Va Tech has a major called Humanities for Public Policy. Any other schools have something similar?
According to IPEDS, the following schools had the largest numbers of public policy majors last year. I am including only those with >5 graduating majors and have separated them by category.
Universities
163 Duke
122 Princeton
119 UNC Chapel Hill
117 University of Chicago
95 Arizona State
83 UVA
73 Brandeis / Michigan
67 UC Riverside
62 Cornell
61 Ole Miss
50 Georgia State
40 William & Mary
33 Northwestern / URI
32 USC
28 U Delaware / Vanderbilt
27 SUNY Albany
26 Michigan State
24 Brown
23 UT Dallas
22 Rutgers
21 SMU
19 Georgia Tech
18 Washington State
16 DePaul / U Maryland-College Park / Virginia Tech
14 Ohio State
12 Stanford
9 U Illinois-Chicago
6 CMU / RIT
Regional Universities
13 U Redlands
11 Elon
6 Mount Saint Mary’s University
Liberal Arts Colleges
30 Trinity College (CT)
23 Pomona
20 Hamilton
19 Dickinson
8 St. Mary’s College of Maryland
@warblersrule: Very helpful list.
Interesting that Georgetown University, American University, & GWU are not on the list. I suspect that these schools have a similar major under a different name.
Also, the College of William & Mary has a strong program that may not be evident from the number of graduating majors (40).
For further perspective, research the above colleges by strength in economics, one of the fields foundational to the proper implementation of public policy:
I do wonder somewhat at the title in the OP: “humanities for” public policy. Is it semantics or is there a different approach to a more “usual” public policy major?
The major at Virginia Tech is actually called Humanities for Public Service. The website is here (https://liberalarts.vt.edu/academics/majors-and-minors/humanities-for-public-service-major.html) and the required coursework is here (https://www.registrar.vt.edu/content/dam/registrar_vt_edu/documents/Updates/lahs/2022/lahs_barlc_hps_22.pdf).
From the website, it appears that this major is housed in the Department of Religion and Culture, and it takes the lens of academic religion in its approach: students take 7 courses in religion and culture and an additional 7 courses in other areas of the humanities and social sciences, with classes drawn from religion, political science, Appalachian studies (because of VT’s location), and history among other disciplines/fields. Only two of the courses possible for the major touch on policy, and both are completely optional.
This approach seems quite different from a traditional public policy major. That said, though, I’d also argue that a student who is interested in this major, but didn’t want to go to VT, would probably be more likely to find something similar in a religion or other humanities department than they would in a public policy department. Or it would be pretty easy to create an individualized major that gets close at most universities or colleges with standard humanities and social sciences departments.
Also, to Publisher’s point - my guess for the reason why Georgetown, George Washington and American don’t show up was that there are multiple majors at those schools that the students who would normally major in “public policy” elsewhere are split across.
However, I looked it up, and actually neither Georgetown nor American has anything that kind of close to public policy. American has majors in Legal Studies and Justice & Law, but despite the similar-sounding names, the programs actually focus on - well, law and justice, and not policy. (The Justice & Law major might scratch the itch for someone considering a major in this area, though.) The only policy major that Georgetown has is a Healthcare Management & Policy major in the nursing school. (The Culture & Politics major, however, may be relatively close in form and approach to the Humanities in Public Service major at VT).
George Washington has a public policy focus in its political science major. (It also has a philosophy major with a public affairs focus, and my guess is that would also get close to the HPS major at VT. However, the Human Services and Social Justice major would get even closer.)
With respect to a way in which Virginia Tech’s HPS program appears much like traditional public policy programs, its examples of career options align with what may be found through other colleges:
https://vt.edu/academics/majors/humanities-for-public-service.html
Juillet, thanks for that detailed response. It does sound quite different, despite the “career options” looking pretty standard.
As an aside, there are other omissions from the list - of the few I’m aware of, NYU’s Wagner school offers an undergraduate public policy major, and BU also offers public policy though that seems to be a concentration as part of a polsci degree rather than a major in itself, seems similar to what GWU offers. But I would also assume most schools with decent social science and government departments would offer some form of public policy degree or courses. (I also don’t believe, especially at the undergrad level, that what you formally major in and the exact courses you take is necessarily make or break for a field like this.)
CMU has had an engineering and public policy degree for decades.
@warblersrule Brown does not offer a “Public Policy” concentration (major) anymore, but has created a new Policy and Governance Track within the International and Public Affairs concentration to replace this.
@fromCharmCity1 If you’re interested in combining multiple interests, however far apart, I highly, highly recommend Brown due to the Open Curriculum’s virtually no requirements (only 2 courses that are writing designated, offered in fields like bio, not just english) and the ability to S/NC (Pass/Fail) any course: perfect for those electives you’re interested in taking but don’t want to worry about getting a bad grade in! Brown also has an extremely strong graduate admissions rate (90%+) and ~20% of Brown undergraduates double concentrate (major.) Brown also offers an EXTREMELY STRONG financial aid program that meets your full demonstated need WITHOUT loans under the Brown Promise.
Brown’s Concentrations: https://bulletin.brown.edu/the-college/concentrations/
After more research, if you’ve decided that Brown’s your top choice, I highly recommend that you apply ED, as long as ALL of the following are true:
- You LOVE Brown and would 110% attend if admitted.
- You're confident that you can create a well thought out and crafted application by the early deadline of November 1st.
- You and your family can afford Brown if admitted (run the financial aid calculators available here: financialaid.brown.edu)
Hope this helps! Good luck with admissions!
As an opinion, colleges with a Washington, D.C. component — either through an inherent location or an available term — offer substantial advantages to students who wish to study public policy. Study within a state capital, such as at Trinity in Hartford, may offer similar advantages.
@merc81 Brown is both located in Providence (Rhode Island’s state capital and largest city) and has a semester-long “Brown in Washington” program for those interested in government.
Some schools don’t have undergraduate public policy because there is a belief that this subject is better offered at the masters level and students will enroll already having completed a degree in something. Similarly some schools with strong journalism masters programs don’t offer under grad journalism degrees.
At Georgetown (and others) someone interested in Public Policy would likely gravitate towards Political Economy. At others it may be PPE. I agree with @CheddarcheeseMN that if you are at all thinking about graduate school that you need to be careful about interdisciplinary majors. You may not have an appropriate base to build upon.
Well, that’s an interesting statement to make about courses that tend to be interdisciplinary by nature.
As an example, seems the only undergrad requirement for the MPP at Georgetown is a principles of microeconomics course, and they give some options for those who have not yet done one at undergrad https://mccourt.georgetown.edu/admissions/application-requirements/program-prerequisites/
As another example Harvard doesn’t care about major but just wants to see some quantitative work done at undergrad https://www.hks.harvard.edu/admissions-aid/masters-program-admissions/how-apply/degree-program-prerequisites
In any case there seem to be plenty of undergrad options, which is what OP was asking.
Exactly. To be honest, anyone with a desire to work in public policy at any sort of professional level is going to want to pursue a MPP (Masters of Public Policy) or MPA (Masters of Public Administration) program in graduate school. Or some equivalent course of graduate studies like a law degree or MA in something like economics.
A lot of the higher level public policy internship and fellowship programs basically hire out of grad schools not undergraduate. The most well known one for those wanting to work at the federal level is the Presidential Management Fellowship Program, which recruits out of Masters degree (or PhD and law) programs. https://www.pmf.gov/
As a former Presidential Management Fellow and graduate of a masters degree public affairs program (in my case the UW school of marine and environmental affairs) I think the best undergraduate path would be something that provides both strong writing and analytical/quantitative skills.