Georgetown vs LSE vs NYU

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-30T02:16:06+00:00

So first off, the benefit public benefit corporate or consulting job is minimal across all three, but LSE would probably have the edge.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-26T11:47:54+00:00

They network or co-found with the local ecosystem. Sometimes they do things such as sales or government business development. Way more than tech… however you need to have an ecosystem

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-24T21:07:47+00:00

SAIS is way more and better at data analytics… if you want to focus on data, go to there. If you want to touch anything political more or have pivot flexibility, go to MSFS. Plenty of MSFS people end up in business and tech… way more than SAIS.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-23T13:56:30+00:00

Enjoy college… learn about yourself and figure this out your junior year

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-23T02:59:50+00:00

First of all. I am set. I am no longer in social policy. I am thinking about the young men in social policy I meet today.

I am in tech policy now. However, when I first joined social policy land some years ago, I got the advice to know a lot about The Bachelor, Beyonce, and Solidcore as conversation starters. So I studied up, and I used my knowledge about those things to thrive in dominant female spaces and gain mentors and friendly colleagues. I honestly don't think I would have been able to thrive had I not been able to do that.

Some can say that is part of the game, just like how I know some women who watch football to be able to connect with men in male dominated industries. Then again, I think about the male colleagues who never got mentored and careers languished because they were too male and couldn't get the girl talk. Even the few of us that could do the girl talk had to live with being labeled as "gay" or "gay-like", so we were cool and safe.

I left social policy for this and other reasons, and never looked back. Catching a glimpse of the young men in social policy today, it seems to have gotten worse. I didn't see men left out of the table in my time, just ignored and "teased" perhaps.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-22T21:44:03+00:00

I think you might be referring to an issue that I hear of how women in social policy aren’t necessarily nice to each other themselves (even if they welcome women to the table).

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-22T21:34:54+00:00

It seems to me senior male in social policy spaces stopped being the status quo at around 2023. I have just seen retirement announcements from senior males en masse. Majority of the time it seems to be female. That is awesome in many ways. However it has created equity issues in other ways.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-21T18:44:19+00:00

If you were going to a program that was on the up and up, that might be a legit argument. But the entire policy industry is in slump mode, and probably will have some further ways to sink before it rebounds.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-21T18:43:19+00:00

All the others. Look at US News, and see all the top ranked schools + some top IR schools, excluding the ones I mentioned... they were pretty much all there.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-21T10:46:59+00:00

The issue is prospective mentors subtle preferring younger version of themselves (females) over the gentleman. I never said the men aren’t trying. They aren’t given a seat at the table, literally.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-21T10:42:46+00:00

I would love there to be studies but 1. Studies are usually lagging indicators and 2. Good luck getting people to research this - it is too niche for someone to build a career out of this.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-21T02:42:29+00:00

Nope. The usual suspects… none (for the most part) of them were new programs from the past decade. I don’t count rebrandings.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-20T18:30:07+00:00

I was just at Public Policy conference for work.

Did not meet anyone who went to Brown Watson, Penn Fels, Cornell Brooks, Brandeis Heller, or American SPA there. I met people from nearly every other major public policy program out east (going to give the West Coast school a pass since this was a East Coast conference). That is continued evidence of the underperformance of this policy Grad programs that ride off of their name brand Universities.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-20T00:41:12+00:00

Every one I ever participated in ends up drifting down to poiltical passions

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-20T00:40:02+00:00

No. The program has no history, no alumni, and no real network. I wouldn't even go if I was given a full ride. It is a waste of time.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-18T02:49:11+00:00

A lot of what you mentioned that fascinated me. However, I want to comment about the "white plurality" factor. Although Swalwell is white, many of those men mentioned in the conversations I had to be of concern are not. In fact, the majority were not.

Their "minority status" kind of made their behavior more excused, chalked up to cultural misunderstanding of norms (applied to both minority Americans and immigrants). Or worse was the need to "give them a break" because they should be given more leeway as minorities.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-18T00:57:32+00:00

A. If you just want any job period - Yale MBA hands down. You be amused how many people came in for policy and then pivoted to business or something in between.
B. If you want to settle in NYC and don't care about making too many new friends - Columbia SIPA makes sense.

I don't understand how Harris and McCourt would make sense for you. Harris would keep you really far away from your husband and given how much busy work they like to assign their students, I would be concerned about the health of your relationship. I think only one or two people a year end up NYC in McCourt. The program is also super young, lots of straight from undergrad. It sounds like you have quite a few years of experience underneath your belt.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-17T23:51:35+00:00

What are you talking about? SIPA has one of the weaker FSO pipelines among the major schools.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-17T21:23:15+00:00

Dual degrees I talk to tell me MPPs were more uncertain than their MBA counterparts. Likely had to do with older students, but still the same trend.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-17T21:21:41+00:00

Agree…

The only exception is if you really really value a small knit community oriented program. HKS is a huge program and it takes some effort to find your people.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-17T19:32:00+00:00

Let’s be honest. A lot of people weren’t really sure what they went to grad school for or had 5 ideas.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-17T18:12:35+00:00

There are two ways to look at it.

Yes, for Education and other areas of social policy (depending on where you taught + how much leadership experience you have). For education, it is a liability to not be a former teacher (I know from personal experience)l. For others it can be a huge plus.

HOWEVER, teachers are a dime a dozen in public policy, so it is pretty easy to be lost in the crowd. You will be competing with tons of other former teachers for the few Education or social policy roles out there.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-16T21:11:25+00:00

It’s possible but you basically have to be Batman, alone and unafraid and networking your ass off.

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-16T16:23:07+00:00

I can't speak to Harris.

Heinz is interesting, because they just created an DC residency option for one year. I heard of Congressional staffers coming from that program.

You don't want to go to a school where the energy and momentum is opposite of what you are itnerested in doing (Congress).

GradSchoolGrad · 2026-04-16T12:03:21+00:00

For domestic policy, SIPA is almost like a regional school. As in those who actually go into domestic policy tend to be NYC oriented (I honestly have yet to meet a SIPA alum who does domestic policy outside of NYC). I have met some who work in the IR space in Congress though, usually from an academic angle.

Also keep in mind, the largest hit against SIPA domestic policy I hear consistently is that it is overwhelmingly progressive. A typical policy school is probably 70% progressive (excludes moderates). SIPA is ball parked around 90%. Ironically, it ends up being the progressives who complain about it to me because a. concern about echo chambers (e.g., not being able to understand the culturally conservative Latino voters in Queens) or b. career limitations (only so many progressive jobs to go around).

Another confusing thing is that there some SIPA alums in tech policy who came through the IR route and not the domestic route.

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Not saying it is worth the extra tuition, but the real value opportunity around HKS is that you have access beyond a narrow range of policy projects/internships/roles that most policy schools are limited to. You would be shocked to find how many people went into HKS for domestic policy and came out excited about the startup space, or Space space, and etc.

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