Cdot

The top U.S. schools - Princeton WWS, HKS, Johns Hopkins SAIS, Georgetown SFS, Columbia SIPA, and Tufts - are generally better known than the top Canadian schools, have more reputed faculties, larger endowments, and larger and better-connected alumni networks. Note that I didn't say they're better schools, since that depends on individual program fit. But, by most metrics the best U.S. MPP schools are the best MPP schools in the world. There is a pretty big pipeline from all the above schools to the IMF, World Bank, UNDP, etc. If you get the chance to go to them at an affordable cost, I would do it.




I appreciate you changing like 2 words to your request to detail exactly how each school will affect your career progression and salary, so I'm going to do you a favor.

I pulled out the magic wand all forumites have (you must have lost yours at orientation), and it told me if you go to HKS you will work for the IMF and make precisely eleventy-threeve dollars a year. Your individual career goals, previous employment history, academic performance during grad school, and personal connections have nothing to do with salary and career progression. It is solely dependent on what school you go to, and its rankings in some mythical list. The wand has spoken!

I would do the Yale FES/IDE program in a heartbeat, because the IDE portion would be by far the most quantitatively rigorous.

The econ components in most policy programs' core curricula (including all of those in your list) are roughly equivalent to that of an undergrad econ major with the option at some schools of taking actually graduate-level econ through cross-registration in the schools' respective econ departments (this applies to Fletcher and SIPA on your list). With the FES/IDE program, you're getting an econ MA that already starts with micro/macro/metrics coursework already at the graduate econ level (slightly below the PhD level, I hear).

If you're interested in working for the World Bank, I've heard from multiple sources that you'll be hitting a ceiling without that kind of econ training. Several people that I spoke to went as far as to say that you need a PhD to really make your way up in development banks, which also makes having the IDE degree useful in that a good number of graduates go on to get econ PhDs afterwards.

As for the name recognition of the programs, I'd say that, yes, on the whole, large policy schools like Fletcher and SAIS are better known in policy circles than smaller MA programs like IDE. That being said: (1) FES is a pretty sizable school with a relatively large alumni base; and (2) I think the relevance of the econ MA that you'll get in addition to the MEM is more valuable to your particular career goals than the marginal name-brand recognition that Fletcher/SAIS have over Yale FES/IDE, of which the career placements of IDE graduates is telling.

To Elsa and CC139, kaka did not say anything bad.. he/she just told us how he/she wrote his/her statement without any particular style.
He/she might be kidding or inflating his/her credentials to scare you. Just let be fair to him/her and let him/her have his or her peace.
Even if he/she applied , how can what he/she wrote go against him/her with respect a decision on his/her application.
Don't you rely so much on what people put up here because not all of them apply to the programs they talk about.I know someone who
did that on a CS forum so let kaka rest and lets talk about something more important..after all he/she did not apply this year.

Racism? Are you serious :-D? Thta's the only lame excuse you could come up with to explain the people reactions to your bragging? Here is a Godwin point for you. Frame it. Posting credentials is fine, bragging about them and pretending you're soooo getting in while discouraging others proves a bad mentality and that might annoy Adcoms indeed.
On this forum, we all try to help and support each other. If you can't do that, you're not someone I'd like to be classmate with.

Whatever, good luck to everyone and try all to keep a positive spirit.

Don't bump this thread, this is the dumbest question I've seen on the boards. I'd rather go through life without knowing that someone actually wonders whether rainbow sandals are allowed in grad school.