Duke MPP

[Paradoxex22]

Greetings,

Just a quick question regarding schools we're considering. We are all bandying about programs of high caliber, deciding between Michigan and Chicago and Berkely, etc.

One school I haven't heard mentioned much is Duke, which has a reputed MPP program by US News standards as well. I have several schools I'm looking at, two of which are Michigan and Duke, and I was wondering:

1. Which you'd consider superior, and why...

2. Why some of the MPP applicants here decided not to apply to Duke.

[erin85]

I have a friend at Duke who loves it if that helps...

I didn't apply for 2 reasons. One was location. The other was their standards. I applied to Georgetown and Chicago not really expecting to be admitted because of what they claimed their standards were, but thinking if I was, they'd be good locations and programs. Duke just didn't fit that. Plus, since I applied to 6 programs, I tried to make 3 "Safe" options that I'd likely have little issue being admitted to and possibly receive aid from, and 3 being higher rated and possibly less likely for me to gain admittance to.

So yea, nothing against Duke, it just wasn't one of the 3 harder programs I chose

[Berlin]

Just my personal opinion: I visited as an undergrad, and found the students to be really elitist, and the Duke community as a whole to be very segregated from the surrounding neighborhood. This doesn't necessarily reflect on their MPP program, but I just didn't like the vibe at all when I visited (albeit a few years ago).