This is the second article in our four-part policy master’s guide (Part 1, Part 3, Part 4). See also our general policy graduate school advice, policy master’s database, and law school guide.

Summary

• How should I choose where to apply? Many considerations influence which degree you should apply for. These include both degree-specific criteria like the subject, curriculum, opportunity cost (i.e. workload, flexibility, compatibility with work), network (i.e. alumni, faculty, and cohort), ease of admission, tuition cost, and availability of financial aid; and also school-specific criteria like the location, reputation, and on-campus work opportunities. The importance of these factors depends on your professional goals and personal preferences. In our view, job compatibility (i.e. evening classes, part-time options, lighter workload) is an especially important and underappreciated criterion since working in policy alongside graduate school can advance your career and help pay for your education. [read more]
• Which schools and programs would you recommend? Our policy master’s database includes ~20 degrees that will set you up well for a policy career. The database allows you to filter by subject, location, and more. Which choice is best will depend on your individual circumstances. We often recommend high-ranked DC-based schools and programs, especially the the MA Security Studies at Georgetown University, RAND’s two Masters of Technology Policy / National Security Policy, followed by the MA International Relations at Johns Hopkins University. Less competitive DC-based policy schools can be great options too, including George Washington University, American University, George Mason University, and the University of Maryland. Outside of DC, the top policy master’s programs are offered by Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and Tufts. [read more]
• How selective are policy schools? Policy master’s degrees (even the top ones) tend to be easier to get into than top undergraduate degrees, law school, or many STEM degrees. We estimate that the acceptance rates typically range between 15-50% for the top schools, and they can be as high as around 80% for less competitive schools. Many top policy schools report an average GPA of around 3.6-3.7 with pretty wide margins, meaning that many people with GPAs below 3.5 still get admitted (especially if they have significant professional experience to compensate for low GPA and GRE scores). For the less selective schools, a GPA above 3.0 is often sufficient. [read more]

Where to apply: Process and criteria for choosing a degree

Which criteria are most important to choosing your degree depends on your individual circumstances, goals, and interests. Beyond the tuition cost and financial aid availability discussed in Part 4, this section addresses other important criteria, including:

1. Subject and curriculum
2. Location
3. Reputation
4. Opportunity cost (i.e. job compatibility, duration, workload, and flexibility)
5. On-campus work opportunities
6. For international students: “STEM” degrees
7. Special degree features (i.e. part-time, accelerated, and dual/joint degrees)

We highly recommend speaking with current and former students in the programs you are considering. This is a good way to gather information—that you’re unlikely to find online—about a program, identify alternatives, and create a stronger application.¹ 

Subject and curriculum

Your best preparation for a policy career is likely a practitioner-oriented policy master’s degree in a subject like “Public Policy/Administration” (MPP/MPA) or “International Affairs/Relations/Security Studies” (MA/MIA). Part 1 describes the (small) differences between MPP and MIA degrees², the distinction between practitioner-oriented and highly academic degrees, and this article compares policy master’s degrees to their main alternatives (e.g. law school, PhDs, and STEM degrees).

MPA and MIA degrees are typically fairly broad and general, while offering some specializations.³ There are also more specialized policy degrees on topics like biodefense. We usually recommend more general degrees over highly specialized ones due to their greater option value. While specialized degrees provide more relevant professional development for one specific policy area, they can make switching later more costly. Given that there are many ways to specialize in the course of a more general degree (e.g. through internships, course selection, and research work), we only recommend such specialized degrees if you’re very confident in your policy area/cause of focus.

More important than the degree title is the curriculum. When spending time on your degree, you want to learn about or research important topics and develop crucial professional skills like writing. What topics are “important” is person-specific, depending on your interests and professional goals.

The ideal policy master’s program has few mandatory classes or the mandatory classes mainly cover topics relevant to your future work, and many relevant elective classes. If you’re interested in AI policy, your degree should offer many classes on topics like AI, cybersecurity, technology policy, export controls, industry regulation, US-China relations, etc. Ideally, you also avoid unnecessary or unappealing academic requirements, like (potentially) foreign language or introductory economics requirements.⁴ Many policy master’s have a thesis requirement, while others make the thesis optional. A thesis can be a good opportunity to dive deeply into one relevant policy area but often involves substantial work (the effort required to complete a thesis varies widely between schools and programs).

Policy master’s programs differ greatly in their number and relevance of mandatory and elective classes. As such, it is important to gather information about the curriculum before choosing a degree. While some of this information is available online, it’s helpful to also speak with current students—ideally, those interested in your policy area—about which classes they have taken and how useful they were.

The major policy schools are typically quite large, with hundreds of students graduating every year. As such, their course offering is often diverse, addressing even relatively niche topics—such as AI or biosecurity (see footnote for a particularly relevant class offering⁵). 

Location

To prepare for a policy career in/around the US federal government, we recommend attending a Washington DC-based policy school, all else being equal. Policy master’s at DC schools are designed to further your professional development for policy roles, including through opportunities to learn about, network, and work in policy during your degree.

The top DC policy schools are Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins SAIS. Other DC-area schools offer similar benefits, and while they are somewhat less well-known, they’re also typically cheaper and less competitive. These include George Washington University, American University, George Mason University, and the University of Maryland. We provide more details below on the master’s degrees offered at these schools.

Ideally, you’ll work or intern in policy alongside your master’s, and DC is where most federal policy jobs are. Master’s programs at DC universities are frequently designed to allow students to intern and work part- or even full-time while completing their degree (thanks to lower workloads, evening classes, etc.). This significantly reduces the opportunity cost of studying (though international students face some work restrictions). Even in non-DC degrees, you can typically do a DC-based summer internship between your first and second year (often fully-funded by the school). 

Attending a DC policy school also likely provides you with the best networking opportunities for policy work.⁶ In these schools, your professors are mostly adjunct faculty with policy jobs and decades of experience; your classmates often work in policy alongside graduate school; your school’s alumni network consists of thousands of graduates across all DC policy institutions and levels of seniority; you’re more likely to interact with high-level guests/officials; and your school’s career services are experienced supporting policy-interested students.⁷

DC schools also have the best track record—with minor exceptions like the Harvard Kennedy School—of their graduates successfully entering policy roles. For example, four of the top five schools attended by White House staffers in 2011 were in DC.⁸ Presidential Management Fellows also disproportionately tend to come from DC schools. Similarly, among Congressional staffers with a graduate degree, four of the top five schools were DC-based in 2019, with one article concluding that “if you want to work in Congress, being educated next door helps.”⁹

While DC location benefits are one important consideration, DC policy master’s aren’t strictly preferable to non-DC degrees. Outside of DC, the schools with top policy programs—like Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and Tufts—typically provide many but not all of the same benefits as DC programs. For example, these schools generally also offer strong policy networking opportunities but they score worse on job compatibility (being able to have a policy job during the degree) than many DC programs. Of course, the above non-DC schools have some other compensating benefits, including their reputation and the generous funding at Princeton and Yale.

Reputation

Attending a highly-ranked university strengthens the credential of your graduate degree, partly by signaling that you were accomplished enough to gain admission.¹⁰ Reputation typically comes much more from the school’s name than that of the degree: MA, MPP, MPA, MIA—that’s an alphabet soup to employers.

Attending a highly-ranked school will also give you access to bright, ambitious classmates; field-leading professors; influential visitors; relationships with major (policy) institutions; access to successful alumni; and special career support programs and resources.

Completing a master’s degree at a top-ranked school increases your chances of getting competitive job opportunities during the degree or after graduation. Chris Blattman, a policy school professor, notes that “careers are path dependent, and…a better first job could lead you on a different, higher, faster-paced trajectory.”¹¹ He also describes who may benefit most from attending a top university:

Eliteness is more valuable for ambitious people who have [relatively little] work experience, are newly entering the non-profit or public sectors, or are looking for a change in career or country. If you have a long CV in these sectors, plan to hold onto an established job, or want a life rather than a career in the fast lane, then the eliteness of the institution matters much less.

Reputations of international relations (IR) programs: According to the 2024 TRIP survey informing the Foreign Policy ranking of US IR faculty, policymakers, and think tank staffers, the top IR master’s degrees are offered by these schools¹² (% of those surveyed who put a school in the top five):

From a policy career perspective, we are most interested in which programs US policymakers and think tank staffers believe are best rather than academics—who are likely to weigh academic factors more highly relative to policy pipelines. And the TRIP results are noteworthy in several ways (see footnote¹³).

Reputations of public policy programs: The US News & World Report Best Public Affairs Programs ranks MPA/MPP programs by asking academic “deans, directors and department chairs” to assess the “academic quality” of different programs. This suffers from the same weakness as the TRIPS survey above since we’re much more interested in the assessments of US policy practitioners and also not just assessments of programs’ “academic quality” but of all their important features. So we don’t recommend many of the US News & World Report high-ranked MPA/MPP degrees, but favor DC-based or otherwise outstanding schools. Of the MPA/MPP degrees we recommend in our database, the school rankings are as follows:

1. Harvard Kennedy School (#3)
2. UC Berkeley, Goldman School (#4)
3. Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs (#9)
4. American University, School of Public Affairs (#13) 
5. Georgetown University, McCourt School (#16)
6. George Washington University, Trachtenberg School (#16)
7. Carnegie Mellon University, Heinz College (#16)

Opportunity cost 

Graduate degrees have a high opportunity cost, which can differ drastically between programs. Policy master’s are often designed to be relatively time-efficient—compared to STEM degrees, law school, etc.—but even they still vary significantly. A graduate degree’s opportunity cost depends mainly on its (1) job compatibility (e.g. evening classes, part-time options), (2) duration, and (3) workload. Our policy master’s database includes information on these factors.

Job compatibility: Some policy master’s are designed to be compatible with a part-time or even full-time job, substantially reducing their opportunity cost.¹⁴ These master’s typically involve (1) a lower workload, (2) evening classes, and (3) flexibility to switch between “part-time” and “full-time” study. For example, Georgetown’s MA Security Studies only has evening classes, and an estimated >80% of students work or intern alongside their degree (often full-time). In contrast, the MPP at Harvard Kennedy School offers few evening classes and while most students work part-time, very few work full-time (Johns Hopkins SAIS and Yale’s MPP are similar¹⁵).

Duration: US policy master’s programs typically last 2 years (i.e. 21 months, including a 3-month summer break) as a “full-time”¹⁶ student, though there are some 1-year (i.e. 9-12 month) programs.¹⁷ Many programs allow for “part-time” study, which may extend the program to 3 years (or you may still finish in 2 years but have to take summer classes). 1-year master’s degrees are much more common in the UK, though we don’t generally recommend international programs to work in US policy.

Shorter degrees aren’t necessarily preferable. Graduate school gives you time to learn, network, develop professional skills, intern, etc., which you may get much less of in a 1-year rather than a 2-year degree. Often, 1-year programs also involve a higher workload—cramming more courses into that year—making it harder to hold a full-time or part-time job alongside your studies. This can make the opportunity cost higher than for a 2-year program that allows you to work on the side.

Workload: Master’s degrees vary a lot in how many hours they require you to spend per week on coursework—including time spent in classes and outside on reading and assignments. It can be difficult to assess a degree’s workload from the outside since most schools don’t provide (reliable) information on workload requirements outside of class. We recommend asking current students or alumni about their degree’s workload. 

Also, while “credits” or “credit hours” are rarely directly comparable across schools, they can be helpful to compare the workload (and tuition cost) of different degrees offered by the same school. For example, consider the following Georgetown degrees: 

• Georgetown’s 2-year MA Security Studies involves completing 36 credits (i.e. 9 per semester)
• Georgetown’s 2-year MPP involves 48 credits (i.e. 12 per semester)
• Georgetown’s 1-year MS in Biohazardous Threat Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases involves 30 credits (i.e. 15 per semester).

One potential downside of completing a lower-workload degree is that you’ll take fewer classes and build less knowledge and skills in the program (see caveats in footnote¹⁸), but for most applicants we expect this to matter much less than other factors, including degree duration.

Some policy degrees require completing a degree-relevant summer internship between your first and second year, which is more common in programs with an optional thesis. This is usually not a demanding requirement since you’ll likely want to do a policy-related summer internship anyway to prepare optimally for a policy career. 

On-campus work opportunities

Graduate school can offer opportunities to work on relevant topics with professors or at university-affiliated research institutes. It should factor into your decision whether the school has faculty or entire research institutes working on relevant topics, which you can usually find out about online.¹⁹ This is especially important for international students who can only work on campus during their first two semesters. 

For example, Georgetown University has both the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET) and the Center for Global Health Science and Security (GHSS), both of which frequently hire Georgetown students as research assistants. Similarly, Johns Hopkins SAIS has the Emerging Technologies Initiative (LinkedIn), Harvard has the cybersecurity and AI-focused Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, UC Berkeley has the CLTC AI Policy Hub, and Stanford has the Biosecurity and Global Health Initiative and Institute for Human-Centered AI. 

For international students: “STEM” degrees

For foreign nationals seeking to work in US policy, a graduate degree is typically the most feasible (or the only) option to come to the US for several years and get work authorization. 

International students most commonly come to the US on an “F-1 student visa”, which allows working in the US during the degree (with some restrictions) and for up to one year after completion of the degree under a program called Optional Practical Training (OPT). If the degree is classified as “STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), the period of post-completion work increases from one year to three years. For international students, this is a substantial benefit of STEM degrees. 

What counts as a “STEM” degree isn’t always obvious and is rarely mentioned on university websites; to find out, you may need to contact the university’s admission office. Universities are incentivized to get degrees categorized as STEM if possible for immigration reasons, and so most “surprises” are degrees that unexpectedly receive this classification—the percentage of STEM content required for a degree to be classified as such is pretty low. So if you’re an international student, look out for and consider doing a “STEM”-classified policy degree with some minimal data science or technology content, such as Georgetown University’s Master of Public Policy or Master of Science in Foreign Service, or the MPP at Harvard Kennedy School.

Special degree features: part-time, accelerated, and dual/joint

Some policy master’s programs have special characteristics that might make them more attractive. For example, it is common (but not universal) for degrees to offer part-time options, which makes it easier to combine graduate school with holding a job (see above). One option to reduce the time-cost of graduate school is to do a 5-year accelerated BA-MA degree, but this comes with significant downsides (as discussed in bullet 5 here).

Some schools offer dual degrees (also called joint degrees), combining a policy master’s degree with another graduate degree, such as law, business, or public health. An example is Georgetown University’s joint JD-MA Security Studies degree.²⁰ Some dual degrees allow students to study abroad for a part of their degree, such as the Johns Hopkins SAIS-Tsinghua University dual degree in International Relations/Law. Typically, students must be separately admitted to both degree programs. The main advantage of dual-degrees is that they often double-count some courses, so that completing both degrees takes less time and money than if the degrees had been pursued independently—for example, Georgetown’s joint JD-MA Security Studies degree takes four years instead of the five year required to get the JD (3 years) and the MA Security Studies (2 years) separately. 

However, while dual degrees can be strong options for some people, we advise most people against pursuing one. Generally, it is unnecessary to have two graduate degrees to get a policy job. And while dual degrees can save some time relative to completing two degrees separately, they usually still cost significantly more time (and money) than doing a single degree. Dual degrees can nevertheless make sense if you seek to specifically become an expert at the intersection of two professional fields—such as law and national security in the case of Georgetown’s joint JD-MA Security Studies degree; or if you would like to study abroad for parts of your graduate degree—which is beneficial if you seek to build regional expertise, such as on China through the Johns Hopkins SAIS-Tsinghua dual degree.

Cross-registration options

Some schools allow you to “cross-register” to take classes at partner schools (typically in the same geographic area). This can allow students to create a custom balance of policy-oriented and technical coursework across diverse faculty and degree programs. It can be particularly helpful for students with specialized interests not fully covered by the classes offered at their own school.

For example, there’s a consortium of DC universities with schools like Georgetown, George Washington, American, and George Mason. There’s also a Boston area consortium including schools like Harvard Kennedy School, MIT, Tufts Fletcher School, and Boston University.

Make sure to check the details of the offered cross-registration options; not all of these schools allow cross-registration at all the others. Also, financial aid from your home school might not always apply to courses at partner universities, making them potentially much more expensive depending on your financial aid levels.

Which specific policy masters should you consider?

Which master’s programs are “best” ultimately depends on your preferences and professional goals. The following recommendations—both the database and subsequent sections—focus on top-ranked policy programs and less competitive DC policy programs. 

Many (but far from all) of the programs included have an international relations and security focus and may be most relevant to people seeking to work in US federal-level technology or security policy, such as AI policy or biosecurity policy. If you are interested in other policy areas (e.g. global development) but still want to do a policy master’s, much of the tactical advice in this guide still applies, but make sure to talk to people in your area about which programs they would recommend.

Policy master’s database

We created a database of the most relevant US policy master’s programs, which currently lists around 20 degrees in the US. See the user guide here.

The database is a work in progress, and we appreciate any feedback (e.g. promising master’s degrees we missed, factual errors, better ways to structure the table). The database does not aim to be comprehensive but reflects our best guess at the programs that readers who fall in the category described above should consider.

In addition to our database, APSIA (the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs) has a useful list of practitioner-oriented policy master’s programs—both in the US and abroad—for people interested in international relations/security/foreign policy.

Top policy master’s programs to consider

This section highlights some of the policy master’s from the database, separately considering programs in and outside of DC. To decide between these programs, you’ll need to research the program specifics and factor in your background and preferences (see the questions below).

While no single option is best for everyone, we want to highlight a few programs in particular as likely top choices for many readers of this post: the MA Security Studies (SSP) at Georgetown University and the Master of Technology Policy (MTP) or Master of National Security Policy (MNSP) at RAND’s School of Public Policy.²¹

In brief, these degrees score especially highly on location (being based in DC); reputation (Georgetown is #1 on surveys discussed above, and RAND is a highly respected policy research institution); focus (i.e. policy practitioners over academics); job compatibility (e.g. part-time options, lighter workload, evening classes; SSP offers only evening classes); relevant curriculum (e.g. classes on AI, biosecurity, cyber policy); relevant faculty and on-campus work opportunities (e.g. research opportunities at RAND; SSP opportunities at CSET and GHSS); flexibility (e.g. SSP offers summer classes and has few mandatory classes); and relatively low cost and generous financial aid (MTP/MNSP at RAND are significantly cheaper than SSP in total since they’re 1-year programs). One highlight of both the MTP/MNSP is that they can serve as pathways to RAND’s PhD in Policy Analysis (one of our top recommended policy PhDs) with transferable units and a fast-tracked application process for successful students.

DC schools and programs: The top policy schools in DC are Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Other DC-based policy schools, while somewhat less well-known, are typically cheaper and less competitive while still having high-quality programs. These include George Washington University, American University, George Mason University, and the University of Maryland. Some policy master’s programs at these schools worth considering include (see caveat in footnote²²):

1. RAND’s School of Public Policy
   1. Master of Technology Policy (MTP) (for emerging technology policy)
   2. Master of National Security Policy (MNSP) (for national security and technology policy)
      
2. Georgetown University:
   1. School of Foreign Service:²³ MA Security Studies (SSP) (for security and technology policy)
   2. McCourt School of Public Policy:²⁴ Master of Public Policy (MPP)
   3. Medical Center: MS Biohazardous Threat Agents & Emerging Infectious Diseases (for biodefense and pandemic preparedness)²⁵
      
3. Johns Hopkins SAIS:²⁶
   1. MA International Relations (MAIR)
      
4. George Washington University, Elliott School of International Affairs:²⁷
   1. MA Security Policy Studies
   2. MA International Science and Technology Policy
      
5. American University: 
   1. School of Public Affairs:
      1. Master of Public Administration (MPA)
      2. Master of Public Policy (MPP)
         
   2. School of International Service:
      1. MA International Affairs: U.S. Foreign Policy & National Security
      2. MA International Affairs Policy & Analysis
         
6. George Mason University, Schar School of Policy and Government:
   1. MA Biodefense (for biodefense and pandemic preparedness)
   2. MA International Security
   3. Master’s in Public Policy (MPP)
      
7. University of Maryland (UMD), School of Public Policy:
   1. Master of Public Policy (MPP)
   2. Master of Public Management (MPM) (mid-career degree)

Non-DC schools and programs: Outside of DC, the schools with top policy programs include Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, and Tufts. The elite status of these schools is a significant advantage over lower-ranked DC programs like George Mason or UMD. At the same time, they might lack some of the benefits of the DC-based schools (such as compatibility with holding a part-time or full-time job). Some of the best policy master’s degrees at these schools include: 

1. Harvard Kennedy School:²⁸ 
   1. Master in Public Policy (MPP)
   2. Master in Public Administration (MPA) (mid-career degree)
      
2. Princeton University, School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA):
   1. Master in Public Affairs (MPA) (fully-funded)
   2. Master in Public Policy (MPP) (mid-career degree; fully-funded)
      
3. Yale University, Jackson School of Global Affairs:
   1. Master in Public Policy in Global Affairs (fully-funded)
   2. Master of Advanced Studies in Global Affairs (mid-career degree)
      
4. Stanford University, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies:
   1. MA International Policy (MIP)
      
5. Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs (SPIA):
   1. Master of International Affairs (MIA)
   2. Master of Public Administration (MPA)
      
6. Tufts University, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy:
   1. MA Law and Diplomacy (MALD)

It’s not easy to assess and decide between these program options, especially between the higher-ranked non-DC schools and the lower-ranked DC schools.²⁹ We recommend that you adjust our general recommendations based on your individual considerations, such as: 

1. Option value: Do you want your graduate degree to advance your professional development for non-policy roles, such as for pursuing an academic or technical career? If so, this pushes in favor of higher-ranked schools and more academically oriented degrees. 
2. Prior DC experience: Did you live in DC previously and have already tested your fit for and built DC policy experience, a network, and knowledge? If so, it seems less important to also do a DC-based graduate degree relative to getting a higher-ranked non-DC degree. 
3. Prior work experience: Do you already have several years of work experience? If so, it’s likely less important for you to further invest in your professional development by working part-time alongside a master’s program (and thus to choose a DC program with high job compatibility).
4. Location constraint: Do you have family obligations or a strong preference to live in/near somewhere specific? If so, this should influence your graduate school choice. 
5. Budget constraint: What are your options to fund graduate school? The higher-ranked universities are often (but not always) more expensive, especially when considering part-time degrees (which are mostly in DC) that allow you to work while in school. 

We caution against focusing on the programs in our database at the exclusion of all other options. Generally, the details of your (graduate) education seem to matter less and less the further you advance in your career. And it’s definitely possible to come from a school not in the database and still end up in a high-level policy role.

Acceptance rates

Policy master’s degrees (even the top ones) are relatively easy to get into, especially compared to top undergraduate degrees, law school, or many STEM degrees.

Most policy graduate schools do not publish (reliable) information on acceptance rates for their programs. We estimate that the acceptance rates typically range between 15-50% for the top schools, and they can be as high as around 80% for the less competitive schools.³⁰ The most competitive schools are the Ivy Leagues like Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, as well as other highly-ranked schools like Stanford and MIT. 

But the more competitive schools and master’s programs aren’t always preferable. For example, while the top-ranked DC schools (Georgetown University and Johns Hopkins SAIS) have higher admissions rates than the Ivy League schools above, they are typically the better choice for aspiring policy professionals. Even the other DC-based policy schools like George Washington University and American University—which are less competitive still—can be preferable to higher-ranked non-DC schools.

Experience levels and demographics

The average policy master’s student is around 26 years old and has 2-3 years of work experience, though policy schools accept some high-achieving students straight out of undergrad.³¹ Having (relevant) career experience can compensate to some extent for lower undergraduate grades, lower results on standardized tests, and a lack of relevant extracurriculars.

As this table shows, the cohort size and the share of international students in many of our recommended policy master’s programs vary widely:

University	Degree	Cohort size	% International students
Georgetown University	MA Security Studies	~200-300	15%
Johns Hopkins SAIS	MA International Relations	~345	44%
Harvard Kennedy School	Master in Public Policy	~225	28%
Stanford University	MA International Policy	~30	50%
Princeton University	MPA / MPP	~70 / ~20	20% / 37%
Yale University	MPP in Global Affairs	~35	60%

There are also dedicated mid-career programs for people further advanced in their careers—usually requiring at least 5-7 years of full-time work experience—such as Harvard’s Mid-Career MPA and Georgetown’s Master of Policy Management. Mid-career programs tend to allow students to study part-time and have less stringent coursework requirements. These programs typically omit internship and “capstone” requirements, recognizing the students’ prior work experience and accomplishments.

Footnotes