Best Public Policy Programs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My college Freshmen just went thru this.

Applied to:
Georgetown
Pomona
UVA
W&M
Princeton
Brown
Harvard
Tufts
Hopkins
GW
Yale

Indiana and Michigan also strong- but didn't like either--wanted smaller school.

Did get into all but Yale and WL at Harvard and Princeton. Thought all but one were total reaches just on acceptance rates.

Very good list. I'll vouch for Pomona and say the PPA (Public Policy Analysis) program is awesome and consistently has some of the best outcomes from the college, beating out Economics and Computer Science. California has a massive amount of jobs in Public Policy and DC easily got a job starting at an Asian American NGO that paid 90k right out of college in LA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only one person mentioned Cornell - and said it’s a hard no. Why?

Anyone else have experience with Public Policy at Cornell? Looks like students apply specifically to the Brooks School.

DP. The Cornell Brooks School is new. Classes started in Fall 2021. It was created out of Human Ecology to be a stand-alone admitting unit. Policies and programs are evolving.

https://cornellsun.com/2023/05/03/a-major-switch-pam-major-in-college-of-human-ecology-to-become-public-policy-major-in-jeb-e-brooks-school-of-public-policy/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only one person mentioned Cornell - and said it’s a hard no. Why?

Anyone else have experience with Public Policy at Cornell? Looks like students apply specifically to the Brooks School.

DP. The Cornell Brooks School is new. Classes started in Fall 2021. It was created out of Human Ecology to be a stand-alone admitting unit. Policies and programs are evolving.

https://cornellsun.com/2023/05/03/a-major-switch-pam-major-in-college-of-human-ecology-to-become-public-policy-major-in-jeb-e-brooks-school-of-public-policy/

Right, and the current rankings of the program are all likely based on the legacy PAM/Sloan program, which sat within HumEc and was quite highly regarded. The formation of the new, separate school of public policy was controversial and created some barriers that may not benefit the program- time will tell.

[Anonymous]

https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-public-affairs-schools/public-policy-analysis-rankings

Berkeley
Michigan
Chicago
Harvard
Indiana

[Anonymous]

Best for career
Harvard
Chicago
Berkeley

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-public-affairs-schools/public-policy-analysis-rankings

Berkeley
Michigan
Chicago
Harvard
Indiana

What a confusing response. These are graduate programs...

[Anonymous]

You need a Masters unless you want to be a lobbyist assistant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need a Masters unless you want to be a lobbyist assistant.

This just isn't true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS is at UVA in the Batten school for public policy and has loved it. Just finished his second internship in public policy in DC.

+1. I know two recent grads of Batten. Both in law school now

[Anonymous]

Be in DC and intern. Georgetown, American, GW.

[Anonymous]

UMD, UMBC and GMU all offer 5th year masters programs which could potentially be done in 4 years if you come in with all of the AP credits kids are getting these days. Shouldn't just be the barbell kids from ivies setting policy in the future..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMD, UMBC and GMU all offer 5th year masters programs which could potentially be done in 4 years if you come in with all of the AP credits kids are getting these days. Shouldn't just be the barbell kids from ivies setting policy in the future..

I got my MPP at Mason. I took a class at GW for Mason prices through the consortium.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Be in DC and intern. Georgetown, American, GW.

Yeah- but my kid went to high school in DC and lived here his entire life. Chose an Ivy out of town. I could not convince him to stay local, much less in VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you need to look lower down the rankings, Syracuse's Maxwell School is quite good.

Ditto!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need a Masters unless you want to be a lobbyist assistant.

This just isn't true.

DP. You're right. As a Hill staffer and lobbyist/policy lawyer, my assistants had master's degrees.

I have hired many college grads over during my career, and I can't add much to the discussion of the "best" public policy programs, because public policy grads from top 20 schools are a dime a dozen. It's fine as a major, if it's what your kid is interested in, and they should certainly go to the best school they can get into, but others here are correct that other degrees (specifically economics and law, or both) are more valuable. The most important things to do are volunteer, get internships, work your connections and don't think you're too good to start out at the bottom. The degree is just checking the box. The stuff you do outside of school is what will build your career.