<p>Is it within the Government department, or is it in the PAM major in human ecology? There doesn't appear to be a major or a minor.</p>
<p>I'm also not entirely sure between the difference in Government and Public Policy. Is Public Policy just applied Government?</p>
<p>Good question. You could focus on it in either department; PAM will probably be more comprehensive though if you’re really interested in the causes and ramifications of policy. With Gov, you have to fulfill all the A&S requirements, and need to focus a lot of courses on different aspects of government.</p>
<p>That being said, if you’re interested in public policy, check out the Cornell in Washington semester-long program; they have a class called Studies in Public Policy:
See here for more info: [Cornell</a> in Washington](<a href=“Cornell in Washington – Cornell Brooks Public Policy”>Cornell in Washington – Cornell Brooks Public Policy)</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>For undergraduates, the PAM major is basically a public policy degree. At the graduate level Cornell has the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs which offers a MPA:
[CIPA:</a> About CIPA](<a href=“http://www.cipa.cornell.edu/about/]CIPA:”>About the MPA Program – Cornell Brooks Public Policy).</p>
<p>The Government major isn’t really so much policy as it is political theory, though it can vary depending on which courses/professors you take. Courses that focus on current events/recent history inevitably get into serious policy issues. Government = political science so it approaches problems more generally than public policy. If you’re taking just Government with the goal of a policy career, I highly recommend a statistics and/or research methods class. I personally think the department’s only weakness it that it doesn’t require one such course to graduate, although I know my advisor told all his advisees to take at least one statistics class.</p>
<p>That said, since I know you are planning on Economics and Government, that combination I think is highly potent at the undergraduate level and has led me to my current job as a Research Analyst at a think-tank. I think it hits the right balance between developing theory and critical thinking skills, allowing you to fill in any gaps yourself when it comes to policy. Plus, quite a few Econ classes do look at policy. I took Public Finance, International Monetary Theory and Policy, and International Trade Theory and Policy which all had a significant policy component.</p>
<p>That was really helpful; thanks! I think I’m taking the best route by majoring in the theoretical aspects behind Business/Public Policy (Econ/Gov) while supplementing them with their actual applied uses. It seems more flexible in terms of thinking skills learned.</p>
<p>If you decided you wanted to get the Econ/Gov degree, you can always combine that with a minor through the PAM department to get the best of both worlds. PAM offers a number of different “tracks” aimed at different interests (economics of policy analysis, law and regulation, health care policy and management, applied demographic analysis, family and social welfare policy, and management in the public or private sectors) through the major. Because you don’t have all the distribution requirements in HumEc as you do in Arts, there tends to be more flexibility in terms of what you pursue. There’s also the traditional PAM minor as well as two new minors; Law and Regulation and Health Policy.
As stated above, semester in Washington or Albany could be a great practical application.</p>