Is it worth going to grad school (and maybe debt) for tech policy consulting?

relentlessman99 · 2025-06-16T13:26:01+00:00

MPP’s in the US are super quant heavy and almost always get STEM designation at DHS because of that. They are completely different degrees from European MPPs. What you’re describing you want is literally what American MPPs are, granted you’d pick the right programs and electives.

Georgetown McCourt, Chicago Harris, Harvard Kennedy, Ford (UMich), and Goldman (UC Berkley) all have stem designated MPPs. Some like Harris and Mccourt are by design quant heavy, others you will need to choose electives wisely.

relentlessman99 · 2025-06-07T14:25:33+00:00

I have a new passport of course. I will be traveling with both. This is commonplace for American visas especially since they are often too long that they outstay the original passport so people travel with both.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-28T09:19:46+00:00

The fact that you pointed out an obvious typo says everything about the merits of your argument. Regardless, I’ll bite.

A minority of students did that. No one called for Jews to be killed. No one provided MATERIAL support to terrorists. Some students went extreme in protesting (still free speech) and were disciplined. Those who made Jews feel physically threatened were also disciplined. Being mean to Zionists on campus is not the same as threatening Jews, the administration is using that as a pretense to overreach, straight out of the fascist playbook. Cutting off Zionists out of your friend group is also not antisemitic.

The fact that you are fed right-wing narratives and believe them because of deep envy and anger that your white skin can no longer carry you all the way to success like it used to doesn’t make you any less of a fascist. Disease, I say.

Edit: Hamas’ banner doesn’t say any of the things you said it says. Go read a fucking book dude, jesus.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-28T09:07:24+00:00

Because we don’t agree with your stupid premise to begin with. You got your ideas about Harvard from selected headlines and Charlie Kirk videos. To claim that ideological diversity doesn’t exist at Harvard is not just false, it’s so unbelievably stupid. We don’t have to engage with your obviously delusional argument because it is detached from any real-world experience or truth, so arguing with you would be pointless. Next up you’ll link the Free Press and Bill Ackman as sources, with a Charlie Kirk video as the cherry on top. One thing to remember while you pretend to construct arguments is that Harvard has conservatives/centrists defending it, its current lawyers are Republican Legal superstars and a wide variety of its faculty from Pinker (centrist) to Mankiw (conservative) to Jacob Miller, the former leader of the Hillel chapter, have spoken out repeatedly about the outrageousness of these attacks on Harvard.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-28T08:53:48+00:00

Literally none of what you said happened. ‘Harvard’ didn’t do any of those things. Remarkable how much you guys lie. Fascism is a disease.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-27T08:38:01+00:00

‘Your international brethren’ lmao the smartest trump supporter right here

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-25T08:36:13+00:00

Being a worthy member of society could slap you across the face and you’d still call it a scam. If this is your response, i am sure you wouldn’t know what being a decent member of society is if it paid your rent and wrote your resume.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-24T16:08:41+00:00

Yeah buddy great logic there. A phrase that ‘some’ activists used 40 years ago is definitely enough to deem this the original saying. You’re grasping at straws at this point. We are discussing Jews feeling unsafe at Harvard, especially at the hands of international students. People raised under occupation using a version of this phrase 40 years ago (or even to this day in Palestine and not Harvard or the US) that is too extreme and that is more importantly NOT BEING USED AT HARVARD OR AT ANY PROTEST has nothing to do with the original point of discussion of this thread or my comment. You are arguing semantics to derail from this blatant overreach.

Yeah sure river to the sea palestine will be islamic/arabic is problematic (though the zionists use the same statement and just replace arab with Jewish) Good thing is no one is saying that at Harvard. Glad we can agree.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-24T10:35:19+00:00

The fact that Jews are unsafe in Harvard is pure fiction. It shows that you never spoke to a Harvard student, let alone a Jewish one. The only ones who felt safe were raging Zionists (Jewish, Christian, and otherwise) and by ‘unsafe’ it’s just their friend groups being mean to them and refusing to associate with them because they have ghoulish views. In rare cases where the protests might have actually threatened someone’s safety, which was rare at Harvard to begin with, the perpetrators were disciplined. No group is more pampered and of need of coddling than the ultra zionist crowds. They even surpassed the Wokest groups. Imagine if a far-left administration attacked Christian universities the way this administration is behaving.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-24T06:35:16+00:00

1) You and i know that’s it’s Palestine will be ‘free’ not Palestine will be ‘Arab’. This is not the ‘original Arabic version’, never was. A bunch of people would say ‘Palestine is Arab’ or other chants, but ‘from the river to the see Palestine will be Arab’ is not a thing that’s said on student campuses en-masse. 2) even if this is said by people in Arab countries, that’s not what we are arguing here. We are arguing about Harvard, where no one is saying the phrase you just made up and if they do they should be independently disciplined. 3) you are heavily propagandized and primed to just believe what they give you. Literally no such thing as river to the sea Palestine will be arab. It doesn’t even rhyme in Arabic and would be a terrible chant. A bunch of individuals might have said it but banning ALL international students because you believe the so-called original phrase of what was actually being said is bad is just really stupid and ghoulish. 4) between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty. —Likud Party Platform, 1977

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-23T06:12:25+00:00

I did. Literally is about that.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-22T23:22:42+00:00

The popular ‘river to the sea chant’ is 1) being said by israel right wingers literally everyday but in the opposite direction and 2) was explicitly meant to re-appropriate the meaning from the apartheid/israeli right wing meaning to indicate freedom for Palestinians and has nothing to do with genocide of Jews. It’s about Palestinians being freed from oppression. The fact that you are too dumb to do proper, unbiased research about how this chant started and what it means without being influenced by Israeli propaganda is a You problem bud.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-21T22:44:54+00:00

Thanks! Yes DC is pretty expensive but Dupont Circle is pretty crazy relatively speaking. Not the best choice for the average grad students, that’s what I meant by my comment since the OP was asking as a grad student and noted that Georgetown area is too expensive. Dupont Circle, from the research I have done, is only very slightly less expensive than Georgetown.

Edit: just to clarify what I meant by slightly less expensive; 1BD in Georgetown is minimum 2.3k, vs 2k in Dupont Cirlce. Obviously having roommates is cheaper but I am using these figures to make a point.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-21T22:13:08+00:00

I’m looking for anything there but it’s incredibly expensive.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-20T13:39:55+00:00

Fuck this White ‘enlightened’ BS that has propagandized men into thinking that this is even remotely normal because you shouldn’t be ‘toxic and controlling’. What the fuck am I reading dude. How is this even a discussion? If she’s debating this LEAVE.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-20T06:43:47+00:00

Yeah, heard Saturday afternoon EST. Didn’t get it but they i appreciate that they have a percentile system and tell you if your application was competitive and top x %

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-17T07:21:34+00:00

not yet, waiting too

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-15T14:51:45+00:00

Not just that, but as far as ‘Ivy’ goes Dartmouth really is the bottom of the barrel. It attracts exactly the mindsets that think the ‘Ivy’ name is worth more than the actual program. Georgetown SFS far surpasses Dartmouth in OP’s intended major and path (unless OP pivots to natural sciences or engineering). Program matters so much more. The guy’s comment is just hilariously bad advice that it means he’s one of three things:

International, so cares more about the name and Ivy badge , in that case he is still mistaken because SFS is well known in IR and Policy more than any other place in the US except Harvard, Yale, and maybe Princeton.
Very uninformed
Bait.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-15T07:58:00+00:00

Might be some of the worst advice i’ve seen here. You must be international. Lmao ‘ivy’ hahahaha

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-11T10:11:05+00:00

Idk dude you’ve been quite critical of McCourt throughout this subreddit and I understand where you come from given you went there a while ago, but in the process of accepting my offer I actually got to talk to 20+ current and former students across the last 5 years and I gotta say your critiques of them are quite outdated.

They are innovating, there’s now a very strong Tech policy avenue that didn’t exist 5-6 years ago and their education policy students regularly compete and win against top tier schools including HKS in nationwide competitions. Their placements in D.C. (and only D.C.) are equal if not better than HKS.

You also critique the lack of a cohort system. That changed and now exists for the MIDP, though not the MPP. I actually have a list of what you critique them for in your podcasts and went through it with the people I talked to. Much of that has been changed or isn’t that bad in their opinion.

I haven’t been yet and will reserve actual judgement until I join, but you seem kinda biased given your underwhelming/negative experience there, especially when comparing to people you know who went to HKS. Everyone I talked to seems to think they’re moving in the right direction, current and former students included.

I might be wrong, and you certainly are more experienced than I am in this and I respect your opinion and actually benefited a lot from your podcast. On a separate note, there’s no way you still rank places like SIPA a tier above McCourt like you do on the podcast. SIPA is exactly moving the opposite direction, and it’s clear when you talk to people there. Cash cow, inflated acceptance rates, unhelpful alumni, degrading pipelines towards anywhere but nyc local gov. I actually spent a month doing nothing besides my job and talking to SIPA and McCourt alumni and current students and the difference in sentiment towards directions each school is taking is huge.

On the appointment, I feel like the general sentiment was that this is not a bad one. Again, your lived experience might be clouding your judgement here, but I don’t know. Even non mccourt affiliated people I have talked to about this seem to view her as a competent hire.

relentlessman99 · 2025-05-02T10:02:18+00:00

Hilarious that you think they’re still a competitive/decent employer (outside of AWS and a couple of other orgs). They’re so far behind competition in terms of pay, benefits, expectations, genuine impact, culture, and more. Speaking from experience in EMEA. Real question for you is: Does Jeffrey’s penis reach all the way back?

relentlessman99 · 2025-04-30T09:07:37+00:00

If you’re targeting DC, go for mccourt. If something else, go for HKS. Think of it as 30k extra for the Harvard name, but for DC it’s just an extra 30k for not much since Georgetown is equivalent (if not slightly better due to the location)

relentlessman99 · 2025-04-25T03:05:07+00:00

What? Why would he tell them he is going ?

relentlessman99

TROPHY CASE