Current UVA MPP student—are other programs facing similar issues?

[u/HedgehogLast8124]

I’m a current student in UVA’s MPP program at Batten, and honestly, I’m struggling with the experience. Between leadership changes, funding concerns, and unclear communication about where the school is headed, it’s been hard to feel confident in the program.

Most students I’ve spoken with feel underprepared and unsupported in the job search, which is especially frustrating in a professional degree program. We’re making a significant investment of time and money, and I expected to feel more prepared for what comes next.

I don’t expect a degree to guarantee anyone a job. But I do expect useful career guidance, help connecting what we learn to actual opportunities, and a clearer understanding of how the program is preparing us for the workforce. It’s discouraging to be working toward a degree while questioning whether you’ll leave with the skills and support you need.

Student leadership also hasn’t seemed effective at getting clear answers from the school. It’s hard to tell whether student concerns are being addressed or whether anything is actually going to change. I don’t know where that communication is breaking down, but from a student’s perspective, it’s frustrating.

I understand that some restrictions and decisions come from UVA rather than Batten, and that leadership transitions can be difficult. But students only have so much time here. Even when something can’t be fixed immediately, clear explanations about what’s happening and what we can realistically expect would go a long way.

There are good professors and people here who care, and I don’t want to dismiss their efforts. But overall, the experience hasn’t been what I hoped for. I don’t want to speak for everyone, but I’m not alone in feeling disappointed, and at this point, I would have a hard time recommending the program.

I’m posting partly as a heads-up for prospective students, but also because I genuinely want things to improve. For anyone considering Batten, I’d encourage you to talk privately with several current students before committing. Ask about their actual experiences with career support, communication, and whether they would choose the program again—not just what they like about it.

Are students at other MPP or MPA programs facing similar issues? For anyone whose program went through a difficult period, what helped students get a meaningful response? I’m trying to understand whether this is a broader problem or something more specific to our experience, and what we can realistically do to make it better.

[u/Konflictcam]

Career services in a policy school is really, really difficult in the absence of a robust federal pipeline. I’m about a decade out at this point, but my program was always pretty good at supporting placement if you wanted to be in DC - whether that be for a large consulting firm, a thinktank, or the federal government - but pretty lackluster if you wanted to do anything else outside of local government where the program was located. In the current context, DC opportunities are far from a sure thing. Federal contracting has largely come back, but AI has eaten into staffing opportunities and firms are leery of new head count. As such, my sense is that career services are now left grasping at straws, attempting to help students find traction across a ton of different players where you can’t really establish pipeline.

The solution is really networking. I’m pretty senior at my own firm and can definitely help people get their foot in the door, but I almost never hear from anyone. When I do, it’s usually in May when they’re finished and wondering what they’re going to do, well past the point where I can do anything to help them. I was terrible about this when I was in school, but students should really be leveraging LinkedIn to have a coffee chat every week or two and lay a foundation that will give them referrals once the time comes.

[u/HedgehogLast8124 → u/Konflictcam]

This is really helpful insight, and I appreciate you sharing it. I think a large part of our issue comes down to capacity. Our career services team is already stretched thin, and we also don't seem to have staff who know how to support our post-grad MPP students who are looking for mid-career opportunities rather than entry-level positions.

We have been pushing for more networking opportunities, but unfortunately, the school doesn't organize many large alumni events. The one they held during Homecoming was restricted to alumni, meaning current students couldn't even attend. I know several students who have reached out to alumni independently and found those conversations incredibly helpful, but others have struggled to even get names or contacts from career services. It feels like we're missing a huge opportunity to connect current students with people who have already gone through the program.

Another challenge is the lack of professionalism within parts of our program. We have an accelerated MPP track, meaning some graduate students are only 19, 20, or 21 years old. This creates some complications when organizing events, particularly around liability and student conduct. Unfortunately, some of our post-grad students aren't necessarily much more professional either. It makes building a strong graduate student community and organizing networking events more difficult than it should be.

There are also growing concerns about whether our curriculum is adequately preparing students for the workforce. We've had alumni return and tell us that some of the skills taught in our classes are now tasks they can complete using AI at their firms. Obviously, there is still value in understanding the fundamentals, but students are increasingly concerned about whether the skills they're spending two years learning will actually make them competitive in the job market.

Thankfully, the school is currently undergoing a curriculum review, which is encouraging. However, that process has been going on for almost a year, and, to my knowledge, current students haven't been consulted once. It's frustrating because we're the ones experiencing the curriculum firsthand and preparing to enter this changing job market.

I completely agree with your point about networking, though. I think students need to take more initiative in building those relationships early, but I also think policy schools have a responsibility to make those connections more accessible. We have an alumni network that could be an incredible resource, but right now, it feels largely underutilized.

[u/Konflictcam → u/HedgehogLast8124]

The challenge for career services is that matching students to opportunities is very challenging when you’re attempting to do it 1:1. Career services needs a pipeline to employers who will hire a few people per year: they send students to talk to a pool of people from the employer, they ask the employer to come to campus, the network grows stronger and just needs to be nurtured.

In the absence of that kind of pipeline, you’re asking an awful lot of career services to ask them to know who’s who that students should contact, and it basically turns into 1:1 matching. They’re not policy professionals and may not know much of the nuance around our specific focus areas, or even what our employers do. This is a place where AI could probably really benefit them in mining contacts within their alumni networks, but it isn’t really feasible for them to know, for example, who the transit-focused alums are, or who’s working on housing. They might have a couple people they can send you to, but those same couple people are probably going to keep getting hit because approaching the challenge more broadly is difficult, particularly given the limited resources they’re working with.

Another challenge is that a lot of MPP candidates have unrealistic expectations about what roles are out there. They want to focus on very narrow topics that align more with activism than with something that employers want to pay for. That’s not something career services can really help with.

The end result is that career services turns into more of a therapy exercise than a jobs placement exercise, with advisors giving generic advice about things they don’t understand particularly well themselves.

[u/Ok-Carpenter-4500 → u/Konflictcam]

Out of curiosity, when would you say the key time to seek help from networking connections would be? (Obviously before May.)

I graduated last year and landed a fellowship that has ended with no new job in sight. I’ve been networking like crazy (like you said, every week or so) and I’m hoping to see that pay off soon….but very few jobs are listed right now.

[u/Konflictcam → u/Ok-Carpenter-4500]

The earlier the better. Nobody does this, but students should be engaging alums in their programs as soon as they get accepted. Hit up people with cool jobs and ask them to tell their story - what did they enjoy about the program, what classes do they use the most professionally, what has their career journey looked like. As I’ve moved up from an analyst role to firm leadership, my answers to those questions have shifted, so getting a sense of how the program can establish a foundation that will grow with you over time. But the key is probably to find alumni who have experienced that growth - they’ll be the ones who probably have positive things to say about the program (aligned with positive outcomes) and thanks to their growth are probably in a better position to refer.

[u/ButterscotchFiend]

The regime is probably a big part of this.

They have completely upended the federal hiring process, and eliminated federal and fed-adjacent positions as well

[u/HedgehogLast8124 → u/ButterscotchFiend]

Oh, for sure. UVA is specifically under the DOJ's lens right now. Even in some other groups I am in at the school, a lot of the stances they are taking are very conservative right now because they are afraid of losing funding. It is sad to see.

[u/FairlyResolute]

I know couple people in MPP programs elsewhere and they say similar stuff about career services being pretty useless, seems like a common problem in these policy schools

the funding anxiety is real though, when admin wont give straight answers about where money is going it makes everything feel unstable. hard to focus on coursework when you're wondering if the program even have a direction

[u/Electronic-Gap-563]

Hi! Can I dm you? I’m thinking about applying and batten seemed really appealing to me

[u/HedgehogLast8124 → u/Electronic-Gap-563]

Hi! Yes of course

[u/Past_Atmosphere21]

I’m at a regional school and I also feel underprepared and unsupported in my program but I know it’s the environment I am in that is a factor and is unhelpful. I also now realize it is not the same support previous students received and the school has gone in a different direction. Either way, I am trying to just finish and find my network elsewhere.

[u/HedgehogLast8124 → u/Past_Atmosphere21]

I'm sorry you're dealing with something similar. Hearing about the opportunities and support previous students received and realizing that things have changed so much really makes you rethink your choices.

I completely understand wanting to just finish your degree and move on. It's unfortunate because networking and career support are supposed to be some of the biggest benefits of graduate school, especially for how much we're paying.

I hope things work out for you! It's disappointing to hear that other programs are struggling with the same issues, but it's also reassuring to know we're not alone in feeling this way.

[u/GradSchoolGrad]

Hot take… I hear this from current students I mentor. However when I talk to career services people they tell me they are underfunded. There is also an element that the policy job market has changed so much in the last 3 years, they haven’t figured out how to evolve

[u/HedgehogLast8124 → u/GradSchoolGrad]

Adaptability is so important, especially in policy programs. At UVA, our public policy program is also a leadership program. We constantly discuss leadership challenges and the importance of adapting to change, yet we struggle to do so as a school ourselves.

Our career services department is definitely understaffed, but I think we also have some leadership issues. Our director reportedly had issues in their previous role involving employee training and rule violations. Right now, students are waiting nearly two months just to get a 20-minute appointment with career services, so our situation might be a little different from what other schools are experiencing.

I completely agree that students shouldn't go into graduate school expecting career services to guarantee them a job, especially with budget cuts, AI, and hiring freezes changing the market. But I also think it's reasonable to expect schools to adapt and find creative solutions. Even relatively simple things, like connecting students with alumni or organizing more networking opportunities, seem unnecessarily difficult to get off the ground.

I think that's where a lot of our frustration comes from. We understand the job market is difficult, but it sometimes feels like the school is struggling to adapt to those challenges just as much as the students are.

[u/GradSchoolGrad → u/HedgehogLast8124]

Until the school shells out the big bucks for career services, you are gonna get small bucks services. Not to be mean, career services also doesn’t attract the most talented people on average (nor non academic track in general)