<p>And yea, schools that offer undergraduate degrees in public policy are kind of hard to come by. More seem to offer public administration, but that is too business-oriented/pre-professional for my taste. </p>
<p>The schools I am looking at that list public policy as a major are W&M, Cornell, UVA, UNC, SUNY Albany, and Duke.</p>
<p>I believe American U., George Washington U., and U. of Maryland all have undergrad public policy programs. George Mason U. has a B. of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy. One of them may make a good safety and merit aid opportunity in your situation. All are very convenient for DC internships via the Metro (for George Mason, Georgetown and American, you just need to take a short shuttle bus ride to get to the Metro station). American also has programs where students from other universities can attend for a semester, while they do an internship. It is like a semester abroad, but in DC.</p>
<p>Georgetown’s undergrad program is not entitled public policy, but it seems like it really is. </p>
<p>(Rotten bastards - that is the only college my two kids did not get into)</p>
<p>You might also check out UVa’s net price calculator. Many upper middle income out of state families do qualify for some UVa aid - it is not easy paying a cost of attendance of $51K a year.</p>
<p>@charlie -
American is on her list as well, but I don’t see public policy as a separate undergrad major. They have an MPP program. And for an undergraduate major, they have something called CLEG interdisciplinary studies which looks like a public policy major with a different name. (For the life of me I can’t figure out what the acronym CLEG stands for.) Georgetown’s gov’t major looks like poli sci by another name, but they do have a number of graduate programs in public policy. G-Town was the only school that I didn’t get into when I applied back in '77. DD is trying to break the family curse. </p>
<p>@tree -
UNC and Duke are “too Southern” for my DD. She has her prejudices and explicitly said Virginia is as far south as she will go. I’ll take a look at the others.</p>
<p>You are correct that American doesn’t have a bachelors major called public policy. However, I think you could certainly put together enough courses to effectively end up with a public policy degree. My son considered American at one time, but he wasn’t sure he wanted to study public affairs as a high school senior. Public affairs is a huge part of American. Most people only attend American if they want to study business, public affairs or international affairs - the U. does not have a good reputation in other subject areas.</p>
<p>American does offer a joint bachelors/masters in public affairs:</p>
<p>They are tearing down much of their Tenleytown campus (which is at a Metro station) and using it to build a larger law school. </p>
<p>American’s campus is in a great area of DC. You have a campus environment inside the city. However, their dorms have a bad reputation, and housing is expensive in DC. Also, American has an extremely high female to male ratio, which turns off some female students.</p>
<p>Speaking as somebody who was offered both Monroe Scholar and Echols Scholar, I believe the benefits of Echols are very strong especially if one is trying to graduate early. As for funding for undergraduate research, there are plenty of opportunities offered by U.Va. that can make up for the lack of guaranteed funding.</p>
<p>I have a number of friends in the Accelerated 4-Year B.S./M.P.P. program, and they seem to love it. As a side note, I do believe it is more difficult to get in to the 4-Year program since you are evaluated on the same level as those going in for the 5-Year program. Most of the people I know completing the 4-Year program are Echols Scholars, which greatly helps in accelerating graduation.</p>
<p>If you have any specific questions, I can reach out to my friends in the program.</p>