GPPI VS Indiana, Maryland, NYU, does DC worth $60,000? (Plan for a PHD)

[kiss hello]

I'm from China and I've been admitted into 2012 GPPI MPP, Indiana MPA, Maryland MPP, NYU MPA. I'm now swaying between GPPI and Indiana.

I'm now planing to pursue a PHD in public finance after master's degree though it's hard to predict changes.

GPPI is poorly ranked in academia and has no policy PHD. However, the program is solid with econ and math courses. Location in DC means I may dip into the American professional world and see whether I really prefer academia.

Indiana is strong in academia and has its own policy PHD. Seldom are there such programs with courses in all four branchs (tax, budgeting, debt, accounting) of public finance. However, it means I'll spent two years (maybe seven years) in a university town and has few other choices.

GPPI MPP($120,000) is a lot more expensive than Indiana MPA ($65,000), which will deplete all my family's savings. And I still have not figured out which will brings more advantage in doctoral application as it's tricky.

Maryland and NYU are also strong in academia, but I wonder their programs are more professional but not as solid.

Any suggestions for my choice?

[OregonGal]

If you want to find a compromise between location and price you may want to take another look at University of Maryland's MPP program. If its at the College Park location, it's in the DC suburbs and you can access DC fairly easily. If it's at the Baltimore campus, you're still less than an hour away from DC. However, I don't know anything about the relative academic/professional strength of their MPP program.

[state_school'12]

Maryland (+1) has a strong enough academic reputation. Stron econ department, and I think Sociology (?). My sense is that of the DC universities, Maryland is the most traditional social science research institution, with lots of labs and centers on urban issues. My guess is that Indiana is indeed stronger for the PhD track, but you should be careful to be sure that as a masters student you can follow a pre-PhD track. That goes for whereever you end up.

I'd also take a look at the publishing history/CVs for professors that you find interesting, and compare options that way.

Hopefully some of the current-year PhD Applicants can chime in.

[kiss hello]

If you want to find a compromise between location and price you may want to take another look at University of Maryland's MPP program. If its at the College Park location, it's in the DC suburbs and you can access DC fairly easily. If it's at the Baltimore campus, you're still less than an hour away from DC. However, I don't know anything about the relative academic/professional strength of their MPP program.

Maryland (+1) has a strong enough academic reputation. Stron econ department, and I think Sociology (?). My sense is that of the DC universities, Maryland is the most traditional social science research institution, with lots of labs and centers on urban issues. My guess is that Indiana is indeed stronger for the PhD track, but you should be careful to be sure that as a masters student you can follow a pre-PhD track. That goes for whereever you end up.

I'd also take a look at the publishing history/CVs for professors that you find interesting, and compare options that way.

Hopefully some of the current-year PhD Applicants can chime in.

Thank you for your suggestions!

UMD's school of public policy locates at College Park. However, after a thorough investigation of the school's public finance faculty, I find they are mostly pratitioners that hold a master or lower. Though UMD has a strong economic department, I wonder a MPP can hardly benefit from its resources.

GPPI's students can easily choose courses in other departments and other institutions like GWU and maybe could choose to pursue a concurrent MA in economics. I think these do some help.

The choice is really hard.