<p>I will begin my gradaute studies in Electrical Engineering at MIT this fall. After receiving my PhD in EE in four-five years down the road, I want to attend Harvard School of Government for a degree in Public Policy. I would like to focus on information and communication technology policy. We need scientists with strong engineering skills that are directly applicable to the analysis of policies both in government and industry. So what I wanted to ask was how common is it for science students to get a degree in Public Policy?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’m sure it’s not common. I do know that CMU’s undergrad engineering school has a formal program that allows students to double major in public policy though. It’s not common, but it’s not like it’s completely unrelated.</p>
<p>We need more engineers involved in public policy. Go for it!</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, why would you do that? I can imagine that you’re going to have a lot of debt… Would you need an mpp/mpa to consult on IT policy? It seems a little excessive…</p>
<p>ThePhilosopher, I am not worried about debt. I can afford it. I don’t think you necesseraily have to have a MPP/MPA degree to consult on IT policy. However, having the degree along with the EE degree would make you more competetive? Wouldn’t you think so? I want to work in the government so it makes sense to me to get both degrees. What do you guys here on CC think?</p>
<p>I think this is an interesting route. In my mind, it doesn’t sound very practical. </p>
<p>As far as I can tell, experience and networking/etc. are probably the most important factors in fields such as public policy. A PhD in EE seems superfluous. The degree is meant for you to be trained in every aspect of a very narrow scientific project. In other words, it’s very micro-focused.</p>
<p>I know next to nothing about public policy, but the name itself implies that it is very macro-focused. Intricate things about a PhD project such as “fixing an instrument” don’t seem applicable. I would argue that a EE MS would be sufficient enough to give you an engineering perspective. A MS allows you to specialize your focus a little more, but a PhD is overkill and it looks like it can hurt your long term plans.</p>
<p>By getting a PhD, you may be crippling yourself because of the age-factor. Assuming everything goes as planned, you’ll probably be ~30 years old with very little real-world public policy background. You’ll be competing against younger and more applicable people who don’t need your superfluous knowledge to succeed.</p>
<p>The question is what does a EE PhD + Degree in public policy offer that a MS/BS + Degree in public policy does not? I would argue that the time spent outside academia would be more beneficial. You need those extra years to make a difference in your career.</p>
<p>Judging by your other posts (and your name) - you are very excited about a possible PhD in EE at MIT, which is one of the “Big 3” prestige degrees in EECS - many people outside the EE field (including me) recognize that Stanford, UCB, and MIT are pretty good at EE. However, I don’t see its relevance anywhere here. One example I can give is that Bill Gates dropped out of college to make Microsoft - and timing+networking+experience were very important for his career, not some degree from Harvard. No one really remembers that he published with a legendary CS professor (W. Gates and C. Papadimitriou, Bounds for sorting by prefix reversal (1976)).</p>
<p>At the end of the day, you’ll be judged by your career (Microsoft), not your degree (Harvard). You need to think macroscopically here.</p>
<p>I would think that having the PhD, and getting experience in the public policy field would be much more beneficial then spending more time getting another degree.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for all of your wonderful suggestions. I do really appreciate it!</p>
<p>SDTB, you are right. It seems like “experience and networking/etc. are probably the most important factors in fields such as public policy”. I do agree with you that MS in EE with Public Policy degree would be just as good as PhD in EE and a Public Policy degree. To be honest, I am going with the PhD in EE beacuse I have a very deep passion for it. Specifically, optoelectronic integrated circuit neuro-processors is what turns me on and I have spent 2 years in high school and 4 years in college on this specific research project and am close to making a big discovery in the next few years. That is one of the reasons I am going to go for PhD beacuse I need funding and a platform where I will have resources to conduct my research. Anways, I am 22 years old right now and plan on getting done with my PhD in EE at MIT by the time I am 26-28 years old. Besides my hardcore academic research interest in ptoelectronic integrated circuit neuro-processors, I have recently started enjoying politics, especially how governments make policy, how the public sector is run, and the political dimension of public sector decision-making. Of course I would like to specialize in one of the specific fields of electronics policy. But to make long story short, I want to be a scientist, but at the same time have knowledge, leadership, conceptual framework and practical skills necessary to work in an administrative job in governemtn as well. Thats why Public Policy degree along with PhD in EE sounds awesome too me. And I am sure I’ll be done with both of these degrees before my 30th birthday:-) Do you guys see where I am coming from? So what do you guys think?</p>
<p>Forgot to mention, I have the rest of my life to “getting experience in the public policy field”. And I don’t want/desire/care to be judged by who I work for, I simply want to follow my passions and learn what I enjoy the most.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Public policy strikes me as an area where a degree is not necessary to obtain any of those things you enumerated. Anyway, the people occupying the positions you want seem to all be established academics, not people with Harvard public policy degrees.</p>