The O’Neill School is one of the most extensive and well-respected schools of its kind, recognized as one of the best and most prospective among all Master of Public Affairs programs.
As per the official website, the MPA Program is #1 ranked in the nation. Also, the Environmental Policy and Management, Public Finance and Budgeting concentrations and Nonprofit Management are all ranked #1 by U.S. News and World Report.
The O’Neill MPA program is of two-year duration and 48 credit program with four components.
- Core Curriculum: This includes a foundation in management, statistics, law, budgeting and microeconomics.
- Concentration: This includes at least one specialized area of concentration out of 12 available options depending on areas of interest.
- Experiential Requirement: This includes gaining professional experience through an internship, independent or group research project or other available options.
- Capstone Project: This includes completing a semester long project towards solving a problem for a client organization.
O’Neill MPA Program put a lot of focus on its interdisciplinary nature. It’s based on doing and is designed to prepare capable, principled, and innovative leaders.
The core priority is to address society’s problems through a traditional public administration and policy analysis structure fused with recent academic advancements in leadership and governance.
CLASS SIZE:
As of 2018, 166 students were enrolled for the Residential MPA program and 19 students enrolled for the online MPA program.
Deadlines:
Spring Deadline:October 01, 2018
Fall Deadline:February 15, 2019
PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS:
There are no pre-requisites. Applications are to be submitted online on the official website. Application fee is $65. GRE or GMAT scores are not required for admissions to O’Neill Master’s programs.
Official TOEFL or IELTS Scores (Required)
O’Neill baseline TOEFL scores for admission consideration are 100, with a strong recommendation of at least 25 in each section.
O’Neill baseline IELTS overall scores for admission consideration are 7.0.
Three Letters of Recommendation
Recommendation letters should come from former professors. Recommendations are also accepted from individuals who have had a direct supervisory or instructional relationship with you. Recommendations from friends, colleagues, or family members will not be accepted.
Personal Statement
The candidate needs to answer the following prompt: Discuss what leading for the greater good means to you. Describe your passion, and how an O’Neill degree will help you to make your passion actionable.
While there is no word limit, this statement is usually two pages or about 500 words.
Departmental Questions
You will need to fill a form to indicate your concentrations of interest, language competencies, prior professional experience, interest in merit aid, and additional information. You will also be asked to respond to two O’Neill specific writing prompts. Each response should be approximately 250 words.