Columbia University in the City of New York

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Public Policy (This Major's Salary over time)
Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs graduate school, which covers degrees ranging from international security to international development policy, is a tough school to rate simplistically. On the positive side, it is a globally renowned center for international affairs. As a result, the faculty on average is incredibly prestigious, with many of them being Nobel Laureates and highly regarded practitioners or scholars in their field. Therefore, if one wants access and exposure to leading minds in these fields, then just like Harvard Kennedy School, London School of Economics, or Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, you will have unparalleled access to professors, research, and connections for internships, projects, and jobs. Moreover, SIPA is very connected to major multi laterals such as the UN, with both established pipelines and extensive alumni there and also many professors working at the UN. Another positive of SIPA is the student body, with many people having very high level experience in a variety of fields, from politics to military to banking. There are a lot of brilliant people at SIPA.

However, I will not speak to the negatives of my SIPA experience. First, although many professors are highly regarded practitioners in their fields, many don't know anything about teaching and one could find better teaching quality at much less prestigious universities, including community colleges. My Stats III professor simply made an outline on Word and read off of it in class. Rubbish. Also, the nature of students is 50/50, meaning that maybe half of them are humble, friendly, collaborative, respectful, while the other half I realized by the end are uber-competitive, back-stabbing, ladder-climbing, and elitist. They will do anything it takes to get ahead, including throw you under the bus. Perhaps this is the nature of any high level political school or setting.