MPA/MPP/MPS Applications, Fall 2020 (Canada)

[milomars]

1 hour ago, thatpolicyguy said:

Yesterday at about 3pm I received an email from Waterloo with a conditional offer. They told me that the official acceptance would be made available on Quest in about 2 weeks to accept or decline the offer.

Congratulations! Is MPS your first choice and do you mind sharing your stats? 

[thatpolicyguy]

23 minutes ago, milomars said:

Congratulations! Is MPS your first choice and do you mind sharing your stats? 

Thank you! For sure, I would be happy to share. My L2 GPA was a 3.6, I had fairly strong letters of recommendations from both my current managers and past professors, along with extracurricular experience from varsity athletics, Model UN, Model Parliament, academic exchange and volunteering for political candidates at a variety of levels. I have been very intrigued with the co-op opportunity with the program and the alterations to the curriculum in recent years, but my only hesitance would be the potential of being cornered solely into a public service role when compared to the relative "diversity" that an MPA or an MPP can afford with regards to job prospects (and i say diversity very lightly). 

Overall though I've heard great things about the program so I am excited to evaluate the acceptance when I receive it officially. 

Edited March 4, 2020 by thatpolicyguy

[uwosf2020]

• Hey everyone!
• I've been accepted to Ryerson's MPPA (Feb 4th) with $6,000 in grants plus a TA/GA-ship and I was told on Friday that my stats have put me in the running for OGS ($15,000). I've also been accepted to Queen's MPA and Concordia MPPPA, but I'm not accepting those. 
• I applied to Munk as well but I haven't heard anything back yet. Does anyone know when they're going to start making decisions? Last year it was the first week of March.
• Further, if I do get in, what is everyone's opinions on Ryerson (1yr) v Munk (2yr)? I really don't want to be 60k in debt and I've read some older threads where people were saying that stretching an MPP into 2 years is unnecessary. I really love UoT's campus (I'm from UWO so the campus environment is similar). I don't really like Ryerson's but I'll have almost no debt if I go there, plus opportunity for bridging to full-time employment through their internship program (which is paid... I know that Munk also has internships btw)... I have to accept Ryerson by this Friday, so I'm going to accept for now and then if I get into Munk I might change my mind.
• Ryerson also has the choice of doing a major research paper or a thesis, which Munk doesn't have.
• I'm really stressed about the choice between Munk (if I get in) and Ryerson. A lot of people say UoT is just a lot of clout and people get the same learning experience at other schools. Ryerson's program is much smaller, too (35ppl). Will it really matter 10 years down the road when we are in the middle of our careers? Will I hate myself if I'm paying off my debt for much longer than I would've if I had just gone to Ryerson? LOL help

[changeagent01]

?

Edited March 4, 2020 by changeagent01

[changeagent01]

Any responses from McGill's Max Bell? I called the school today, they said they'll send out offers this afternoon.

[sillygoose4]

1 hour ago, changeagent01 said:

Any responses from McGill's Max Bell? I called the school today, they said they'll send out offers this afternoon.

I haven't heard anything yet!

[changeagent01]

I got a letter from McGull just now "On behalf of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, I am pleased to recommend to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office that you be admitted to the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program for the 2020- 21 academic year." 

Does this mean I am good?

[sillygoose4]

13 minutes ago, changeagent01 said:

I got a letter from McGull just now "On behalf of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, I am pleased to recommend to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office that you be admitted to the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program for the 2020- 21 academic year." 

Does this mean I am good?

Congratulations! I believe the recommendation is just a formality so you should be good.

[Yuting912]

1 hour ago, changeagent01 said:

I got a letter from McGull just now "On behalf of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, I am pleased to recommend to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office that you be admitted to the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program for the 2020- 21 academic year." 

Does this mean I am good?

Congrats! Could you share when did you complete your application?

[ElleG]

8 hours ago, changeagent01 said:

I got a letter from McGull just now "On behalf of the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University, I am pleased to recommend to the Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Office that you be admitted to the Master of Public Policy (MPP) program for the 2020- 21 academic year." 

Does this mean I am good?

congrats

[ElleG]

17 hours ago, thatpolicyguy said:

Yesterday at about 3pm I received an email from Waterloo with a conditional offer. They told me that the official acceptance would be made available on Quest in about 2 weeks to accept or decline the offer.

Comgrats! What did they say your conditions were?

[Paulcg87]

13 hours ago, uwosf2020 said:

• Hey everyone!
• I've been accepted to Ryerson's MPPA (Feb 4th) with $6,000 in grants plus a TA/GA-ship and I was told on Friday that my stats have put me in the running for OGS ($15,000). I've also been accepted to Queen's MPA and Concordia MPPPA, but I'm not accepting those. 
• I applied to Munk as well but I haven't heard anything back yet. Does anyone know when they're going to start making decisions? Last year it was the first week of March.
• Further, if I do get in, what is everyone's opinions on Ryerson (1yr) v Munk (2yr)? I really don't want to be 60k in debt and I've read some older threads where people were saying that stretching an MPP into 2 years is unnecessary. I really love UoT's campus (I'm from UWO so the campus environment is similar). I don't really like Ryerson's but I'll have almost no debt if I go there, plus opportunity for bridging to full-time employment through their internship program (which is paid... I know that Munk also has internships btw)... I have to accept Ryerson by this Friday, so I'm going to accept for now and then if I get into Munk I might change my mind.
• Ryerson also has the choice of doing a major research paper or a thesis, which Munk doesn't have.
• I'm really stressed about the choice between Munk (if I get in) and Ryerson. A lot of people say UoT is just a lot of clout and people get the same learning experience at other schools. Ryerson's program is much smaller, too (35ppl). Will it really matter 10 years down the road when we are in the middle of our careers? Will I hate myself if I'm paying off my debt for much longer than I would've if I had just gone to Ryerson? LOL help

On 2/27/2020 at 3:43 PM, kellz said:

Hello! 

I got accepted into Queens last week and go my acceptance from Carleton today with $15k funding! I'm still waiting on UofT, has anyone heard from them?? 

The offer from Carleton is really tempting, especially since UofT is notoriously known for giving out little funding (if any at all lol) but I'm conflicted between choosing between Carleton and UofT if comes down to it. I know that within Canada, the prestige/title of schools doesn't really matter much, but I were to live outside of Canada in the future (I'm in a longterm relationship with someone from the US so it's a possibility) would it be better to go for UofT just for the name? I also love big cities so... 

I know there are so many other important factors that come into play when choosing a program  (courses/research interests of profs/working federally vs in OPS, etc...) BUT can anyone shed some light for me on the aforementioned question? Thank you and good luck to everyone still waiting to hear from schools!!

@uwosf2020 and @kellz - 

you're both asking pretty similar questions here. Carleton/Ryerson versus UT, is it worth the debt/longer program, and whether it will really matter long term. I've been in your shoes; I'm Canadian and currently an admitted PhD (political science) student at UT with a US master's degree. My PhD subfields are international relations and public policy, which intersects with MPP studies. I also spent a few years working in policy analysis and quant IR research, one year in the US and the rest in Canada, so I'm familiar with the job market. 

I figured I'd answer both of your questions at the same time since this might come up again with another user. Munk has a two year MPP because it is trying to emulate the MPP model at a lot of US schools, particularly UC Berkeley (Goldman School) and Harvard (Harvard Kennedy School), both of which have two year MPP's. In fact, the majority of top MPP programs in the US are two years, not one. And like those programs, UT/Munk is a bit more quant, data analytics and economics intensive than a lot of other Canadian MPP's, because quantitative policy analysis is pretty much the name of the game at the elite US programs right now.

So what does this mean for you? The answer really depends on what you want to do with your degree. If you are content with staying in Canada and you're more interested in qualitative policy, go wherever you want, because under those circumstances, the name on your MPP degree really doesn't matter. IF, however, you want to at least leave the door open to working in the US, go to UT/Munk instead of Carleton/Ryerson, for two reasons: 1) You'll be better prepared to compete with US MPP grads given Munk's program does a better job of emulating the US-style data/quant/economic style policy analysis, and 2) Carleton and Ryerson are great schools, but they don't come close to UT in foreign rankings (US News & World Report, THE, QS, etc), and in the USA, rankings do matter. You won't be able to compete with HKS grads but at least a lot of American non-profit and consulting firms who hire policy analysts have heard of UT.

One other thing worth mentioning: If you plan on doing a PhD in public policy or polisci, particularly in the USA, having a two year MPP that is heavy on quant and research methodology is a benefit that will help you in the admissions process because policy PhD programs are increasingly emphasizing this. But as I said before, if you want to stay in Canada and nothing else applies to you, save your money and go to Carleton/Ryerson. Only you can make that decision, not anyone on here. 

 

[xChocolate]

I haven’t heard anything from the 3 schools I applied to (Carleton p/t, uvic p/t, and Sfu) but my friend got in this morning to McGill. 

[changeagent01]

21 hours ago, Yuting912 said:

Congrats! Could you share when did you complete your application?

Hi! I completed mine on January 7th.

*Fingers crossed*

[sillygoose4]

33 minutes ago, changeagent01 said:

Hi! I completed mine on January 7th.

*Fingers crossed*

Would you be willing to share any of your stats?

[masterapplicant030]

21 hours ago, Paulcg87 said:

@uwosf2020 and @kellz - 

you're both asking pretty similar questions here. Carleton/Ryerson versus UT, is it worth the debt/longer program, and whether it will really matter long term. I've been in your shoes; I'm Canadian and currently an admitted PhD (political science) student at UT with a US master's degree. My PhD subfields are international relations and public policy, which intersects with MPP studies. I also spent a few years working in policy analysis and quant IR research, one year in the US and the rest in Canada, so I'm familiar with the job market. 

I figured I'd answer both of your questions at the same time since this might come up again with another user. Munk has a two year MPP because it is trying to emulate the MPP model at a lot of US schools, particularly UC Berkeley (Goldman School) and Harvard (Harvard Kennedy School), both of which have two year MPP's. In fact, the majority of top MPP programs in the US are two years, not one. And like those programs, UT/Munk is a bit more quant, data analytics and economics intensive than a lot of other Canadian MPP's, because quantitative policy analysis is pretty much the name of the game at the elite US programs right now.

So what does this mean for you? The answer really depends on what you want to do with your degree. If you are content with staying in Canada and you're more interested in qualitative policy, go wherever you want, because under those circumstances, the name on your MPP degree really doesn't matter. IF, however, you want to at least leave the door open to working in the US, go to UT/Munk instead of Carleton/Ryerson, for two reasons: 1) You'll be better prepared to compete with US MPP grads given Munk's program does a better job of emulating the US-style data/quant/economic style policy analysis, and 2) Carleton and Ryerson are great schools, but they don't come close to UT in foreign rankings (US News & World Report, THE, QS, etc), and in the USA, rankings do matter. You won't be able to compete with HKS grads but at least a lot of American non-profit and consulting firms who hire policy analysts have heard of UT.

One other thing worth mentioning: If you plan on doing a PhD in public policy or polisci, particularly in the USA, having a two year MPP that is heavy on quant and research methodology is a benefit that will help you in the admissions process because policy PhD programs are increasingly emphasizing this. But as I said before, if you want to stay in Canada and nothing else applies to you, save your money and go to Carleton/Ryerson. Only you can make that decision, not anyone on here. 

 

Thank you, this is some great information that I was actually looking for.

In addition to this, I guess I am interested in people's opinions/experience between the UofT and Ryerson's MPP/MPPA programs. Which would you chose based off of the value you get out of the degree (job market prospects), return on investment (based on the cost of tuition; UofT is obviously substantially more). If you were in the position of deciding between the two programs and the only deciding factors are the job prospects and the value of the degree, which would you chose and why?

[Paulcg87]

1 hour ago, masterapplicant030 said:

Thank you, this is some great information that I was actually looking for.

In addition to this, I guess I am interested in people's opinions/experience between the UofT and Ryerson's MPP/MPPA programs. Which would you chose based off of the value you get out of the degree (job market prospects), return on investment (based on the cost of tuition; UofT is obviously substantially more). If you were in the position of deciding between the two programs and the only deciding factors are the job prospects and the value of the degree, which would you chose and why?

"Job placement" can mean many things. Do you mean job placement in Ontario? Eastern Canada? The entire country? Canada + US? Worldwide? 

Degree value is another subjective term with substantial complexity in determining...

Let's say you are referring to the GTA specifically for job placement. In Toronto, Ryerson is as well known as UT, so they'll probably have a relative equal number of local connections for job prospects. So if you plan on staying in the GTA, I would venture to say job placement is roughly the same. Even nationally, I think they're probably very similar in terms of job placement, with maybe a very slight advantage to UT only because a significantly larger university (almost 20k students more) with higher profile faculty that publish more (I'm basing this on the fact that UT is #2 in the world for publishing and #3 for citations), therefore, it's reasonable to infer that nationally, UT might have slightly more alumni to network with and UT faculty might have slightly more connections. But I would stress that this is a negligible inference that I'm making based on some very basic data, so that's why I say that even nationally, job placement is probably roughly the same.

Where things change is outside Canada. By virtue of the fact that UT is probably the best known (and definitely the highest ranked) Canadian school, your job placement chances just based on the name on your degree will be better with UT than Ryerson outside of Canada, particularly in the US. When I studied and worked in the USA, most of my American classmates and coworkers had never heard of any Canadian schools but even the academics and the people who hired me were only familiar with the Canadian top 3 (UT, McGill, UBC). And yes, if there are any narcissists from Waterloo reading this who feel their ego is bruised, you go to a very good school too, but outside of tech bros in California and STEM people, no one in the USA has heard of your school either. The one time a fellow Canadian brought up Waterloo at the big-4 consulting firm I worked at in the USA, our American coworkers thought that we were referring to the 1815 battle in Belgium and had no idea there was a school named after it in Canada. If you ever want to work in the USA, don't go to Ryerson. Frankly, I would recommend you either go to Munk or to an American school if you want to work in the USA at any point in your career.

As far as degree value, it depends on what you define as value. They're difficult to compare because the Ryerson MPPA is fundamentally a different degree than the Munk MPP. The Ryerson MPPA is structured more like a Canadian political science MA. It only has one core course with any kind of research methodology training and no requirement (that I can see) to take a substantive quantitative/statistics core course, no requirement for a core economics course, no data analysis/analytics electives, and only one soft stats elective called something like "statistics in the social sciences" which looked and sounded easier than an undergraduate intro stats class designed for liberal arts majors who don't like math. Go compare that to the Munk MPP. Stats, research methods and economics are core (required) courses, an internship is required, and there are additional stats/data/econ electives. Simply put, the Munk MPP is modeled after a US policy analysis and research degree, whereas the Ryerson MPPA is modeled after a Canadian political science MA. They're both good degrees but they're very, very different. Go to Munk if you want math/data driven analytical research skills and an actual public policy degree. Go to Ryerson if you want a qualitative, thesis-based research degree. But do not go to one expecting the other, and be really aware of the differences. 

Ultimately, if you ever want to leave the door open to getting a PhD in the US or work in the US, the Munk degree is the way to go because of the name brand recognition and the quant/data driven skills from the Munk MPP that literally every US public policy and polisci PhD program wants incoming students to have. Additionally, if you want a real policy analysis degree, go to Munk simply because they offer core and elective courses that give you a proper quant/data-driven analytical framework, and Ryerson will not give you this with only one required research methods course and a soft stats elective course. Go to Ryerson if you plan to stay in Canada and you aren't particularly interested in quantitative policy analysis; you'll save a lot of money.

[Svenpai]

Got my official admissions letter and funding package from Carleton last week! 45k in funding (including TA ship), which I was incredibly surprised to see as I was expecting much less. I’m super stoked!
 

Hope everyone gets the result they want. You got this!

[masterapplicant030]

19 hours ago, Paulcg87 said:

"Job placement" can mean many things. Do you mean job placement in Ontario? Eastern Canada? The entire country? Canada + US? Worldwide? 

Degree value is another subjective term with substantial complexity in determining...

Let's say you are referring to the GTA specifically for job placement. In Toronto, Ryerson is as well known as UT, so they'll probably have a relative equal number of local connections for job prospects. So if you plan on staying in the GTA, I would venture to say job placement is roughly the same. Even nationally, I think they're probably very similar in terms of job placement, with maybe a very slight advantage to UT only because a significantly larger university (almost 20k students more) with higher profile faculty that publish more (I'm basing this on the fact that UT is #2 in the world for publishing and #3 for citations), therefore, it's reasonable to infer that nationally, UT might have slightly more alumni to network with and UT faculty might have slightly more connections. But I would stress that this is a negligible inference that I'm making based on some very basic data, so that's why I say that even nationally, job placement is probably roughly the same.

Where things change is outside Canada. By virtue of the fact that UT is probably the best known (and definitely the highest ranked) Canadian school, your job placement chances just based on the name on your degree will be better with UT than Ryerson outside of Canada, particularly in the US. When I studied and worked in the USA, most of my American classmates and coworkers had never heard of any Canadian schools but even the academics and the people who hired me were only familiar with the Canadian top 3 (UT, McGill, UBC). And yes, if there are any narcissists from Waterloo reading this who feel their ego is bruised, you go to a very good school too, but outside of tech bros in California and STEM people, no one in the USA has heard of your school either. The one time a fellow Canadian brought up Waterloo at the big-4 consulting firm I worked at in the USA, our American coworkers thought that we were referring to the 1815 battle in Belgium and had no idea there was a school named after it in Canada. If you ever want to work in the USA, don't go to Ryerson. Frankly, I would recommend you either go to Munk or to an American school if you want to work in the USA at any point in your career.

As far as degree value, it depends on what you define as value. They're difficult to compare because the Ryerson MPPA is fundamentally a different degree than the Munk MPP. The Ryerson MPPA is structured more like a Canadian political science MA. It only has one core course with any kind of research methodology training and no requirement (that I can see) to take a substantive quantitative/statistics core course, no requirement for a core economics course, no data analysis/analytics electives, and only one soft stats elective called something like "statistics in the social sciences" which looked and sounded easier than an undergraduate intro stats class designed for liberal arts majors who don't like math. Go compare that to the Munk MPP. Stats, research methods and economics are core (required) courses, an internship is required, and there are additional stats/data/econ electives. Simply put, the Munk MPP is modeled after a US policy analysis and research degree, whereas the Ryerson MPPA is modeled after a Canadian political science MA. They're both good degrees but they're very, very different. Go to Munk if you want math/data driven analytical research skills and an actual public policy degree. Go to Ryerson if you want a qualitative, thesis-based research degree. But do not go to one expecting the other, and be really aware of the differences. 

Ultimately, if you ever want to leave the door open to getting a PhD in the US or work in the US, the Munk degree is the way to go because of the name brand recognition and the quant/data driven skills from the Munk MPP that literally every US public policy and polisci PhD program wants incoming students to have. Additionally, if you want a real policy analysis degree, go to Munk simply because they offer core and elective courses that give you a proper quant/data-driven analytical framework, and Ryerson will not give you this with only one required research methods course and a soft stats elective course. Go to Ryerson if you plan to stay in Canada and you aren't particularly interested in quantitative policy analysis; you'll save a lot of money.

Thank you so much for the detailed reply. This really puts things into perspective. I definitely have no plans of going to the US, but working elsewhere in an international capacity could be an option sometime in the future. So there are definitely many different factors that need to be considered here.

[alexgray]

For those of you waiting for a response from Munk, I emailed them and their response was the following: 

"Thank you for you email.

The MPP Admissions team is aiming to make offers to successful applicants by mid-March.

Sincerely,

-MPP Admissions."

[jberma01]

Does anyone have stats on how competitive Ryerson's MPPA program is?? i.e., competitive average/ amount of relevant experience, acceptance rate?

[beautybaby]

Hi everyone!

I received a conditional offer from UWaterloo's MPS program about a week ago. It said the offer should be up on Quest in about 2 weeks, but I haven't received that yet. 

Still haven't heard from Munk, like most of you mine still isn't "Under Review" yet. Hoping they'll get back to us soon!

[sandyb]

was accepted into Queen's last month and recently into ucalgary with $7500 funding. I was wondering if anyone was offered funding for queens and how much? also is it hard to find an internship?

[bananacoconut]

2 hours ago, beautybaby said:

Hi everyone!

I received a conditional offer from UWaterloo's MPS program about a week ago. It said the offer should be up on Quest in about 2 weeks, but I haven't received that yet. 

Still haven't heard from Munk, like most of you mine still isn't "Under Review" yet. Hoping they'll get back to us soon!

UWaterloo gave you an offer a week ago? Congrats! 

May I ask when you applied? 

[uwosf2020]

13 hours ago, jberma01 said:

Does anyone have stats on how competitive Ryerson's MPPA program is?? i.e., competitive average/ amount of relevant experience, acceptance rate?

I was accepted with $6,000 funding at the beginning of Feb! My L2 GPA is 3.7 (my program is honours spec sociology), I had a leadership internship with RBC last summer working on the Future Launch program, I volunteer with a community services organization in my city and I am an op exec with an MS club. Other than that, I worked retail for 6 years and I have personal connections to the type of policy I want to study. I had very, very strong recommendation letters from two professors I've had all 4 years of university in very small classes. One is the chair of the school of behavioural studies, the other professor held the chair position 7 years ago. I also applied very late, like end of January. I heard back 12 days after I applied.

I spoke to the program coordinator and they receive anywhere from 350-400 applications every year, and accept 35-40 full-time students, and 5 part-time students.