Hi there,
I can tell from your family name that you are Chinese . I am also Chinese.
I'd like to share with you my thoughts. I have 4 years working experience across the public, private and non-profit sectors in China. I can give you advices from the perspective of career development.
You are thinking about Consulting firms as your future career? I guess you must be a fresh undergraduates with limited working experiences because seasoned practitioners would never ever consider this after they get substantial experiences with governments, corporations and NGOs.
I have a lot of friends who are working for consulting firms specializing in government/public affairs, such as Booz Allen, Apco Worldwide, Bain, BCG, Mckinsey. I have to say that for most of those government/public affairs consultants, they got MBA instead of MPA/MPP. MPA/MPP will not help you much if you choose to work in consulting industry. If you really care about consulting, try to work for a few years and get an MBA then.
Honestly, I don't like those MPA/MPP programs which accpet many fresh undergraduates with pratically no working experiences. MPA/ MPP is supposed to be a professional program. A few years of working should be a must. If I were you, I would not choose Cornell CIPA since that program accept many fresh undergraduates. You would find the people around you is just like you, most of whom have limited practical working experience.
However, GPPI is a different thing. The majority of GPPI are professional workers. The environment can help you get a professional and personal relationship with your classmates whose experiences, ideas and opinions enable you to see the breath of issues affecting the global community from their varied perspectives.
You may find it interesting that some of the MPA/MPP programs admit a lot of Chinese students, such as the JHK- SAIS, USC, Cornell CIPA, CMU-Heiz, while some of the prorgams they barely accept Chinese students, such as Princeton- WWS, Duke -Sanford, UM-Ford, Upenn-Fels, Berkeley-GSPP. That's because most of the Chinese applicants just graduate from university. Now I think you know how to make a sound decision.