Harvard Kennedy School v. Fletcher v. SAIS--least quantitative program?

[mhopeful]

Hello everyone,

I am considering doing a dual law and masters of public policy or international relations masters program. I majored in international relations and have already applied to law schools. Statistics and heavily based quantitative courses are not my thing, although I aspire to go into government and am interested in both public policy and international relations. I would be deeply grateful if you could advise me on which of these top IR masters/or public policy schools have the least quantitative emphasis. Is it true that Fletcher is less quantitative based than Harvard? I believe SAIS has tons of econ requirements.

Thanks for your help!

[bongin]

SAIA>KSG>Fletcher

[greendiplomat]

SAIA>KSG>Fletcher

While I'd agree with this post in general, I think whether you put SAIS or HKS on top depends on what you consider "quantitative".

In terms of quantitative requirements, SAIS requires 6 econ classes: intermediate micro and macro, international trade and monetary theory, and another 2 econ electives.

While HKS only requires 4 "quantitative" classes, 2 of these are stats classes (Quantitative Analysis and Empirical Methods; Empirical Methods II); the other 2 are econ classes (Markets and Market Failure; Economic Analysis of Public Policy).

The quantitative requirements for Fletcher are only dictated through its breadth requirement, which requires students to complete one class of your choice in international economic/business and another in quantitative reasoning.

On a side-note, if you get into 2 schools and one seems to be the obvious choice if it weren't for the quantitative requirements, I would go for that one. After all, there's a reason why these schools require this sort of training, and all schools that I've heard of have some sort of support system to make sure people get through those requirements.

Anyhow, good luck!

P.S.: Here are the requirements for each of the degrees, for your reference:

HKS: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/registrar/procedures/requirements/mpp

Fletcher: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/academic/breadthrequirements.shtml

SAIS: http://www.sais-jhu.edu/academics/economics/ma-requirements/index.htm