Hi, I'm new on this board, and I am just wondering what inspired people here to seek an MPA or MPP?
A little background on myself:
I am a recent graduate with a BA in history and currently working for a government agency in D.C. I am naturally trying to decide what my next step is and am thinking either an MPP or an MS in Journalism. As far as potential areas of interests in policy, I am finding myself most inclined to study education or health policy if I decide to seek an MPP. In health policy, I'm interested in how service is provided efficiently/inefficently, how to make our system more equitable, and how the U.S. can learn from similarly-structured health care systems in other developed nations, (eg.. France). I don't know as much about education, but I find the test-based accountability issues and higher educations issues very interesting. I have what I view as a lackluster quantitative background--haven't taken math since high school, if you can believe it. I have no background in econ, save some basic knowledge of macro, though I am beginning a class in Micro next month. However, I have a strong history and social sciences background and have a lot of research experience in those areas, including health policy. I am working in government but not in a job that touches very much on the policy areas that I think I would liketo study, should I seek an MPP/MPA.
Questions I have:
What should I do to preapre for an MPP or MPA? How do you recommend learning about the MPP/MPA education, aside from reading the program course catalogs? I've read that MPPs and MPAs get jobs in all areas of government, but what do people tend to actually DO in these jobs? I'm sure that varies wildly, so I guess I should say, what do health policy and ed policy MPPs/MPAs do in particular? What motivated you to get a policy or admin degree? Thanks in advance for your feedback!
