Duke Sanford vs. Michigan Ford?

[thegr8gatesb]

I was wondering if anybody else was having this debate! Prospective MPP here.

I'll try to go to both admitted students' weekends, but I'm trying to come into it with some good baseline knowledge. Duke gave me a half ride, Michigan a one-third ride. Future goals include academic research in public policy, and I've read that Michigan has a bit more academic focus compared to Duke's practical focus, but I have no idea if this is actually the case. I'm originally from the Midwest, but am currently living and working in the South, so neither region offers more intangibles than the other for me.

Edited to add my policy area focus: I want to look at the effects of poverty on educational attainment, and policy measures to alleviate poverty. So a bit of an intersection between straight-up public policy analysis, social policy, and ed policy. My focus will mainly be domestic, but I'd ideally like to throw some comparative case studies in there.

Does anybody have any intel on academic vs. practical emphases for these programs? How about quality of life for grad students? Town culture for Ann Arbor/Durham? School culture-- does either attract a specific "type" of student (multiple ways to think about that question)?

Edited March 13, 2016 by thegr8gatesb

[RCtheSS]

If you haven't already, I recommend searching through this subforum for previous discussions on both programs. While somewhat dated, these questions have been asked numerous times before and it's helpful to read through other folks' perspectives. Just now I quickly searched and found a few topics that may help you in your decision-making:

Hopefully other posters will chime in with more feedback.

[kd7432]

Thought I'd re-up this. I'm confused between Sanford and Ford as well..I went through the other threads posted above and they were helpful. However, I'm wondering if someone will have more recent advice/experiences to share?

Also, @thegr8gatesb did you decide? or find more info?

[chocolatecheesecake]

Second-year MPP at Duke Sanford here. I'll try to give you my perspective, and hope that someone else from Michigan will chime in as well. 

Academic vs. practical emphases: I agree that Sanford definitely has a fairly practical emphasis. We have quite a few professors of the practice who aren't doctorates in their field, but have decades of experience in North Carolina politics, housing and transit policy, national security, etc. etc. The spring consulting project (first year) and master's project (second year) are both client-based, and you end up doing a lot that has a practical application. I really love it. There are 2-3 MPPs every year who end up going onto the PhD track at Sanford, so it does happen. Many graduates end up in policy analyst positions where they are either creating or translating policy for the mass public/ decision makers, so you often straddle that academic and applied divide.

Policy area focus: Your focus is also one of my focuses! I have found Sanford a great place for that. We have several education policy professors (and some cool ones joining us in 2017), as well as a whole center on child and family policy which has gathered many social policy professors. There is definitely a big space for your work, and many fellow students who are doing what you're interested in. 

Quality of life/ school culture/ town culture: We have a tight-knit cohort of 60-70 students each year, who spend a lot of time with each other outside of doing problem sets and team work together, like for happy hours or parties outside of school. There's a really bustling extracurricular scene. I spend a lot of time on school work, because Sanford is not an easy school, but I think it's the right amount of busy/ hard work, and not punitively so. I don't know if we have a type. Maybe we do, but I don't know about it. As for town culture, Durham is small, but is growing quickly, and Raleigh is half an hour away. Durham is a fascinating place to observe gentrification, as housing prices have been doubled and tripled over the last decade. Downtown is absolutely mushrooming luxury condo developments. It's sad but interesting. The silver lining that we get to enjoy are the hordes of food trucks, craft breweries and cideries, bars, cafés, and restaurants. I was even approached to join a roller derby league when I was at the farmer's market. The public transit is not that great, and you do need a car to get around, but I came from a large city in the midwest, and would not have guessed that I'd like this place as much as I do! 

[kd7432]

Thanks for your insights. I am interested in international development.  How is Sanford for this focus? Are there a lot of students who pursue this focus? And what about the professors in this area? Also, since most international development jobs are in DC, how do Sanford students fare there (perhaps at places such as Urban institute or World Bank)? 

Since you're a second year, can you tell me where you did your internship? And what your two projects were on and for which organizations?

Apologies for so many questions!

17 hours ago, chocolatecheesecake said:

Second-year MPP at Duke Sanford here. I'll try to give you my perspective, and hope that someone else from Michigan will chime in as well. 

Academic vs. practical emphases: I agree that Sanford definitely has a fairly practical emphasis. We have quite a few professors of the practice who aren't doctorates in their field, but have decades of experience in North Carolina politics, housing and transit policy, national security, etc. etc. The spring consulting project (first year) and master's project (second year) are both client-based, and you end up doing a lot that has a practical application. I really love it. There are 2-3 MPPs every year who end up going onto the PhD track at Sanford, so it does happen. Many graduates end up in policy analyst positions where they are either creating or translating policy for the mass public/ decision makers, so you often straddle that academic and applied divide.

Policy area focus: Your focus is also one of my focuses! I have found Sanford a great place for that. We have several education policy professors (and some cool ones joining us in 2017), as well as a whole center on child and family policy which has gathered many social policy professors. There is definitely a big space for your work, and many fellow students who are doing what you're interested in. 

Quality of life/ school culture/ town culture: We have a tight-knit cohort of 60-70 students each year, who spend a lot of time with each other outside of doing problem sets and team work together, like for happy hours or parties outside of school. There's a really bustling extracurricular scene. I spend a lot of time on school work, because Sanford is not an easy school, but I think it's the right amount of busy/ hard work, and not punitively so. I don't know if we have a type. Maybe we do, but I don't know about it. As for town culture, Durham is small, but is growing quickly, and Raleigh is half an hour away. Durham is a fascinating place to observe gentrification, as housing prices have been doubled and tripled over the last decade. Downtown is absolutely mushrooming luxury condo developments. It's sad but interesting. The silver lining that we get to enjoy are the hordes of food trucks, craft breweries and cideries, bars, cafés, and restaurants. I was even approached to join a roller derby league when I was at the farmer's market. The public transit is not that great, and you do need a car to get around, but I came from a large city in the midwest, and would not have guessed that I'd like this place as much as I do! 

 

[chocolatecheesecake]

10 hours ago, kd7432 said:

Thanks for your insights. I am interested in international development.  How is Sanford for this focus? Are there a lot of students who pursue this focus? And what about the professors in this area? Also, since most international development jobs are in DC, how do Sanford students fare there (perhaps at places such as Urban institute or World Bank)? 

Since you're a second year, can you tell me where you did your internship? And what your two projects were on and for which organizations?

Apologies for so many questions!

 

International development is a common area of study here. We have the Duke Center for International Development which oversees the Master of International Development Policy program. There's a lot of professors and courses that you'll be interested in, so I suggest you look at the courses on our website. People have done really interesting work on cookstoves in India, or forestry management in Indonesia, water management or healthcare services in India, etc. etc. We have a lot of students who end up doing this work, many who came out of the Peace Corps. If you PM me, I can definitely put you in touch with a few second-year or first-year MPPs concentrating in international development. We even have someone from Pakistan who is a second-year MPP. =) I can't say about the World Bank, but I know we have an alum or two at the Urban Institute, and some people who come from working there to the MPP program. 

My internship was for a social service agency in a small developed country in Asia. I did a program evaluation, observed the program in action, and wrote up a report, and it was a great experience to work in another language. My two projects at Sanford have actually been for the same client, the state community colleges. It is fairly common to work with a local agency or local/state government for your spring consulting project and your master's project, but I also know people who are working for governmental agencies in China for their MP, and someone else who is doing a project for the World Bank. There's a wide range out there! Please PM me if I can share more about my personal experience.