Hi all: You provided me great advice last year when I was looking for somewhere to do an MPA. In the end, I started at the University of Colorado - Denver, in the online MPA program. I am close to completing my 4th class, which puts me 1/3 of the way through the program and I thought I would share my experience with you all. The pros: UC Denver is a well regarded university. The faculty is the same as the faculty that teaches on campus and some of my profs have seriously well known names. Of course, a name is not all, so to add to that, most of the instructors and profs I have so far have been very good. They push you to dig a little deeper and look at things from different angles. The program is rigorous, there are weekly discussion board postings, weekly readings and a lot of assignments. Technology is easy to use. The School of Public Affairs really keeps students engaged and always sends out invites to conferences, speeches, lectures, job postings and so on, which is great if you live in the Denver area, not so great for me The cons: My major beef with the program so far is that there are not that many electives offered online so in order to finish the program (12 courses), you need to either (a) take online classes that you are not interested in, (b) do a class or 2 on campus (and they do sometimes offer intensive 9 day courses that can be suitable for distance students), or (c) do an independent study course. I think I will go the independent study route, even though it is a lot of administrative hassle to set it up. All in all though I am very satisfied that I picked UC Denver and I am looking forward to the rest of my program! If anyone has any questions about the program, please feel free to ask!
Good luck with the program I agree with your review. I graduated in 2004, but at the time I did take several classes on campus for the same reasons you stated I didn't like all of the electives offered online. I have the luxury of living fairly close to Denver so it wasn't a huge deal. The program would benefit greatly by adding more online content. Keep us posted on your progress.
Which classes have you completed? I am considering the MPA from UC-Colorado Springs. They are apparently the same school of public affairs, shared between the two campuses. Or at least that is what the brochure said. I will have to look into it further. Do you think that the coursework would prepare you for a thesis paper?
I have taken 3 compulsory courses and one elective. I don't think that the courses have been very difficult so far in terms of complexity of the material but there is a lot of volume: weekly readings, frequent threaded discussions and some pretty demanding assignments. I think that the written assignments could prepare you to write a thesis. I have already finished one masters, at a B&M uni, and I still find some of the assignments in the MPA program to be challenging and mind-bending.
