Ivy League vs. Top Ranked Program

[brittanyandrea]

I need help

Without question of funding(I haven't heard from Syracuse on funding yet), which would be more likely to produce the best job. 
I was accepted into Brown and Syracuse's MPA programs.  I'm wondering what to weigh more in my decision, the ivy league name (Brown) or the #1 MPA program in the country(Syracuse)

Any advice would be great!

-Brittany

[Baloch]

Brown.

[ralphwiththeconch]

Congrats on your acceptances! What do you hope to do with your degree? You may want to speak with folks in the field with this question. My take is that Syracuse is well-recognized as a leader in pub administration, while Brown is not so much. But you really should check with more knowledgable people.

[thelionking]

That depends on who you want to impress - your friends and family or employers?

[brittanyandrea]

I'm definitely more interested in impressing prospective employers than friends family. 

I'm hoping to one day be  the head of a state agency, such as the department of education.  

[thelionking]

If both schools are an equal fit in terms of your interests and if both are equally able to provide you with the skills, experiences and networking opportunities that you will need after graduation, then pick the school that employers in your field will be most impressed by, rather than your family and friends (unless one of them can give you a job after you graduate). 

[Sigaba]

On 3/10/2017 at 11:56 AM, brittanyandrea said:

I need help

Without question of funding(I haven't heard from Syracuse on funding yet), which would be more likely to produce the best job. 
I was accepted into Brown and Syracuse's MPA programs.  I'm wondering what to weigh more in my decision, the ivy league name (Brown) or the #1 MPA program in the country(Syracuse)

Any advice would be great!

-Brittany

@brittanyandrea is the question which program will produce the best job or which program will make you the most competitive applicant you can be for the jobs you'd like?

Either/Or

• Find on Linkedin the incumbents of positions you'd like to have. Look at where they've earned their degrees.
• Get a list of recent graduates (ten years or so) from Syracuse and Brown and see how they're doing in their careers.
• When you're preforming this research, keep in mind that graduates of Ivies may be hard to find because parts of their networks are accessible only to its members. (You might ask Brown to put you in touch with an alumna.)

[brittanyandrea]

17 hours ago, Sigaba said:

@brittanyandrea is the question which program will produce the best job or which program will make you the most competitive applicant you can be for the jobs you'd like?

Either/Or

• Find on Linkedin the incumbents of positions you'd like to have. Look at where they've earned their degrees.
• Get a list of recent graduates (ten years or so) from Syracuse and Brown and see how they're doing in their careers.
• When you're preforming this research, keep in mind that graduates of Ivies may be hard to find because parts of their networks are accessible only to its members. (You might ask Brown to put you in touch with an alumna.)

Thank you for the tips! 

[rising_star]

So... I'll say it partly depends on where you see yourself working after graduation. Yes, Brown is Ivy League but it isn't one of the big name Ivies that's well known throughout the country. If you're headed out west for your career, it's quite possible that many potential employers won't have heard of Brown or won't know that it's in the Ivy League. (Also, really, the Ivy League is just a sports conference! Not sure why people obsess over it...)

[juilletmercredi]

^This is true. I currently live on the West Coast and people are far less familiar with (and less amused by) the vagaries of elite East Coast colleges than East Coasters probably expect. A lot of people out here wouldn't be aware, or care, that Brown was an Ivy League at all. But if Syracuse is #1 in the field, then they're going to be familiar with that.

As an unrelated but parallel example, I work in tech, and there are far more graduates from Georgia Tech and UIUC than Harvard around me at my job - definitely more than Brown or Dartmouth.

[PolicyStud]

On 3/10/2017 at 2:56 PM, brittanyandrea said:

I'm wondering what to weigh more in my decision, the ivy league name (Brown) or the #1 MPA program in the country(Syracuse)

I'd disregard the USNWR rankings if I were you.  I have a post about the issues of USNWR rankings below. But long story short, unlike law and business school rankings, public policy rankings do NOT reflect the reputation perceptions among employers. It makes no sense to rank Indiana above HKS and WWS when the grads of the latter two schools are getting into the most influential employers. It also makes little sense to put HKS over Indiana if your goal is to get into Indiana's state government.

I suggest you reframe your question as follows: should you choose the characteristics of Brown's program or the characteristics of Syracuse's program?

I don't know much about either of those programs, but off the top of my head, some points of comparison are as follows:

Brown, pros and cons

• Ivy league name, which may be valuable on the east coast. It's a simple and unfortunate fact that many people on the east immediately associate Ivy League with intelligence and success.
• Smaller program resulting in smaller (but maybe more intimate?) network. This can be a disadvantage or an advantage depending on your needs.
• Where do grads of this program end up? Is there a focus on state government? International issues? And how does that relate to your goals?
• What skills will Brown's curriculum teach you that Syracuse won't? 
• Finances?
• Isn't Brown a 1-year program? That might not give you enough time to really build much up.
• and etc....

Syracuse, pros and cons

• Relatively large program that has a wide network
• Again, where do grads end up and what are your goals?
• Also, what skills will Syracuse's curriculum teach you that Brown won't?
• Finances?
• A two-year program won't feel as rushed. You can do an internship and build your network over a longer period of time and learn more.
• and etc.

And so on. Your decision between two public affairs programs should not be concerned with the vague and ultimately misleading question of Ivy League vs. program ranking since program rankings are meaningless in public policy/affairs. It should be focused on what genuinely makes the two schools different from one another and how they can get you to where you want to be.