Ask Any Questions - Current CMU Heinz Student

[woolscarves]

2nd year student in the MSPPM-DA program but have friends in most of the other programs. I found this forum super helpful when I was looking for schools so happy to answer any questions that people have. I was also lucky enough to get to spend the first 1.5 semesters in the in-person environment, so I can also speak to what the experience will hopefully be like for the class of 2021 when you enter in the fall.

[2021mpp]

20 minutes ago, woolscarves said:

2nd year student in the MSPPM-DA program but have friends in most of the other programs. I found this forum super helpful when I was looking for schools so happy to answer any questions that people have. I was also lucky enough to get to spend the first 1.5 semesters in the in-person environment, so I can also speak to what the experience will hopefully be like for the class of 2021 when you enter in the fall.

Thank you so much! I'm assuming you know some ppl who were choosing between MSPPM-DA and UChicago's MSCAPP--can you speak to why ppl chose MSPPM-DA over MSCAPP?

[woolscarves]

25 minutes ago, 2021mpp said:

Thank you so much! I'm assuming you know some ppl who were choosing between MSPPM-DA and UChicago's MSCAPP--can you speak to why ppl chose MSPPM-DA over MSCAPP?

The main drivers that I've noticed from my experience with people that chose between them and from what I can tell about the comparison between programs based on UChicago's website (career reports, curriculums, etc.):

1. Money. Heinz tends to be more generous with its funding than Harris for the same student.
2. DC placement. Heinz has a stronger DC presence from what I can tell. Pittsburgh's when you look at the school's respective employment reports, you can see that a lot of the MSPPM-DA students end up in DC every year. Harris doesn't break down by program unfortunately, but their % sent to DC is a bit lower. This is just the nature of geography. To some this is a big advantage, to other's it's actually not. (For me, it was a disadvantage. I'm actually going to Chicago after graduation. I didn't want to end up in DC.)
3. Heinz's more computational focus vs. Harris's more economics/statistical driven focus. Heinz college contains the public policy programs and our masters of information systems graduate programs. This means MSPPM have access to a lot of higher level analytical/ML classes that just what's in our core curriculum. Harris has some really good focuses on the core, theoretical principles that drive data science and public policy (again, this is from what I can tell but definitely happy to be corrected on this).

Despite these things, people (especially on this forum) love Harris for good reason. UChicago's prestige tempts many and it has a great location (although I also love Pittsburgh!). My roommate who is also in the DA program wanted to go to Harris but the funding just wasn't close to comparable and so she ended up here and has been happy with her choice. Ultimately, both programs are great.

[2021mpp]

@woolscarves Thank you for your response--this is incredibly helpful!!

[notarobotratheraguy]

@woolscarves, thank you so much for doing this!

1. Your insight and previous posts on this form suggest Heinz is more generous with funding that say Harris. Do you have any suggestions for how a candidate might increase their funding offer? What does CMU seem to reward?

2. Similarly, are there any scholarships or fellowships a prospective student should apply to beyond checking the box that we are interested in merit scholarship?

3. I am very interested in the Data Analytics track. Are there electives or professors you think are must takes? 

 

[hanburger]

Thanks @woolscarves !  To be frank, what I'm trying to narrow down right now is what criteria I should use to decide between programs. What were your main considerations in choosing CMU Heinz? Did you find them to accurately predict your experience, or have there been other factors that you perhaps didn't think about? Thanks in advance for bearing with an open-ended question

[woolscarves]

On 2/11/2021 at 3:50 PM, notarobotratheraguy said:

@woolscarves, thank you so much for doing this!

1. Your insight and previous posts on this form suggest Heinz is more generous with funding that say Harris. Do you have any suggestions for how a candidate might increase their funding offer? What does CMU seem to reward?

2. Similarly, are there any scholarships or fellowships a prospective student should apply to beyond checking the box that we are interested in merit scholarship?

3. I am very interested in the Data Analytics track. Are there electives or professors you think are must takes? 

 

1. Competing offers are usually the most effective way to increase funding. Eg. if you go to Heinz with a full ride from SAIS, there's a chance they'll up their offer. 

2. There are specific fellowships on the application that I remember you could apply for, but I don't think they're separate from the application form. Other than that, I don't think there's anything CMU specific that wouldn't apply to all external scholarships for people in these kinds of programs.

3. I really love Professor Caulkins and his Management Science classes. You have to take some as part of the core curriculum, but I'd recommend taking his other class if you like his first two. Also think there are some great applied analytics courses that you'll find out about when you get here (just look at the curriculum and see the Machine Learning electives that you can pick from, most are really good).

On 2/12/2021 at 8:00 AM, hanburger said:

Thanks @woolscarves !  To be frank, what I'm trying to narrow down right now is what criteria I should use to decide between programs. What were your main considerations in choosing CMU Heinz? Did you find them to accurately predict your experience, or have there been other factors that you perhaps didn't think about? Thanks in advance for bearing with an open-ended question

My main consideration for grad school was making sure I ended up where I wanted to be after. I know that seems silly, but I've found a lot of my peers don't think about that when considering grad schools. For me, being happy meant three things: 1) having the kind of job that I want, 2) living where I want, 3) solid financial situation afterwards (which incorporates 1 & 2). The employment statistics page showed me those things. I really liked HKS, but going $120,000+ into debt to get a job with a ~$80,000 salary was a non-starter for me. On the other hand, I knew I could go to CMU with less than $50,000 in debt and come out with a salary of ~$95,000. That financial freedom was key in my calculations. I also knew that I wanted to start developing a "niche" for myself in grad school and building the data & technical skills in the DA program was hugely enticing over the more generalized skills in a typical MPP program.

Overall, I've found that my expectations have been met. Even in the midst of the pandemic, the top ~80% of our class have multiple good job opportunities that we'd be at the very least satisfied with. The ones struggling are the ones that came in without much of a focus and didn't perform super well in our classes, which feeds into a bit of a cycle of feeling overwhelmed, unconfident, and the like. They'll end up with great options, but if you don't know what you want, then the job hunting experience can become more difficult.

You'll notice that I didn't talk too much about my time at Heinz itself. I have plenty to say about that, but ultimately my approach to picking a graduate school was focused around that first question of getting me where I want to go. My time here has been good; maybe it would've been better somewhere else and maybe it wouldn't have, but ultimately the outcome is exactly what I was looking for so I'm extremely satisfied.

[purpleapple]

Thanks for taking questions.

I've seen the job outcomes on the program's website, but would love to get your perspective on finding jobs/most common jobs. Do you feel that most students get funneled into consulting jobs? Does the school bring in good opportunities to meet with employers/interview on campus or do students find their own internship/job opportunities? Has career services been helpful in finding and attaining positions?

Have you been able to figure out what you'd like your career path to look like in the long-run using this degree? Many programs at the intersection of policy and computer science/data are relatively new, and it's easy to see what jobs people attain right after they graduate, but there's less clarity of what a full career path might look like. Have you had good resources to help you figure out the best path for you?

Hopefully these questions aren't too specific, I really appreciate you taking time to answer prospective students' questions!

[woolscarves]

1 hour ago, purpleapple said:

Thanks for taking questions.

I've seen the job outcomes on the program's website, but would love to get your perspective on finding jobs/most common jobs. Do you feel that most students get funneled into consulting jobs? Does the school bring in good opportunities to meet with employers/interview on campus or do students find their own internship/job opportunities? Has career services been helpful in finding and attaining positions?

Have you been able to figure out what you'd like your career path to look like in the long-run using this degree? Many programs at the intersection of policy and computer science/data are relatively new, and it's easy to see what jobs people attain right after they graduate, but there's less clarity of what a full career path might look like. Have you had good resources to help you figure out the best path for you?

Hopefully these questions aren't too specific, I really appreciate you taking time to answer prospective students' questions!

Hi, I think these are great questions.

No, I don't feel that students get funneled into consulting jobs. You see a decent chunk end up there for a few reasons: 1) the pay is good which is always a good bonus, 2) they recruit before other jobs and 3) it can be much easier to go from consulting to some public sector positions than vice versa. I think career services does a fine job of bringing in employers, but I don't think it's anything significantly different from other schools. I think the way in which the experience differs is that in indexes more heavily (expectedly) towards technology roles, both in the public and private sectors. We have some really, really prestigious organizations come to recruit here but a lot of times its for roles that focus on data. You'll get fewer traditional MPP roles recruiting here that you would at a comparably ranked program in my experience.

I do feel like I know the path that I want to follow and feel like Heinz has helped set me on that path, but I caution you that I don't think you can rely on Heinz (or any of these data & policy programs) to perform that role adequately. The DA program (and the others like it) have almost not academic pre-reps and so they presuppose almost no knowledge. It's really hard to gain expertise in any given area in two years of school if you're note focused on proactively developing that skillset. Gaining a real grasp on data analytics is hard in such a small time period especially when you're spending valuable course time on econ, policy, and communication courses. There's time to grow yourself into someone who specializes in databases, information security, or analytics, but the more focused you are the more likely you are to achieve that goal. There are internships and clubs and all of that which can help you in this, but unfortunately grad school isn't like undergrad when you have plenty of time to try different things. 

You don't have to come into grad school knowing "I want a job as a data analyst at the FDA specializing in time series forecasting methods," but to make the most of this and other programs you'll benefit from knowing things like "how technical do you want to be?", "public or private sector?", and "DC or not?". Knowing those helps you focus what you should spend your valuable time at Heinz on.

I know that's a long answer to your question, but I think it's an important one because my friends in the program that seem to be struggling the most with finding jobs right now are the ones that came in without a hypothesis for their future and hoped that they would stumble on it. You very well might! We have great speakers that have come and given me ideas about what my long-run could look like, but banking on it is an awfully expensive bet IMO.

[omoon]

Thanks for starting this post. So how "optional" is the video interview?
It said it's optional but highly recommended, I wonder if not doing it would ruined my chance.

[limabeans08]

Thanks so much for all the great info! Quick question: what other schools were you considering? 

[woolscarves]

4 hours ago, omoon said:

Thanks for starting this post. So how "optional" is the video interview?
It said it's optional but highly recommended, I wonder if not doing it would ruined my chance.

I'm not on the admissions committee so I really have no idea. I did it. I would guess that it's more important for international students so that they can show their ability to communicate, but that's pure speculation on my part.

3 hours ago, limabeans08 said:

Thanks so much for all the great info! Quick question: what other schools were you considering? 

I considered Duke Sanford, Texas LBJ, and briefly HKS. Liked Sanford a lot and would've been happy to go there. Visited LBJ and really disliked my experience. Didn't mesh with the other prospective students at all. Not a bad school, but very much not for me.

[purpleapple]

@woolscarves Thank you!

[Ax1om]

Hey @woolscarves, do you have any exposure/insight regarding the MSISPM program at Heinz? It seems to be a relatively small program with significant diversity in regard to class profile and employment outcomes. The curriculum is also quite broad. I'd appreciate your thoughts! 

[woolscarves]

On 2/22/2021 at 3:47 PM, Ax1om said:

Hey @woolscarves, do you have any exposure/insight regarding the MSISPM program at Heinz? It seems to be a relatively small program with significant diversity in regard to class profile and employment outcomes. The curriculum is also quite broad. I'd appreciate your thoughts! 

I've had relatively limited exposure. I took one infosec course this past fall that's a core course for the program and enjoyed it. Randy (the director of the program) taught the class and was really good. He was well organized, had a strong focus on ensuring applicable skills were developed (eg. our papers had to be structured as threat intelligence memos to non-technical executives), and cared about students. The ISPM students that spoke in the class (it was virtual, so student participation was a bit limited) seemed passionate about the topic and had a cool variety of background.

Unfortunately, that's all I have to offer: one class that I enjoyed as someone without a security background without an interest in pursuing it further. I do know a couple people from my program (the data analytics one) that switched to ISPM or heavily considered it if that's a valuable data point. I don't have any friends in the program, so can't ask for any more details sadly. Hope that's helpful.

[Ax1om]

1 hour ago, woolscarves said:

I've had relatively limited exposure. I took one infosec course this past fall that's a core course for the program and enjoyed it. Randy (the director of the program) taught the class and was really good. He was well organized, had a strong focus on ensuring applicable skills were developed (eg. our papers had to be structured as threat intelligence memos to non-technical executives), and cared about students. The ISPM students that spoke in the class (it was virtual, so student participation was a bit limited) seemed passionate about the topic and had a cool variety of background.

Unfortunately, that's all I have to offer: one class that I enjoyed as someone without a security background without an interest in pursuing it further. I do know a couple people from my program (the data analytics one) that switched to ISPM or heavily considered it if that's a valuable data point. I don't have any friends in the program, so can't ask for any more details sadly. Hope that's helpful.

That's incredibly helpful, thank you! Your positive experience is very encouraging. 

Follow up question: do you know anything about the Quantitative Skills Summer Program (QSSP)? 

Sorry to bombard you with questions! 

[woolscarves]

On 2/23/2021 at 9:22 PM, Ax1om said:

That's incredibly helpful, thank you! Your positive experience is very encouraging. 

Follow up question: do you know anything about the Quantitative Skills Summer Program (QSSP)? 

Sorry to bombard you with questions! 

Not a lot. They ask people to do it who have math backgrounds that aren't quite to the level that they think you need to be successful in the program but can be quickly. They bring people in for a bit over the summer and you take some courses to get you to whatever quant level it is that they think is necessary. I have some friends who did it who said that it wasn't too bad. They kind of liked it because it gave them a reason to come to Pittsburgh earlier, settle in, and make some friends. Granted, I can imagine most of that appeal is lessened if COVID still prevents in-person classes this summer.

[Ax1om]

10 hours ago, woolscarves said:

Not a lot. They ask people to do it who have math backgrounds that aren't quite to the level that they think you need to be successful in the program but can be quickly. They bring people in for a bit over the summer and you take some courses to get you to whatever quant level it is that they think is necessary. I have some friends who did it who said that it wasn't too bad. They kind of liked it because it gave them a reason to come to Pittsburgh earlier, settle in, and make some friends. Granted, I can imagine most of that appeal is lessened if COVID still prevents in-person classes this summer.

I know it's pretty speculative, but do you think Fall will be fully in-person again? I'm a bit confused by the "hybrid" model being discussed. I'm planning to attend grad school (hopefully Heinz) this coming Fall, but I'm weighing the pros and cons of deferring for a year. Georgia Tech is also one of my top choices, and their identical degree program is only $9k total cost of attendance. Now that in-person programs are seemingly being held online, it makes the cost-benefit analysis especially difficult. 

[woolscarves]

22 hours ago, Ax1om said:

I know it's pretty speculative, but do you think Fall will be fully in-person again? I'm a bit confused by the "hybrid" model being discussed. I'm planning to attend grad school (hopefully Heinz) this coming Fall, but I'm weighing the pros and cons of deferring for a year. Georgia Tech is also one of my top choices, and their identical degree program is only $9k total cost of attendance. Now that in-person programs are seemingly being held online, it makes the cost-benefit analysis especially difficult. 

Sorry, but really no insight better than the average person. CMU is in many ways better prepared to return to a full in-person experience than many places, particularly because we have an on-campus testing lab that can test every student for free at least once/week. On the other hand, CMU has shown itself to be especially cautious throughout this process and has cancelled things far before (in my opinion) they needed to, so it's really hard to say. I would hope that if current trends in vaccinations and case numbers continue, then CMU and almost all other universities will return to a relatively normal state, but that's my stance and isn't informed by any particular data from CMU leadership.

[Ax1om]

Just received my admissions offer this afternoon! I am extremely excited by the opportunity. However, it looks like tuition will come out to $65k total after scholarship.  Have you heard of students being able to negotiate or request further funding? Trying to find a way to pay for this thing!

[Saf78]

48 minutes ago, Ax1om said:

Just received my admissions offer this afternoon! I am extremely excited by the opportunity. However, it looks like tuition will come out to $65k total after scholarship.  Have you heard of students being able to negotiate or request further funding? Trying to find a way to pay for this thing!

Congratulations on the admit! Was it for the MSPPM-DA track?

[Ax1om]

41 minutes ago, Saf78 said:

Congratulations on the admit! Was it for the MSPPM-DA track?

InfoSec, not PPM!

[MPP_2021]

Hi. Can you share more information about the MSPPM-DC track? Thanks!

[woolscarves]

On 2/26/2021 at 6:23 PM, Ax1om said:

Just received my admissions offer this afternoon! I am extremely excited by the opportunity. However, it looks like tuition will come out to $65k total after scholarship.  Have you heard of students being able to negotiate or request further funding? Trying to find a way to pay for this thing!

In the past you could negotiate by sharing competing offers from other schools. They usually send out a form about it a little after acceptances. I wouldn't be shocked if the negotiation process is different this year though.

 

1 hour ago, MPP_2021 said:

Hi. Can you share more information about the MSPPM-DC track? Thanks!

Sure, what do you want to know beyond what's on the website?

[MPP_2021]

22 minutes ago, woolscarves said:

Sure, what do you want to know beyond what's on the website?

How manageable is the second-year workload? With a 30 hr fellowship and evening classes, have you heard any concerns about competing priorities or too heavy of a workload?

Are there any negatives to the structured second-year curriculum? The schedule doesn’t allow for the breadth of electives offered at the main campus.

Have you heard any feedback, both positive or negative, about the DC track?