Hello Everyone, I hope that everyone is having a great week thus far.. I am in need of help with a current decision on choosing a school/city to be able to attend graduate school. I am aware that the economy is rocky but I want to make a good decision on a school and city that will be beneficial to my program. I have recently been accepted into four universities for the MPA program. I wanted to know if anyone knows someone who has attended theses universities for this program or about the university period. This information will be extremely helpful * Long Island University - Brooklyn * Clark Atlanta University- Atlanta, GA * Governors State University - University Park, IL * Texas Southern University - Houston, TX Thank you!
Hi there Braniac, I think it will be difficult to elicit a really beneficial response from this forum based on your question, for two reasons. First, on this forum the focus tends to be on distance education, and it looks like you are considering residential programs. Second, we can't tell from your question what your career goals are, and what your selection criteria are based on. Are you hoping to get into non-profit management? Government administration? City management? Adding this information would help us help you. Also, this particular forum section deals with Business/Management degrees, so you may have more luck posting in the General thread. That being said, look for MPA programs that are NASPAA accredited; this seems to be the gold standard in MPA programs, and would probably be equivalent to the AACSB accreditation for MBA programs. I will note that there seems to be many quality MPA programs which are not NASPAA accredited (Norwich comes to mind), but if you're looking for the "cream of the crop" or so to speak, this is a good starting point. Some ONLINE programs which would probably be reputable and provide a good public administration curriculum would be the following: Penn State World Campus - online MPA at your own pace. Norwich University - online MPA completed in 18 months with a cohort model of training; one residency at the end of the program. Northwestern University - online MPPA (Master of Public Policy & Administration), can be completed in 15-18 months. Liberty University - online MAPP (Master of Public Policy), can be completed at own pace w/ reasonable tuition rates. I can't attest to the reputation of the schools you listed above, but I know Texas Southern also has an MBA program some folks on here have recommended, so the school is probably decent. Good luck.
Thank you for your input and I am looking to work in government administration. I will be looking into the universities that you have listed as well.
