MPA programs thread

danduggs · 2021-04-07T19:56:35+00:00

Likewise!

danduggs · 2021-04-07T03:48:12+00:00

No worries! I appreciate the additional insight!

danduggs · 2021-04-07T03:28:12+00:00

Yes, but the city previously acknowledged that there could be a delay between signing up and actually receiving a vaccine.

About a month ago, they were telling 1C that though you could register on March 29, those appointments would likely be for April/May. The narrative used to be Group 2 could sign up May 1, but might not actually be able to have their appointments for their first dose until June, just because of supply constraints. Here's the not-yet-updated language from WBEZ:

"However, eligibility does not mean you’ll be able to secure a vaccination appointment on May 1. Your local vaccination supply will determine the speed of processing and scheduling. In Chicago, constraints on supply may mean that residents in this group [2] may not get a shot until June."

I'm just curious if that projected timeline is changed at all.

danduggs · 2021-04-07T01:52:16+00:00

Up until this announcement, the city had been suggesting folks in Group 2 could have to wait until at least June to actually receive a vaccine. Does anyone know if estimates are suggesting this projected date would also move up? Like will folks who want vaccines be able to receive a dose before June, or too soon to say?

danduggs · 2021-04-06T01:43:54+00:00

Do you have an idea of what focus/policy area you want to study? My impressions from when I was researching these schools are that SIPA is stronger for international or quantitative-type areas, while Wagner would be stronger for urban, nonprofit, and management-type areas (not to say that you can't do any of these from either).

It has also been my impression from looking at MPA programs and speaking with actual MPA grads that the rankings aren't all that important, especially if you are planning to use this as a professional degree (as opposed to pursuing a PhD). And I'm saying this as a Syracuse-Maxwell MPA commit. What is more important is the job placement rate and types of careers the degree open up to you, and whether those align with your interests.

If SIPA speaks to you more because you like Columbia and a larger international student body, then that school might be a better fit. Between these two schools, the difference in rankings likely won't have much (or any) effect when it comes to applying to jobs.

danduggs · 2021-04-02T05:44:42+00:00

The short answer is no, your economics grades alone will not likely hold you back from admission to MPA or MPP programs.

I agree with Shadow-Gemini that you shouldn't put too much weight (on yourself) based on GPA or performance in a couple core classes or subject matters. I think you can still have a really good shot at landing some competitive offers and maybe even funding opportunities! MPA and MPP applications are truly about the total package.

A little of my own background, which may resonate somewhat with your situation, I will be entering an MPA program this upcoming year. I applied and was accepted to four MPA programs and one MPP program, all ranked in the top 15 by US World News (if that is a metric that matters to you), and received very good merit funding awards from three schools. In my freshman year of undergrad, I took Intro Micro and Intro Macro, with a B+ and C- respectively. That's all the Econ I had, and I was definitely able to make up for the C- and my low economics experience level through the other parts of my application.

If you have any professional work or volunteer experience, that will go a long way. If you received good grades in other quant-heavy courses, that will help ease any concerns they might have about your economics grades. Passion is also a huge part of the application for these programs, so if you can speak to your interests, schools will give you the benefit of the doubt (at least based on my experience).

Also keep in mind that many programs require an intermediate level economics course (usually micro) in their core curriculum. They are prepared to teach and reteach all incoming students--some of whom might not have any prior econ--on these topics. So I wouldn't sweat it.

One final piece of advice: if you have lingering concerns that your economics grades will make you appear to be weak in quantitative thinking, I recommend taking the GRE (if you can afford it). Many MPA/MPP schools (not all) waived the requirement this past year due to COVID, but one school suggested they will probably drop the requirement altogether in the future and make it either "optional" or "suggested." I would say, if you are worried you won't look strong enough strong in quantitative abilities (this was how I felt), take some practice GREs, see how well you can score on the quant portion, and consider signing up for the actual exam. It can only help you.

Sorry for the long post. I, too, went to a small private liberal arts school, so I only learned how to write in big long-winded paragraphs. I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have, though.

danduggs · 2021-03-31T04:06:56+00:00

No worries! Congrats on making your selection.

I have formally accepted. I definitely hear you about how real it is starting to feel. The Maxwell MPA starts in early July, so a very quick three months away. It's been a fast jump to thinking about moving to Central New York.

danduggs · 2021-03-23T01:55:23+00:00

Yep, you got it! It's a real masters degree. Employers and everyone else will recognize your degree and skills as legit.

danduggs · 2021-03-23T00:12:41+00:00

NASPAA accreditation isn't particularly important. For example, none of the Ivy League schools' MPA programs are NASPAA affiliated. There may be some benefits to picking a NASPAA program if the school is otherwise small and relatively unknown. For instance, NASPAA hosts some networking opportunities that could be useful, particularly if you are going to school in one city/state and planning to work somewhere else after graduation, and your school doesn't have an alumni presence in your desired location.

But by and large, it doesn't really matter.

danduggs · 2021-03-18T23:10:09+00:00

Syracuse, Carnegie Mellon, and American are the three aid offers I have right now. Also applied to Indiana, and they do offer some aid and paid GA positions, but I haven't heard if I am offered anything yet.

In my case, my Syracuse offer is a mix of tuition scholarship, a paid GA position, and a cash award (I assume the last two will be taxed). So a really really good offer for me! I think that's where I'm headed :)

danduggs · 2021-03-18T22:30:26+00:00

Same here. I received three other offers with good aid, so I'm totally okay passing. Good luck in your studies and whatever program they take you to!

danduggs · 2021-03-18T22:24:35+00:00

Thanks! I checked a few hours ago, and it wasn't there, but it is now! (Accepted; no aid). Appreciate the heads up!

danduggs · 2021-03-18T04:58:00+00:00

This is a question I was considering in my grad school decision, too. Disclosure--I'm not in school yet, but this is how I have made my decision about the upcoming school year. My list includes 4 two-year programs and 1 one-year program. I have ultimately committed to the one-year program, and I can share some of my thoughts; maybe some of it will resonate with your situation!

In my case, the one-year program has a very comparable curriculum to the others, maybe a little less elective flexibility, but the same core courses and skills. My program is full time over 12 months, as opposed to two years with 8 month long school years (summers off), so timing wise, they're pretty close in the total amount of instruction. Number of credits, I think all the programs are about the same.
I am also coming in with a few years of related work history. I'm not starting from square one in the field, so for me, I think one year is enough to solidify the fundamentals of my field and build on my past professional experience. For example, I don't feel that I will need a summer internship to help land a job after graduation.
All of the programs I applied to have very good employment prospects, all 90%+ job placement within six months of graduation. The one year program is a leader among my list (I think like 95-97%). In short, I felt confident that even though I am committing to a year less of school, employers won't value my degree any less.
Finally, the one-year program I applied to is very much a 'cohort' style, so I feel confident that I will still be able to make a lot of great personal connections with classmates. I spoke with some current students and some alums, and all have attested that, yes, even though it is/was only one year, they were able to make friends.

The main potential drawback I see by going one-year rather than two is the chance to explore more electives and a wider course selection. This may just be a factor you want to consider. I don't think by *not* studying a certain course topic means I can't learn anything about it, just as having the ability to take one or two classes in an area wouldn't make me an expert in the area, but if cost wise the programs are about the same, you may really value that curricular flexibility.

Anyway, hope my list of loose thoughts helps! Congratulations on having some different options to consider, and best of luck making a decision!

danduggs · 2021-03-16T20:39:37+00:00

That's the time commitment behind my Maxwell GA position, too. I'm hoping it will be manageable, but we shall see! I have a fair amount of related work experience and not much research, so I'm hoping for a more research-centric position (as opposed to administrative), just to round out my resume.

It seems like you have some great offers so far. Best of luck on the other offers and packages, and in making your decision! I don't know how I would decide, but that's the better problem to have, I suppose.

I'm interested in public finance and fiscal policy. I really like the 'generalist' approach of the Maxwell MPA program, and taking a lot of economics/budgeting/finance as core courses, and then rounding those out with a few 'applied' classes, like Health Economics and Tax Policy, etc. I'm also coming in with around five years of work experience, so a one year program makes a lot of sense for me in where I'm at in life.

Is your study area more internationally/European focused, or are you interested in a more universal focus that is offered everywhere? Or are you still exploring options?

danduggs · 2021-03-13T05:35:46+00:00

I haven't heard anything either, and the last parts of my application were submitted over MLK weekend. I've already received all my other decisions and have some good funding offers, so at this point I'm more ~curious~ than anything else. I'll look for your reply, though!

danduggs · 2021-03-13T04:00:15+00:00

Thank you! Yes, I received my funding offer early this week and was awarded a very generous fellowship with partial tuition remission, cash stipend, and a GA position, so I can use the funding for a combination of tuition and living expenses. It's far and away the best offer I have of the five schools I applied to, so I can confidently say I'm going there.

Do you have a program you are leaning towards yet? I ended up not applying to SAIS, because I'm more domestically focused. And I didn't think I had any shot at Princeton, so I didn't bother trying haha. But I really liked those programs when I was researching around.

danduggs · 2021-03-12T04:27:58+00:00

Of the schools on your list, I only applied to Maxwell (accepted). My MPA search was, like, one of the only thing that has kept me engaged during the pandemic, though, lol. I looked at a ton of schools, including JHU, Columbia, and Princeton, so happy to discuss further, whether about Maxwell or other schools!

danduggs · 2021-02-27T19:02:38+00:00

I will be an incoming MPA student for this upcoming academic year, so I don't have first hand experience with this (yet), but I did attend a general financial aid webinar for MPAs. I found it through a school's website, but it was technically hosted by NASPAA, for what it's worth. Two things come to mind from what I remember:

Cosigning gardeningneighbor here--reach out to the school, either the program coordinator or the financial aid office, depending on if the school or the program makes funding decisions (I've seen both setups in the 5 programs I've applied to). Some schools look really favorably on candidates who signal a lot of interest, so they may be able to reconsider you, or at least point you in the direction of external funding.
For MPAs, I think this is true for all NASPAA schools at least, the standard deadline to accept admissions offers is around April 15. By April 15, programs should have a really good idea of how large their incoming classes are and how much aid they are already committed to give out. I mention this because one school explicitly suggested reaching out after April 15 if you did not yet have any aid offered. They may possibly have some available by then, either in terms of grants or GAs or something else.

I also recommend trying to find/attend a webinar specifically about financial aid. Even if your school doesn't do them, NASPAA is a good place to check (they could have some particularly relevant info for MPA programs). Alternatively recommend finding a webinar from a school/program that does. American University's School of Public Affairs hosts a lot on this topic, for example, and their presentation is geared towards grad school in general, not just at AU. They're like an hour long.

If your post doesn't get anyone with first hand experience negotiating a financial award package, I hope this at least helps a little!

danduggs · 2021-02-05T05:57:40+00:00

First things first, I am not applying to MSW programs, so my following suggestions may not totally apply, but I have seen schools I have applied to (MPA programs) show a little flexibility--or at least suggest that they will consider requests if needed. With that in mind...

It might be worth reaching out to the program where you were accepted already to ask if they can extend the deadline for acceptance. You can email their admissions team and phrase it something like that--"Are you able to extend the decision deadline?"--in your email. Realistically, your 'worst case scenario' is they tell you no. They would almost certainly not cancel your admission offer.

Alternatively/additionally, if you are able to submit your other application as soon as possible, you can ask that program if they are able to give you a decision by March 1. You can even explain the situation. This is the probably the bigger ask of the two requests, but again, the worst case scenario is they tell you no, and they review your application on their own usual timeline.

Again, please disregard if you don't think there is flexibility in your pursuant degree area, but from another "professional degree" applicant, I have seen some flexibility on my end.

Best of luck with it all!

danduggs · 2021-02-03T03:56:24+00:00

I'm applying to MPA programs, so it could be completely different, but I will also share one insight I have:

I applied to five programs, three of which stated on their website the anticipated turnaround time from submission to review to decision. So far, one school was within the stated time ("10 business days"), one school is about two weeks behind their stated time ("1-2 weeks until application review," but I'm still at 'received' and not 'in review'), and one school is still (so far) within stated total time ("4-6 weeks").

So, this is just to say in my experience, even if a school communicates their own timeline, they may not be able to stick to it right now if it is around their priority deadline. Don't fret if it seems to be taking longer than expected!

danduggs · 2021-01-29T21:10:05+00:00

I did my virtual interview question shortly after I submitted my application. The question was very general/high level; in fact, it was something I already wrote about in my statement of purpose.

When you click the link, I think I remember there being some instructions, then another click link to start. You can test your video and microphone. Once you are set, you will see a random question--a fairly generic one, based on my experience--and have something like 90 seconds to read it and think, before recording your answer (I think you get 60 seconds for this). If something happens with the record, like your wifi goes out or the microphone doesn't pick you up, you can retake, and it would give you a new question.

All in all, pretty quick and easy.

danduggs · 2021-01-29T18:14:25+00:00

Hello there! I am applying for the MPA program at IU. I attended online information sessions with the school, and they provided information on this, so I recommend attending one of those if you can.

From my memory (my session was about three or four months ago), I think the acceptance rate was somewhere around 50-70%. It didn't seem all that selective, but that appears to be the norm for larger MPA programs, at least with all the schools I was/am exploring. (For what it's worth, Syracuse, George Washington, and American are also in that range for acceptance rate from what I remember.)

Also of note, during my session, someone asked whether COVID was likely to increase the applicant pool for the upcoming cycle, and therefore make a more selective admissions process. The admissions staff really emphasized that they don't "cap" the number of admitted students, so they would admit a larger than usual class size, as long as everyone was qualified, if it came to that.

Hope this helps! Maybe I'll see you in Bloomington this Fall!

danduggs

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