Citizenship and Civic Engagement BA/Master of Public Administration MPA

This program is designed to allow students to earn an MPA with one additional year of study beyond their bachelor’s degree. Students who arrive at Syracuse with sufficient AP credit may be able to complete both their bachelor’s degree and the MPA within four years of study.

Contacts

Junko Takeda, Program Interim Chair
jtakeda@syr.edu

Stephanie Worden, Associate Director, Admission and Financial Aid
215 Eggers Hall
315-443-4000
ssworden@syr.edu

General Inquiries: ccemaxwell@syr.edu

Faculty: All PAIA Faculty

Application process

Applications to enter the MPA portion of the combined degree program will normally be submitted during the spring semester of the junior year, and are allowed once a student has declared their major and completed 75 credit hours toward the bachelor’s degree.

Interested students are encouraged to meet with the admissions director of the MPA program before applying. The application package typically requires two letters of recommendation from Syracuse University faculty members, including at least one from a faculty member in the department of the student’s declared major, the student’s resume, a Statement of Purpose, and the student’s transcript. GRE and the TOEFL scores will be waived for Syracuse University students.

Student applications that show evidence of sufficient preparation in writing skills and quantitative analysis will have a greater chance of being admitted to the program. The preferred way to demonstrate this competence is by completing a “writing intensive” course and a course that requires quantitative analysis with a grade of B or better prior to applying. Examples of such courses include, but are not limited to MAX 123, MAX 132 and MAX 201.

Students accepted for graduate study as part of the combined BA/BS‐MPA program will typically begin the MPA portion of the program following completion of their third year of study (six semesters), but are not fully matriculated as graduate students until all requirements for the BA/BS degree have been met. The student would normally be certified for the bachelor’s degree at the end of the fourth year and for the master’s degree at the end of the fifth year, although other time tables are possible.

Degree Requirements

All regular requirements for the student’s undergraduate major along with the minimum 120 credit hours necessary to meet College of Arts and Sciences requirements must be satisfied. The MPA degree requires 40 credits. However, up to four courses (12 credit hours) can be counted towards both the bachelor’s and the MPA degrees. Any 500, 600 or 700 level PAI course is eligible for dual credit. An exception is that 752: MPA Workshop and 753: Policy Leadership, which together constitute the capstone experience required for the MPA, will not be open to undergraduate students who have not fully matriculated into the MPA program.

The MPA curriculum includes 25 credit hours of core courses the students typically complete to satisfy required competencies for the degree, as well 15 credit hours of electives. The core courses include:

PAI 712: Public Organizations and Management (3 credits)

PAI 721: Introduction to Statistics (3 credits)

PAI 722: Quantitative Analysis II (3 credits)

PAI 723: Economics for Public Decisions (3 credits)

PAI 734: Public Budgeting (3 credits)

PAI 751: MPA Colloquium (1 credit)

PAI 752: Policy Leadership (3 credits)

PAI 753: MPA Workshops

PAI 755: Public Administration and Democracy

Maxwell students who complete certain courses with a grade of B+ or better as part of their undergraduate degree program will be considered to have met certain required competencies, and thus will be allowed to take fewer core courses and additional elective courses. Specifically student who complete with a grade of B+ or better:

ECN 505 will not be required to complete PAI 723

ECN 521 will not be required to complete PAI 721

ECN 522 will not be required to complete PAI 722

SOC 513 will not be required to complete PAI 721

These non-PAI courses will not be eligible for dual credit toward the MPA degree. However, completing them with a grade of B+ or better will allow students to substitute additional elective courses for core MPA courses.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Demonstrate competence in the public-sector budgeting process, including being able to design and produce a flexible budget for a government or nonprofit organization; and apply concepts and measures of efficiency, equity, and adequacy to the evaluation of government revenue policies

2. Identify core competencies necessary for helping to shape the organizational environment (broadly defined) in which they operate and for managing individuals, groups, clients, and programs

3. Analyze various market scenarios to assess how goods and services will be allocated, and assess the efficiency and distributional impacts of government intervention in markets

4. Use data to produce and interpret a range of descriptive and inferential statistics; analyze the strengths and weaknesses of statistical techniques used in policy analysis, management analysis and research; and develop recommendations for improving quantitative analyses

5. Assess the conditions under which certain managerial tools may be applied to improve programmatic results and overall organizational effectiveness

6. Effectively summarize, appraise, and communicate technical and professional information, through both oral and written media

MPA Degree Overview

The MPA degree requires a residency of 12 to 18 months. All students begin the program in early July. Full-time students usually complete the program the following June, but students should inquire about an extended 18-month option that incorporates a summer internship.

The MPA degree requires 40 credits of coursework. 25 of these credits satisfy core requirements, ensuring proficiency in economics, quantitative analysis, organization and management theory, public budgeting and finance, and the political context of public management.

Additional elective coursework satisfies the remaining 15 credits. These elective courses are selected from the public administration and international affairs department, other Maxwell School social science departments, or elsewhere in the University.

Flexible degree requirements allow a student to design a program in state and local government, data analytics for public policy, financial management and analysis, public and nonprofit management, international development administration, environmental policy and administration, international and national security policy, health management and policy, and social policy while completing the MPA core requirements.