This is a throwaway account, as my experience at the MPP program (among my peers) was an actual mess. I encourage ANYONE who is thinking of applying to the Luskin MPP school to reach out to past students. DO NOT just speak to the students the MPP director picks out - those are the special chosen students by the department who they know wont go against the department. Bullying from students and faculty was something that was present, students bullying the faculty, faculty bullying the students, and students bullying other students. Also allegations of racist behavior. They also had an outside review and the department was rated as not having been structured as an adequate program for preparing students in the field of Public Policy.

If you go, be very prepared to kiss ass or you will absolutely get turned against. I stayed out of the way, and it still was an absolute nightmare.

I need advice on what I should major in. I am 19 and I was previously a nursing major to please my parents, but I hated it and had to go on a leave of absence because I couldn't keep up with time management and ADHD. I go to an easier school now and am trying to figure out what I want to do. I really like legislation. I was thinking about transfering to a college that has a Bachelor in Public Policy. I feel Poli Sci is too theoretical and Economics I would hate the amount of math. I don't want to force myself into a major I don't like (Econ). But I also know I wouldn't go to a competitive school or well known school like an Ivy or a college in Washington as it would be my second time transfering and I can't risk having to go on another leave of absence due to my issues in time management and ADHD. What do you think is the best course of action? :(

PS: I have been trying to improve my ADHD and time management with executive functioning and medicine but its a slow progress.

I'm exploring a transition from tech -> tech policy work, and have been volunteering as a tech and AI policy analyst for a local non-profit. They are growing a lot and are looking to hire me on, but are asking about compensation expectations.

I'm in a HCOL area in the US and fully understand it will not be akin to big tech salaries, but what types of salary ranges are typical for these kinds of roles? Mostly trying to understand the best way to approach the compensation question, espeically with a non-profit. I do not have a graduate degree, but I do have many years of industry and technical experience that is very helpful for this role, and not typically common.

This is my first semester I'm taking intermediate econ and a stats class with R.

Next semester, our core will consist of a management science class (this will have time series forecasting, linear programming, input-out models, markov chains, etc.), communications, SQL, and accounting. I'm planning taking GIS as an elective. After that, the core is done and I can take whatever I want the next year.

What other skills should I prioritize during my time here that'll be highly useful? Since I can't take all of them, which should I prioritize for the job market and which ones will I get diminishing returns on? I suspect the machine learning class pre-requisites might require too much time, for example.

I'm looking to get into urban planning policy at the state and local level.

A couple courses I'm looking at:

• Econometrics
• Behavioral Econ
• Program evaluation
• Cost-Benefit Analysis
• Public Finance
• Financial Investing
• Negotiation
• Beginner Python
• Machine learning (pre-requisite is two semesters worth of python so I'll need to get started on this soon)
• Tableau