CMU MSPPM or Columbia SIPA MPA?

[Deergeer]

Hey guys, I have received admissions from several good programs, such as MPA in Columbia SIPA, MPA in Cornell CIPA, MPP in Georgetown U, MPP in USC Price, MPP in UCLA Luskin and MPA in NYU Wagner. I am still waiting for the decision from CMU Heinz MSPPM data analytics track, the director told me that I will be notified within this week, and he told me that the GRE-retaking e-mail sent by them earlier was a mistake and I don't need to retake GRE(does this mean that I will be admitted?). 

Here is the queation: which one should I choose? I prefer SIPA and Heinz, but I finally have to choose one. SIPA locates in Manhattan, and there are many job opportunities, but I kind of worrying  about the skill set I can obtain there since those traditional MPA program's courses are very general, like politics, economics, international affair or something. MSPPM-DA can provide me a strong ability of data analytics and even Artificial Intelligence, but I guess Pittsburgh is not as convenient as NYC when I want to find a job.   

I am working as a consultant in China, and I finished a consulting report for Didi Chuxing(the largest ride-sharing company in China, like Uber in USA). This consulting service I have offered aims at helping Didi Chuxing builds up a Public Information Service Platform with the government to generate advises for urban development, and it will be done in a Public-Private-Partnership framework. During the research, I noticed that massive data(over twenty millions of ride-sharing services every single day) generated by users of Didi has been largely wasted because those data have not been connected with the government's database and other companies who provide urban public services too. Since then, I feel strong passion in sharing and exploring data for common good of our society, and as the result, I believe that MSPPM-DA can give a better skill set to deal with the issue in the future. 

My optimal goal is finding a consulting job in USA, what aspect should I focus on? Location, reputation or skill set? 

Additionally, I have learned and practiced Python programming in my undergrad, so I am confident that I can fit in Data Analytics track well.

Anybody have some suggestions for me?  Any idea will be appreciated.

[yoh_rrg]

It sounds like you are already leaning heavily towards Heinz and based on your interests it does seem like a good fit. You might want to take a look at each school's employment outcomes and determine who found roles like the one you want. Here is the data from Heinz, with a link to the DA track 2016 graduate career outcomes near the bottom. It's a really small cohort, but you can see that one person in that group is now working in New York as a regional planner in transportation which sounds awfully similar to your own interests. If you really enjoy working with data and have some background in programming, Heinz seems like the obvious choice. Good luck!

[AddSmith]

Pittsburgh is also becoming a hub for tech companies like Google and IBM, who are trying to recruit CMU talent (there is literally a shuttle bus to Google headquarters from Carnegie Mellon and back). There's also a good number of consulting firms with offices in Pittsburgh, and I think roughly 60% of Heinz grads go for-profit or consulting, but more specific numbers are available on the site! 

[Deergeer]

16 hours ago, yoh_rrg said:

It sounds like you are already leaning heavily towards Heinz and based on your interests it does seem like a good fit. You might want to take a look at each school's employment outcomes and determine who found roles like the one you want. Here is the data from Heinz, with a link to the DA track 2016 graduate career outcomes near the bottom. It's a really small cohort, but you can see that one person in that group is now working in New York as a regional planner in transportation which sounds awfully similar to your own interests. If you really enjoy working with data and have some background in programming, Heinz seems like the obvious choice. Good luck!

Thank you! I have already checked out the career outcomes of these two program, and I found out that the median basic salary of MSPPM-DA is about $85000(no matter what sector they are in), the median salary of MPA in SIPA is complicated, those who work in private sector have a median salary of $70000, and only 28% of them work in consulting conpanies, having a median salary of $86000. Does it look like MSPPM-DA is a better program for consulting career and higher income?

[Deergeer]

13 hours ago, AddSmith said:

Pittsburgh is also becoming a hub for tech companies like Google and IBM, who are trying to recruit CMU talent (there is literally a shuttle bus to Google headquarters from Carnegie Mellon and back). There's also a good number of consulting firms with offices in Pittsburgh, and I think roughly 60% of Heinz grads go for-profit or consulting, but more specific numbers are available on the site! 

Really appreciate your idea! I do like working in tech company since it gives me a feeling of freshness. Most of MSPPM-DA grads work as consultants or analyst, and have a median salary of $85000, it even higher than SIPA grads’

[ExponentialDecay]

This is a little late, but if you have a serious interest in data science, why aren't you applying to data science programs? That's where you'll have a chance to get a really deep look at the hard skills (although some people will tell you to stop fucking around and get an Ms in Statistics, and they may be right). You can apply them to whatever you want once you're out.

[coasts]

Not related to Heinz vs SIPA, but you should know upfront that it's not necessarily easy for international students to go into public sector consulting. Your options would be commercial consulting (which would be harder with a public policy degree rather than analytics or MBA, for example) or the state/local consulting for one of the large firms. The problem is that federal practices only take US citizens due to the security clearances usually required. 

[Deergeer]

20 hours ago, ExponentialDecay said:

This is a little late, but if you have a serious interest in data science, why aren't you applying to data science programs? That's where you'll have a chance to get a really deep look at the hard skills (although some people will tell you to stop fucking around and get an Ms in Statistics, and they may be right). You can apply them to whatever you want once you're out.

Thank you for your advise. I just believe that world is complicated, especially in the era of AI, so I do wanna have some broad view to care about the whole society, instead of throw myself into the world of coding. This program seems to be a good balance, maybe all I need to do is work harder to handle those hard skills. Good luck to myself