UT LBJ ID Reputation

[DreamTeam03]

Hey all. Still waiting to hear back from a few schools plus haven't heard anything about funding from Georgetown just yet, but I figure my choice is ultimately going to rest between Georgetown (MPP) or UT (MPAff).

I intend on focusing on ID in either school. I understand Gtown is pretty great in this area--plus you can't beat DC if you're looking to break into ID/NGO/nonprofit work. 

 

I know LBJ gets a lot of love on this board. I was wondering if anyone could vouch for their international curriculum. I've gone through the 'Research' section on their page, but that doesn't really paint a whole and clear picture. Considering I live in DC, I could always intern/work here during the summers, but I was wondering if UT LBJ was reputable and/or comparable to Gtown in terms of coursework, professors, etc. I'm asking in part because LBJ is much, much more affordable than Gtown so I'm trying to see if the costs of the latter are worth the education and prestige (considering I have another more-than-solid option)--and I'm not entirely convinced it is. Any thoughts?

 

[MPPgal]

It really depends on the area of the world you are interested in, for Latin America for example you can't beat UT, which was my main reason for chosing it over Gtown. However, other areas are well represented, mostly Africa and Asia. I do think GTown might be better in those areas though, also if Idev is what you care then I suggest doing MGPS not MPAff as MPAff is less international. In terms of internships I have had a paid internship since I started doing Latin America focused stuff, because Texas has so much of that and unlike DC the pool of people applying for policy jobs is a lot smaller. I however am an international student and doing MPAff and in general have never felt limited in its international curriculum because the MPAff program is so free and there are so many classes with dealing with Lat Am anyways. If you would like to chat send me a message and I can give you a bit more info depending on your area of interest. So it depends if what you want is working for the world bank, stay in DC. If you want to work for a smaller ngo that tends to pay less and dont want to be in debt, come to Texas.

[DreamTeam03]

You're awesome! I'll definitely take you up on that offer. Just gonna mention a couple of things here in case anyone else is following this thread. 

I'm still considering whether I'd enroll into MGPS (or MIDP at Georgetown), but when I was researching which programs I wanted to apply to, I chose MPP/MPA/MPAff programs because they are a bit broader in order to keep my options open. Plus, it's really important to me to get the quant side and usually international specializations seem to have less quant than their public policy counterparts. And, this may reveal my ignorance, but it also seems that it's easier to  supplement courses from international specializations through independent study than it would be to supplement the quant courses I'd be missing out on. 

[MPPgal]

Yes, what you say is precisely true. That is also why I chose MPAff, I feel learning new theories on Idev I can do on my own, learning more statistical methods to quantify development and even more qualitative tools I cannot, MPAff choses a lot more on the methods and practical skills than in the theory, plus you still can take 7 optative classes from MGPS and thus get the same amount of international exposure.