Goldman v. Heinz DC

[fallmpp2017]

So I am now choosing between Goldman and Heinz (MSPPM-DC) and I am having a lot of trouble deciding. Here are my thoughts, but I would love any advice or thoughts on the matter. 

I am striving to work in domestic social policy and I am originally from the Northeast. I have worked in DC in previous years and I honestly thought that would be where I ended up. But now, I have no idea! In short, Goldman seems to be a riskier venture with great possible payoffs and Heinz seems to be the safe, logical choice.

Goldman clearly has great brand value, especially on the west coast. Furthermore, it would be a great opportunity to move out to California and see what it is all about (as someone who has grown up and lived in the Northeast for most of her life). The Bay seems like a great place to live-- great weather, fun city life, etc. Academically, it seems aligned with what I want to do-- plenty of social policy electives with a strong core of quantitative analysis courses. It seems like it would be fairly easy to graduate from Goldman to a policy job in the Bay, though competition is obviously fierce. My biggest fear is that it is so darn expensive to live in Berkeley. I will be working as a GSI/GSR most likely, but even then, it is going to cost an arm and a leg to stay above water out there. I did not get any additional fellowship, so total cost of the program (tuition and fees only) minus my Americorps funding equals to be around $22k.

Heinz seems to be a safer choice largely because of the affordability (I got an 80% scholarship) and job prospects in DC. Because I would be working the second year in an apprenticeship, it seems it would be pretty easy to get a job in DC right afterwards. Academically, it seems to be more business oriented (I've heard the term soft MBA thrown around) which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I definitely am not interested in going into consulting. Because I am in the DC track, I basically do not have electives, but in turn, I get great hands-on experience the second year in DC as well as a strong quantitative analysis background through the core classes. Pittsburgh is dirt cheap and having lived in DC, it still seems less expensive than the Bay. Tuition-wise, it is cheaper than Berkeley as well. The total cost of the program (tuition and fees only) minus my Americorps funding equals to be around $8k.

Do I go with the safe and more predictable choice, Heinz? Or do I take a risk and go out to the west coast at Goldman? 

[WIPDXSFBay]

I can speak a bit to the Bay, as someone living in South Berkeley/North Oakland. The first consideration you correctly make is the cost of living here, which is immense. For perspective, rents in Oakland have increase by an average of 75% in the past five years. However, the salaries are commensurate with the cost of living, if you are willing to take a position in the private sector. Another consideration you should make is career trajectory/opportunities here in the Bay. From my experience, your best opportunities with the name brand of Cal will likely be on the west coast. Here, you have to ask yourself whether your career interests align with what the west coast has to offer in terms of policy related positions. Take a moment and look at what's available for jobs of your interest offered by the City of Berkeley, City of Oakland, SF, etc.

Outside what the city administrations have to offer, or State level stuff in Sacramento, the other only robust opportunities for policy-related gigs will be in energy policy, sustainable investment, environmental policy etc. I know of a few people that went to Cal that do  There are certainly NGOs and non-profits you can jump into, but for perspective you will not find rents cheaper than 1K/month for a room in the east bay at it's lowest, and 1.3K or so for the lowest rents in SF. Take into account transportation on the BART with an average of maybe 200/month, plus other extra cost (high taxes etc), and to live on less than 65K/year will be tough. That being said, this really is a great place to get a job, as there are certainly jobs abound, if you are willing to bend your interests to suit a career in the world of finance or tech. However, I take it you're not going to grad school for the money.

I was also accepted into the MSPPM DC program with good funding. As someone that lived/worked in DC for a bit, I can say that the DC edge is substantial for career growth. Even outside DC, having that job experience on your resume tends to carry far outside the DC bubble. However, and this is probably biased as I am interested in international policy/foreign affairs related jobs, but I didn't really hear much of Heinz's reputation when I was working in the city. But again, I was surrounded by SAIS, Gtown, GWU, American, etc, folks and working in a think tank... hence I may not have been in the right crowd to see whether CMU DC students were killing it in the professional world.

[fallmpp2017]

Thank you for your thorough response! Your description of living expenses line up with what I am seeing through research of the area. I am honestly leaning towards Berkeley because I think it would provide me a great pathway to state/city gov't positions and when I want to move on from the bay area to another non-DC city, my experiences and my degree will still carry some weight. I am hoping that I will get a GSI / GSR position right off the bat so that it would at least offset rent, haha. 

[WIPDXSFBay]

Another added bonus that I forgot to mention is that regarding natural beauty, you can't beat the Bay. Even the East Bay or the North Bay by themselves (the Oakland Hills, Marin County and Napa, etc), there are so many destinations for hiking, sight-seeing and so forth. With concern to getting a GSI, it's important to take into account whether you'll be competing with other grad students in the professional program (ie Goldman master's students), or these students and doctoral students. In this case, you may find it more competitive, given Cal's immense graduate student body. However, don't take what I say as law, I'm only thinking out loud. 

Edited March 26, 2017 by WIPDXSFBay

[Daniel XU]

6 hours ago, WIPDXSFBay said:

Another added bonus that I forgot to mention is that regarding natural beauty, you can't beat the Bay. Even the East Bay or the North Bay by themselves (the Oakland Hills, Marin County and Napa, etc), there are so many destinations for hiking, sight-seeing and so forth. With concern to getting a GSI, it's important to take into account whether you'll be competing with other grad students in the professional program (ie Goldman master's students), or these students and doctoral students. In this case, you may find it more competitive, given Cal's immense graduate student body. However, don't take what I say as law, I'm only thinking out loud. 

 

@WIPDXSF Hi, I got accepted to Berkeley MDP program and Columbia MPA-DP program, and I'm trying to decide between the two. If I choose to enter into consulting, which one might be a better choice? Are the job opportunities on the west coast fewer than east coast? Any input in consulting job opportunities on west coast is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[WIPDXSFBay]

10 minutes ago, Daniel XU said:

@WIPDXSF Hi, I got accepted to Berkeley MDP program and Columbia MPA-DP program, and I'm trying to decide between the two. If I choose to enter into consulting, which one might be a better choice? Are the job opportunities on the west coast fewer than east coast? Any input in consulting job opportunities on west coast is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I currently work as an analyst for a financial services firm in SF, and from my experience I'd say that the opportunities for consulting are fairly present. However, I cannot speak to whether there are more than the east coast, given that my only professional experience on the east coast was working for a think tank in DC. What I can say with confidence, though, is that every big consulting firm has an SF/Bay office (KPMG, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc.), and I can only imagine that they'd have offices in Seattle, LA, etc as well. That being said, I would be very mindful about what sorts of consulting opportunities are here. Aside from boutique firms, I imagine that the majority of the consulting opportunities will be financial service-related or technology-related, given that the Bay runs on the finance and tech sectors. I can imagine that any of the other major cities would be similarly situated.

The best way to figure out what sorts of success Goldman grads enjoy is to do a LinkedIn search of the companies that you'd be interested in working with, and refine the search through choosing Berkeley as a filter.  About half my office are Cal grads, many of which didn't major in finance or business, which should say something about the school's strength. However, know that if you're planning on entering a consulting position that isn't focusing on Dev, networking will be more important than what you study. In addition, you'll be competing against MBA grads that concentrated on these topics from Stanford, Cal, Penn, etc. Hence, your network will be essential. In this regard, across the west coast, I wouldn't claim that Cal is any better or worse than UCLA, Stanford, or USC; but it should be a robust brand name for the Bay Area.

[Daniel XU]

2 hours ago, WIPDXSFBay said:

I currently work as an analyst for a financial services firm in SF, and from my experience I'd say that the opportunities for consulting are fairly present. However, I cannot speak to whether there are more than the east coast, given that my only professional experience on the east coast was working for a think tank in DC. What I can say with confidence, though, is that every big consulting firm has an SF/Bay office (KPMG, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc.), and I can only imagine that they'd have offices in Seattle, LA, etc as well. That being said, I would be very mindful about what sorts of consulting opportunities are here. Aside from boutique firms, I imagine that the majority of the consulting opportunities will be financial service-related or technology-related, given that the Bay runs on the finance and tech sectors. I can imagine that any of the other major cities would be similarly situated.

The best way to figure out what sorts of success Goldman grads enjoy is to do a LinkedIn search of the companies that you'd be interested in working with, and refine the search through choosing Berkeley as a filter.  About half my office are Cal grads, many of which didn't major in finance or business, which should say something about the school's strength. However, know that if you're planning on entering a consulting position that isn't focusing on Dev, networking will be more important than what you study. In addition, you'll be competing against MBA grads that concentrated on these topics from Stanford, Cal, Penn, etc. Hence, your network will be essential. In this regard, across the west coast, I wouldn't claim that Cal is any better or worse than UCLA, Stanford, or USC; but it should be a robust brand name for the Bay Area.

 

@WIPDXSFBay Thank you for much for the information, which is truly helpful for me to work through the options. You are very nice and kind. Hope will have a chance to meet you if I end up going to Cal. Have a great day!