threetuns

It is interesting to see how prejudgment dominates most of the forum. Just to add a bit of real evidence for some unsupported assertions. 1)The question is about the quality of PhD Public Policy programs, the answer is it depends. Some programs are really good in quant and qualit methods, other are good in theoretical issues and others are really good in consultancy and faculty formation. Think what your interests are. 2)To those who are consistently saying that Pol Sci and Econ PhDs are more easily recruited than PP, I have to say that this is not true at all. I know quite a few PP Phd who have consistently found jobs very easily and with good salary and benefits, while there are so many PhD in Economics and Political Science in the job market that for some of them is really hard to find a position. The job market for Phd in Public Policy and Public Administration has more than 200 schools in the whole country while the number of graduates is significantly lower than Econ and PolSci. 3) While it is true that a PhD in PP would find hard to be hired by an Econ School (although now some have since the interest in policies in Econ schools requires people educated in those issues), the opposite is the same. Namely, while Public Affairs schools could appreciate the contribution of some economic faculty and recruit some of them (a restricted number of them to enhance their methods courses), generally they prefer to hire PP and Public Administration PhDs. Graduates from economics generally lack a strong formation in public affairs and public administration research, theories and tools, while, on the other hand, Polsci graduates, also lack quantitative strength (unless they come from the few pol sci schools that have a strong quant program)and generally are "too theoretical". 3)Dear jndjaven, I don´t know what special evidence you have to make such an uninformed statement. Regarding the MA Econ in American, my brother in law went to Stanford as undergraduate and then to American for a Masters in Economics and was completely satisfied, since most of its classes actually had PhD level. Now he is doing PhD at Duke and I asked him after reading what you wrote and said his AU master was definitely helpful in preparing him for doctorate and remarked the quality of professors and the lively AU´s academic and political atmosphere.

International student, admitted to PhD Public Administration, someone else looking for housing? Any hint?

Rutagaba, are you accepting American's offer? Where are you going to? Any other accepted guys at American?

Does anyone know something about PhD admission results from American University and/or Indiana SPEA?

Sorry, I forgot to tell you that most LSE students go on international merit-based scholarships and the others are granted awards by the school according to their performance.

The LSE is a truly competitive an international place with really good international faculty and very very clever students at all levels. Even though some master programs are 1 year long it does not mean they are less quality than any other longer. If that were true, the best MPA program in the US would not be Syracuse Maxwell MPA which is one of the few 1 year long. Although I agree I prefer those two years long. However, I can state that at the LSE you can find very smart people from the best schools of the world, 99 percent of them very comitted and highly focused. You should ask any LSE alumnus about the interesting academic enviroment of the LSE, everywhere people talk about international problems. He or she can also tell you how the exam period is there, when it is really hard to find a place to study in the whole school. LSE has the highest index of library borrows per student in the whole Europe. On the other hand, the networking effect is quite strong. An LSE degree is recognized everywhere in the world and all the multilaterals (UN, WB etc) love LSE graduates. In my own view, I do love the LSE because while being there I could better understand the world in a truly international surrounding, and listened to the most important international scholars and economic and political leaders that every single week visited the school. Very few places in the world can offer that to you. You should give it a try, I promise you won't regret.

Rutagaba congratulations on your admission to GWU!, could you please put your stats here?