<p>I am three years out of undergrad, and plan to apply next fall 2011 for entry to a dual degree MBA and MPP or MPA in 2012. I've long worked in non-profits and/or social enterprise, so am pretty committed to the idea of working for the public good. I think the dual-degree could be a practical way of building on my interest in public-policy and also instill in me the basic, practical lessons of starting, managing, and growing an organization, etc.</p>
<p>I thought I'd turn to CC though and ask if anyone could concisely explain to me what the difference between an MPA and MPP is in terms of types of courses, applicability in the real world, etc. You'd think it was easier to glean the difference from schools' websites!</p>
<p>And would it be redundant to do an MPA and MBA -- both administration degrees? (I don't want to work in the public sector necessarily -- likely want to stay in the non-profit world.)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I think that traditionally MPA (Master of Public Administration) degrees are meant to prepare managers for the public sector (kind of the MBA for the public sector – though not necessarily recognized as such as many people don’t know what an MPA is) whereas MPP degrees are more about policy analysis (like working for the Government Accountability Office or the Office of Management and Budget or the Congressional Budget Office). But recently the degrees have been converging, for example I’m starting an MPA at Syracuse this summer and I’ll have two semesters of statistical analysis, just like the MPP at Harvard. And people from Syracuse have ended up at the GAO. Really you just need to look at each program and decide what skill set you want, bearing in mind that if you want to be a researcher you’ll probably ultimately need a Ph.D.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that Berkeley’s MPP is the sort of prototypical policy analysis school that trains people to work as analysts in government, whereas Harvard’s MPP aims to train leaders more so than analysts. I have no idea if this translates into a difference in what kinds of jobs people get.</p>