McCourt, Sanford, or Ford (MPP)?

[eakatz123]

I got into Georgetown's McCourt School, Duke's Sanford School, and Michigan's Ford School for an MPP starting in Fall 2019 and am struggling with making a decision. Financially speaking, the programs are comparable in cost after factoring in fellowships and cost of living, so that's not a determining factor. I know that all of them are well renowned, but I don't know a whole lot about the specifics of each program or what differentiates one from the others and was hoping to get some insight from here.

A few questions:

1) Does one school have a significantly better reputation than the others? I know some programs have stronger quantitative curricula and others are good at certain policy areas (e.g. social, environmental, health). I'm not sure which area I want to concentrate in yet, but I'd like to have some idea of where each program stands.

2) Ideally I'd like to end up in the DMV area, so McCourt obviously has that going for it. How much does being in DC help with securing a job there versus coming from a school like Michigan that's way outside the district but has a massive alumni network?

3) How much does ranking matter? For example, based on my research, McCourt is ranked considerably lower than both Ford and Sanford some of the categories that USNWR covers, but I figure since it's a newer school it might rise in the rankings over time (like it did recently).

4) Are there any other selling points I'm not considering? Anything from student organizations to career services to stuff external to the university itself (e.g. Ann Arbor is really cool, winters in Michigan are terrible).

Thanks in advance!

Edited March 21, 2019 by eakatz123