Prospective MPP applicant looking for advice

[CoraZheng]

Currently a rising senior. 

Undergrad school: Dual bachelor degree between Sciences Po in France (major in Social Sciences) and University of California, Berkeley (major in Film & Media Studies)

GPA: 4.0 at Berkeley 

Work experience: I have been working as an editor, journalist, and film critic at a Chinese film media for nearly two years and reporting several film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance.

GRE: Q 170 (97%) / V 163 (92%) / AW 4.0 (59%)

Volunteer experience: Volunteer English teacher in Thailand for a summer; intend to work for a Family Violence Law Center this fall.

Language: Chinese (native speaker), English (bilingual), French (intermediate)

International experience: Grew up in China till I was 18. Studied in France for two years and then moved to the US. Have been working in Thailand for one and half months.

Intended areas: I am interested in doing art and cultural policy in either private or public sector.  

School list:  Duke, Harvard, Berkeley, Georgetown, UChicago, Columbia Sipa, any more recommendations? (As I am an international student and may not necessarily work in the US in the future, school ranking seems to matter more than major ranking.) 

Any advice on my application materials?

Thank you so much ~

Edited June 27, 2017 by CoraZheng

[datik]

You seem to have a great profile, unique story and a clear path. From what you wrote, it seems to make sense that you studied film and social sciences and now the next step for you is studying public policy to get into cultural policy. Make sure you convey that in your resumes, and that your recommendations speak to your committment to this path. Also, maybe it would be wise to use this time to think of institutions you may like to work in? Just doing this exercise and investigating on-line a little may be helpful to you and to your application.

 

 

[ExponentialDecay]

As art and cultural policy is a bit exotic, why these schools?

[green_dots21]

Have you looked into University of Indiana - Bloomington? They offer a dual degree in Public Affairs and Arts Administration https://spea.indiana.edu/masters/degrees-certificates/mpa-maaa-dual-degree/index.html

[MaxwellAlum]

Also I know that Brown has a Public Humanities masters program - I don't know much about it other than it exists.  One thing to bear in mind with a degree like this one is that the more specific the degree, the harder it is to market yourself to a broader range of jobs.  So if you end up deciding you want to work in an area other than the arts/cultural policy, you're probably better off with an MPP or an MPA than a degree that's specific to a particular policy area.

[CakeTea]

Great academic profile and you would be a a strong applicant. Most programs take on applicants straight from undergrad. But I would suggest to work 2-3 years before doing MPP as it is a professional program. You would be even a stronger candidate, bring more to the class room in terms of work experience, relate better when it comes to putting theory into practice. Just food for thought as most of your class mates have some prior employment (see class profile).

[PolicyStud]

On 6/26/2017 at 10:39 PM, CoraZheng said:

Work experience: I have been working as an editor, journalist, and film critic at a Chinese film media for nearly two years and reporting several film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, and Sundance.

 

On 6/26/2017 at 10:39 PM, CoraZheng said:

Intended areas: I am interested in doing art and cultural policy in either private or public sector.  

 

Focusing on your intentions and your experiences, Carnegie Mellon offers masters programs in Arts Management (MAM) and Entertainment Industry Management (MEIM). I am not as deeply familiar with these programs as I would like to be, but these may be something up your alley. The Entertainment Management (MEIM program) in particular allows students to do their first year in Pittsburgh (CMU main campus) and their second year in Los Angeles (satellite campus). During your second year, you work ~30 hours a week at an internship (most students work for film companies, and the like) while taking some coursework. This could help you build connections throughout the industry.

Carnegie Mellon also has an MSc program for Public Policy, which has a great curriculum for data science, urban policy, economics, and other fields. Thus far, I've been given opportunities in fields stretching far beyond the CMU stereotype because of how versatile data science and modeling concepts, as taught here, are. However, I wanted to bring up the MAM and MEIM programs up first, as I'm not sure that the typical public policy program would best fit your goals, unless you are set on policy in a strictly traditional/literal sense.

Edited July 8, 2017 by PolicyStud