William & Mary MPP

[s800x]

Anyone else applied to the MPP at W&M?! Last year they notified on the last Tuesday of Feb so here's hoping we hear something today ...

[corrinezou]

I did not apply. But I plan to apply for 2010fall. Any thought on this program? How selective is it?

[s800x]

William & Mary is a very prestigious school for undergrad but I'm not really sure how strong its reputation for Public Policy is. I haven't seen much on here about it but it's close to DC and has regular (weekly?) trips there to meet (and presumably network) with policymakers.

The website says that on average 75 apply per year and 25 are enrolled. Average GPA is 3.5 and GRE scores are 580V, 690Q, 4.5AW. Looks to be pretty generous with funding judging from the website.

Would be great to hear some more info from someone who knows about the program!

[corrinezou]

Yes. This program is kinda "invisible". I don't see many applicants or insiders talk about it on Gradcafe or other Chinese grad forums that I usually go to.

[East_of_Eden]

William and Mary's program is a great one. I went there for a visit a few months ago and was so impressed with everything! The students are intelligent and wonderful people, the faculty is kind and caring, the professors are respected and accomplished and the campus is idyllic and absolutely gorgeous. Needless to say, I left with a wonderful impression. The program itself is supposedly highly quantitative in nature. W&M, like other more suburban campuses, doesn't seem to garner the same enthusiasm from prospective students. Understandibly, most people want a campus with great access to a big city and W&M doesn't really have that. From what they told me, the program does have a lot of interaction with DC and VA state gov't offices.

The program director informed me that everyone gets some form of grant funding. They're very good at evenly distributing the grant money among all students and they seem to be well funded by the state of VA. On top of that, it's already cheap being a public university.

The only downer I saw was the location. While it's incredibly beautiful there, it feels very isolated. W&M, in my opinion, proves the US News rankings aren't to be taken too seriously. I mean, W&M is regarded with so little respect by them. I don't get it.