Harvard GSD and MIT DUSP for international development

[XYZMan]

For those interested in international development who will be applying next year, I would like to recommend that you check out the Master's of Urban Planning degree at Harvard's GSD and the Master's of City Planning degree at MIT's DUSP.

 

Don't be turned off by the names of the degrees.  Both are excellently suited for both international development policy makers and implementers.  MIT's degree even has a International Development Group specialization.  And even though Harvard's does not have a named specialization, it offers comprehensive coursework in the field.  And in addition to having everything you might get out of an MPP, MPA, or IR degree, they also have components not found in those programs, most notably, emphasis on the physical/built aspect of international development.

 

These programs don't get much attention among public policy/IR applicants.  It might be helpful to think outside of the box regarding graduate degrees in this area.

 

I will be attending one of these programs in the fall.

 

 

[ron.nie]

Which one did you join?

 

Have applied to DUSP. Really like the stuff that Zegras is doing with BRT systems.

 

Thanks.

Edited January 19, 2014 by ron.nie

[dpgu800]

I applied to DUSP as well.

That's def my dream school

 

Thought about applying to GSD, but heard some negative stuff about it, plus it looked like a lot of its IDEV courses were just cross register courses from DUSP and HKS. I also didn't really feel like going through multiple semesters of studio classes....

(Though I would really love to study with Prof. Diane Davis. but I could prob do that if I get into DUSP and cross register....)

 

But in any cases, all the high rank UP programs in the Boston area all have good academic coordination among each other, so getting into any one of them would be really good.

 

And like you say, you could def take some in depth courses on very specific, UP-related, urban economics, water/energy issues, etc. 

 

 

 

BTW: by "I will be attending one of these programs in the fall," do you mean that you already got an offer from those schools, or are you a second year student?

 

Edit: I just noticed that the OP started this post last march, haha

Edited January 19, 2014 by dpgu800

[VLog]

How do you compare both prgrams