Is it possible that this MPP program could prevent me from a PhD later on?

[cupcakequeen4444]

I'm planning on going back to school to get my master's, and I really want to focus on something that will get me closer to my goal of doing education policy research, preferably in a think tank or consulting group. My BA is in public policy, but that was 3 years ago. I'm now in a "research" job full time that is really not that rigorous -- think, market research for a big company, and only tangentially related to my interest in education.

I knew I wanted to do ed policy research as soon as I graduated, but at the time, I was so ridiculously broke I couldn't imagine taking out a huge chunk of loans to pursue my MPP acceptance from UChicago, so that's why I'm doing it 3 years + a savings account later. Most importantly, my employer is offering to pay for my master's degree as long as I can still work full time or have minimal schedule interruptions, so I really want to take advantage of this opportunity and make the right decision -- that means I can consider local, flexible programs or online only.

Here's where I'm most interested:

• Johns Hopkins, MEd Policy - online

• Northeastern, MPP - hybrid online and in person (offers a 6 mo internship after the MPP with a policy/related employer)

• American University, MPAP - online

I've gotten advice that in-person > online, and I like the internship option, so I'm seriously considering NEU. However, when I do a broad LinkedIn search of people who got an MPP from NEU and then got their PhD, there aren't many. Whereas, I see many more from Stanford/Harvard/American/etc. NEU is also technically the lowest ranked program on my list (#70, AU is like #13). Is there a chance that getting my MPP at NEU could prevent me from pursuing a PhD down the line? I don't really want to go down the academia path, just think tank research, and I hear a PhD is important for that later on. I just want to make sure that if I pursued an MPP it wouldn't somehow close the PhD door.