I'm aware NYU is notoriously expensive, when applying I wanted to throw my hat in the ring to see what they would offer (same with Columbia). Compared to the above options Hunter and UT are much more affordable without funding — Hunter is slightly more so but this is offset by NYC cost of living. UT looks like the superior program but Hunter is (obviously) way better located for where I want to build a career. If I get funding offers from any of the other three schools that would take me under $30k for both years, it would take a near-full ride from one of these two to sway me into enrolling. This is just a general idea of what I'm looking for... I can't comment super specifically until after I get offers to compare, because I honestly don't know how competitive my profile is.

Man, I'm starting to go crazy waiting on these funding offers. Really wanting to know what my financial situation will be like over the next few years... if not longer. ? As of now I don't know how competitive my profile is and feel like I could get either a decent scholarship or absolute zilch from any of my programs.

The "professionally respected" rankings are found in the Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs (you have to buy the book/PDF to see past the top ten). That said, don't focus on explicit ranking as there really isn't much difference between, say, the #5 and #15 programs. Instead, the most helpful part of the guide is the stats they post for each individual school, they're pretty comprehensive and in combination with school location should help you narrow down what you want. Can't comment on research output or informatics specifically (check the Guide for faculty publications and concentrations ?) but UW is well-regarded in the general planning field, it was top-15 in the 2017 version of Planetizen. Also definitely poke around on the program website and Linkedin for job placement — see if the grads end up in positions and locations you like.

Going straight from undergrad so I can't say with authority, but from my impression the location really matters when you're looking at career pipelines. This has more to do with the quality of the cheaper school than the more expensive one. If both schools graduate lots of quality workers that end up in a place you like, then the cost difference isn't worth it. However, if the cheaper school has a rinkydink program without many students or established faculty then the extra $25k may be valuable for a legit curriculum/research/job outlook (if you can reasonably afford it).

Happy to have received a $10k/year scholarship notice from NYU Wagner today! Unfortunately NYU is just so expensive, that even with that money I can't see myself paying their sky high tuition rates for an MUP degree, I still want to see how everything else shakes out. Still glad to have gotten the award as it may be a good sign of things to come from other programs!

Gonna piggyback on the "funding in letter" discussion but for NYU. Did anyone in at Wagner get get notification of financial awards alongside their acceptance? Wouldn't surprise me since today's notifications was for their "priority scholarship consideration" deadline.

Hey! I'm in the same boat, I've targeted those places as I would like to work in the NYC area (and applied to UT as an instate alternative). Can't say anything too definitive because I'm just a fellow applicant but here are my impressions: Rutgers is probably my top choice. Bloustein seems to have a ton of resources for a planning school and according to Planetizen guide they are able to fund a lot of students. They have a strong concentration and research center for transportation, a robust professional network in the region, and overall very strong job outlook. The main potential "con" is location compared to the actual NYC schools, but that's not even much of a con because NJ cost of living will be a bit cheaper and it's easy to access the city from New Brunswick (with Philly not being too much further!) NYU (unsurprisingly at Wagner) is heavily policy-oriented but seems to also have plenty of resources for students and concentration coursework/research. I've heard Wagner has a great network as well for those interested in policy roles. The main issue is cost, scholarships/assistantships/aid doesn't appear to be so abundant according to Planetizen guide, but that may be a consequence of their two-deadline system and the demographics the NYU brand tends to attract. Hunter is very solid for the price and has a good professional network within NYC. That said the program doesn't appear to have the resources of Rutgers or NYU so facilities aren't as nice and I'm not sure how it translates into funding (no mention of it on acceptance email). Columbia I applied to, but I'm not too high on. It's tied to an excellent design school in GSAPP but I can't shake the feeling that their MS-UP is a cash-cow type of program. They do have accomplished faculty and research centers so it may be a great option if you're looking for design or if you want to go into academia. I wouldn't be surprised with a rejection from there as I'm just not a great fit honestly. This is just based on short visits (right before the world ended), their websites and the 2017 Planetizen info, I'm by no means an authority. (Edit: I have discussed this with a few professionals in the area and they've generally agreed with these sentiments.) Best of luck, wherever you end up choosing!