UT Austin LBJ School Strength/ Weaknessess?

[LonghornIR]

I've been accepted to the Public Affairs program and I am looking for your sage advice to help me make a decision. Thanks!!

[sosh]

(MPAff.) Strengths:

1) Incredible alumni network -- LBJ'ers are in virtually every federal agency, lots of privates, non-profits, etc. If you want to work in Texas every second person seems to be an alum. Also, there's a great alumni coordinator at the school, and for the most part alums are very willing to meet/network/give advice.

2) Lots of flexibility -- the specialization areas aren't rigid and declaring a specialization isn't required. Also, you can take grad-level classes at almost every other academic department at UT, including law (some classes reserve a certain number of seats only for LBJ students).

3) Very (very) collegial atmosphere... lots of social events.

4) Lots of quant courses available, only a couple required.

5) Automatic stipends available for unpaid summer internships.

6) The vast majority of the faculty are full-time, permanent, which means they're available most of the week to meet -- I have a quant professor this semester who regularly meets with students during specially scheduled office hours on Sundays.

7) The research centers are pretty varied... all hire RA's.

Weaknesses:

1) The dean of LBJ, James Steinberg, left this fall to be deputy secretary of state... the school is in the middle of a dean search.

2) The building is in the process of being completely gutted and renovated -- scheduled completion Jan. 2010, but until then things are kind of fragmented.

3) There's not a lot of automatic advising... the grad advisor is great but you have to go to him to plan things out.

4) There's not a lot of flexibility the first year for electives.

That's all I got right now... this list certainly isn't exhaustive and doesn't really apply to the MGPS program.

[LonghornIR]

Thanks so much for your feedback! I assume you're currently in the program? I'm trying to decide between LBJ/ MES dual degree and Yale IR and it's going to be a tough decision for me... any feedback is appreciated.

Anyone else out there have any input?

[policy_applicant]

Yeah, thanks sosh! Any idea when LBJ is going to send out funding decisions? That will play a big role in whether or not I end up there.

[sosh]

Yeah, thanks sosh! Any idea when LBJ is going to send out funding decisions? That will play a big role in whether or not I end up there.

I've got no idea.

Thanks so much for your feedback! I assume you're currently in the program? I'm trying to decide between LBJ/ MES dual degree and Yale IR and it's going to be a tough decision for me... any feedback is appreciated.

Again, afraid I'm not much help... I'm not taking and IR/international affairs perspective. You might want to call up the admissions coordinator and ask for a student's contact info... they seem to be cool like that. If you visit campus, you'll be able to talk to as many as you want

[sisepuede]

i strongly second what sosh said about the alumni network within texas. i just left TX after three years of working on policy/electoral stuff all over the state. i'd say 1.5 out of every 2 consultants, strategists, electeds, lobbyists, big funders, non-profit directors...etc, literally start and end every conversation with "hook em horns!"

ok, perhaps not EVERY conversation, but definitely most people i worked with either were products of UT Austin undergrad, LBJ or the law school. and they tend to look out for each other in my experience. i've also learned that such a tight alumni network in the state also means folks know who is good to work with and who to avoid. very valuable when you are campaigning or trying to put together support for something.

when i first started building political relationships there, i literally wore a burnt orange baseball cap to casual events sometimes to get legislators to open up. (hey, no one ever said politics is a glamorous business). 8)

[LonghornIR]

What about connections outside of Texas? As a former Longhorn, I can already wear burnt orange with pride

[policy_applicant]

What about connections outside of Texas? As a former Longhorn, I can already wear burnt orange with pride

Yeah, this is my worry. I have a former coworker who got her MPAff at LBJ and she indicated that the alumni network was pretty much limited to Texas and DC. Would there be enough opportunities in DC, though? I'm not particularly interested in living in Texas after graduation. Also, I would like to live in CA at some point in the future and worry that the alumni network is limited there.

[gala]

Does any on have any information on how big class sizes are?

[AllOverthePlace]

I asked them about this and incoming mpp class size last year was 102.

[gala]

Thanks for the response Allover the place.

Did anyone attend yesterday's visit day? If so how did it go?

[policy_applicant]

No money for me. Looks like I can cross LBJ off the list.

[stilesg57]

Has anyone else not heard back from LBJ yet? I think I'm going to send them an email...

[policy_applicant]

I emailed Lucy Neighbors and she emailed me back a PDF copy of my letter (ahem, with no money!). Anyway, definitely worth asking her.

[stilesg57]

^^^Well, ditto. No money knocks out LBJ for me. Funny enough, after not getting into any schools last year I got in everywhere I applied this year.

[mgrn68]

Does anyone know approximately how many research assistantships are awarded to LBJ students? How difficult is it to secure additional funding?

I really like LBJ's curriculum more than the other two schools I'm considering, UGA and Maryland, because there seems to be a lot of course offerings in quantitative analysis and economics.

There seem to be a sizeable number of adjunct faculty at LBJ, are they generally as good as the full-time people?

[lbjane]

I'm a recent LBJ grad and I think that there are probably somewhere around 20-30 RA positions with the various research centers and professors. Those usually go to second (third?) year students though. You can always look for an RA position, but when you're making your financial plans, you shouldn't plan on securing one of those your first year. There are a number of student administrative assistant-type jobs that first years can secure, so that might be a better bet. I think that those pay around $10/hr or so, although I'm not completely certain.

You can also look at other departments for TA/RA positions. Since LBJ does not offer an undergrad program, there are fewer TA positions available, but other most other departments have undergrad programs and will have more need for TA's. You could go ahead and start e-mailing departments and professors to express your interest in those. They may not be making decisions yet, but they should at least be able to provide some feedback as to whether they'll consider hiring TA's from other departments, like LBJ.

I think that your odds of securing additional funding are decent, but you will have to seek it out yourself. You'll have to contact professors, research centers, other departments, etc. yourself for the positions and make the effort to locate assistantships.

My experience with adjuncts at LBJ has been pretty good. There are probably some who are not around campus a whole lot, but the ones that I've taken and that I've heard about have been pretty good, and in some cases they've been better than the tenured ones!