About the Program

The Goldman School of Public Policy offers two graduate degrees in public policy, the Master of Public Policy (MPP) and the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).

Master in Public Policy (MPP)

The MPP degree is earned in a two-year, full-time program consisting of a core curriculum, a policy internship in the summer after completion of the first year, a second-year policy analysis project, and elective courses chosen from those available on the campus and at GSPP. The program emphasizes practical and applied dimensions of policy-making and implementation, encouraging students to develop skills in:

• Defining policy issues to make them more intelligible to officials in the public, private or non-profit sector;
• Providing a broader perspective for assessing policy alternatives;
• Examining techniques for developing policy options and evaluating their social consequences; and
• Developing strategies for the successful implementation of public policies once they have been adopted.

Given the relatively small class size, the School's approach to teaching emphasizes teamwork, cooperation, and interaction among students and with the faculty. Students work, either as individuals or in small groups, on real policy problems for real clients under close faculty supervision.

PhD in Public Policy

GSPP offers a doctoral degree program for students who seek careers in policy research with universities or research institutes. The PhD program emphasizes the generation of knowledge, theories, methodologies, and applications appropriate to the advancement of public policy analysis and management. Doctoral students pursue highly individualized programs of study and typically work closely with school faculty members who share the student's subject matter interest.

Usually only two or three PhD applicants are admitted each year, including those admitted from the School’s MPP program. Non-Goldman School applicants who seek a policy research career and have completed graduate work in public policy comparable to our MPP are also eligible for admission consideration.

A thorough preparation in policy analysis skills is a prerequisite for the doctorate. Because there is no core program of study, the PhD committee prefers applicants to have completed an MPP degree or equivalent, either from the Goldman School or a similar institution. Applicants with a master’s degree in some other field usually must complete the MPP program at GSPP before applying for admission to the doctoral program.

Applicants who have a master’s degree in public policy from another school may be partially exempt from this requirement but may be asked to take certain first-year master’s level courses at GSPP not offered in other such programs.

Visit School Website

Admissions

Admission to the University

Uniform minimum requirements for admission

The following minimum requirements apply to all programs and will be verified by the Graduate Division:

1. A bachelor’s degree or recognized equivalent from an accredited institution;
2. A minimum grade-point average of B or better (3.0);
3. If the applicant comes from a country or political entity (e.g. Quebec) where English is not the official language, adequate proficiency in English to do graduate work, as evidenced by a TOEFL score of at least 570 on the paper-and-pencil test, 230 on the computer-based test, 90 on the iBT test, or an IELTS Band score of at least 7 (note that individual programs may set higher levels for any of these); and
4. Enough undergraduate training to do graduate work in the given field.

Applicants who already hold a graduate degree

The Graduate Council views academic degrees as evidence of broad research training, not as vocational training certificates; therefore, applicants who already have academic graduate degrees should be able to take up new subject matter on a serious level without undertaking a graduate program, unless the fields are completely dissimilar.

Programs may consider students for an additional academic master’s or professional master’s degree if the additional degree is in a distinctly different field.

Applicants admitted to a doctoral program that requires a master’s degree to be earned at Berkeley as a prerequisite (even though the applicant already has a master’s degree from another institution in the same or a closely allied field of study) will be permitted to undertake the second master’s degree, despite the overlap in field.

The Graduate Division will admit students for a second doctoral degree only if they meet the following guidelines:

1. Applicants with doctoral degrees may be admitted for an additional doctoral degree only if that degree program is in a general area of knowledge distinctly different from the field in which they earned their original degree. For example, a physics PhD could be admitted to a doctoral degree program in music or history; however, a student with a doctoral degree in mathematics would not be permitted to add a PhD in statistics.
2. Applicants who hold the PhD degree may be admitted to a professional doctorate or professional master’s degree program if there is no duplication of training involved.

Applicants may only apply to one single degree program or one concurrent degree program per admission cycle.

Any applicant who was previously registered at Berkeley as a graduate student, no matter how briefly, must apply for readmission, not admission, even if the new application is to a different program.

Required documents for admissions applications

1. Transcripts:  Upload unofficial transcripts with the application for the departmental initial review. Official transcripts of all college-level work will be required if admitted. Official transcripts must be in sealed envelopes as issued by the school(s) you have attended. Request a current transcript from every post-secondary school that you have attended, including community colleges, summer sessions, and extension programs.
   If you have attended Berkeley, upload unofficial transcript with the application for the departmental initial review. Official transcript with evidence of degree conferral will not be required if admitted.
2. Letters of recommendation: Applicants can request online letters of recommendation through the online application system. Hard copies of recommendation letters must be sent directly to the program, not the Graduate Division.
3. Evidence of English language proficiency: All applicants from countries in which the official language is not English are required to submit official evidence of English language proficiency. This requirement applies to applicants from Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Latin America, the Middle East, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, and most European countries. However, applicants who, at the time of application, have already completed at least one year of full-time academic course work with grades of B or better at a U.S. university may submit an official transcript from the U.S. university to fulfill this requirement. The following courses will not fulfill this requirement: 1) courses in English as a Second Language, 2) courses conducted in a language other than English, 3) courses that will be completed after the application is submitted, and 4) courses of a non-academic nature. If applicants have previously been denied admission to Berkeley on the basis of their English language proficiency, they must submit new test scores that meet the current minimum from one of the standardized tests.

Admission to the Program

Key Elements for MPP Admission

1. A Commitment to Public Policy: GSPP’s goal is to admit those applicants who can get the most from the GSPP master’s program and who will use what they learn to be active participants in the formulation, adoption, and implementation of better public policy. One of the applicant’s goals should be to convince the admissions committee of this commitment. This can be reflected in the quality of work experience or the statement of purpose.
2. Education: Students at GSPP represent a wide range of academic backgrounds. Most students have degrees in social sciences, with a smaller number having undergraduate majors in humanities, biological or physical sciences, mathematics or engineering. Some students already have advanced degrees. GSPP does not require prior quantitative training; however prior course work in introductory statistics or first-year calculus, and introductory economics, is strongly recommended.
3. Writing and Analytical Skills: How students approach problems and the ability to write clearly and coherently is instrumental in public policy analysis. The committee will pay close attention to the applicant’s statement of purpose and GRE analytical writing score.
4. Standardized Tests: All applicants are required to take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) general test. The LSAT and GMAT cannot be substituted for the GRE. Test scores must be less than five years old. To assist you in preparing to take the GRE, free GRE Preparation Tests are now available online . All applicants from countries in which the official language is not English are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS ). TOEFL and IELTS tests taken before June 2012 will not be accepted. To send an official score report, the institution code for Berkeley is 4833 and the department code for public policy is 1903.
5. Three Letters of Recommendation: The most helpful letters or recommendation are from persons who have supervised the applicant’s work in either an academic, employment or community service capacity, and who can evaluate the applicant’s intellectual ability, creativity, initiative, leadership potential, and promise in the field of public policy analysis and management.
6. Background and Life Experiences: GSPP recognizes that a student population that reflects the most diverse state in the country is key to the continued study of current, relevant social issues and policy problems. We are looking for people who are dynamic and driven, representing diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and life experiences, particularly those who wish to develop the tools and skills necessary to change our world for the better.
7. The Value of Work Experience: Although GSPP does not require work experience for admission, typically each entering student has had at least three years of relevant work experience. GSPP believes work experience adds tremendous value to class discussions and helps students to develop a context for problem solving and policy analysis.

Documents required for the MPP application:

1. Online Graduate Application for Admission and Fellowships
2. Resume (submitted with online application): Please upload a current resume, reflecting your work experience, education, and any other relevant information.
3. Statement of Purpose (submitted with online application): Please follow the instructions below for the statement of purpose instead of what is directed on the online application: The Richard & Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy welcomes applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds and with a variety of career aspirations. Some of our students have had prior experience in the realm of public policy; others have not. It is helpful to us to know more about your background, your motivation, and your long-term goals than can be inferred from your records and references. We would appreciate your helping us by supplying a brief statement of 3-5 pages, double-spaced.
   Please address some of these areas:
   1. The present: Why do you want to take an educational program in the analysis and management of public policy?
   2. The past: What experiences or activities bear on your qualifications for this program, e.g., research papers, study groups, job responsibilities, policy or political projects? How do these experiences relate to your decision to undertake the study of public policy analysis and management? If you have been out of school for a year or more, please indicate the positions you have held and your major activities.
   3. The future: What kinds of work and activity would you like to engage in following graduation, and what are your long-range career objectives?
   4. Please supply whatever information you think may help us to understand your candidacy more fully.
4. Personal History Statement (submitted with online application): Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how you have overcome barriers to access in higher education, evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups.
5. College Transcripts (submitted with online application): Please upload unofficial transcripts from all universities or colleges attended. If you studied aboard, either as part of an exchange program administered by your school or on your own, please upload those transcripts as well. Official transcripts of all college-level work will be required if admitted.
6. Three Letters of Recommendation (submitted with online application): Please follow the instructions on the online application for the online letter of recommendation submission process.
7. GRE Scores: Our institution code is 4833. Reservations for the GRE exam should be made in advance through the GRE's website , or the following:
   The Education Testing Service (ETS)
   P.O. Box 6000
   Princeton, NJ 08541-6000
   Phone: (609) 771-7670 or 1-800-GRE-CALL
8. TOEFL Scores (for international applicants): Scores before June 1, 2012 are no longer valid. For further information regarding the TOEFL, please see the TOEFL website . Use institution code 4833 and department code 94. You may sign up for the TOEFL through an agent in your country or through:
   TOEFL, CN6151
   Princeton, NJ 08541-6151
   Phone: (609) 771-7500
9. Application Fee (submitted with online application): A $80 application fee, payable to UC Regents, must be submitted when you apply.
10. Supplemental Application Fee (submitted with online application): A supplemental application fee of $20 will apply to international applicants. (Eligible applicants may apply for an application fee waiver . To do so, you must be a U.S. citizen or current permanent resident.)

Key Elements for PhD Admission

Here is the Graduate Application for Admission .  The online application includes instructions and guidelines for submitting the following:

1. Statement of Purpose
2. Personal History Statement
3. Planned Dissertation Research Memo: The planned dissertation research memo should describe the applicant’s public policy research interests, outline the topic(s) for one’s dissertation research, and include suggestions for possible faculty advisor(s).
4. Curriculum Vitae
5. Writing Sample: A writing sample, most appropriately, a research paper under 30 pages. The term “research paper” is distinct from “policy analysis.” Its purpose is, in part, to make it evident that the student can make the transition from policy analysis to policy research.
6. Unofficial Transcripts: Scan and upload a copy of all unofficial transcripts from all universities or colleges attended. Admitted applicants who intend to enroll will be required to submit an official copy.
7. Three Letters of Recommendation are required. Letters of recommendation can be submitted online within the graduate application. Letters of recommendation may arrive up to 14 days after the application deadline.
8. Application Fee: An $80 application fee, payable to UC Regents, must be submitted when you apply.
9. Supplemental Application Fee for International Students: An additional application fee of $20 must be paid by international applicants.
10. Eligible applications may apply for an application fee waiver . To be eligible, the applicant must be a U.S citizen or current permanent resident.

Please do not submit additional or supplemental materials.

The following additional documents required for admission should be sent directly to the school:

1. Official GRE Scores. Please have the scores sent directly to the Goldman School. However to expedite the processing of your application, you may submit a photocopy of your GRE scores as soon as you receive them. GRE scores usually take 14 days to be received at GSPP. To meet the application deadline. Our institution code is 4833, and our department code is 1903. Reservations for the GRE exam should be made in advance  through the GRE website , or through:
   The Education Testing Service (ETS)
   P.O. Box 6000
   Princeton, NJ 08541-6000
   Phone: 609-771-7670 or 1-800-GRECALL
2. Official TOEFL Scores. All applicants from countries in which the official language is not English are required to take the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL ) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS ). TOEFL and IELTS tests taken before June 2011 will not be accepted. To send an official score report, the institution code for Berkeley is 4833 and the department code for public policy is 1903.

If a student is admitted to the PhD Program, he/she is required to work with their designated faculty adviser to develop and submit a curriculum memo to the PhD committee that contains the courses the student will take during the first two years of study. This curriculum memo can be updated at the end of each semester of PhD residency should the student and his/her adviser decide that additional courses should be taken or substituted.

Doctoral Degree Requirements

Curriculum

Master's Degree Requirements

Curriculum

Core Curriculum – 1^st Year

The core courses emphasize practical applications of analytical skills and encourage students to “learn by doing” through numerous exercises and projects conducted in teams and individually. Fieldwork activities are also a part of the core curriculum, involving real clients, a written report, and oral briefings on the report. In addition, colloquia with outside speakers are frequently held that further examine some of the policy issues treated in the core courses.

Summer Policy Internship

Students are required to complete a policy internship during the summer between the first and second year of study. Students choose positions as apprentices to policy practitioners in international, federal, state, or local government agencies; non-profit organizations; or private sector corporations and consulting firms; in the United States and abroad. Students enrolled in concurrent degrees with Public Health and Law are exempt from this requirement, since they are already required to do a summer internship with their concurrent degree program. For prior year summer internship statistics and information, go the Employment Statistics page.

Core Curriculum - 2nd Year

The second year comprises two required courses, Advanced Policy Analysis (APA) and Political and Organizational Aspects of Public Policy Analysis, plus a number of electives.

The APA project is an intensive study of a significant policy issue of the student’s choice. The project is often done for a specific client in a public or private policy organization, and sometimes the student is paid for the work. For some students, the project is an outgrowth of the summer internship or may lead to a post graduation position with the client organization.

Students conduct their projects as members of an APA seminar, which provides them with a faculty supervisor and a peer group able to supply constructive suggestions. When the completed analysis is found satisfactory by the faculty, it then serves as the student’s required thesis. Frequently, the specific policy recommendations made in these analyses have been adopted by the student’s client.

Milestones

• PUB POL 200 Introduction to Policy Analysis
• Summer Policy Internship
• PUB POL 205 Advanced Policy Analysis (Thesis Seminar)

Courses

Public Policy

Faculty

Professors

Lee Friedman, Professor. Climate change, public policy, economic organization, environmental markets, school finance, utility regulation, criminal justice.
Research Profile

Hilary Williamson Hoynes, PhD, Professor.

David Kirp, Professor. Public policy, law, social policy, higher education policy, politics and policy, primary and secondary education policy, race and ethnicity, early childhood policy.
Research Profile

Robert J. Maccoun, Professor. Jury decision making, alternative dispute resolution, illicit drug dealing, alternative drug laws, harm reduction, gays and lesbians in the military, media biases, and bias in the use and interpretation of research evidence.
Research Profile

Michael Nacht, Professor. Public policy, international relations, national security policy, public management.
Research Profile

Michael H. O'Hare, Professor. Public policy, quantitative methods, environmental policy, public management, arts policy.
Research Profile

Steve Raphael, Professor. Crime, public policy, employment discrimination, labor economics, racial inequality, urban economics, and criminal justice policy.
Research Profile

Robert B. Reich, Professor. Economic inequality, industrial policy, macroeconomic policy, public management and leadership.
Research Profile

Peter H Schuck, Professor.

Robert Stern, Professor.

Associate Professors

Sean Farhang, Associate Professor.

Jack (John) Glaser, PhD, Associate Professor. Research methods, public policy, experimental social psychology, hate crime, political psychology, stereotyping, racial profiling, prejudice & discrimination, nonconscious social cognition.
Research Profile

Rucker Charles Johnson, Associate Professor.

Jane Mauldon, Associate Professor. Demography, public policy, quantitative methods, health policy and economics, poverty and public policy, the teen-parent component of California’s welfare reforms.
Research Profile

Jesse Rothstein, Associate Professor. Inequality, unemployment, tax policy, local public finance, value added, teacher quality, black-white gap, segregation, economics of education, labor market.
Research Profile

Assistant Professors

Sarah Anzia, PhD, Assistant Professor.

Alexander Michael Gelber, Assistant Professor.

Solomon Hsiang, Assistant Professor.

Amy E. Lerman, Assistant Professor.

Adjunct Faculty

Daniel Acland, Adjunct Faculty.

Blas Perez Henriquez, PhD, Adjunct Faculty.

Larry Rosenthal, Adjunct Faculty.