[Share Your Decision Dilemmas Here!]

8 minutes ago, GradSchoolGrad said:

I don't want to sound crass and dismissive of your interests, but the reality is that about 60% or so of the people I seen come into policy school changed their career/policy focus interests at least moderately, so I want to speak to what HKS can provide broadly that Goldman can't do as well to give you a bigger picture.

1. Give you access to International perspectives (from an academic perspective) between having a broadly more multi-diverse peer group and direct academic exposure to international topics (if you choose to engage). HKS is one of the few MPP schools that can dig into non-iDEV IR. 

2. HKS has more collaboration opportunities if you wanted to engage in with the MBA, Public Health, or Engineering

3. Even though Berkeley is in Bay Area, I only really hear of policy related start ups coming from HKS folks (maybe because I'm from the east coast - but I have done time in the Bay Area). 

4. TRIPS TRIPS TRIPS - HKS has loads and loads of international trips (hypothetically policy learning related) 

5. If for some reason you want to do MBB consulting - HKS is a pipeline, Goldman is not really.

6. If you want to the most competitive DC jobs, HKS can definitely help you get there (that being said, Ed Policy DC jobs might be competitive, but they tend to be lower pay and impact is not always the best). 

Those are a few starting off the top of my head. 

Thank you so much! You didn't sound crass or dismissive at all.
Let me know if you think of anything else — I will make sure to chat with students & ask them questions with all of these points in mind.

[Share Your Decision Dilemmas Here!]

29 minutes ago, GradSchoolGrad said:

Bottom line is that do you have a desire to return to the Bay Area/Stay in the Bay Area. If the answer is strong yes, Goldman makes sense because your network and things you learn will actually be most applicable. I will even argue that Goldman teaches analytical skills better than HKS. In fact, poor/inconsistent data analysis teaching quality is the only frequent compliant I have heard about HKS. HKS also won't really benefit for your return to California, and actually can work against you because California dynamics are so different than east coast ones. 

First of all, thank you for your help! Your depth of knowledge about these programs is impressive.

While I am relatively location-agnostic in the 1-2 years following school as long as I find an interesting and impactful opportunity, I want to move back to Texas. (I know that LBJ would have really supported this, but I found the programs and the experiences of both Goldman and HKS so much more interesting, given that I did my undergrad at UT Austin!).

I've spoken to students at both schools and, like I said my heart and mind are keeping me in the Bay Area. However, as a thought experiment from a more objective party, what (if anything) would HKS offer that Berkeley wouldn't given my interests and career goals?

[Share Your Decision Dilemmas Here!]

Hi all!

I am a public school educator turned non-profit impact evaluator pursuing an MPP. My interests have always been in supporting initiatives at the intersection of K-12 education and immigration (launched a food security program for high schoolers through work at an NGO; taught math to immigrants to the country).

I took several data analytics in R courses to transition into my current job (evaluating the impact & managing the data systems of an education non-profit focused on career access). My hope is for the MPP to further sharpen my analytical skills (particularly in applied data analytics) and support my pivot into a public sector role where I can support initiatives more aligned to my policy interests.

Currently, I am deciding between Goldman (in-state tuition with some $) and HKS (no $), though I have 11k from AmeriCorps that would apply to both. Overall, it would be the difference between coming out of school with savings intact (Goldman) or with about 20-30k in debt (HKS) after depleting savings.

While my heart and mind say Goldman, the allure of the HKS degree and experience is appealing, and is making the decision difficult. Also currently living in the Bay Area, just 15 mins from Berkeley, and have been for the past 6 years.

What are y'all's thoughts? Thanks so much!