Info on KSG Students and Programs

[Batignolles]

I've been doing some research on the KSG in preparation for submitting a few fellowship applications, and I stumbled upon a few resources that I thought would be pretty helpful to those of you out there who want more information on the KSG. It's amazing what's put out there on the internet today...

Admission Data

In addition to all kinds of information about nationality, race, and gender of applicants as well as faculty and lecturers, the Diversity Committee Briefing Book for 2008 includes average GRE scores and exact feeder schools for all mid-career applicants up to the class of 2007 (GRE scores are for the old GRE: V588 / Q604 / A623, AW4.8 average, 234 of 419 applicants accepted for AY2007). There's some data, a bit more recent but less detailed, for the MPP and MPA2 programs.

Source: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic210038.files/DiversityCommitteeBriefingBook.pdf

Student Satisfaction With the KSG

This first one is a link to a satisfaction survey of existing KSG students, including where students come from, the reason they chose the KSG, aspects of the school that most need improvement, etc. There's a summary version of the study, but also a detailed view of the raw data, which helps you to see exactly what each respondent said for each question. Very interesting for understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the program! The responses to the bidding system, as well as review of the core courses, was pretty eye-opening to me...

Summary: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/kssg/documents/2009_HKS_survey_report.pdf

Detailed Data: www.hks.harvard.edu/kssg/documents/2009_HKS_survey_aggregate.xlsx

[Leica]

The student satisfaction survey was really interesting, thanks for sharing! I'm now curious to know just how bad this PAL exemption test really was!

Edited February 2, 2010 by Leica

[zourah]

The student satisfaction survey was really interesting, thanks for sharing! I'm now curious to know just how bad this PAL exemption test really was!

Well, PAL is now DPI, and this year quite a few more people exempted, though the American government option still managed a pretty ridiculous curve.

[leftmost]

This may be a silly and unrelated question, but does any of you know what a mason fellow is?

[2010Applicant]

I didn't know that there is actually such a large discrepancy between the admission rates of MPP and MPA2. The 2007 stats:

MPP: 246/1344 = 18% only. Plus thereafter applicants went up and admissions went down. The current rate would be below 15%.

MPA2: around 70 / 123 = 57%!!! Going forward they passed a policy to favor female and minorities.

I guess the requirement of having completed or almost completed something equivalent to the MPP core curriculum has barred a lot of potential applicants to the MPA2 program. Otherwise, anyone with 3 years of WE would have applied for MPA2.

[2010Applicant]

BTW Mason Fellows are MC-MPAs coming from less developed countries.

[cmnt29]

I didn't know that there is actually such a large discrepancy between the admission rates of MPP and MPA2. The 2007 stats:

MPP: 246/1344 = 18% only. Plus thereafter applicants went up and admissions went down. The current rate would be below 15%.

MPA2: around 70 / 123 = 57%!!! Going forward they passed a policy to favor female and minorities.

I guess the requirement of having completed or almost completed something equivalent to the MPP core curriculum has barred a lot of potential applicants to the MPA2 program. Otherwise, anyone with 3 years of WE would have applied for MPA2.

Wasn't the 246 for the actual enrolled class? Can't remember. If so, then assume a good 66% yield and 246/.66=372/1344=28%

[2010Applicant]

Oops, you're right. I've used enrollment instead of admittance figures for both MPP and MPA2.

But then, they still highlight the huge difference between the two programs.

In fact, MPA2 statistics is now quite absurd. The class has about 70 students. Even if we assume a high yield rate, say 80%, number of admittance would be 87. It says that international applicants numbered 90 in 2007 and made up 73% of the total applicant pool. So there are 123 applicants and the admission rate is like 70%!!!

[SDS]

Very helpful stats on hks; thanks for posting. Am applying to mc/mpa and interested/surprised to see that the gre averages for this group are so low. Perhaps there's an allowance for a certain loss of brain cells at our advanced age. Any other hks mc/mpa applicants out there?

[cmnt29]

Oops, you're right. I've used enrollment instead of admittance figures for both MPP and MPA2.

But then, they still highlight the huge difference between the two programs.

In fact, MPA2 statistics is now quite absurd. The class has about 70 students. Even if we assume a high yield rate, say 80%, number of admittance would be 87. It says that international applicants numbered 90 in 2007 and made up 73% of the total applicant pool. So there are 123 applicants and the admission rate is like 70%!!!

Well, I don't think the acceptance rate tells the whole story. My guess from linkedin and reading bios and reading their website (The requirements say you have to have substantial grad school coursework) is that is basically the program you go to if you want to check the HKS block because you are a HBS/HLS/Med school student. So that knocks out most everyone and those others schools obviously do some serious vetting.

I was surprised to see the high acceptance rate for mpp and the low % of international students.

Either way, the reality is that much of the admission discrimination in all policy schools takes place in the form of who can/is willing to pay for a degree with the ROI of a policy school. E.g. 120K of debt for undefined financial and career benefits. (I did it for less money and thought it was a good investment) Obviously the dean understands that and is trying to get some more money. If they had the war chest that WWS does, then...that'd be amazing.

[zourah]

Well, I don't think the acceptance rate tells the whole story. My guess from linkedin and reading bios and reading their website (The requirements say you have to have substantial grad school coursework) is that is basically the program you go to if you want to check the HKS block because you are a HBS/HLS/Med school student. So that knocks out most everyone and those others schools obviously do some serious vetting.

I was surprised to see the high acceptance rate for mpp and the low % of international students.

Actually, many joint-degree students do the MPP as well. I don't have figures as to how many there are in each category, but because most of the MPA candidates already possess one advanced degree, anyone applying for both simultaneously is likely to end up MPP instead.

[Batignolles]

I definitely agree that the stats, while interesting, don't tell the whole story. After all, when you're talking about MC people, the pool as a whole probably has pretty impressive resumes. A number of them also seem to be sponsored by foreign governments and militaries, so they go through a rigorous selection with their home institution before being put forward. So although they're almost auto-admits, they've been pre-screened. So their GRE scores might be really low, and the acceptance rates for this bunch a bit misleading...

[JBrodsky]

I definitely agree that the stats, while interesting, don't tell the whole story. After all, when you're talking about MC people, the pool as a whole probably has pretty impressive resumes. A number of them also seem to be sponsored by foreign governments and militaries, so they go through a rigorous selection with their home institution before being put forward. So although they're almost auto-admits, they've been pre-screened. So their GRE scores might be really low, and the acceptance rates for this bunch a bit misleading...

I met a Fulbright from China who was at HKS and he said something similar.

[fighter_2008]

Wasn't the 246 for the actual enrolled class? Can't remember. If so, then assume a good 66% yield and 246/.66=372/1344=28%

I think the yield at HKS is typically at about 75%. For Fall '09 I remember there were 1696 applicants and about 250 enrolled (330+ admits).

Edited February 12, 2010 by fighter_2008