Hi all!

I'm currently a third year undergrad student pursuing a BS in Public Policy and a Gender/Women's Studies minor. I had originally planned to graduate early to complete my MS/BS at my current school, but I don't love the program and now think I may push it off. I feel so uncertain about what I want to do and my next steps.

I currently have a 4.0 with research and internship experience. On one hand, I see the value of going to grad school, but I don't know what for. I've thought about public health, international affairs, law school or even just a broad MPP. However, uncertainty (and other Professors' advice) tells me that maybe going to grad school right now isn't the best idea, but I'm worried that not going to grad school now will affect me in the career field.

If I'm being honest, I don't know what I want to do, but with my major, I feel so restricted. If anyone has advice on schools, careers, or literally anything, I'd really appreciate it. Thank you all :)

Hi Reddit, I’m currently trying to decide between 2 MPP/MPA programs.

I’ve applied to a range of schools for an MPP in Digital/Tech/Internet regulation. I’m an American looking to go to school in the UK/Europe for this topic. I’m 30 with 10 years of tech industry experience under my belt.

I’ve received many acceptances (and I feel lucky to have received them so early). My top 2 choices are UCL for an MPA in Digital and Technology Policy- and University of Edinburgh MPP with specialization options in technology policy. Following graduate school I would like to spend some time working for a regulating body as its experience I don’t already have.

I’m really split between the two. I know UCL is a better uni but my husband and I are hesitant to move into a big city like London. We are currently living in Denver and always looking to go smaller than larger. Edinburgh is a perfect size. But I suspect most jobs in this field are in London area, so maybe the leg up for UCL is worth it…

Any advice or recommendations?

Over the next few weeks, I am going to submit my application for a PhD in Public Policy at British universities (Oxford, LSE, UCL) as well as Sciences Po in Paris. I have researched these PhDs extensively and I've decided which supervisors I should approach, as well as asked my current professors for references. Does anyone have any advice on PhD applications? Thank you!

Hi all,

I am currently in an MPIA program at GSPIA at Pitt and got accepted to add on two programs for a dual degree, an MBA and JD. The MBA would take 1 year less and cost 30% less, Would it be worth it that much to add a JD if I want to do Capitol Hill work?

I also have corporate experience so may want to end up doing consulting work etc.

I’m 30 w/ 10 years worth of job experience. 5 in construction sales and 5 in politics, undergrad in public policy. Looking to elevate myself. I’m not 100% wed to this industry but it’s something I have experience and some knowledge in. I’m interested in housing and transportation policy, however still early enough in my career that I’m open to other things as well. Wondering if I should pursue a Masters in Urban Planning or a Masters in Public Affairs.

Hello,

I am applying to MPP/MPA programs and took the GRE as some schools require it. I recieved a 161 Q and 166 V, and 4 on the essay.

I am applying to the NYU MPA-PNP, for which GRE is optional. Should I submit my scores? Here is the exact language from NYU: "GRE or GMAT scores are optional to apply. We encourage applicants to submit scores if they believe it will strengthen their applications or if their academic and professional records do not provide sufficient evidence of their quantitative, verbal, and reasoning abilities."

For other context, I graduated with a high gpa from a good liberal arts university with a social science degree. I have 2.5 years of work experience and very minimal quant experience.

Hi! I am looking for someone (preferably alums) who can give advice and feedback on my essays. Thank you!

Hi all, due to my low GPA (6.5/10) I will not be able to apply in tier1 colleges like LSE, UCL, Sciences Po, etc.

Any recommendations on other colleges I can target in Europe? Tier 2 colleges that have good faculty and scope of a good job after the program? Please help

Hi, I am a technical consultant in solar energy and I’ve been thinking recently whether it’s a good idea to apply for a masters in public policy. Also thinking what could be my career options after getting the masters and if my prior experience would be an addition in that case. Can anyone with experience give their perspective please?

I graduated with my MPP in June and am trying to land my first job. My focus was in environmental policy, but I’m applying to jobs in a variety of policy areas.

I’ve talked to some former colleagues, and they’ve all recommended that I look for private sector work, specifically environmental consulting. I spent 5 months barking up that tree until I realized that I’m not qualified to work in consulting.

Since I stopped applying to consulting jobs, I’ve landed 10 interviews at state and local agencies in CA, but haven’t managed to get hired. I’d much rather work in the public sector, but I understand that there are more opportunities in the private sector.

Are there any other industries/types of businesses worth looking into for someone with a policy background?

I’m also curious if it’s worth it to apply to government jobs in other states. I’ve been told numerous times that CA is oversaturated with policy professionals.

Advice on Research outline

Hi everyone, I’m an international student did my undergrad in the USA back in 2018. Then, i never thought of doing a PhD so never really did much of research, just my thesis. Have been working as a public school teacher for the past 5 years and things took a quiet turn, I am highly interested in academia and want to do a 1+3 PhD in public policy and development. However, the schools I’m applying to require a research outline and upon googling and even asking chatgpt its still giving me various answers on the contexts and the lengths of it. Is there anyone here who had to submit a research outline for school? Any insight to what it should contain and so forth? Thank you.

Hi all,

I graduated in 2022 with an M.A in Policy. I specialized in the mental health of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers. I had a tentative job offer after graduation, but it fell through. I've been having a rough time getting something in my field, or related to it, ever since. Does anyone have tips, or advice?

Thank you!

Has anyone applied to the Harris School in the early application cycle? I’m curious if anyone here has received an admission offer, and what the typical scholarship amount is. I was fortunate enough to get an admission offer along with a partial scholarship, but I’m looking for advice on how to potentially increase the scholarship offer so that it becomes more financially feasible for me to accept.

Any insights or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I am a first year student of an MPP course in India. For an elective, "Education and Development," we are required to submit a book review as an assignment. Since there is not a lot of time, I am looking to read a book with less pages. I prefer reading something I can get my hands on for free (like an online source or pdf). The book has to be related to the central theme of education.

Could y'all please suggest some books?

I'm on my journey to apply for MPP program at HKS and found that the school requires an optional video essay to assess applicants' English proficiency. Is there anyone tried it out? Do you have any tips for this? My TOEFL is near the borderline that the school recommends and I feel I need to take it Lol.

TL:DR What some pros and cons about being a Public Policy major in undergrad & once you go out into the field. So jobs, locations, work life balance etc etc.

Background Hi i’m (F21) currently a student still in undergrad (USA). I’ve been considering changing my major to Public Policy (well my university only offers it as a concentration of Poli Sci but yk lol). I don’t rlly vibe with my current major, fashion business. I think my turning point out of my denial of sticking to my major was when I was in class (it was for Career prep in textile/fashion industry) and we had to interview someone on their job position and I asked to interview this man I had met during this UN summit. Ofc my teacher/career counselor look at me like “uhhh girl” and was like find someone in the textile industry LOL. Plus another class having guest speakers come in made me realize I don’t care to work in fashion or textile role.

So now i’m here considering the change towards public policy. I just want to hear ppl opinions / experience in the space to kinda help aid my decision.

From what I can tell, US MPP programs tend to be expensive as hell with little financial return -- even at so-called top schools (Princeton and Yale are notable exceptions).

Nor are these degrees so selective that they have signaling value even if you are studying something not directly relevant to the job market (for instance, if you major in art history as an undergrad at Uchicago, that's still a signal cause you got into Uchicago for undergrad; getting into Harris on the other hand seems trivial).

So who is enrolling? Are they all employer funded? Are they using the GI bill? Or are they mostly of the trust-fund variety?

I'm an international student from Italy, and currently (with a Bachelor's in International Relations) I'm contemplating whether Public Policy MA is better than IA. I want to work in diplomacy & I'm passionate ab that sphere a lot. If anybody has any advice i'd appreciate it a lot :)

Anyone know of any roles or are looking for interns this Spring. I’m in the process of applying and just had an interview today. Feel free to private message me if you’ve any questions. Thank you.

Hello, I just got scheduled for an interview for a public policy intern position at Amazon. I was wondering if anyone here has any experience? What should I do? How should I prepare? Would they expect me to relate my leadership principle stories with public policy? I looked up Glassdoor and there was only one entry for this position. Thank you!

Hi, everyone!

I have been working on a collaborative journalism platform aimed at solution-driven news, and now that I have the beta version of the app published, I am trying to organize some user testing. Given the content of this community, I thought some here may be interested in the project. Below is a more detailed, albeit brief, summary of the platform

Backroom is a platform built on a relatively simple premise: bringing people with diverse perspectives together to solve problems. The idea for Backroom came after listening to a radio debate on the student loan crisis, where two well-informed individuals presented their arguments eloquently. Yet, despite the clarity and respectfulness of the debate, no resolution was achieved, and no path forward was suggested. This experience underscores a common theme I see in media: while there is ample space for discussions, there is often a lack of concrete, actionable solutions. Backroom was conceived as a response to this gap. While social media platforms like X , Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Discord, etc. offer spaces for people to express their thoughts and share stories, they typically do not facilitate the creation of real, impactful solutions. Backroom, on the other hand, is designed to not only provide a platform for conversations and storytelling but also to equip users with the tools to develop and implement solutions to the problems they discuss.

Using the Backroom platform, users join a Room about a topic they are interested in, add fellow users, and then discuss the topic/problem in detail. Then, AI analyzes the conversation and proposes a specific solution based solely on that conversation. The hope is that Backroom will take us a step further in our media experience than current platforms by moving beyond debates and rants, toward meaningful and well-rounded solutions for our community.

I am looking for test users who would be willing to participate in one or two Rooms each. I anticipate a Room taking 1 to 2 active working hours total, but this could vary depending on the users and topic. If this sounds like something you’d be interested in feel free to drop me a comment or message. I would also love to just discuss the idea in generally, even if you don’t have the capacity to help with testing.

I might apply for a Master's degree in Social Science and Public Policy in London - as an international non-EU student that is. Think I should go for it?

I received an email from the university/college I graduated from that I can apply for a Master's degree in the UK. The program for Social Science and Public Policy piqued my interest. It definitely seems like something right up my alley. The application results are to be decided June 2025.

Now, for the context, my country in particular is Lebanon. Currently we're facing an invasion by-you-probably-know-who, so I'm not totally sure if it's worth taking this program if I'm going to return to a country that has been going through turbulent crises in a matter of years (hyperinflation, port blast, water crisis, energy crisis, infrastructure collapse, concerned increase in abject poverty and what have you), and where half of its lands will have been completely flattened and destroyed by next year if not by the holidays.

For the past year I've developed this need to help people, and while I've done my part in donations and volunteering, the nihilistic part of me felt it was futile, and I was proven right as we were invaded. The worst part is, our own government failed to prepare for such an invasion (we had a year in advance and nothing was implemented, go figure).

I'm the type of person whose biggest frustrations stem from negligence and incompetence. I get quite upset if there's no sense of professionalism or teamwork, and I prefer to communicate and get things done before getting to know people in the casual sense.

I've come to terms with the fact that, deep down, I get a sense of fulfillment when it comes to these types of stuff: organizing as a team, implementing, executing, keeping tabs on the process, especially when it's actually going smoothly.

Thoughts?

I get the question of what are the most popular policy areas every year. My sense is that this year the winds have shifted a bit. Comment if you have different perspectives.

The traditional big 3 are:
- Education
- Environmental Policy
- International Development

Beyond that it can vary a lot by school.

Two interesting changing winds I hear about are:
a. The Rise in Tech Policy: This is a bit hard to categorize as its own policy area, because in many ways, it really is about discussing another policy area through the tech lens. For example, a lot of tech policy considers discrimination by AI. I bucket that as civil rights/equity/racial/ethnic justice policy.

b. The Rise of National Defense: I have been hearing that since the War in Ukraine started there has been a greater interest in National Defense in policy schools. I heard also heard that some of them are in the grey zone between industrial policy and national defense than pure national defense. I also hear that though national defense is rising, it doesn't have the same prestige in policy grad schools as IR grad schools.

The frequently unpopular policy areas among the policy schools I have been exposed to:

a. Agriculture
b. Infrastructure
c. Law Enforcement/Crime
d. Communication (e.g., FCC regulations)
e. Consumer Protection
f. Gun Policy

View Poll

Hi,

I'm preparing for a presentation in my real estate class and am currently struggling to choose a policy to focus on. The assignment requires me to select a current housing-related policy and present an argument either defending and expanding it, or advocating for its reform or replacement. The policy can pertain to any aspect of housing and can be from any location.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions or ideas for policies that I could explore for this presentation. Thank you in advance for your help!

What I am hearing from my friends is that policy jobs (non-defense) are about to change drastically as a consequence of the Trump win.

1. The chunk of federal jobs will shrink, or be moved outside of the DC area.
2. (The surprising one) Apparently there is a backlash among the left with non-profit advocacy groups (I am not touching the politics to it), so there is concern about advocacy groups on the left are going to see tough days ahead in terms of access to money. This impacts mostly DC and/or NYC advocacy orgs.

What are others hearing?

A bit about me, I graduated college in 2021 with a 3.9 GPA from a small liberal arts college (not super well known). Since then I’ve been working for the federal government in DC - my job somewhat relates to policy but I’ve helped submit a legislative fix and a few other things. I’m interested in an MPP program to further my reach in environmental policy. I don’t have a strong quant background and plan to take the GRE in a month but don’t expect to get high quant scores. I’m looking at GW and Georgetown but want to have a better understanding of my chances of getting into schools. Thanks!

🍺 Ever daydreamed at work about how long you have to labour to afford a nice cold beer?📊 Introducing the Labour for Lagers Index.💰Discover what the cost of a pint says about prosperity & progress where you're from.

https://www.thegpi.org/p/labouring-for-lagers