Mashenka

All of these schools have an Online MPA, all are traditional brick and mortar, and with the exception of Colorado, all are about the same cost. Colorado is cheaper.

University of Colorado and Kent State both have their MPA program accredited by the NASPAA.

There are varying opinions on whether this accredidation means anything. There are Ivy League schools that don't have it so in my opinion it doesn't carry that much weight.

The most important thing is that all four colleges are a brick and mortar school. That to me is a must. The second is name recognition. This is where I am unsure how to rank them. Marist and Norwich sound like the two most prestigious, although to be honest being from the midwest I never heard of Marist or Norwich until a year ago, but after looking at both programs they both seem respectable. Norwich has a Military backround and so it's possible that if someone wanted a career with the Dept of Justice, State, or Defense, then Norwich might be the best option. If someone wanted a career on the East coast but didn't know much more than that, then Marist might be the best option. If someone had no clue where they would be working, or what they would be doing, then the safest route might be to chose the school that the most profit or non-profit organizations have heard of - Kent State or University of Colorado.

I wanted to see what others thought. I wouldn't mind having as many people rank them as possible. thanks for all input.

RoughWinds

Marist is not "prestigious," though I guess others may feel differently. It is a small, regional college in New York, and it does not have widespread name-recognition on the East Coast. That does /not/ mean that its program isn't a good one; I simply don't know.

Norwich is definitely known for its military background. They do a lot of billboard advertising around here in New England, which always makes me a little suspicious of colleges, but that could just be me. I do know their on-line program is supposed to be quite good -- there are two instructors at my college who have done it -- and they don't have that for-profit stigma of the University of Phoenix or any of the others like that.