Public Policy / IR - Recession Considerations

[GradSchoolGrad]

I thought it would be helpful to offer some recession considerations for those seeking to go to grad school in policy or IR. 

I'm thinking the two areas we could talk about are:

1. How career planning may be different in terms of outcomes

2. Considerations in selection of the school (or type of school/academic programming). 

I have my thoughts, but I thought it would be good for others who survived the last recession in any phase (roughly 2008 to 2013) pitch in their thoughts as well.

[tacos95]

I didn't see this earlier when I posted on basically the same topic over on the SAIS thread in Government Affairs. I would also be interested to hear from the broader range of people people who came into the job market in the last recession. 

And if they want to bank off any of my thoughts, here they are:
- Opportunity cost of going to school for next two years, if predictions about lengthy recession are correct, is much lower; the economy won't be as hot, salaries will be lower, promotions more scarce. Of course, there's the case that it's a crucial time to be in the workforce, to gain experience, network, credibility etc. I suppose that's only marginally more true than it always is though.

- There's argument is that our cohort will be graduating into a crap market. Therefore, foregone income and loans accrued during grad school will hurt all the more. Maybe I'm being pollyannaish, but most recessions are well under 2 years, and I doubt this is going to be as catastrophic as the Great Depression. So Summer 2022 could be just the right time to enter the economy. Sure, the prospect for internships during school may be lower than normal. That's a bit worrying, but not overwhelming to me. 
      Fall 2020 application cycle could be construed as the perfect time: right now the economy is bad, and though everyone else knows it at this point, the admissions process is over, so we get the opportunity to tool up when we'd likely not be having a great experience in the labor market. And we didn't have to face as stiff of competition (no offense to everyone here, including me) as there will be during next year's admissions cycle.

- Some have said stuff about geopolitical flux totally changing landscape for public affairs/IR. But I very much doubt a reconfiguration in trade, etc. would reduce demand for people who have studied international affairs/trade/public policy. Sure, the dynamics would be different, but all the more reason for there to be more technocrats weighing the costs and benefits of trade structures, right? If, for example, the US halts trade with China, do you think there will be less analysis and commentary on trade policy? Of course not.

However, I get the risk aversion. I'm fortunate enough to have a wonderful wife who can cover living expenses while I'm in school, and I got good funding, so we won't have to take on any debt. I'm on board with all the posts about big loans being a bad idea. I wouldn't take out more than $40k in a booming economy. Our decadent and indulgent culture, along with romance of being degreed, causes many people to incur costs they shouldn't and cannot take on. Particularly among idealistic, overweening policy types with a savior complex, who too readily apply MMT to their personal lives.

Edited May 21, 2020 by tacos95

[zingmarx]

On April 8, 2020 at 1:06 PM, GradSchoolGrad said:

1. How career planning may be different in terms of outcomes

since a lot of mpp people seem like they want to end up doing consulting, I thought this short article actually said some interesting stuff about what that could be like going forward.

https://www.spencertom.com/2020/04/19/going-into-consulting-in-a-world-changed-by-covid-19/

[GradSchoolGrad]

2 hours ago, zingmarx said:

since a lot of mpp people seem like they want to end up doing consulting, I thought this short article actually said some interesting stuff about what that could be like going forward.

https://www.spencertom.com/2020/04/19/going-into-consulting-in-a-world-changed-by-covid-19/

I think interesting in consulting might grow within an MPP program. However, I don't think that more people will go into an MPP interested in consulting. There is a very limited route to do so via an MPP/IR. 

People at the elite MPP (HKS, WWS, and Harris) schools have a route to do private sector consulting at MBB. However for the rest of the top schools, its pretty much government consulting Deloitte and similar. Going the MPP/IR is actually the hard way there. The most straightforward way for those roles via grad school actually via MBAs. The 2nd is actually PhDs. MPP is probably tertiary, tied with "others Master's degrees".