Columbia: SIPA or Teachers College?

[EduDev]

Hi, I plan on studying social affairs with concentration on education policy. Would SIPA or Teachers College be a better choice here? I heard Teachers College is only an affiliate and not really Columbia, so they may not receive the same kind of resources that Columbia students have. Any insights?

[dpgu800]

Teachers College seems to have an international/comparative education development MAs, so I can definitely see that as being an option for you. (http://www.tc.columbia.edu/its/cie%26ied/index.asp?Id=Prospective+Student+Information&Info=Degrees+Offered)

 

I don't know specifically about education policy, but if you want to focus on more global aspect of EP, SIPA might be a good choice, as you can def benefit from the SIPA brand name. Teachers College prob has more expertise, connection, and courses in EP specifically tho.

 

But when considering brand name and etc, you need to think about what field you want to be in, and what kind of schools/degrees your predecessors in those fields have pursued. If you want to work in think tanks, NGOs, and etc, a intl. policy MA def has the advantage.

However, If the orgs and companies that you wanna work for has people with degrees and connections from education MAs, you should pursue that track (you should look into the specifics of each orgs and fields, as I really am clueless about EP   )

 

 

In my own case, I'm interested in international urban development, and not that many intl. policy schools offer a specific concentration in that area, except for a handful of schools. 

So I'm applying to a lot of urban planning schools with international development concentration, so the my pool of dream schools is about 50% policy schools and 50% urban planning schools.

 

I would think you could apply to EP schools with international concentrations and mix in some intl. policy schools with social policy concentration and opportunity to cross register for classes in the EP department in the same university. 

[NPRjunkie]

I hear TC is a joke at Columbia and (as you've said) it's an affiliate college. SIPA is definitely higher on the pecking order.

[EduDev]

I just talked to some people at Columbia and thought it would be good to share. TC is actually very well-regarded among Columbia schools. Some TC students are not happy with the fact that some of their classes are rather crowded ( 40-50 students/class!), but considering that some classes at SIPA and Fu School of Engineering ( where people I communicated with are attending) may reach up to 100-150, I think that's not too bad. Still, it's funny because Columbia is a private school; I expect smaller-sized classes. Other than that, as dpgu800 pointed out, TC students can freely register classes at Columbia, and many people take advantage of that. Sounds pretty good to me. 

Edited January 7, 2014 by EduDev