American U. School of Public Affairs

[mpp2011]

Does anyone know anything about the MPP program there? I'm specifically interested in how the program stacks up versus GPPI and GW in job placement - the website doesn't have a career services section. On that note, do they have a career services office?

Any insights into the strength of the program? There's been much more talk about GW than American on here. Is there a reason for that?

That should be enough questions for now...

[publicpolicy79]

I did my MA at SPA but interacted A LOT with the MPPs and MPAs there. We had some overlap in classes but mostly just hanging out with them socially (plus I had an assistantship working for a well-regarded prof that many MPP and MPA students took courses from even outside of their program). Their experiences seemed extremely positive, and everyone I knew there got work in their field in the place (regionally-speaking) of their choosing. There is definitely career services, and five years after I graduated I still get emails from them offering support.

Most of the MPP people I knew worked in some capacity (internship, co-op, part-time work or full-time) while they were in the program, and a lot of them leveraged those into "real" jobs after they graduated. American actually has one of the best records in the country in producing PMFs (there were several out of my SPA-cohort). One of my good friends ended up at NOAA where she has rapidly risen through the ranks and now travels the world (literally...it's Paris one week Africa the next) on their behalf. There were also several people who got into minority-leadership programs and the like that got them federal jobs.

If you want to work in DC after finishing school there really isn't a huge difference in reputation among the big schools. I worked at a well-known national association (let's just say I dealt with a lot of governors) and when we were reviewing applications and doing interviews we didn't care if someone was a Georgetown or GWU or American. The only time we ever even made a distinction was if we thought one of our colleagues might have been at said school at the same time (so we could then ask that colleague).

I can't speak to the quant and econ strengths/weaknesses among the programs, but in a field where some basic quant knowledge was required, we weren't ever concerned that someone would be lacking because they went to a particular school.

The downside is that, like most of the DC MPP programs, they don't fund many people and, like GWU and Georgetown, that degree don't come cheap!

[mpp2011]

Thanks for the feedback. The American and GW tuitions are a bit more manageable than GPPI, and so far I'm failing to see how GPPI justifies the extra cost. I plan to visit all the schools at the end of the month, so hopefully that will give me a better idea of which would be the best value and fit.