PhD Public Policy Programs 2018

[GradNYC]

Results and Support

[SerenityNow!]

I am applying to public policy PhD programs along with a few political science ones with a public policy concentration. 

[vaibhavpandey]

Hi All,

I am an international applicant, can anyone share the deadlines of prominent universities w.r.t international candidates. I see that 1st December is preferred for most but are there universities who accept applications by 1st Jan.

Vaibhav

 

 

[yoloner]

On 15/11/2017 at 3:21 PM, vaibhavpandey said:

Hi All,

I am an international applicant, can anyone share the deadlines of prominent universities w.r.t international candidates. I see that 1st December is preferred for most but are there universities who accept applications by 1st Jan.

Vaibhav

 

 

I believe that Chicago Harris has its deadline in early Jan.

[yoloner]

New to this forum. I just submitted two applications yesterday and am ready to start ruminating already. What are your research interests and main worries? I am interested in climate change policy, and I am worried that I haven't taken enough math courses in my undergrad.

[Elekar]

On 2017. 11. 26. at 12:55 AM, yoloner said:

New to this forum. I just submitted two applications yesterday and am ready to start ruminating already. What are your research interests and main worries? I am interested in climate change policy, and I am worried that I haven't taken enough math courses in my undergrad.

I also plan to apply for Ph.D. in public policy of climate and energy issues for fall 2018, and also am worried that lack of robust backgrounds on math while I have 170 on GRE quant.

Could you explain more about your specification and applied univ? I want to share mine with you.

[SerenityNow!]

My main concern is the opposite of yours - I took a lot of math and science courses but did well but not amazing on the GRE. I'm working full time so I just used the score I used when applying to MPA programs a few years ago. I'm hoping to studying the policy making process with a focus on how interactions between individuals impact the process.

[yoloner]

Happy to share my background (not sure if there is a specific format) and would be keen to hear about yours!

International student

Undergrad university: top university in Australia, good grades (no idea how to convert to GPA), finance major.

Masters: MSc from LSE, finance and economics with distinction.

Work experience: 3 years in economics consultancy in London with experience in the energy sector, 2 years in development consultancy between undergrad and MSc.

GRE: Q169 V169 AWA5.5.

LORs: pretty sure that the professors don't remember me so they are just reinforcing my transcript. 2 professors and 1 associate professor (all tenured). 

Interests: climate change and energy policy.

Schools: so far have only applied to reach schools - Stanford EIPER, Harvard Kennedy School and Cambridge. Have another 6 on my list but not sure how many I will end up applying to. If I don't get in anywhere (which is highly likely), I am happy to apply again next year with more time and hopefully, wisdom from this cycle.

[Elekar]

Dear yoloner,

 

please do not apply for any school where I will apply   you are so strong.

Mine is below :

International student

Undergrad university: top university in South Korea, GPA: 3.15/4, a chemistry major.

Masters: top university in South Korea, GPA: 3.96/4, master of city planning in environmental studies

Work experience: 1 years in the governmental research center of climate and energy under the prime minister's office.

                                0.5 years in the office of an Assemblyman of the environmental and labor committee of National Assembly

                                3 research assistants exp, 2 years NGO related to climate, 1.8 years military service

Research experience: 3 articles(1 accepted: English paper in Korean journal, 1 reviewed: Korean paper in Korean journal, 1 submitted: English paper in international journal(IF: 5.96))

                                       2 governmental reports(1 released: to United Nations as the name of the government, 1 forthcoming: as the name of the government)

                                       2 conference proceeding(in Korean research society related to climate and environment)

                                       2 distinguished thesis awards

GRE: Q170 V155 AWA4.0.

TOEFL: 30/25/19/28 102

LORs: 1 professor of economics, 1 professor of environmental and energy professor, 1 associate professor of city planning (all tenured), and president of my research center. 

Interests: climate change and energy policy with econometric

School: HKS, GSPP, IU, Syracuse, Duke, Harris, Maryland, GSU/GIT, UCLA(sustainability), U of Michigan(sustainability), U of Kansas

 

If anyone could give me advice on my low undergrad GPA and GREm plz tell me frank advice.

Then, yoloner, I worry about your weakness in public experience. HKS requires the public exp from applicants.

 

Edited December 5, 2017 by Elekar

[tairos]

Is there any consensus on how much work experience and other non-academic achievements factor in to admissions in these types of programs?  Or even more broadly speaking, where they lay on the spectrum between 'professional' and 'academic' programs?  My own research hasn't turned up many clear answers, but it seems like most of them are surprisingly similar to political science PhDs in practice.

[SerenityNow!]

I've seen, from the schools that post this type of information, that most people entering these programs aren't straight out of undergrad. The median age seems so be around 26 so that is an MPA plus 2 years of work experience. I think that are split between professional and academic - with most schools producing a mix of professional and professors. Personally I would have 3 years of a mix of non profit and government experience by the time i manriculate (if I get in!).

[GradNYC]

Applications submitted, just have to finish Harris personal statement. 

[SerenityNow!]

Everything is submitted! I can't believe all that is left is to wait. I feel like I have so much free time all of a sudden, it's very weird. im curious when we will begin to hear back as none of the schools I applied to provided that kind of information. 

[artibasos]

Undergrad: Physics at a top STEM-focused school, GPA 2.9 (yeah, I know)

Graduate work: Currently in PhD program for physics, masters expected fall 2018, leaving with that.  Supplemented with policy school classes + first year PhD sequence in political science at top 10 program.  GPA 3.56; social science GPA 4.0.

Work experience: researcher/writer for television show, reaching an audience of a few million people.  Most of my work experience is physics research; I've worked at three national laboratories, doing everything from high energy experiment to astro theory.

Research experience: nine (!) conference talks, six summers of physics research, currently in a PhD program for physics on multiple fellowships.  Zero political science research (I mean, I've, like, written some papers for classes, but nothing important).

GRE: Q168 V169 AW 5.0

LORs: 1 Big Name conflict prof at policy school, one moderate name quant-y political science prof, one less well-known policy school prof, history/political science prof from my undergrad, my physics adviser

Interests: political economy of conflict

School: mostly political science programs + MIT/UCB econ (yeah, I'm not getting in there) + HKS PEG + Harris

 

My profile is mostly fine... except that undergrad GPA.

[styliane]

Anyone get an “informational interview” request from RAND?

[SerenityNow!]

I didn’t apply to RAND but tbh I haven’t heard a peep from any of the public policy programs I applied to. It doesn’t look like anywhere I applied does interviews and so few people apply it’s hard to even tell when I’ll hear back from the message board/results board. I’m just trying to assume the timeline is similar to political science. I’m obviously not nervous at all /s haha

[devpolicy]

20 hours ago, styliane said:

Anyone get an “informational interview” request from RAND?

Yes, though it's just with an alumni. I've already been contacted by a RAND alumni in my area and we've set up a time to talk. I would worry too much about it though!

[SLEE_0]

Really? I've been told that my interview is with the Assistant Dean of Admissions. Why the difference? 

[devpolicy]

On 1/18/2018 at 8:52 PM, SLEE_0 said:

Really? I've been told that my interview is with the Assistant Dean of Admissions. Why the difference? 

I wouldn't know to be honest, it could be a location thing as I'm based on the East Coast currently. If you did the RAND "pre-application" you probably already got an email from her/if you went to the information sessions she was there as well.

Regardless, that's only good news. Good luck!

[SerenityNow!]

Do you know if other schools do interviews? I haven’t received requests from anywhere I applied. It looks like most public policy programs notify applicants in the first week of February from the results board but I haven’t heard a peep from any of the schools I applied to. 

[SerenityNow!]

I know I just said we probably wont hear much till early February but I can't help be jealous of all the folks hearing back now, especially those in political science. This is the only cycle I'll be able to apply to so it feels so surreal knowing I could be headed to a PhD program (or not!) after all these months of build up in only a few weeks. I hope you all are handling the stress better than me!

[GradNYC]

Did you apply to NYU Wagner? I  see someone received an interview email... 

[SerenityNow!]

No, I was pretty geographically limited in where I could apply and only ended up submitting applications to George Mason, USC, Duke, and Michigan for Public Policy and Texas A&M and UC Davis for other programs where they had POIs doing the same type of research, just under a different department.

Edited January 24, 2018 by SerenityNow!

[devpolicy]

Hey all, I know there hasn't been a post on this thread for a little bit, so I thought I'd share a little bit about where I am at the moment for both future and current applicants to have some better insight on the application process.

I applied to 5 schools which I thought were a good fit for doing International Development specific research: Duke Sanford, UNC Chapel Hill, Pardee Rand, NYU Wagner, and U Chicago.

I heard back from a professor at UNC Chapel Hill on January 12th letting me know I was unofficially admitted, and I received official notification from the Dean of the Graduate School (via the online portal) that I was admitted on January 24th. I had a call with the professor who emailed me on January 15th where they told me that the department lets in a few of its top candidates early so that they can put them up for consideration for a graduate school wide scholarship, with decisions on the scholarship made by mid-February. I don't think they're done accepting applicants.

I got an email interview request for Duke on January 24th, and did a Skype interview with two professors from the Sanford School on January 25th. During the interview, they told me that they would get back to me with a decision in a couple of weeks. I haven't heard back from them since then. I know a few people have asked about interviews for Duke on the survey part of gradcafe, so I thought I would add my two cents here. I did not post my interview on the survey, but I know a few others have.

Additionally, like a few people on this thread, I got an alumni interview request from RAND on January 17th, and met with an alumni in my area on January 21st. RAND said decisions would be released on/by February 23rd.

I have yet to hear anything from NYU Wagner or U Chicago. 

I know that the PhD application process for Public Policy is exceedingly opaque (especially because we have so few data points on gradcafe likely due to a smaller applicant pool than say Political Science, coupled with response bias). Happy to share more about myself and why I applied to these programs over PM! 

Edited February 9, 2018 by devpolicy

[SerenityNow!]

Good reminder! As an I was rejected from USC on 1/25 and Michigan on 2/8 (they accepted 3 people so who knew is was SUCH a crapshoot) but I was accepted to Texas A&M on 1/30. I get the feeling that USC and Michigan set all decisions out, rejections and acceptances, at once while I think Texas A&M is more staggered.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Duke and George Mason but there are a bunch of people who posted rejections from Duke's Environmental Policy PhD program around 2/2 which makes me wonder what is going on with that program.

My interests and geographic needs really limited where I could apply but my interests are in American local government, water resource management, and the impact of social networks on resource and local government management.

I think another reason for the limited data is the significantly smaller cohort sizes like 3 at Michigan, 3-4 at USC, and etc... these are way smaller than most political science departments, which, for example George Washington University accepts about 35-40 students, ! I think this is because most MPA/MPP programs use other masters students as their TAs instead of PhD students thus greatly decreasing their need for TAs whereas political science departments need plenty of TAs and research assistants because their masters programs, if they have them at all, are much too small to fill all their TA needs. That is just an observation from chatting with my professors which is why they recommended I also apply to a few political science programs with public policy focuses, they thought the odds are actually slightly better with some of these programs. I'm just using political science as a comparison because I think it is the closest to public policy but I think similar things could be said of economics PhD programs. However, it is a different training so you have to weigh that in your decision making. If any future applicants stumble across some feel free to PM me as well!

Edited February 9, 2018 by SerenityNow!