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Amazing, congrats on such strong activity!

Congrats, skewl! Are you macro or micro?

Program: PhD in Sociology or Organizational Behavior Schools (Thinking of) Applying To: Sociology Schools University of Texas-Austin, Sociology (Work, Occupations, and Organizations) Northwestern University, Sociology (Law, Economy, and Organizations) Stanford University, Sociology (Macro) University of California Berkeley, Sociology (Economic Sociology) New York University, Sociology Business Schools Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management (Economic Sociology) University of Chicago, Booth School of Business (Organizations and Markets) Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management (Management & Organizations & Sociology) Stanford University, Graduate School of Business (Macro Organizational Behavior) University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School (Management: strategic management of resources in alliances, networks, and ecosystems) Harvard University, Harvard Business School (Organizational Behavior) Interests: Studying the way that cities organize, strategize, and tactically compete to attract, grow, and retain businesses that require tech talent Developing metrics that better illuminate how cities perform in global and national competition for tech talent Tracking the migration of tech talent as it relates to concepts of agglomeration and comparative advantage Improving the collection and analysis of occupation and employment data (using machine learning and other techniques) Note: Enrico Moretti's book "The New Geography of Jobs" is a great example of some work that really interests me! Expectations from Programs: Program Tier 1 job placement Strong university and program branding related to technology Multi-disciplinary approach that gives me access to business, economics, public policy, education, computer science, and sociology Resources: Experts in working with government and non-government labor market and economic firm data sets World class training in data science techniques such as machine learning New school research tools such as Quid Located in a major metropolitan area that needs to compete for tech talent (New York, Boston, Chicago) or an area that has made significant progress to outperform in recent years (Austin, Denver, Raleigh-Durham) for more immediate access to economic and workforce development thinkers Education: Master of Business Administration, University of Michigan, 2015, 3.8 GPA, full scholarship Master of Public Policy, University of Michigan, 2015, 4.0 GPA, full scholarship Master of Accounting, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 2012, 4.0 GPA, multiple scholarships Bachelor of Business Administration, Oklahoma State University, 2001, 3.2 GPA, full scholarship GRE: Q170 (96th), V166 (97th), AW5.5 (98th) Age: 37 Work Experience: Chief Operating Officer of a national, workforce development nonprofit focused on closing the tech talent gap, 2 years (by time of matriculation) Some developing work with Brookings Institution's Metropolitan Policy Program, may or may not result in some published work Engagement Manager for Accenture Strategy, Talent & Organization, 3 years Developed talent strategy for the City of Chicago's Amazon HQ2 bid Researched jobs of the future (AI, blockchain, IoT, etc.) and recommended how Chicago can better prepare its businesses and residents Researched labor market inequalities among good occupations for various demographic groups in Chicago, developed a socioeconomics framework to reveal major contributing factors, and recommended how the city could make progress IT Manager and Software Developer, 11 years SoP: Currently researching and planning; my key problem is I don't really know much today about the nuances of sociology or its sub-fields. The good thing is that I know what I want to study, and so I'm trying to figure out where in sociology or organizational behavior my interests are best suited. LORs: Professor at University of Michigan (PhD Economics, Harvard, AB Harvard): top-ranked student in their class and a graduate teaching assistant for 2 semesters Professor at University of Michigan (PhD Economics, Berkeley, BS MIT): top-ranked student in their class and a graduate teaching assistant for 1 semester Executive Vice President for economic and workforce development in the City of Chicago: completed 2 substantive labor market research projects, quoted after receiving my team's work, "I dare say we have the most innovative labor market research in the country." Concerns: Need to write a great statement of purpose No prior coursework in sociology (not even 101) No research publications or substantive academic research, only professional research that is largely confidential No multivariate calculus or linear algebra in case of a more quantitative subfield Age

California is probably a combination of personal and professional connections depending on what people did before grad school. The Michigan network is amazing, you can almost always get an email or call answered from a fellow Wolverine on that basis. Whether it's useful or not may depend on a lot on the types of places you want to work after graduation and I'd use org websites and LinkedIn to research this. For example, a really diverse org may have MPPs, MBAs, JDs, etc. working there which would really increase your chances of finding a Michigan alum. I'd suspect this because other Michigan graduate schools have more people that can afford to go West due to higher expected salaries from those degrees. Regarding professors, Jacob and Dynarski are both expert researchers and tend to teach methods classes. Jacob takes a kinder approach and Dynarski a tougher approach, but both professors are enormously respected and loved by students. I think Dynarski holds a special type of legendary status among education-focused students for her general badassery. The best tip I can give you on this topic is to take statistics your very first semester or waive it if possible. This lets you get to program evaluation faster which then opens up a few higher electives that might not be reachable otherwise.

Since I'm a three-year dual-degree, I've completed two internships. I did a finance internship through Education Pioneers for KIPP New Jersey in Newark and I did K-12 strategy consulting with Accenture in Chicago (although I could have selected SF, NY, or DC as office locations). After graduation, Ford goes everywhere. Our critical mass city is DC. Beyond that, we are really quite spread out with small pockets in NYC and Chicago, and then anywhere people have personal connections or interesting job opportunities. And, of course, many take positions abroad. California happens, but it's not any different than going to Vermont, Oregon, or Texas for us - people go there when they have personal connections. The university itself has a large California network, particularly in SF, but Ford doesn't.

Hi naso, First, congrats on having great options! IPE - yes, you can do this twice. Be aware that this is a simulated exercise on a real policy issue. You will meet real experts (our immigration one brought 40 professionals in from every organization imaginable), and they may take some of the exercise's ideas home with them, but this is not a real consulting engagement. Internship - yes, required, some people have even squeezed two into one summer because we get out at the end of April and don't start until the beginning of September, but most people do just one. Applied Policy Exercise - usually occurs in the Winter semester from what I recall, but I believe you can do more than one. These are real engagements. IEDP - your description is right on! Additional thoughts: This year was the first ever Ford School Case Competition, and it focused on a real issue for the City of East Lansing. They presented the winning idea to the City Council: http://fordschool.umich.edu/ford-case-competition The Center for Social Impact holds an annual case competition, and the finalists presented to a room full of stakeholders. http://socialimpact.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/2015-Social-Impact-Challenge-Finals-Recap.pdf Various clubs on campus have real consulting projects: Detroit R&B's consulting project list from this last year: https://revitalizationandbusiness.wordpress.com/detroit-impact-consulting-program/ My Public Management class also did a real project for a local non-profit. If you want to do something, the sky is the limit really. On the PhD/research side, you're right: a MPP doesn't naturally lead to a PhD. You'll need to do a really honest assessment of your undergraduate coursework and how it links to the PhD field of your choice. For example, a PhD in Economics could be appealing to me, but I don't have the undergraduate math background and couldn't possibly catch up during graduate school. On the other hand, I could possibly do a PhD in Sociology, but I'd need to create a strong, purpose-driven roadmap to get there that includes: building faculty relationships, taking the right courses, working on a thesis, developing research experience, and presenting or publishing some amount of work. In the last few years, we've had admits to Chicago Economics and Berkeley/Harvard/etc Sociology. It can be done, but you really need to plan and execute at a high level. If your package is RMA, you can work 10 hours a week. I currently do that and have had no issues. Most professors are pretty flexible with their researchers, so I'm sure you could limit yourself to 10 hours and be fine. This is largely because the bulk of the research positions are paid hourly, and not graduate research assistantships. Those tend to be held for PhD students, whereas graduate teaching assistantships are primarily held by MPPs.

If you're interested in working at the EPA or Department of Energy someday, PMF would be one of your easiest routes. There's a lot of public data on the semi-finalist and finalists in the process. Here's this year's data across the three schools you mentioned: SUNY Albany, 11 semi-finalists, 3 finalists Duke Sanford, 1 semi-finalist, 1 finalist CMU Heinz, 1 semi-finalist, 0 finalists Now, of course, you can apply to PMF from any of the schools and get through. But I imagine that SUNY Albany may have a culture and career services staff that helps with the PMF process. For example, at Ford (where I am), we had 13 semi-finalists and 10 finalists, thanks in large part to our career services staff really knowing the process and holding workshops to help our semi-finalists make it through the final stage. There's a lot more than PMF out there and even being a PMF finalist is not a guarantee of a federal government placement, but you can still use the program as one crude proxy for career prospects. SUNY Albany already seems to hold an advantage and it's cheaper.

If your goal is to work in Detroit, then Michigan is where you want to be. Two of the last three years of integrated policy exercises at Ford were based on current Detroit policy issues: regional transit and immigration policy. Every year, two students intern in the mayor's office with full fellowship packages. Many of the applied policy seminar's live consulting projects are with Detroit clients. I can think of multiple professors with projects in Detroit and the surrounding area. Lots of the student cohort is from Michigan, and they may have some networking connections or insights of value. Many of the clubs and case competitions on campus are focused on Detroit: here's a link to just one (https://revitalizationandbusiness.wordpress.com/) A lot of our classes have adjunct faculty who are previous or current administrators or legislators for cities or the State, and Detroit is certainly talked about in lots of those classes. In overall reputation for domestic public policy considerations, the three schools are peer schools. There is no reputation gain to be had by attending one over another, but in the city of Detroit and the State of Michigan, a Ford School degree will be a distinct advantage for many reasons, the biggest of which is the famous Michigan network.

Agree with a lot of what's said here. There is no universal value of policy school prestige, everything depends. I think someone's best bet is to narrow down the type of work they want to do, and then backwards plan. If you research organizations that you want to work at someday, you should see a clear answer. For example, if I really wanted to work at McKinsey, then my research tells me prestige matters a lot, so I would head to Harvard. If I really wanted to be a PMF someday, then my research tells me that super elite prestige doesn't matter so much, but my chances are better at a top 15 policy school, so I would pick any one of those that is giving me great funding.

Hi Akacas, I'm happy to answer. I attended Michigan over CMU because of more funding, family reasons, the overall strength of Michigan's graduate schools, and the track record of Michigan graduates in my future career of choice (K-12 charter school management). I wouldn't pick between the schools based on your prior work experience. Instead, I would base your decision more on your future career plans. Mine were K-12 education management and policy, so Ford has that advantage over Heinz. If my interests were in a different field like urban planning or environmental studies, it might have been different. In the end, it's hard to say one policy school is better than another, objectively speaking. It's all about how a policy school fits your needs. And people's needs can be wildly different: funding, geography, career goals, family situations, social life, and many other factors vary from person to person. Hope that helps! Good luck and feel free to ask any questions about Michigan or Ford. It's been an amazing three years here in Ann Arbor, and I'm happy to pass on any knowledge I have before I forget the finer details!

I would say you are wasting your time. You're coming straight out of undergrad. Not only do you have a degree in Political Science, but you're not going to have any work experience. How does a masters in policy substantially change your situation? In my opinion, it doesn't! I would say go work for 2-3 years in a field you're interested in. If you're still interested after that time, then think about a masters degree. You'll be more competitive for funding and your learning experience will be much higher with some real world experience under your belt.

If there's one thing you shouldn't question about Michigan, it's the network.

Super-biased Michigan here, but here are two thoughts. 1) Georgetown has a great location if you're interested in federal policy. If you're more interested in state & local issues, such as economic development of cities, does paying a premium for living in DC make sense? 2) Michigan does a lot of work in Detroit. Ford has consulting projects there and many university clubs do work on economic development issues in Detroit. In fact, the Nonprofit and Public Management Center (a joint effort between Ross, Ford, and the School of Social Work) recently teamed with the School of Urban Planning to host a case competition on transit-backed economic development in Detroit. Last year, Ford's integrated policy exercise was regional transit in southeast Michigan. This year, Ford's integrated policy exercise was on Great Lakes water issues related to a town that factored in future economic development. So many economic development opportunities here, it's definitely worth coming to Michigan.

GSI positions are competitive, but there are quite a few. This Fall the Ford School has 21 GSI positions. It's probably safe to assume no incoming 1st years will get one, so of the 2nd year class (~120 students) and 3rd year dual degrees still around (~30 students), the worst-case scenario odds this Fall are somewhere around 21/150 or 14%. In the winter, the school offers 10-15 positions and now there are first-year students that may apply to some, so the odds get tougher. There are a couple of tricks that will help your odds. The first is to quickly take classes that are offered every semester. Statistics, Public Management, and Values & Ethics are good candidates. This gives you a shot at applying to them every cycle. The second is to build relationships with professors. This may seem obvious, but some students don't attend professor office hours or really interact with them and this is a lost advantage. You can also apply to GSI positions around the university. Many students in my first year cohort had GSI positions in other programs.

Hi innana! 1) We have lots of students who focus on international issues. I'm not one of them, but if you want to private message me your email, I'd be happy to connect with you some of them. We have quite a few electives, and even in one of our core micro classes which is taught by Dean Yang, you'll hear about some of his fieldwork in Africa. Every year we take a few international trips (you're only eligible to go on one over your studies here). This year the IEDP team went to Myanmar, next year's is going to Brazil. We also go to China every year, and alternate years go to Canada. 2) As far as internships, at Michigan you will be eligible for William Davidson Institute internships which pay $10,000+ to work in countries across the world. Just off the top of my head, I think Thailand, Myanmar, Rwanda, and Uganda were some of the spots that Ford School students interned last year. For full time placement, it's my understanding that the World Bank is incredibly difficult to get into. Several of our students met with World Bank representatives during our annual DC trip and were advised to work in some related organizations before trying to seriously apply there. As far as other organizations, I'm not sure, but again, glad to connect you with people who are actively recruiting in those areas. 3) One of the top reasons to come to Michigan as a university (not the Ford School specifically) is the overwhelming quality of graduate schools and the ease/flexibility of taking classes at other programs. You can absolutely take classes as Taubman and I believe the Ford School actually requires you to take 12 credits outside of the MPP program which is called a cognate requirement (I'm not so clear on this because I'm a dual-degree so my cognate is my 2nd degree). Hope this helps!