Interview with Matt Clemons, Director of Admissions for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government [Show Summary]

Matt Clemons is the Director of Admissions for the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, and he shares what the school is looking for in its applicants, what to expect while in the program, and some of the exciting things current students and alumni are doing to make an impact on society. If you are driven to solve the problems of public policy and society, take a closer look at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

The Harvard Kennedy School of Government: Everything You Need to Know [Show Notes]

It’s been almost three years since we last had on Admissions Straight Talk, Matt Clemons, Director of Admission, Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Matt entered the admissions field at Manhattan School of Music and subsequently served for five years as Director of Admission and Financial Aid at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. He joined HKS in 2011 as Director of Admissions and has been there for the last roughly eight years.

Can you please give an overview of the HKS MPP program for those listeners who may not be so familiar with it? [2:10]

The MPP can be framed against MBA and JD programs, in that they all are teaching you to engage in professional issues. The MPP is teaching a skillset to help people solve problems, and is not traditionally academic (being concerned with theory and research), rather learning those skills to solve problems. In many ways the program is similar to business school – you learn negotiations, management, quant analysis, leadership, persuasion, communications, etc. – but the case studies, internships, and work people engage in will focus on how public policy impacts peoples’ lives, in the private, non for profit or government sectors.

How do the MPP, the Master's of Public Administration, and the MPAID (MPA Int’l Dev) differ? [3:31]

One of the things policy schools didn’t do is come up with one acronym used across the industry like business schools did with the MBA. I don’t want people to get confused across acronyms, but the MPAID program takes quant analysis to a deeper level, specifically to help figure out how developing economies can be managed in a way to integrate them into the global economy. Graduates tend to work for multilateral organizations like the IFC, World Bank, or IMF. 75% of the students are outside of the US, and the program is constructed with that in mind. It has uniquely rigorous quant – the first year is similar to what a first year PhD in economics would be studying.

The MPA is typically for people who have either already been to graduate school or been admitted to a partner school. Since students are pursuing a concurrent or dual business degree, many go on to careers in the private sector to figure out how businesses can have a positive influence on society.

What is the Mason Program or cohort in the Mid-Career MPA? [6:30]

The Mid-Career MPA is a one-year program for individuals in developed economies. The Mason Program has essentially the same curriculum, but is for people from developing economies. The Mason Program students spend an extra two weeks on campus at the beginning in sort of a boot camp, as many may not have studied in an environment like HKS before, but the only real difference in programs is citizenship.

What is the difference between joint, concurrent, and dual degree options? HKS offers all 3. [7:30]

The joint degree programs are only within Harvard (with the