Public Affairs MPA

The Master of Public Affairs (MPA) Program provideseducation in public management and policy analysis thatprepares students for careers in public policy and administrationwithin the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

The award-winning La Follette School faculty includeseconomists, political scientists, sociologists, and publicaffairs scholars who teach the skills and tools needed fora career in public affairs. They are experts in social policy,health policy and management, public administration,public policy analysis, environmental policy, poverty, and tax policy and governmentfinance.

Beyond campus, the city of Madison, as the state capital,provides a wealth of opportunities for La Follette Schoolstudents to participate in outreach and acquire practicalexperience as professional project assistants or internswith public and private entities. Students benefit from thestrong relationships that La Follette School faculty havewith these organizations, in keeping with the WisconsinIdea of public service. This includes the Family ImpactSeminar and Committee Connectopportunities thatuse evidence-based research to inform policymakers andimprove public policy.

PUBLIC AFFAIRS COMBINED DEGREES ANDCERTIFICATEPROGRAMS

Some students earn additional credentials while theywork toward their public affairs degrees. Students must follow double degree and dual degree policies. The followingcombined degree and certificate programs have been established, though students choose to do double-degrees and graduate certificates beyond those listed below:

• Law (Juris Doctorate)
• Master of Public Health
• Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning
• Doctorate in Neuroscience
• Energy Analysis and Policy Certificatethrough the Nelson Institute in Environmental Studie
• Business, Environment, & Social Responsibility; Entrepreneurship; or Strategic Innovation offered through the Wisconsin School of Business.

1. (Knowledge) Demonstrate understanding of major current and past policy debates, research findings, and analytical methodologies in each of the following core areas: microeconomic policy analysis, quantitative tools for policy analysis, policy analysis, the policymaking process, and public management.
2. (Knowledge) Demonstrate critical thinking skills. They will retrieve and examine the policy literature and evaluate evidence for and against hypotheses, identify knowledge gaps, strengths and weaknesses in existing literature, synthesize knowledge, and develop conclusions.
3. (Applied Research Skills) Read, comprehend, and effectively summarize policy research and policy-relevant academic research.
4. (Applied Research Skills) Effectively summarize data for a general (non-academic) or policy audience.
5. (Applied Research Skills) Demonstrate competency in methods of inferential statistics including those associated with multivariate regression models.
6. (Professional and Ethical Conduct) Identify and appropriately respond to scenarios involving the ethical and professional responsibilities of public administration.
7. (Professional and Ethical Conduct) Demonstrate the ability to maintain human subjects protections when designing studies, collecting data and reporting results.
8. (Professional and Ethical Conduct) Know and adhere to high levels of professional conduct, ethical decision-making and legal and regulatory compliance.
9. (Professional and Ethical Conduct) Demonstrate the ability to maintain fidelity to objective social science-based research methods.
10. (Communication) Communicate in clear written language: a real-world policy problem, relevant scholarly studies and practical applications, a policy-analytic method to investigate the problem, and client-oriented advice to mitigate the problem.
11. (Communication) Communicate substance of point 1 highly concisely and in language understandable to a non-specialist.
12. (Communication) Communicate substance of point 2 orally.
13. (Professional Skills and Career Preparation) Develop effective job-seeking tools and utilize job-seeking techniques.
14. (Professional Skills and Career Preparation) Complete high quality group projects, including demonstration of effective project management and teamwork.

A bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited U.S. institution or a comparable degree from an international institution is required. International applicants must have a degree comparable to a regionally accredited U.S. bachelor’s degree. You must have completed your undergraduate degree, or similar, before starting graduate school.

A minimum undergraduate grade-point average (GPA) of 3.00 on the equivalent of the last 60 semester hours (approximately two years of work) or a master’s degree with a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.00 is required. Applicants from an international institution must demonstrate strong academic achievement comparable to a 3.00 for an undergraduate or master’s degree. The Graduate School will use your institution’s grading scale. Do not convert your grades to a 4.00 scale.

Every applicant whose native language is not English, or whose undergraduate instruction was not in English, must provide an English proficiency test score. TOEFL scores must be submitted electronically via ETS. IELTS scores can be submitted electronically or by paper.  Our office address is: UW-Madison Graduate School, Office of Admissions, 232 Bascom Hall, 500 Lincoln Drive, Madison, WI 53706.  Your score will not be accepted if it is more than two years old from the start of your admission term. Country of citizenship does not exempt applicants from this requirement. Language of instruction at the college or university level and how recent the language instruction was taken are the determining factors in meeting this requirement.

Applicants are exempt if: