public policy college essay

Sample Public Policy Personal Statement (Harvard, Brown, Erasmus Mundus)

by Talha Omer, MBA, M.Eng., Harvard & Cornell Grad

In personal statement samples by field.

The following essay is written by an applicant who got accepted to top graduate programs in public policy (MPP). Variations of this personal statement got accepted at Brown University, Harvard’s Kennedy School, UC Berkeley and Erasmus Mundus scholarship program. Read this essay to understand what a top personal statement in public policy should look like.

Related Personal Statement:  Sample Public Administration Personal Statement (MPA)

Here is the example personal statement for MPP

I grew up in Monrovia. People here are resourceful and hardworking, but many live in crushing poverty with little opportunity for upward mobility. Like many rural towns in Liberia, the overwhelming needs of the public are neglected by paradigmatically dysfunctional bureaucracies. So when I was in high school, I thought getting a degree wouldd lift me beyond my humble background. But a strange thing happened while I was doing my undergrad. I found that many people around me, including my professors, were using their education to improve the lives of people living in places like Monrovia.

As a result, education became about empowerment – giving me the language to diagnose social issues. It gave me the understanding to recognize fulcrum points in political hierarchies and the skills to research, propose, and implement strategies for improving social policies. Finally, it gave me the heart and the will to take on the difficult task of making a better life for Liberians in need.

My goal is to become a policy analyst for the government. This position would allow me to promote and implement innovative educational, health, and social welfare policies. I have looked at many schools, but I have found very few that seem as aptly suited to my educational goals as Brown. The course offerings support specialization while allowing room for meaningful electives. Institutions and Policy Making is exactly that kind.

I need to expand my theoretical and practical concepts of social policy and welfare in developing countries. Most impressive to me is the number of faculty who are not just teachers but policy practitioners. For example, Professor John Tyler’s work on returns to education is impressive and shares themes with my thesis research: Economics of Education. In addition, I believe the diverse university culture at Brown will promote my concepts of global culture, practices, and ethics.

A graduate degree is essential to my goal of affecting multiple dimensions of policy in Liberia. I have worked on this goal from the beginning of my undergraduate degree. During my first few semesters, I realized how a shortage of skilled professionals inside public offices had undermined Liberia’s development for a long time. I saw that policy framework serve as ‘paradigms,’ dictating a country’s growth and development rules. I looked for courses that could build on this understanding and help me formulate realistic ideas for improving the status quo.

Courses on policy issues explained how unequal growth patterns in a country could destroy class mobility and quality of life. Economics provided an area of study that brought all these social and political factors together in one implementable philosophy. The more I learned, the more I saw how a small innovation could go a long way in places like Monrovia. I also began to understand that properly implementing this support is key to its success.

I found many others who shared my interests in the Economics department during my undergrad, including Dr. Mishu Pati and Dr. Cmeha Konaya. Both Professors are extremely active in their field, contributing cutting-edge research in trade and education policy, healthcare, and governance. I was immediately impressed with the scope and focus of their ideas. However, only after a few semesters of academic exposure and experience with internships, I realized the most impressive aspect of their work: it was theoretically impressive and implementable.

Working with Dr. Mishu Pati, I discovered my passion and appreciation for research. As a result, I completed three major research projects during my undergraduate degree. Each addressed a unique and important aspect of economic policy across various social influences. First, I studied inefficient pricing mechanisms in the wheat industry that translate into inflated prices. Furthermore, as part of my thesis, I studied economic returns to secondary education, especially regarding the acquired human capital and associated externalities that have a bearing on social well-being. Finally, the most influential and accomplished study allowed me to work with the Trade Development Authority of Liberia (TDAL) to improve export statistics for sanitary and phyto-sanitary handling of citrus fruit. Upon the conclusion of this project, my findings were presented to the officials at TDAL.

After graduation, I started working with Dr. Nakhai Abramozid, an esteemed Public Policy professor in Liberia. As a Research Assistant, I am currently studying livestock micro-insurance, a concept still developing in Liberia that requires the attention of academics and practitioners. Micro-insurance provides low-income families with risk-averse methods to increase their financial independence and fosters growth in their enterprises. Therefore, I was especially excited when I discovered that there are currently only two pilot projects in Liberia.

My RAship analyzes these pilots and advises potential micro-insurance providers and other stakeholders. This experience has allowed me to stay connected with policy practitioners and academics by ensuring continued interaction in the field of Public Policy. It has also put me at the forefront of a developing policy that is beginning to show a lot of promise.

Since I have kept a clear direction and set of goals throughout most of my undergraduate degree, I have been able to do a lot to develop and grow my understanding of public policy, research, and ethics. I have undertaken extra responsibility whenever possible and focused my education on my goals. And yet, imagining all the experiences, classes, and projects I will be able to undertake at Brown University makes me feel like I still have so far to go.

Nevertheless, the holistic skill set developed in the Public Policy program will allow me to pursue my goals. I want to be equipped with a deep understanding of policy analysis, project management, financial management, and technology integration. I wish I had more opportunities to talk with you about the difference Brown would make in my education and the difference my education can make to the underserved people in Liberia.

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POL 101: American Government

• eBooks and Reference
• Academic Journals/Trade Publications/Primary Sources
• Evaluating Sources
• Public Policy Essay

Governments administer, or design and implement public policy to address social problems and controversies. Politics is the contested social process whereby individuals and groups compete to have government represent varied and often opposed interests as official public policy. In a 5-7 page essay, you are to write an academic research paper which MUST be organized around answering the following themes:

1.) Identify and explain an important political issue that the federal government administers through public policy. Why is the issue controversial? What are the relevant facts? Provide data.

 2.) Identify the primary interest groups involved in the politics of the political issue. How do they get government to do what they want? Do they lobby the Congress and executive branch of government? Do they mobilize the public with information and grassroots movements? Be specific.

 3.) Identify and explain how the federal government administers the policies that address the political issue. What laws have Congress passed regarding the issue? What executive department, agency, or bureau is responsible in creating and enforcing the public policies and programs related to the issue? How have the federal courts and Supreme ourt ruled in interpreting the constitutionality of legislation and policies related to the political issue?

 4. Conclude by providing an assessment of your research: Are government institutions effective in addressing the political issue through public policy? Why or why not?

  These four key points must be addressed in the essay. This essay is expected to be double spaced, written in a 12 point font (Calibri or New Times Roman), and utilize appropriate margins. Its length must be at least five full pages but no more than seven full pages. Each essay must follow an acceptable academic format containing an introductory paragraph with thesis statement, coherently organized body paragraphs providing evidence supporting your thesis, and a concluding paragraph that summarizes your reasoning provided in the essay. The essay is also to have a proper citation format utilized for referencing source materials. I leave the citation format open to student choice (i.e. APA, MLA, Chicago), so long as it is done correctly. Good essays show your ability to critically and creatively utilize intellectual skill in applying course material to original academic work.

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What is Public Policy and Why Study It?

Ted McAllister , is the Edward L. Gaylord Chair/Associate Professor of Public Policy Pepperdine School of Public Policy. He is a an intellectual historian who brings a historical imagination to the public policy curriculum. McAllister teaches the core MPP courses "Ethical Dimensions of Public Policy" and "Great Books and Great Ideas, along with elective courses in public opinion, American democratic culture, among others.

"What is Public Policy?" was the first question that I asked when I got a phone call recruiting me to a new policy school about to open at Pepperdine. So, there is some irony in the fact that I'm now writing an essay on the subject. And yet, it is a matter of some consequence that one of our program's defining classes has the very same question in the title of the class: "The Roots of American Order: What is Public Policy?" The question, more than a textbook answer, is essential to Pepperdine's approach to educating policy leaders.

A class that asks this question in the midst of a serious historical examination of the sources, development, and crises/challenges of the American constitutional order implies that the answer is somehow bound up with history; that public policy is related to the regime; that public policy is somehow a cultural as well as political subject, a moral as well as technical matter. For these reasons we cannot define policy without considering its modifier, public.

In terms of the growing number of autocratic or fascist regimes (most so-called "communist" regimes are better understood as fascist), the modifier ought to be state or government policy. One of the goals of such regimes is to absorb publics into the state and destroy institutions and associations that interfere with the integration of individual identity with the abstract state. To the degree that these states can accomplish this goal, the government need not consult any public in making policy since the government gives the only means of expressing collective purpose and because the state wishes to define collective identity rather than reflect it. Under these circumstances, policy is primarily a matter of the relationship between two things: the interests of those who rule the state and the technical analysis that demonstrates possible outcomes, benefits, problems, with any suggested policy. If the government determines that it is in its interest (and that of the state, which amounts to the same thing) to dramatically increase the supply of electricity then it sees the policy question in terms of technical problems, costs, and efficiency. The building of huge dams that displace tens of thousands of families does not present a political or public challenge, only a technical one that must be weighed against other technical challenges.

The United States, however, has publics, and the existence of publics creates the fundamental tension that governs the policy establishment—including the universities that teach policy makers. Policy establishments are prone to think of policies as responses to problems and they are attracted to the most streamlined, efficient means of solving the problems. To the degree that this perspective dominates policy making, technical knowledge and related forms of analysis are wedded very closely to the policy aesthetic that glories in efficiency.

Publics introduce, among other things, profound political and social complexity that clash with the beauty of simple, streamlined efficiency. Publics are not just those bodies being served by policy regimes, but they are diverse, self-interested, and often profoundly ignorant sovereigns who demand that policies express their often inchoate will or desires. To be public policy the policy decisions must somehow express the will of a public, whether local, state or national.

To love public policy is, therefore, to love the profound and often confounding complexity of making good choices that both invest a large group of people with a serious role in deciding policies and yet incorporate the best policy analysis. Truly good public policy must find ways of understanding the will of the public while at the same time educating and informing that same public. If we left it here we might engage this complexity with a reasonable process of incorporating various stakeholders and policy makers in an "inclusive" system of public engagement. Alas, this is only the beginning of the complexity

A good public policy must engage deeper norms and principles and "values" of a community. No community is understood in this way through town hall meetings or by "civic engagement" efforts, however valuable they may be otherwise. A community has a deep history and its cultural and social character requires historical knowledge as well as a subtle understanding of emerging pressures and challenges to the nature of that community by a wide array of economic, political, demographic and other changes. A public might deeply value its long-term commitment to the rights of minorities and so protect those whose eccentric ways of living would otherwise make them vulnerable to policy czars who look for an efficient policy solution to a given problem. Understanding that a community honors its historically grown, socially expressed, culturally validated, species of tolerance requires that the voices that make up the public is something more comprehensive than the will of a self-interested majority.

This one example suggests that every public in a large nation is distinct in some important respects and that no good local public policy can be made without a great depth of what we might call "local knowledge"—often the knowledge that can only be possessed by those who have absorbed it through decades of living in that place.

The larger the public the greater the tendency to think of policy in technical terms, the more hostile policy makers are of the very idea of a public. A nation of 300 million souls cannot be said to have a public in a deep sense of that word. Some common historical, cultural, and social ground makes the American public something discernible and distinct from, say, the Canadian public. But it is nonetheless not substantial enough to be one thing that can be heard or expressed by a government seeking to make national policy that expresses the deeper will of the people. America is a public of publics and if it ceases to be this then it loses a necessary condition for a free and self-ruling nation.

To approach public policy as a technocrat is to be an idiot—the word "idiot" originally referring to a deeply private person who is ignorant of public matters. Therefore, to talk about "American public policy" (national policy) we are forced back to a defining question of policy-making in our regime: what is public policy?

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Home — Essay Samples — Government & Politics — Political Systems & Ideologies — Public Policy

Essays on Public Policy

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Research of Public Views on Government Policies Regarding Income Inequality

The issue of keeping schools safe in the us, public law in the uk: the royal prerogative, rational choice theory and policy making, my attitude to nikki haley, policy on government security, public policy issues in texas (house bill 4260), the views of thomas hobbes on politics and society, addressing gun violence: effective measures and solutions, analysis of public participation in south africa, public policy as the goal-achieving model, public interest litigation – the alertness badge that the law offers, relevant topics.

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🚸 Public Policy Essays

The impact of brexit on the uk economy 🔥 trending.

Brexit alludes to the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union after voting in the June 2016 referendum. Since then, it has created possibilities such as…

Population Changing in Texas

Between the years 2010 and 2016, the population in Texas has greatly grown faster than any other state in the United States of America. Texas…

Intelligence, Surveillance, and Human Reconnaissance

Human Reconnaissance on the Targets Target:  Mr. Adam Gadahn of California State is alleged to collude with terrorist attackers, and faces treason charges for helping…

Improvised and Vehicular- Borne Explosive Devices: Aspects That Make Detection…

Abstract The fight against terror and the evolution of warfare has led to different manners of attack by enemies who pose a threat to the…

Kelo V New London

What did the United States Supreme Court hold with respect to the principal issue in the case? The United States Supreme Court simply held that…

Overmedicated Children in Today’s Society

The problem of overmedicated children has become one of the most discussed problems in nowadays society, especially in USA. It aroused numerous discussions on this…

A Critical Discussion of Existing Approaches for Deciding Local to…

According to various studies, it is evident that the biodiversity threats are unevenly distributed. Owing to this effect, there have to be ways to minimize…

The Popularity of Soccer in Cuba

Introduction Cuba, also referred to as the Republic of Cuba is a country within the northern Caribbean and its location is at the meeting point…

How have the major issues concerning BREXIT been resolved and…

Brexit has brought with it some significant challenges when it comes to the relationship between the United Kingdom and the EU. These challenges have led…

Increasing Access to Community Colleges by Making Them Tuition Free

Increasing access to education demands that various measures be applied to ensure that education is not only accessible, but that the access is also equitable…

Advantage and Disadvantage of Public Health Spending

Public health spending is normally meant to prevent diseases, prolong life and ensure that the society is fairly healthy. A healthy society is very important…

The Revival of Coal industry by Trump Administration

Introduction In the 21st century, there is a general sensitization by the International Energy Agency (IEA) for all countries to strive towards the use of…

Newly Emergent Social Actors And Their Influence On Water Policy…

Introduction This paper focusses on the maters regarding the conservation of the Chinese waters. It includes both the government policies as well as the non-governmental…

Spiritual Beliefs, Political Ideologies and Policy Process

Introduction Spiritual beliefs are connected to supernatural, mystical and organized religion that includes search for transcendent and finally surrender, it also relates to the process…

Obamacare repeal act

Introduction H.R 175 is a bill that was introduced into the senate by Steve King on January 3, 2017. The bill had 35 representatives who…

Inequality and Welfare State

Introduction Inequality is one of the most debated topics in the society and since it is largely visible in society and it has been described…

Problem Oriented Policing

Problem-oriented policing coined by Goldstein (1990) denotes a strategy where the focus entails identifying and analyzing a given crime and other policing problems with the…

Cysteine Effect on Smoking Cessation

Background of the study The problem of smoking has been thorny to the government and the society for many years now. Continued tobacco use can…

Issue of Drilling Oil in the USA

Off-shore oil drilling has now become a source of heated debates. Once off-shore drilling is mentioned in a casual get-together, the excitement disappears like it…

Correlation between Mental Illness and the Growth of Homelessness

Introduction  Different definitions have been extended to the term ‘homelessness’ with the description ranging from dwellers in sub-optimal housing facilities in Western nations to individuals…

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Public policy decisions affect nearly every aspect of daily life, but we frequently fail to recognize or comprehend their significance. Public policy impacts our quality of life and can also affect the quality of life in other countries. Citizens must participate in the process for public policy to work. During your college or even high school years, teachers ask you to write essays about public policy. So, how would that be done?

Essay on Public Policy: A Way to Get an Understanding of Political Issues

Students with degrees in political science, economics, law, environmental studies, business, and other fields can also pursue careers in public policy. These professions are constantly in contact with the government and have significant involvement in the quality and character of public policy.

Public policies can have an impact on businesses and their strategic decisions. They can also provide new opportunities for businesses while also posing constraints. Public policy became an academic pursuit in the early 1950s and has since expanded into various dimensions. Today, the subject is attempting to be recognized as a discipline. As a result, many works are being written on this subject. Why not write one of them?

We Can Provide You with Public Policy Writing Sample on any Taste

You’re having trouble writing your political science essay, aren’t you? These samples from GradeMiners’ authors have helped students succeed in their politics and history classes. So, whether it be political science, economics, or even a history course, you can use our essays to enrich your knowledge and, as a plus, get better grades.

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Would you like a piece of writing outlining the work of all the United States presidents? You might want to talk about global policies never changing laws, but you’re not sure where to begin. You’re looking right. All the academic writings on this subject matter are gathered in one place. And we are there for your assistance with this work.

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Review all of the public policy writing samples

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Public Policy Essays

Have no time? Stuck with ideas? We have collected a lot of interesting and useful Public Policy essay topics for you in one place to help you quickly and accurately complete your college assignment! Check out our essay examples on Public Policy and you will surely find something to your liking!

In today’s society, policy makers face many limitations in the policy-making process. The biggest limitation to date is the ever-increasing pluralistic values inherent in society. A pluralistic approach can be defined as “different groups… in society are divided by ideology, economic and cultural factors; all seeking to have their interests reflected in public policy”1 These […]

1997). To entice consumers to participate in the world of e-commerce, which is relatively unregulated, it is important for marketers to follow ethical behavior and protect consumer privacy. In an effort to balance commerce with consumer privacy needs, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has relied on fair information principles to guide privacy regulation and industry […]

Policy making is an important step in the actualization of any vision, whether it be embarked upon by the government or a private institution. All over the world, there has being an increasing level of input from NGOs into policy making in nations. NGOs are legally constituted organisations whose influence has become indispensable to society. […]

The American social programs are in jeopardy due to the state of the U.S economy, as recognized by the government and lawmakers. It is acknowledged that Social Security and Medicare cannot be sustained in their present forms. Despite ongoing discussions, no alterations have been made, even during campaign periods. Although there is a belief in […]

The U.S. Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in 1996. HIPAA’s first title provides safeguard for workers and their families in case of job loss or changes. The second title, also known as Administrative Simplification, mandates the adoption of national standards for electronic healthcare transactions by employers, health insurance plans, and […]

Over the past 30-40 years, there has been significant progress in researching policy procedures, particularly with regards to utilizing evidence for policy-making. However, a lack of empirical case studies in developing countries currently exists. According to Nutley and Webb (2004, p.29), our understanding of how research evidence impacts the dynamics of the policy process is […]

Public Policy Influences Government Stakeholders: Government Stakeholders Influences Public Policy The American people expect that government and government-reliant organizations will protect their interests when there are imminent threats to the well-being of citizens and humanity. In the process of sustaining trust from the general public, stakeholders in government are elected by the people to protect […]

Start by considering these five reasons why the study of public policy should be important to you: 1. As inheritors of an enduring democracy, also the sole superpower, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to participate in civic affairs. We need know-how: the analytical, ethical, and practical skills necessary to effectively engage in […]

According to Dunn (1994:330), rationality is a self conscious process of using explicit reasoned arguments to make and defend knowledge claims. The rational model of policy and decision making, although heavily criticized, is the most widely used and/or discussed model. The purpose of this short essay is to explore the reasons. It starts the discussion […]

Is TIF an efficient Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) tool? This case study examines the application of TIF in Los Angeles County. Local governments often use property tax as a tool to influence economic development and business location decisions. Farris & Horbas (2009) argue that offering economic development incentives (EDIs) is beneficial for local governments, with […]

ITC has a diversified presence in Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, Packaging, Agri Business, Packaged Foods & Confectionery, Branded Apparel, Greeting Cards, Safety Matches and other FMCG products. While ITC is an outstanding market leader in its traditional businesses of Cigarettes, Hotels, Paperboards, Packaging and Agri-Exports, it is rapidly gaining market share even in […]

One of these problems is local participation in political decision making in the country’s democratic process (Anti-Bosnia and Donna, 2009). Local accountability becomes effective where local leaders are elected by their own people hence the importance of decentralization. “Shania’s decentralization policy from 1988 to date combines elements of political, administrative and fiscal decentralization,” among other […]

The article first describes the concerns about the 2004 offering and then traces the process taken by the AMA to consider these issues ND revise the definition. The authors conclude that the new definition addresses many of the major issues with the 2004 definition that had been Identified by scholars contributing to the special section. […]

The creation of the charter school at the University of California at San Diego (SCUDS) sparked a highly debated public controversy. During this controversy, discussions centered around the school’s concept and implicit definitions of equality, social responsibility, and the university itself. Through analysis, two significant findings emerged from this debate. The first finding focused on […]

Fiscal Institutions and Fiscal Performance shifts emphasis away from narrow economic factors to more broadly defined political and institutional factors that affect government policy and national debt. This collection brings together new theoretical models, empirical evidence, and a series of in-depth case studies to analyze the effect of political institutions, fiscal regulations, and policy decisions […]

The Republic of Maldives originally the Maldives is an island located in in the Indian Ocean at the southern side of Asian island country. Geographically the island lies in the Southwest of India and Sri Lanka and covers an area of approximately 90,000 kilometers. Though the island is that wide, it is one of the […]

Introduction Public health, as defined by Gebbie et al., is the field that aims to prevent diseases, improve general well-being, and increase life span through informed decision-making and collaboration with individuals, communities, private entities, and public organizations. The role of public health workers is essential in the field of public health as they provide care […]

I have majored in Sociology and Global studies where I have gained insights to understand social problems in the globalizing world. I have devoted myself to the Fossil Free UC activist campaign where I have learnt that determination and proper implementation process can bring significant changes. I have volunteered at local organizations from where I […]

An interested party is an association of individuals who share a typical intrigue and cooperate to secure and advance that interest by impacting the administration. Interest groups use diverse strategies to attempt to impact the government and public policies. Among the most vital of these are: lobbying, Litigation, contribution by campaigns and Mobilization members’ views. […]

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How to Write the Cornell University Essays 2023-2024

The largest of the eight Ivy League universities, Cornell University is made up of eight undergraduate schools that applicants apply directly to. Because of this, you will be required to submit a school-specific supplemental essay (or essays) in addition to one campus-wide essay.

Cornell is an incredibly prestigious school with tens of thousands of applicants each year. In order to be one of the chosen few to attend, your essays will need to be thoughtful, well-written, and uniquely you. In this post, we’ll explain how to write the Cornell essays so you can maximize your chances of acceptance.

Read these Cornell essay examples to inspire your writing.

Cornell University Supplemental Essay Prompts

Before you apply to Cornell, you should determine which specific college is right for you. Each of Cornell’s colleges has its own majors and specific graduation requirements, though there are some majors that exist within multiple colleges. Understanding the differences between the colleges is essential when applying, since you will need to highlight the specific resources offered by each of them in your essays.

Below are the supplemental essay prompts for Cornell’s colleges (click to jump to the right section):

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Brooks school of public policy.

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College of Arts and Sciences

• College of Engineering

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

College of human ecology, school of industrial and labor relations, college of art, architecture and planning, in the aftermath of the u.s. civil war, ezra cornell wrote, “i would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” for over 150 years, cornell university has remained deeply committed to ezra’s vision. explain how your life experiences will help inform your contributions to a learning community devoted to “…any person…any study.” we encourage you to think broadly about your life experiences, including how local (e.g., family, school, neighborhood) or global communities you’ve been part of have helped shape your perspective. (350 words).

Cornell prides itself on its motto, “any person…any study” so it’s important that you approach this prompt with care and attention to the deeper meaning behind the phrase. Before you start writing, consider what the school means by “any person…any study”.

Any Person…Any Study

As the prompt states, Cornell was founded in 1865 and within its first few years, Black and female students were admitted in a time when most universities were closed to them. Cornell has a history of accepting anyone of any background, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, or sexuality. 

Any one can attend Cornell, but the second part of the founder’s motto emphasizes the idea that you can study any thing at the school. From the range of eight undergraduate schools specializing in everything from classic arts and sciences to architecture to public policy to hotel management, you can find a major, minor, or department that aligns with any interest you might have. 

This phrase stands for the possibility for people to do whatever they want with a Cornell education. Your response should allude to these ideals to demonstrate to the admissions committee that you understand the school’s history and the deeper meaning that enables you to pursue anything regardless of where you came from.

Approaches to the Essay

Now that you have more context, there are a few general ways to go about answering this prompt that you might want to use. Below, we’ll go over what each one might entail so you can get a feel of the best way to attack this essay to showcase your connection to Cornell.

Any Person Approach

For students who find that an aspect of their background is central to their personality, this might be a good route for you. In this essay style, you can highlight how your race, nationality, religion, gender or sexual orientation, sexuality, etc, impacts the way you see and approach the world.

You’ll need to show the reader what your unique personal characteristic is, demonstrate the way it affected your thinking, and illustrate how you will bring your unique perspective to Cornell. It’s also a good idea to tie in the “any study” part by mentioning how your background or your way of thinking influenced your academic interests.

A student who grew up as the only international kid in their school might write about how the lack of others with shared cultural experiences made him feel lonely and isolated. This led him to spend a lot of time in his imagination where he found creative writing as an outlet and now he wants to pursue English at Cornell. He’s planning to join the student newspaper and publish his short stories to share with others who also enjoy escapism through writing.

Another example of a student taking the “any person” approach would be a Latinx student who had to serve as a translator for her parents from a young age, which exposed her to many legal and procedural discussions. Because of this, she developed an interest in conflict mediation and wants to concentrate in Human Resources at the School of Industrial and Labor Relations.

Although a larger focus in this essay approach might be on your background, still make sure that you are relating your personal experiences to your studies and the school.

Any Study Approach

Maybe you don’t think there’s anything significant enough in your background to highlight, but you are really passionate about your chosen major. In that case, you could consider structuring your essay so you showcase what you love about your major, why you are drawn to that particular topic, and how your knowledge in that field will help you contribute to the campus community.

Even if you go down this road, you still want to emphasize how your interests or passions have given you a unique perspective that will make you a beneficial contributor to the Cornell campus.

For example, a student might describe how they are addicted to the Food Network, hosted their own annual Chopped competitions with their friends, and dream of opening their own restaurant because cooking allows them to express their creativity in a way no other medium can. They are planning on working in the restaurant run by Hotel Administration students to continue exploring creative ways to cook.

On the other hand, a student who is in love with robotics could write about how piecing parts together to create a fully-functioning robot helps her appreciate the power of collaboration. She wants to work with others as an engineering student to both create more intricate robots and to solve global problems by technology and bringing together multiple perspectives.

These aren’t the only two ways to go about writing this essay, but they are good starting points to help you frame your ideas. Remember, regardless of whether you focus more heavily on your unique background or your academic interests—or if you split the essay evenly between the two—make sure you are touching upon both “any person…any study”.

Why are you drawn to studying public policy? Drawing on your experiences, tell us about why you are interested in your chosen major and how attending the Brooks School will help you achieve your life goals. (650 words)

This is a fairly straightforward “Why This Major?” prompt. A prompt like this seeks to understand your motives and interest in your intended major, how your background aligns with this interest, and what you intend to do with the major after college.

Before you begin writing, you should do some self-reflection. Ponder these questions for a bit and jot down some notes:

1) What are your genuine reasons for deciding on your major/this particular school?

You should ideally have picked a subject that you have a passion for, or at least a moderate interest in. If your reasons include parental pressures, money, or prestige, you’re already off to a bad start. You aren’t bound to any major until after you declare well into your college career, so if your reasons are any of the above, consider picking a different major to write about.

2) What are specific examples of things you enjoy in your field of study?

Instead of thinking “math” or “reading,” think “the paired samples t-test in statistics” or “novels that explore existentialist themes.” Specificity is essential to a good “Why This Major?” essay.

3) How will this major help you achieve your life and/or career goals?

Again, avoid writing about things like money or status. Universities want to see individuals with depth, people who strive to live fulfilling lives, realize their potential, and contribute to the betterment of the world, even in some small way. Saying that you want to make a lot of money is one-dimensional and self-serving, and will definitely not lead to a successful essay.

4) What was the best part of your experience, both within and outside the classroom?

5) Do you move into a certain emotional state of mind every time you explore this field of study? What do you find appealing about this state of mind?

Questions 4 and 5 are the ones you will probably be able to probe for personal anecdotes about the field of study. Remember, anecdotes are going to be your biggest asset when answering this prompt.

It’s okay if you’re undecided and picked this major because it appealed to you a bit more than others. Just be sure you can back up your decision with stories and experiences. If you can’t corroborate your interest at all, you may want to consider writing about a different major.

There is a writing trope you may have heard before that applies here: “Show, don’t tell.” Sure, you can explain that you have an interest in public policy then explain things you’ve done that are related to your intended major, but a better way to go about structuring your response is to let your background illustrate your passion for public policy. Allow your experiences and their outcomes to show your interest so that you don’t have to waste a chunk of your word count talking about your interest explicitly.

For example, consider two hypothetical responses from a student who wants to study Spanish in college:

• Example 1: I have always liked the Spanish language for a few reasons. I am of Mexican descent and grew up in California, where I learned to speak Spanish at 14 years old. My predominantly Mexican neighborhood has greatly influenced my worldview, making me want to major in Spanish. The language is part of my identity and is becoming more and more essential in the modern United States, so I feel like studying it will help me further people’s understanding of it.
• Example 2: I am a Mexican-American who grew up in California. Every day of my childhood, the musical sounds of the Spanish language fluttered by my ears, but I didn’t understand them until I began learning the language at 14 years of age. When I finally knew enough to get by in conversation, it was as if a new world had spawned right before my eyes. I would greet street vendors as I walked by, help lost travelers find their way around my town, anything to fully immerse myself in this culture that had been in my blood since before I understood it. As I fell in love with the language, I began to read about its origins and the linguistic principles that made it what it is today. Spanish is more than a language to me; it’s a work of art. Taking vacations and traveling throughout the United States only furthered my fascination with the language. Everywhere I went, I could find a predominantly Spanish-speaking community. That’s when I realized how important Spanish has become in the modern world. Studying the language in college will deepen my understanding of it, and allow me to gain the knowledge I need to teach and be a translator for this increasingly important language that resonates with me so much.

The first example sounds rather generic and uses many declarative statements that lack feeling, so it doesn’t strongly convey the students interest in Spanish or motives for taking on the major. The second example, on the other hand, paints a vivid picture of the student’s formative experiences that inspired such a deep passion for the field of study. It thoroughly explores the student’s motivations through anecdotes, and even discusses future career plans.

The next part of the prompt moves away from your interest in the major, and toward your interest in the Brooks School. As before, you should strive for specificity here. Brooks offers two undergraduate majors: Policy Analysis and Management , and Health Care Policy . Browse your desired major’s website to get a feel for how this major at Brooks is different from equivalent majors elsewhere. One place to look for unique features is in the course offerings (here are PAM courses and here are HCP courses ).

You’re trying to express a strong interest in Brooks, so you don’t want to say something common to most schools. Saying that you appreciate Brooks’s interdisciplinary approach to health care policy is inadequate because almost every college offering a Health Care Policy (or similar) major has a multidisciplinary approach. It simply isn’t possible to study this field without tackling multiple fields of study such as economics, political science, and health.

Instead of being general in your response, find something particular to focus on that piques your interest. For example, let’s say an Asian student is applying to Brooks to major in Health Care Policy, and her racial and gender identity serve as career motivations (which, incidentally, can be a strong personal angle to use when writing why she is interested in this major). She might notice that of all the HCP programs she’s looked at, only Brooks has a focus on the effects of demography on health care policy. Since she wants to pursue a career in helping to ensure that Asian women get proper representation in healthcare policy making, Brooks’s concentration on demographics is a unique feature that will contribute to her professional goals.

Remember to be well-intentioned in your motivations, honest and specific about your interests, and sincere in your entire response, and you will have a strongly crafted essay that is sure to catch Cornell’s attention.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Prompt 1

Why are you drawn to studying the major you have selected please discuss how your interests and related experiences have influenced your choice. specifically, how will an education from the college of agriculture and life sciences (cals) and cornell university help you achieve your academic goals (650 words).

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) is the second-largest school at Cornell with majors ranging from communication to entomology. Even if you decide to apply as an undeclared major, you need to have potential areas of interest in mind to fully address the essay prompt.

The first half of this prompt follows the “Why This Major?” format that will become familiar as you apply to more colleges. You should use your current experiences to explain why you want to study the major you selected. A longitudinal approach lends itself well to this portion of the essay.

Think about the following questions we went over before to help you direct your response:

1) What are your sincere reasons for choosing this major and/or this particular school?

2) What are specific examples of things you enjoy in this field?

3) How will completing a degree in this major help you achieve your life and/or career goals?

4) What was the best part of your experience in this field, both academically and in your free time?

5) Do you experience a certain emotional state or frame of mind every time you explore this field of study? What about this state is appealing to you?

For example, if you want to study animal science, you could begin by explaining how you always loved going to the zoo growing up. You can then transition into describing how this love of animals led you to volunteer at the local animal hospital, and conclude your essay by explaining that your time at the animal hospital inspired your desire to become a veterinarian. 

The second half of this prompt asks you to explain why you want to study your intended major through CALS and Cornell. You need to provide college-specific examples that directly relate to your prospective major . Find courses (course offerings can be found after clicking on your desired major), clubs, research opportunities , or opportunities for outreach that would be difficult to find at another university. Be very careful not to mention something generic that could apply to many schools, such as location, as this indicates that you have not done sufficient research and aren’t as interested in CALS as you claim to be.

Specificity is key. For example, a prospective Viticulture and Enology major could discuss the Stocking Hall teaching winery, which allows students to gain hands-on vineyard harvesting experience. A prospective Global Development major could talk about the course called “Just Food,” which offers a comprehensive review of food system paradigms in just one course. Don’t be afraid to discuss relevant programs in colleges outside of CALS as well, as CALS is interdisciplinary.

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Prompt 3 (optional)

The college of agriculture and life sciences (cals) is dedicated to the exploration of the agricultural, life, environmental, and social sciences and welcomes students with interests that span a wide variety of disciplines. given our agricultural history and commitment to educating the next generation of agriculturalists, please share if you have a background in agriculture or are interested in pursuing a career in agriculture, regardless of your intended major. (100 words), select all that apply:, a primary source of income for my parent/guardian(s) comes from ownership of or employment by an agricultural entity., my extended family owns or operates an agricultural entity., i have experience working in an agricultural entity., i have interest in pursuing a career in an agricultural entity..

Bear in mind that immediately after the prompt there is a section where you are asked to select all that apply. This is not a writing portion, but rather a quick survey for the admissions committee to know about your background.

The prompt itself is optional, but if you have a substantial agricultural background or a keen interest in pursuing a career in agriculture, we encourage you to respond to it. The prompt is rather straightforward, so if you are able and willing to answer it, it should not be a stressful undertaking.

For this kind of prompt, you may wish to consider a collection essay structure. If you have an agricultural background, you won’t be able to thoroughly describe your responsibilities and experiences with just one anecdote. The best structure to respond to this prompt is a small collection of personal anecdotes that showcase your background as well as your sincere interest in an agricultural career.

Despite our recommendation of a collection structure, you may find it helpful to connect each of your anecdotes with some kind of thread. A narrative that links each of your anecdotes together may provide the admissions committee with a clearer picture of where you came from, where you’re going, and why.

For example, consider a hypothetical student who grew up on a farm and developed a deep passion for the agricultural sciences. He might have started helping his family do farm work from a very young age, waking up at the break of dawn to feed the chickens and milk the cows. He might write about how these formative experiences forged his entire identity and how he’ll always be a farm boy at heart. 

He could then move into a discussion of how some of his tasks became his full responsibilities when he got old enough, and how he now does more and more of the essential work as his dad is getting older. He could wrap up his response with a sincere examination of his future goals, whether they be to come home and improve his family’s own farm through his education or to move into agricultural research to improve farming methods for everyone.

Be genuine about your experiences and passions — let them both shine through in your word choice and anecdotes.

At the College of Arts and Sciences, curiosity will be your guide. Discuss how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey, and what areas of study or majors excite you and why. Your response should convey how your interests align with the College, and how you would take advantage of the opportunities and curriculum in Arts and Sciences. (650 words)

This prompt is a pretty standard “ Why This Major? ” archetype. Unless you are undecided , you should narrow down the broad statement of your “passion for learning” into a more manageable focus on a specific topic you are interested in pursuing. In order to write a successful essay, you need to accomplish three main things:

• Explain how your interest developed
• Detail your goals and aspirations
• Describe how you will use school resources to your benefit

Beginning with explaining how your interest developed, the best way to do this is through examples. Whether you include a few examples of you deep in research or you share an anecdote about your first encounter with the subject, make sure to paint a picture for the reader. Show us what about the topic excites you, how it makes you feel, and why you fell in love with it. Here are a few examples of successful ways to accomplish this:

Example 1: “ My mom’s bookshelf is the cheapest, fastest airplane you will ever find. On the left, bound in thick leather is Shakespeare’s first play, Henry VI. Move one over and we’ve traveled to the south of the continent to Greece for a quick tour of Plato’s Republic. Next stop: tsarist Russia for War and Peace. Every day, I get to leave behind the drone of suburban Ohio and transport myself to a new country and period. The noise of the outside world falls away as I travel through the pages, across space and time. ”

Example 2: “ Age 7: I see a white rhino at the zoo and buy a stuffed animal, affectionately named Rob the Rhino.

Age 11: I ask all my friends to donate to the World Wildlife Fund to support endangered rhinos in place of a new lego set for my birthday.

Age 15: I learn climate change causes the rhinos’ grasslands to dry up and flood in an unpredictable cycle.

Age 16: I found the Forces of Nature club in my school to develop creative solutions to protect habitats from the effects of climate change. ”

Once you’ve established what your interest is, where it came from, and why you are passionate about it, it’s time to be more forward-looking. Cornell wants to admit students who are ambitious and driven, with a passion for changing the world. Now’s the time to share your aspirations with the admissions committee.

Tell the reader what you hope to accomplish one day in regards to your field of study. You might know exactly what you want, for example a student who is going into Information Science might want to create a social media platform that actively promotes diversity of ideas rather than echo chambers as part of its mission. On the other hand, another student might know they want to major in psychology, but they don’t know how they want to use it yet.

In the event you don’t have a clearly defined goal, it’s okay to admit you don’t know where your studies will take you—after all, the whole point of college is to explore new ideas and figure out what you are passionate about. Don’t completely write off this portion of the essay though. Still talk about what you hope to bring to the world in a broader sense. Rather than describing the specific contribution you will make to the world of medicine, describe how you are studying biology to learn about the inner workings of the human body so you are equipped to handle any organ or system.

Finally, you’ll want to dedicate a good portion (around 200-300 words) on the Cornell-specific opportunities you will utilize during your four years to both deepen your passion and work towards your goals.

There are two key things to keep in mind. First, quality over quantity is everything here. Name dropping four classes and three professors without expanding on why you are drawn to them won’t add much to your essay. Instead, pick three or four resources that closely align with you and explain why you are excited about this opportunity and how it will help you achieve your goals.

Secondly, the offerings you discuss have to be unique to Cornell. Nearly every school you apply to will offer Chemistry 101 or have a finance club. You need to spend some time poking around Cornell’s website to find distinctive opportunities you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else to prove to the admissions committee you genuinely want to go to the school. Below are some ideas of things to look for as you research the school:

• Look at the course roster and find classes in your major (don’t just pick Biology 101; the more specific, the better!)
• Find professors in your department and the research they conduct
• Explore unique clubs and extracurriculars that align with your interests 
• Look into special programs or centers (ie. Milstein Program in Technology and Humanity or College Scholar Program
• Research Cornell-specific study abroad programs and hubs

For example, the student who loves books and reading may want to one day become a fantasy writer to help others immerse themselves in new worlds. They could mention wanting to take the Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Witchcraft First-Year Writing Seminar at Cornell in their essay.

College of Engineering Short Answer Questions

Note: upon selecting this college on the common app, you will be asked to provide the 3 words that best describe you and the three words that you would use to describe cornell engineering. this is essentially a major-specific short response section..

It’s challenging to distill your personality down to three words, so to begin, come up with a long list of words that you think characterize you, and then narrow them down to the ones that are most important to you. They don’t need to be directly related to engineering, but you want to choose words that at least describe qualities of yourself that could translate to the field of engineering broadly. If you need help, you can ask your friends and family for ideas.

You don’t have to write the most exotic words, but you should avoid very simple descriptors like “fun, nice, smart.” These choices can come across as cliché, and don’t tell the admissions committee anything about you. Try more interesting words like “determined, upbeat, daring,” or even nouns like “brother, athlete, artist.”

If words are your strong suit, you can try to be more creative with your choices. You might even want to pick a word from another language if that language or its culture is an important part of your identity. Maybe you’re a hard worker, a lighthearted person, and you help your father fix cars in your predominantly Hispanic community; you may choose to write “indefatigable, whimsical, mecánico.” Note that you should strive to only choose words you know/use regularly. Don’t just use a thesaurus to try to find big words, because you may accidentally use a word with a nuanced meaning that isn’t what you’re looking for. Additionally, if you use flowery language in this section but not in your writing supplement, this will come off as contradictory and insincere.

The same idea applies to the three words you choose to describe Cornell Engineering. You should do plenty of research on Cornell Engineering before even attempting to choose three words. Determine what is important to their program, reach out to friends you may know in the program, or look through their website and social media to figure out what their program is all about.

You should not attempt to randomly select words about engineering in general. In fact, you could write an inspiring answer by picking some that seemingly have nothing to do with engineering! Avoid picking generic, simple words as well as words of empty praise, such as “unique,” “competitive,” “prestigious,” and “innovative.” Anyone can tell Cornell that it’s a good university — doing so here would sound hollow and plain. Try to think of more nuanced and descriptive words that wouldn’t apply broadly to every engineering college.

For example, you might choose “eclectic,” “defiant,” and “virtuous.” These are creative choices, but more importantly, they are words you could defend in an interview. If asked about “eclectic,” you can mention the diversity of the fields which Cornell has facilities for — the university has centers in subjects ranging from data science to nanomedical technology to waste management. You can defend “defiant” by discussing how a certain lab you researched never settles for the status quo, but instead seeks to always go beyond what is deemed possible. Finally, you might defend “virtuous” by mentioning Cornell Engineering’s mission to “ advance the quality of life on our planet. ”

College of Engineering, Prompt 1 

How do your interests directly connect with cornell engineering if you have an intended major, what draws you to that department at cornell engineering if you are unsure what specific engineering field you would like to study, describe how your general interest in engineering most directly connects with cornell engineering. it may be helpful to concentrate on one or two things that you are most excited about. (250 words).

This prompt is sort of a mix of two traditional kinds of prompts: “Why This College?” and “Why This Major?” It’s primarily a “Why This College?” prompt, as it asks twice how your personal interests connect with Cornell Engineering, but if you do have a specific intended major, you will have to back up your choice as well.

Before you begin writing, you should thoroughly consider what you want to get out of college. Think about your academic and career goals beyond getting a degree or making a lot of money. Colleges don’t want to hear superficial or self-serving goals; they are seeking students with passion and drive who want to contribute to the world in some way.

After you have some idea of your goals, do ample research. You need to establish at least a tangible connection with the college in a way that shows how it will help you achieve your goals. A tangible connection involves specific reasons for choosing the college that are unique to that college. This is where research will really be useful. Browse the departments and courses , faculty , and research groups to find some unique features of the college.

For example, a student might be particularly interested in computer-aided diagnosis because it was used to help diagnose his grandmother’s lung cancer and save her life. He might write about the Biomedical Imaging and Instrumentation concentration within the Biomedical Engineering major. Courses like “Computer Vision” and “Computer Analysis of Biomed Images” would be essential to mention in his essay. 

Additionally, he might want to write about the Vision and Image Analysis Lab. He could also discuss how the head of the lab, Dr. Anthony Reeves, does research on “computer methods for analyzing digital images especially with regards to accurate image measurements and with a primary focus on biomedical applications,” which is exactly what this hypothetical student wants to study.

The hypothetical student above very effectively establishes a tangible connection to the college through specific courses, a lab, and a particular faculty member whose research expertise resonates with him. You should strive to link your personal interests and goals with particular parts of the college in this way.

If you don’t have an intended major in mind, you should still emphasize your general engineering interests. Provide anecdotes that demonstrate the experiences that got you interested in engineering in the first place, then try to connect those experiences with some aspect of the college.

Additionally, if you can, you should try to establish an intangible connection with the college. This involves looking into Cornell Engineering’s values to see how much they align with yours. For example, Cornell’s Diversity Programs in Engineering (DPE) focuses on “enhancing equity for [their] community in terms of: ethnicity, race, sex, gender, orientation, identity, first generation status, socioeconomic class, and veteran status.” Perhaps your racial or gender identity is particularly important to your conception of who you are. You could write about the DPE initiatives to establish this sort of intangible connection in value systems.

There are several things you should avoid when writing your response:

• Empty flattery: Don’t simply write about how good Cornell Engineering is or how cool a specific major is without elaborating in a very specific manner. Talking about the university with such vague flattery suggests you have nothing more substantive or specific to say.
• Name-dropping: You should do research on the college, but don’t name classes or faculty members just to have them in your essay. A list of names doesn’t speak to your goals or interests. Instead, explain why those courses, activities, or professors are interesting to you. The college wants to hear about what resonates with you, but also about why it resonates with you.
• Being generic: Don’t write about resources common to all colleges such as location, class size, a strong program in X, etc. This would suggest that you don’t have anything specific to say or that you copied the response you wrote for another school.

College Engineering, Prompt 2, Option A

Describe an engineering problem that impacts your local community. this could be your school, neighborhood, town, region, or a group you identify with. describe one to three things you might do as an engineer to solve the problem. (250 words).

This prompt is designed to elicit several things: your ability to locate and describe problems that can be solved through engineering, the kinds of problems that personally motivate you, and your critical thinking skills. In many ways, the prompt is like a future-tense version of the common community service essay , but rather than writing about previous service experiences, you’re tasked with writing about how you would serve a community to which you belong.

Before you begin writing, think back to when you were younger (or even to as recently as last week). What physical features of your natural and created environments have bothered you in your hometown, school, or other community to which you belong? Perhaps there are too many unfilled potholes or maybe your local playground is becoming rundown and overgrown. The problem doesn’t have to be profound and widespread; it just has to be important to you and amenable to engineering solutions.

In addition to things that have bothered you, try to think of deep-rooted issues and problems that might only apply to particular neighborhoods or groups of people. Use all of these thoughts to create a preliminary list of problems. Once you have a list, narrow it down to the one problem that you most connect with and can think of viable solutions to. This prompt is attempting to gauge your critical thinking skills as well as to understand your passion for engineering.

Once you determine your problem, brainstorm some of the possible solutions to it. These solutions can take shape in a number of ways. You can try to approach the problem through different subfields of engineering to see how alternative areas of expertise can contribute to the same issue in unique ways.

For example, a student might come from a city with a rather dated transit system. Perhaps her home neighborhood is served by an above ground train network that is lacking in accessibility. She might have noticed this problem upon seeing a man in a wheelchair unable to get up to the elevated platform. When writing about this issue, she can propose several solutions involving different kinds of engineering. For example, she might think of three potential solutions:

• “As a mechanical engineer, I can design an elevator car and cable system to provide greater accessibility within our transportation network.” (She can also adapt her response to the kind of engineering she wishes to study – e.g., “As a structural engineer, I can design the foundations of an elevator shaft that could be affixed to the existing elevated train structures.”)
• “As a civil engineer, I can design a workable ramp system that can be attached to each of the train stations in the transportation network. Each station will have its own needs and regulations, which I can use my training as an engineer to adapt to.”
• “As a civil engineer, I could contribute to a total overhaul of the transportation network by designing a trolley system at ground level or perhaps even an underground subway network in which it would be easier to provide wheelchair accessibility.”

Bear in mind that this essay has a limit of 250 words, which will be taken up quickly if you present a problem and provide multiple solutions to it. Be mindful of your word count and avoid overly flowery language and unnecessarily complicated words/sentences. Let your critical and creative thinking be seen in your choice of problem and your proposed solutions. 

And remember, you aren’t an engineer yet; you haven’t even started college! Don’t feel like you have to have all the right answers. You shouldn’t overdo it with your proposed solution, but also avoid being too minimal in your descriptions. Think through what information is necessary to include as part of a solution and use that to guide your essay.

College of Engineering, Prompt 2, Option B

Diversity in all forms is intrinsic to excellence in engineering. engineering the best solutions to complex problems is often achieved by drawing from the diverse ingenuity of people from different backgrounds, lived experiences, and identities. how do you see yourself contributing to the diversity and/or the inclusion of the cornell engineering community what is the unique voice you would bring to the cornell engineering community (250 words).

The goal of this type of essay is to find out how your values and background influence your personal views and goals. Admissions committees look to build diverse classes, so you’ll want your response for this to be individualized and authentic. To learn more about this kind of prompt, check out our tips for writing a diversity essay .

What to Consider Before You Write

Coming up with a good topic for a diversity essay can be tricky. This is what you’ll want to keep in mind as you think of how to approach the question:

• Think about your various identities and what makes you unique. This could be your community, racial identity, religion, hobbies, disability status, gender, language, hometown, country of origin, etc. You may want to make a list and write about the one you are most familiar with and feel most comfortable talking about.
• Consider how you relate to this identity and how you feel about being a part of this group. Have you developed any personality traits through this background? If so, how have they changed over time?
• Have any major formative events occurred in your life because of this background? What were they and how did they shape you into the person you are today?
• Have you learned any skills through one of these identities? What are they?
• How can you connect this with Cornell Engineering?

It is important to consider how your emotions tie in with one of your identities and what personal stories demonstrate this emotional connection. This way, you can write an essay that shows an aspect of your background and how it has shaped you.

You’ll want about 25% of the essay to summarize the part of your background that you are describing* and the remaining 75% to talk about how you have been impacted by it. As you wrap up your response, write about how your background will make you a good addition to the Cornell Engineering community.

Mistakes To Avoid

Don’t list all your identities: This essay isn’t the time to talk about all your personal identities. Instead, focus on one of them and dive deeper into what it is and why it’s important to you.

Don’t focus solely on negative experiences: It’s fine to mention negative experiences related to your identity, and you should absolutely make sure that the experiences you write about are authentic to you. However, admissions committees often look for stories with positive or optimistic endings. Not everything has a happy ending, but it’s harder to write a successful and compelling negative essay.

Don’t pick a cliché topic: There are topics such as immigration stories that have been used time and time again in supplementary essays. Think about an identity you have that may be unique or more nuanced.

Here’s how a response might begin:

One community that I’ve been part of for many years is the jazz piano community. Although jazz is often seen as being “outdated” or “pretentious” by the outside world, true jazz lovers know that it is actually one of the only music genres that stays current with new beats and rhythms. Jazz is always adapting, but jazz pianists must adapt as well. They improvise while also keeping a fast tempo and staying moving between keys. My years playing piano taught me to go with the flow and to accept alternative, unusual, or unique outcomes–usually, the best jazz pieces are created in the spur of the moment. Sometimes engineers get mired in the details or the singular desired outcome, which closes them off to potential accidental breakthroughs. As a student within the College of Engineering at Cornell, I would use the adaptive out-of-the-box thinking that I’ve learned through improvisation and apply it to my engineering projects.

This example starts by describing how jazz, an important part of the student’s background, is perceived, then connects the skills and lessons that the student learned through improvisation to a skill that can be applied to engineering. The student describes how the job of a jazz pianist is not just limited to piano, and that those lessons can be applied to other aspects of life. The student also connects his response to the College of Engineering, thus connecting his identity to Cornell.

What kind of business student are you? Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you. Your response should convey how your interests align with the school to which you are applying within the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management or the Cornell Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration). (650 words)

The SC Johnson College of Business is made up of two schools: The Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, and the School of Hotel Administration. Our breakdown will focus on these two schools separately, but keep in mind that you can write about both in your essay, especially if your interests and goals are best served by both schools.

Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

The Dyson School is known as one of the most competitive at Cornell. In order to stand out among the tough competition, you will need to clearly explain why your goals and interests align with Dyson’s unique program.

Your choice to apply to Dyson should extend beyond a basic interest in economics or management. Dyson’s program is interdisciplinary in nature, and the school encourages its students to study various disciplines outside of AEM. Having a distinct interdisciplinary focus such as agro-economics is a great way to stand out in your supplemental essay.

Your reasons for applying to Dyson should be supported by your present interests and activities. For example, a student discussing agricultural economics could discuss leadership roles in a local 4H club, or efforts to learn more about agricultural economics through recent journals and news pieces.

Aim to be as detailed as possible when discussing your future goals and clearly connect them to Dyson’s offerings. The agricultural economics student could talk about how Dyson’s flexible curriculum would also allow them to take agriculture classes.

Be sure to include your post-college goals and how the College of Business would help you achieve them. For example, our hypothetical agro-economics student might be interested in starting an organization to eliminate food deserts, by diverting food that would’ve otherwise gone to waste. They could mention the course “HADM 4315: Hunger, Health and Nonprofit Social Enterprise” in the School of Hotel Administration (remember that you can talk about both schools in the College of Business!). This would allow the student to learn “management best practices for leading nonprofit food service organizations.”

School of Hotel Administration

SHA consistently ranks as the best hotel school in the United States, and applicants should have a clear, demonstrated interest in hospitality-related careers. In addition to relevant experience, SHA looks for the interpersonal skills required to be successful in the hospitality industry.

Your hospitality experiences should directly show why you chose to apply to SHA and why you are interested in hospitality management. For example, instead of simply listing your duties as a bellhop at a local hotel, describe how the integration of many fast-paced movements at a hotel invigorates you.

Connect these experiences to your long-term plans and aspirations, and explain how the Hotel School will provide you with the tools you need to achieve these goals. If you want to manage a hotel one day, explain how SHA will provide the hands-on experiences and practical skills you will need to run an establishment.

SHA is the only college at Cornell that requires an admissions interview, which focuses on the applicant’s interpersonal skills. While describing your experiences within hospitality, make sure to highlight personal attributes such as your empathy or adaptability, especially through anecdotes. Perhaps a hotel client once lost his dog, and you went above and beyond to help him make missing dog signs, even putting them up across the city. Maybe the hotel’s fitness center yoga instructor once called in sick at the last minute, and you stepped in with your knowledge of yoga, leading the class in her stead. These details allow an admissions counselor to see that you would thrive at SHA.

How have your related experiences influenced your decision to apply to the College of Human Ecology (CHE)? How will your choice of major impact your goals and plans for the future? Your response should show us that your interests and aspirations align with CHE and your choice of major. (650 words)

This prompt is sort of a blend between the “Why This College?” and “Why This Major?” prompts. The College of Human Ecology (CHE) wants to find the applicants who have the most sincere interest in the school and their anticipated major, so this essay is your chance to let your background and passion shine through.

Before you begin writing, think about the reasons for your decision. What life experiences led you to want to study at the College of Human Ecology? If you’ve decided on a major, why do you want to pursue that major? Think about your academic and career goals, but don’t just write about wanting a prestigious education or trying to make a large salary. Colleges don’t like selfish and shallow goals; they want students with deeper aspirations and a genuine interest in their respective fields.

CHE focuses on the exploration of human connection and the human experience. Human Ecology is interdisciplinary by nature and has strong roots in research and public engagement. Your supplemental essay should reflect these themes while also explaining your interest in your intended major.

Use your high school classes, extracurriculars, and personal projects to explain why you applied to CHE. If you want to study nutritional sciences, you could discuss your role in the Health Club at your high school. Make sure to explain why your intended career path interests you. Maybe you’re a runner and you’re fascinated by how diet impacts physical performance. Connecting your unique personal experiences to a broader desire to improve the human experience — and potentially adding interdisciplinary elements — will help deepen your connection to the College of Human Ecology.

The next part of this prompt asks how your specific major will contribute to your plans for the future. Be as specific as possible. For example, instead of broadly stating that studying fashion design and management will help prepare you for the fashion industry, discuss how the studio-based classes will provide you with both a strong physical skill set and a portfolio of work for job applications. Or if you want to start your own sustainable fashion brand, mention how the courses in Fiber Science will allow you to learn about innovative ways to create eco-friendly fibers and dyes.

After you have some idea of your motivations and goals, do your research. You need to demonstrate how CHE and your desired major will help you achieve your goals. Look over the departments and courses , faculty , and research to find some unique features of the college that you can benefit from during and after your college career.

If you don’t have a specific major in mind, you should still show interest in CHE by mentioning two or three majors you’re considering and why . Include personal stories that can corroborate your interest in Human Ecology, then try to connect those stories with a couple of CHE majors.

As we discussed before, there are several things you should avoid when writing your response:

• Empty flattery: Don’t simply write about how good the College of Human Ecology is or how cool a specific major is without elaborating in a very specific manner. Talking about the university with such vague flattery suggests you have nothing more substantive or specific to say.

Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you. Your response should show us that your interests align with the ILR School. (650 words)

The School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) studies the world of work, and the intellectual interests you write about should also involve labor and human capital. The ILR community has a strong drive for public service, so making social service the focus of your essay will help explain your choice in ILR. This isn’t exactly a community service prompt , but you might want to mention any service experience you have, how you feel about that experience, and how that experience has motivated your interest in ILR.

Given the specificity of the prompt, it’s imperative that you provide concrete examples of how your experiences relate to your intellectual interests. For example, you can discuss how studying disability rights in your American History class made you want to become an advocate, or how volunteering in a local lawyer’s office helped you discover a deep interest in labor law.

Your essay should also explain why you are interested in your chosen subject matter to fully address what makes it exciting to you. Does the ability to advocate for others inspire your passion for disability rights in the workplace? 

Your reasons can be more personal too. Maybe you have a friend or relative with a disability and have witnessed how many workers with disabilities are underpaid and exploited. Or, perhaps you’re interested in labor law because you want to defend workers in minority groups from discrimination.

Once you’ve established your experiences and motivations, you need to draw connections to ILR. This is where research will be extremely helpful. Look into ILR’s departments and courses , faculty , areas of expertise , and research opportunities to inspire your writing. Keep in mind that all undergraduate students at ILR have the same major — Industrial and Labor Relations. Nevertheless, there are opportunities to focus your study on one of the related disciplines , so be sure to write to your strengths and interests.

Choose ILR-specific programs to explain why the school is the right fit for you. For example, a future law student could mention ILR’s intensive legal writing seminars. The prospective student could also discuss the Labor & Employment Law Program in NYC, which focuses on managing repositories for documents related to acts of workplace discrimination.

Note: Upon selecting this college on the Common App, you will be asked to provide the 3 words that best describe you. This is essentially a major-specific short response section.

How do your interests directly connect with your intended major at the college of architecture, art and planning (aap) why architecture (b.arch), art (bfa) or urban and regional studies (urs) b.arch applicants, please provide an example of how a creative project or passion sparks your motivation to pursue a 5-year professional degree program. bfa applicants may want to consider how they could integrate a range of interests and available resources at cornell into a coherent art practice. urs students may want to emphasize their enthusiasm and depth of interest in the study of urban and regional issues. (650 words).

Before you scroll down to the writing supplement prompt, you’ll be asked for three words that best describe you. It’s tough to distill your personality down to three words, so to start, come up with a long list of words that you think characterize you, and then narrow them down to the ones that are most important to you. If you need help, you can poll your friends and family.

You don’t need the most exotic words, but you should avoid very simple descriptors like “fun, nice, smart.” These choices are too safe and plain, and don’t tell the admissions committee anything about you. Try more interesting words like “determined, upbeat, daring,” or even nouns like “brother, athlete, artist.”

If words are your thing or you consider yourself a writer, you can try to be more ambitious with your choices. You might even want to pick a word from another language if that language is an important part of your identity. Maybe you’re a hard worker, a lighthearted person, and a singer of Latin music; you may choose to write “indefatigable, whimsical, cantante.” Note that you should strive to only choose words you know and use regularly. Don’t just use a thesaurus to try to find big words, because you may accidentally use a word with a nuanced meaning that isn’t what you’re looking for. Additionally, if you use flowery language in this section but not in your writing supplement, this will come off as contradictory and insincere.

Now, let’s move onto the actual prompt. Since the prompt asks for different things depending on whether you are applying as an architecture, art, or planning student, we will break down the responses accordingly. However, like most other “ Why This Major? ” essays, all three types of applicants should still describe their interest in the topic, explain their goals, and describe how the AAP resources will be beneficial to them.

Architecture

The prompt tells Architecture students to “provide an example of how a creative project or passion sparks your motivation to pursue a 5-year professional degree program.” The major focus for your essay should be on a project you worked on that led to your love for architecture.

Try and pick a project from high school, that way it’s more recent, and pick something longer-term that you worked on to highlight the impressiveness. An essay about a year-long model bridge you built out of toothpicks for your design class will have a lot more to delve into than one about a lego structure you built with your younger brother in a weekend. 

That being said, if you think you can write a passionate, deeply emotional essay about a moment you shared with your brother that also opened your eyes to the wonders of architecture through tiny plastic blocks, go ahead!

Make sure to describe the project in detail—highlight what the development process looked like, explain your thought process (were you stressed about each detail or did you lose track of all time as you worked for hours on end?), and provide imagery to show your actions and the final product—that way the admissions officers get a feel for the heart and soul you put into your work. Remember, you are trying to prove to them you love architecture enough to spend the next five years studying it, so don’t hold back on showing us your passion.

Also remember to save space in your essay to address how you will further your passion for architecture at Cornell. Like we mentioned in previous sections, hone in on three or four highly-specific and unique opportunities you want to take advantage of while at Cornell. Make sure to include both what excites you about the given resource and how it will prepare you for your future goals.

Art students within AAP are told they “may want to consider how they could integrate a range of interests and available resources at Cornell into a coherent art practice.” While this prompt is more geared towards the Cornell resources and opportunities you will utilize as a student than the other two, that doesn’t mean you can completely forgo discussing your passion for art.

Like any other essay, you’ll want to make yourself the focus. Through detailed examples, show the admissions committee how you first got into art or what draws you to the subject each day. The prompt specifically mentions “integrating a range of interests,” so it would be a great idea to demonstrate how you combine interdisciplinary topics through your art.

For example, a student interested in climate activism might describe how she started a business to paint other people’s campaign posters and then donate the proceeds to environmental justice campaigns. Another student might highlight how they used their passion for graphic design to mimic other art mediums like sculpting and photography.

It’s also important to include your goals for your art in your response. Obviously, you don’t have to have your whole life figured out at 17, but in order to explain how you plan to use Cornell resources to develop a “coherent art practice” you should be able to articulate what you want in a general sense. Whether you want to bring back the era of rococo paintings or you think it would be cool to open your own gallery one day, share your dreams with us in the essay.

Finally, you’ll need to provide both depth and breadth when discussing the Cornell offerings you want to take advantage of. Try and discuss resources across a variety of areas—classes, professors, extracurricular organizations, special centers, etc. Cornell even has its own museum on campus you could get involved with! 

Aim to include three to five resources you want to engage with, depending on how much space you have. The key is to tie each resource back to yourself, either by mentioning how you are excited by an aspect of it because it connects to your interest or previous experience in a particular way or by explaining how participating in the opportunity will help you achieve your goals.

Urban and Regional Studies

The prompt is fairly generic for urban and regional studies majors: “URS students may want to emphasize their enthusiasm and depth of interest in the study of urban and regional issues.” Luckily, the lack of specificity means you have the freedom to write about anything you want.

You might want to talk about your personal experiences and how aspects of where you grew up affected you. Another approach could be to discuss a regional or global issue in the field of urban studies and discuss why you are drawn to that problem and how you would go about fixing it. You might focus on extracurricular involvement related to the subject that was particularly meaningful to you. Or, perhaps you want to express your enthusiasm through highlighting the ways you think about the world around you as an urban planner.

The moral of the story is there is no wrong way to structure your answer to this question.

Similar to Architecture and Art applicants, once you establish your passion for the topic and explain what you love about it, the next step is to put your interests in the context of Cornell. Again, quality over quantity—we are looking for a few well-developed descriptions of why you are drawn to each resource and what you hope to get out of them.

Also make sure to weave your career goals into the essay. You can smoothly transition from talking about your established interest and current events to how you want to use an urban and regional studies degree in the future, or you can discuss how certain opportunities will give you the skills and tools to go down a certain path one day.

Where to Get Your Cornell University Essay Edited

Do you want feedback on your Cornell essays? After rereading your essays countless times, it can be difficult to evaluate your writing objectively. That’s why we created our free Peer Essay Review tool , where you can get a free review of your essay from another student. You can also improve your own writing skills by reviewing other students’ essays.

If you want a college admissions expert to review your essay, advisors on CollegeVine have helped students refine their writing and submit successful applications to top schools. Find the right advisor for you to improve your chances of getting into your dream school!

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How to Complete the 2023/2024 Cornell Supplemental Essays

Cece Gilmore is a Content Writer at Scholarships360. Cece earned her undergraduate degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Arizona State University. While at ASU, she was the education editor as well as a published staff reporter at Downtown Devil. Cece was also the co-host of her own radio show on Blaze Radio ASU.

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Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university located in Ithaca, New York. Cornell’s acceptance rate is around 9% , which means you will need to make your Cornell supplemental essay question answers stronger than other applicants. Cornell consists of eight undergraduate colleges in total. Students interested in attending the school will have to complete two essays total: one Cornell University essay question and one college-and school-specific essay question.

Don’t miss: Scholarships360’s free scholarship search tool

Cornell University Essay Question

“In the aftermath of the U.S. Civil War, Ezra Cornell wrote, “I would found an institution where any person can find instruction in any study.” For over 150 years, Cornell University has remained deeply committed to Ezra’s vision. Explain how your life experiences will help inform your contributions to a learning community devoted to “…any person…any study.” We encourage you to think broadly about your life experiences, including how local (e.g., family, school, neighborhood) or global communities you’ve been part of have helped you shape your perspective. ( 350 word limit )

This prompt may sound confusing at first read, but ultimately it is asking about your background and life experiences and how they have helped you become who you are today. Therefore, you can begin responding by highlighting how your race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, etc., impacts the way you go about life. Choose which of these characteristics, or another one, that best describes you. Then, detail how your life has been shaped by this characteristic and how you have shaped your perspective overtime. 

Next, be sure to tie back to academics! How does this aspect of your life affect your studies and school? Describe what you love about your major and how you were drawn to it. Bonus points if you can intertwine your unique characteristics with your intended academic major. Ultimately, you want to make sure you are hitting on both the “any person…any study” aspect of this prompt! 

Questions to consider:

• What is unique about you? 
• How has your upbringing shaped your life thus far? 
• What will you be majoring in and how has your background led to this decision?

Different schools at Cornell

Cornell requires students to apply to a specific school within their university. The Cornell supplemental essay prompts vary based on what school within the university you’re applying to.

The schools found at Cornell are:

• Brook’s School of Public Policy
• College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

College of Architecture, Art, and Planning

College of arts and sciences.

• School of Hotel Administration
• Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

College of Engineering

College of human ecology, school of industrial and labor relations.

So spend some time researching each school and figuring out what you are passionate about and where you want to study. This will help you breeze through the application process due to your extensive knowledge of the school you want to apply to. 

All of the school’s supplemental essay questions have a 650 word limit except for the College of Engineering. This may seem intimidating, but it provides you with plenty of room to stay creative and emphasize your personality. Let’s get started!

Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy

Why are you drawn to studying public policy? Drawing on your experiences, tell us about why you are interested in your chosen major and how attending the Brooks School will help you achieve your life goals. (650 word limit)

The Brook’s School of Public Policy is the newest of Cornell’s schools, having opened in 2021. Take the time to research their website and learn about the majors offered. Think about how the website states that:

“The Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy brings together scholars across disciplines to tackle the biggest public policy challenges we face as a society, both in the U.S. and globally. Our mission is to make positive change in the world.”

The goal of Brook’s School of Public Policy is to graduate students who will leave with a greater passion for public policy. So, make sure in your responses you really describe what made you interested in studying public policy. Try to be as specific as possible! After you detail your passion, then focus on your goals in life. What will you use a degree in public policy for? 

It is completely fine if you chose this major because it slightly stuck out to you more than the others! If this is the case, back up your decisions with some stories and experiences from your life. However, if you are hitting a roadblock you may want to consider writing about a different major! 

• What is your social passion and how might it benefit by learning about public policy?
• Are there social laws you would like to add, amend, or eliminate?
• What role (think resources and opportunities) will the Brooks’ School of Public Policy play in helping you achieve your goals?

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences 

Required essay response.

“Why are you drawn to studying the major you have selected? Please discuss how your interests and related experiences have influenced your choice. How will an education from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell University specifically serve to support your learning, growth, and the pursuit of your goals?”(650 words)

This is your opportunity to share your major and academic interests. Consider what programs CALS offers and why you are interested in them. 

Talk about:

• A program you are currently a part of
• Volunteering you have done
• Anything remotely related to your intended major you have done outside of school

This will emphasize your interest in the program because you participate in it during your free time! 

Be sure to also include clubs, courses or other aspects that CALS has that you are looking forward to. Provide specific examples to display your interest and demonstrate that you have researched their school closely. 

Questions to consider: 

• Why do you want to major in this particular subject? 
• What does CALS offer that other schools do not? 
• What do you hope to do after you graduate? 

Optional Essay #1:

At Cornell CALS, we aim to leave the world better than we found it, so we seek out those who are not simply driven to master their discipline, but who are also passionate about doing so to serve the public good.  Please elaborate on an experience where you had a meaningful impact on people, a community, and/or an environment of importance to you. (200-word limit).

This question simply wants you to share how you apply your knowledge and skills for the good of the world around you.

• What is your volunteering experience?
• Why are you driven to serve a particular community?
• How might you continue to expand upon that service while at Cornell?

Optional Essay #2:

Cornell CALS is dedicated to purpose-driven study of the agricultural, life, environmental, and social sciences and welcomes students with interests that span a wide variety of  disciplines. Given our agricultural history and commitment to educating the next generation of agriculturalists, please share if you have a background or interest in agriculture, regardless of your intended major. An “agricultural entity” for the purpose of this question is defined as cultivating soil, growing crops, and raising livestock (e.g., farm, ranch, greenhouse, vineyard, etc.)    Select all that apply:    A primary source of income for my parent/guardian(s) comes from ownership of or employment by an agricultural entity My extended family owns or operates an agricultural entity I have experience working in an agricultural entity I have interest in pursuing a career in an agricultural entity Please feel free to share additional details (optional) (100-word limit)

This prompt wants to know about your authentic connection to the world around you. Answering it is as simple as responding to any or all of the relatable bullet points above.

Also see: How to respond to the Common App essay prompts

“How do your interests directly connect with your intended major at the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP)? Why architecture (B.Arch), art (BFA), or urban and regional studies (URS)? B.Arch applicants, please provide an example of how a creative project or passion sparks your motivation to pursue a 5-year professional degree program. BFA applicants may want to consider how they could integrate a range of interests and available resources at Cornell into a coherent art practice. URS students may want to emphasize their enthusiasm and depth of interest in the study of urban and regional issues” (650 words) 

There are different questions depending upon your intended major in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning – so make sure you are responding to the correct prompt! 

For Architecture students, describe a project or passion you have that inspired you to study this field. This can be an academic project in school or a side hobby you have! Make sure you are describing this project in detail, highlighting the process as much as the result. Be sure to detail any challenges you faced and how you overcame them. Additionally, focus on what you learned from creating this project and how it further solidified your interest in architecture. Once you have a solid response completed, tie back to Cornell! What resources are you excited about being able to use to help you further your architectural career? 

For Art students, you want to focus your response on explaining why Cornell. Describe resources, professors, courses, the location, etc. that you are looking forward to being a part of. Make sure you have thoroughly researched Cornell before responding to this prompt as you want to be as detailed as possible! It is also important to tie each resource back to yourself and your interests and goals. This will show the admissions committee that you would make a great addition to the Cornell community.

For Urban and Regional Studies, you have a lot of freedom in your response! Begin by detailing your background and how it led you to want to study urban and regional studies. Once you have established your passion for this topic, the next step is to tie it back to Cornell! Find a few resources you are interested in and how they tie into your passions. Additionally, don’t forget to discuss your career goals and how Cornell will help you achieve those goals. 

• Why do you want to study this topic? 
• What made you interested in Cornell specifically? 
• How will you take advantage of resources to help you achieve your goals? 

“At the College of Arts and Sciences, curiosity will be your guide. Discuss how your passion for learning is shaping your academic journey, and what areas of study or majors excite you and why. Your response should convey how your interests align with the College, and how you would take advantage of the opportunities and curriculum in Arts and Sciences.” (650 words) 

The College of Arts and Sciences at Cornell is one of the most diverse schools offered in terms  of range of majors. Therefore, try and make your passions and interests stand out so Cornell can see you will find your place in such a broad community. 

Emphasize what major you would like to pursue. Talk about why you want to study this particular subject and any experiences that have influenced your major decision. 

Then, discuss professional and future goals and how the College of Arts and Sciences can help you.

Be specific about clubs, classes and other aspects of the school that will aid you in achieving your goals. 

• Why do you want to major in this topic? 
• What classes offered are you excited about? 
• What are your interests?

Don’t miss: How to write an essay about yourself

Cornell SC Johnson College of Business

“What kind of a business student are you? Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you. Your response should convey how your interests align with the school to which you are applying within the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business (Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management and/or the Peter and Stephanie Nolan School of Hotel Administration).” (650 words)

The SC Johnson College of Business has two schools that you can apply to. Be sure to reference which one you are interested in and research that particular school thoroughly. 

In your response, describe how you fit the mold of an ideal business student. Reference their mission statement to show how your values align and to show you have done your research. 

Be sure to write about an experience you have with a business related activity such as a school club or even something as small as realizing how much money a candy bar is. 

Be as specific as possible and feel free to get creative with your response. 

Make sure to reference clubs or extracurriculars that the business schools offer that you want to be a part of and how they will help you in the future. 

• Why are you applying to the SC Johnson College of Business? 
• What business background do you have? 
• What activities are you involved in outside of school? 

Don’t miss: Top business scholarships

This application is different from the other college essay questions offered at Cornell. Applicants must write responses for two of  three essay options (Essay #1 is required, but you can choose between two prompts for Essay #2). Each response is limited to a maximum of 250 words, which is significantly less than the usual 650 word limit. This means you should focus on being concise with your responses. 

• Do not drag on
• Be purposeful with your responses

Essay #1 (required)

How do your interests directly connect with Cornell Engineering? If you have an intended major, what draws you to that department at Cornell Engineering? If you are unsure what specific engineering field you would like to study, describe how your general interest in engineering most directly connects with Cornell Engineering. It may be helpful to concentrate on one or two things that you are most excited about. (250 word limit)

This prompt is ultimately a “why this major and college?” So, answer that! Try to think about what you truly want out of college and why Cornell is the perfect place for you to study engineering. Make sure you have done thorough research on aspects of Cornell that you are looking forward to such as specific courses or faculty. 

Questions to consider

• What aspects of engineering are you passionate about?
• If you had a dream engineering project you could work on, what would it be?
• When you were younger, what did you always find yourself trying to create?

Essay #2 (choose either Question A or Question B)

Describe an engineering problem that impacts your local community. This could be your school, neighborhood, town, region, or a group you identify with. Describe one to three things you might do as an engineer to solve the problem. (250 word limit)

• Consider the basic transportation infrastructure of your local community. How are the roads, bridges, and tunnels? Traffic?
• Engineers help people directly through things such as prosthesis design. How might you help people at the most basic human level though engineering?
• How will solving the problem make things better for all who live in the community?

“Diversity in all definitional forms is intrinsic to excellence in engineering. Engineering the best solutions to complex problems is often achieved by drawing from the diverse ingenuity of people from different backgrounds, lived experiences, and identities. How do you see yourself contributing to the diversity and/or the inclusion of the Cornell Engineering community? What is the unique voice you would bring to the Cornell Engineering community?” (250 words) 

• What makes you unique? 
• What is your background and how has it shaped you? 
• What can you contribute to the engineering community at Cornell that others cannot? 

Also see: Top engineering scholarships

“How have your related experiences influenced your decision to apply to the College of Human Ecology (CHE)? How will your choice of major impact your goals and plans for the future? Your response should show us that your interests and aspirations align with CHE and your choice of major.” (650 words) 

Explain your future goals and how your current experiences have affected your decision to apply to the College of Human Ecology. 

Relate back to your outside of school experiences that have pushed you to want to pursue a degree in your selected major. 

Then, be sure to emphasize how your choice in major will impact your future. Be as specific as possible and try to avoid generalizations such as “it will prepare me for this job industry.” 

Rather, focus on particular classes or clubs that will give you a leg up on your competition in the job market and talk about those experiences. 

• Why the College of Human Ecology? 
• What do you want to major in? Why? 
• What are you doing now that relates to this interest in your major? 

“Using your personal, academic, or volunteer/work experiences, describe the topics or issues that you care about and why they are important to you. Your response should show us that your interests align with the ILR School.” (650 words) 

Take your experiences outside of the classroom and use them to answer this question. Make sure to choose something that you are passionate about. 

Research more about the ILR school to ensure your response aligns with their values and programs. 

Choose an ILR specific program that you are excited about to explain why the school is the perfect fit for you. 

• What are you passionate about? 

Also see: How to write a 500 word essay

Next steps after applying to Cornell

So that’s what you should know about the Cornell supplemental essays. Now that the hard part is over, and your application is flawless and submitted – take a deep breath. Congratulations, you did it–the hard part is now over! 

Continue to show interest in Cornell so they know you are committed and prioritizing their school (even if you have a few other top choices.) 

This can be done by:

• following their social media accounts
• reaching out to admissions officers
• scheduling an in-person or virtual tour
• reading up on what you want to get involved in on campus 

Essentially, showing interest and staying connected will allow you to get that extra foot in the door and make your name known. Exploring your interest in Cornell will also help solidify if it is the best university for you. 

Don’t miss: An insider’s view of what goes on in a college admissions office

Other colleges to consider

• Columbia University (New York, NY)
• University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)
• Princeton University (Princeton, NJ)

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• Public policy, values, and politics: Why so much depends on getting them right

In This Section

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• The Great Creep Backward: Policy responses to China’s slowing economy
• Two peoples. Two states. Why U.S. diplomacy in Israel and Palestine needs vision, partners, and a backbone

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• Legacy of privilege: David Deming and Raj Chetty on how elite college admissions policies affect who gains power and prestige
• Need to solve an intractable problem? Collaboration is hard but worth it.

Good public policy can vastly improve people’s lives, while bad policy can lead to terrible suffering, HKS Dean Doug Elmendorf says. The difference lies in how it's made and implemented.

FEATURING Douglas Elmendorf

41 minutes and 03 seconds.

Public policy has great power, both to improve people’s lives if it is planned and executed well and to cause significant suffering if it is not, says Harvard Kennedy School Dean Doug Elmendorf , who will step back from his post this summer to resume teaching full time. In this episode, Elmendorf talks to PolicyCast host Ralph Ranalli about the crucial role policy plays in everyday life, the often-imperfect ways it gets made, and the factors that shape it—including politics, values, education, and communication. He also addresses the issue of public distrust in policy advice and the vital role that values play in policymaking and educating public leaders, even when those values—including diversity, inclusion, and economic justice—are under attack by some in the political sphere. “Our job is to enunciate our values, and to explain how those values can help us serve the world,” he says. Elmendorf became dean of HKS in 2015 after a career steeped in policy research and formulation, especially involving his chosen field of economics. He has worked as the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Treasury Department, an assistant director of research at the Federal Reserve Board, and a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. As dean, he’s seen the school through a campus expansion, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing polarization and attacks on government and higher education in the public sphere, and the current domestic political fallout from the conflict between Gaza and Israel. And he’s done it all while diversifying the school’s community of students and scholars and affirming the important role of training public leaders and developing workable policy solutions to big public challenges. 

Episode Notes

Douglas Elmendorf was named dean and the Don K. Price Professor of Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School in 2015 and will step down to join the faculty full time this summer. He had previously served as the director of the Congressional Budget Office, assistant director of the Division of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board, deputy assistant secretary for economic policy at the Treasury Department, and a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. In those policy roles, he worked on budget policy, health care issues, the macroeconomic effects of fiscal policy, Social Security, income security programs, financial markets, macroeconomic analysis and forecasting, and a range of other topics. He has also worked as a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard. He earned his PhD and AM in economics from Harvard University and his AB summa cum laude from Princeton University. 

Ralph Ranalli of the HKS Office of Communications and Public Affairs is the host, producer, and editor of HKS PolicyCast. A former journalist, public television producer, and entrepreneur, he holds an AB in Political Science from UCLA and an MS in Journalism from Columbia University.

Editorial support for PolicyCast is provided by Nora Delaney , Robert O’Neill , and James Smith of the HKS Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Design and graphics support is provided by Lydia Rosenberg , Delane Meadows , and the OCPA Design Team. Social media promotion and support is provided by Natalie Montaner and the OCPA Digital Team.  

Preroll: PolicyCast explores research-based policy solutions to the big problems we’re facing in our society and our world. This podcast is a production of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.  

Intro (Doug Elmendorf): I would like policymakers to be straight with the public. Of course, people will be boosters for their own preferred policies, but I'd love to have them occasionally say, I understand this policy is not going to solve every problem in the world. It'll have some downsides, but on balance it's good and here's why I support it. And I would like policymakers to talk with experts in an appropriately constructive, critical way, which is to say, not just to listen and take notes and follow, but to ask questions, to ask questions designed to get at the truth most effectively. And then to use that in what they do. And then I would encourage people to listen to public leaders with some empathy for the difficulty of making good policy. There are not easy solutions for any of the big problems in the world, but also I think the public should be appropriately demanding. They should expect their leaders to be straight with them, to work hard on policies that can help improve people's lives.

Intro (Ralph Ranalli): Welcome to the Harvard Kennedy School PolicyCast. I’m your host, Ralph Ranalli. If you’re a regular listener, you already know that public policy is our reason for being here at PolicyCast. We take deep dives into evidence-based policy ideas, the data and the researchers behind them, the people they are trying to help, and the problems they’re trying to solve. What we don’t get to do very often is discuss policy itself—the crucial role it plays in our everyday lives, the often-imperfect ways it gets made, why more people don’t trust it, and the role that things like politics, values, education, and communication play in its formulation. That’s why I’m so glad that Harvard Kennedy School Dean Douglas Elmendorf has agreed to come on and talk about all those things. Doug, who is also the Donald K. Price Professor of Public Policy, became dean of HKS in 2015 after a career steeped in policy research and formulation, mostly involving his chosen field of economics. He has worked as the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a deputy assistant  secretary at the U.S. Treasury, an assistant director of research at the Federal Reserve Board, and a senior economist at the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers. As dean, he’s seen the school through a campus expansion, the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing polarization and attacks on government and higher education in the public sphere, and the current domestic political fallout from the conflict between Gaza and Israel—all while diversifying the school’s community of students and scholars and affirming the important role of training public leaders and developing workable policy solutions to big public challenges. He's stepping down at the end of this semester to rejoin the Kennedy School faculty—   with a stop here at the PolicyCast studios along the way.

Ralph Ranalli: Doug, welcome to PolicyCast.

Doug Elmendorf: Thank you, Ralph. It's great to be with you.

Ralph Ranalli: Congratulations on completing your tenure—almost—as dean. I was reading that you said the job has been, quote, even more enlightening, challenging, and rewarding than you had imagined. As I read it, I imagined an emphasis on the word challenging, because you saw us through COVID and now you're seeing us through the domestic political fallout from the Israel-Gaza conflict. Do they give graduate school deans hazard pay? How are you doing?

Doug Elmendorf: I'm doing fine, thank you. And I'd emphasize each word in that expression. I've loved doing this job. It's been terrific. It has also been hard. And among the deans, there was joking that COVID years should count at least twice. I've done more than almost nine years. But what makes these jobs challenging is also what makes them exciting, which is being part of such a vibrant intellectual community of people who are deeply committed to our mission. And that is both what makes it hard because all these forces in the world affect us and we have to deal with them and respond to them. It's also what makes the job incredibly rewarding and I feel very lucky to have it.

Ralph Ranalli: Well, today I feel lucky that we get to just talk about policy itself. Usually we're talking about a specific policy recommendation or policy research, but I've always thought that the whole notion of good policy is more important than most people realize it is. For you, what is the most important thing about well-crafted, evidence-based public policy? What would you want the average person to know about public policy that perhaps they don't appreciate?

Doug Elmendorf: Well, the first thing to understand is how important policy is. Good policy makes people's lives better and bad policy can lead to terrible suffering. And so it's very important to get policy right. And we see that in thinking about international relations—think about the war in Ukraine, think about the fighting in Israel and Gaza. We see that in economic terms: the decisions of the Federal Reserve Board, the decisions of the Chinese government about how to pursue economic growth. We see that in democracy and human rights, election procedures, protections for people under the law can change lives in dramatic ways. We see that in sustainability, how we think about the transition to reduced carbon emissions. All these aspects of policy affect people very directly for good or for ill.  

The second thing to understand is that you can't make good policy without understanding what works and what doesn't. And that means looking at the evidence. Evidence is not enough, and we'll talk, I think, about other aspects of policymaking that matter, but you have to start by understanding if you do A, does B happen or does C happen? Unless you can draw on the statistical evidence, the historical evidence analysis, you're not going to know. And then you're not going to know whether you want to push the button for A or not push the button for A. And those are the things that I hope people would understand.

Ralph Ranalli : Yeah. I've been privileged to be a part of this operation here at HKS because you get to see the research as it’s being created and the amount of work that goes into creating those evidence-based policy recommendations. And yet there's sort of this disconnect between what I see—where of course this is a good idea because it's based on the research and the research shows that it has a good shot at working—but yet there seems to be a lot of generalized distrust in policy advice, in policy recommendations. You've spent a lot of time in the policy world. You were the director of the Congressional Budget Office, you worked at the Treasury Department, the Fed, you worked at Brookings. In your experience, what are the biggest drivers of that policy distrust?

Doug Elmendorf: I think the biggest factor is that people are legitimately frustrated that a lot of what's been happening in the world over the last few decades, and in this country over the last few decades, doesn't seem very good to them. And they think that experts are responsible for the failings. And I think that charge has some truth and in some ways is false. What is true in this country, for example, is that the economic pie has increased at a strong rate. It's also true that some people's pieces of pie are getting much larger and other people's pieces of pie are not getting much larger at all. And those who don't see as much hope for their future or their children's future as they want to see blame policymakers, blame public leaders for not making different policy choices that might be more advantageous to them.  

Now, some of that I think is a mistaken impression. Policymakers can't solve all problems. Policymakers can't make everything right, they can't make gold run in the streets. But I think some of the concern is legitimate. Policymakers have made mistakes. And then the question is, as a school that's training policymakers, training public leaders, what sensibilities should we be instilling in our students to help them build trust in the future? I think part of this is that experts need to be humble. They need to admit the limitations of their knowledge. Often, a close look at the evidence does not really prove that if you did A today B will happen. It says usually something like well B will probably happen, but it could be C or it could be D, or it could be something we haven't imagined at all yet, because the world's constantly changing, the collection of evidence is not going to be perfect. And so I think experts need to say, we think that B will happen, but we don't know for sure. And I think if experts were willing to admit that, that would help people then understand what the limitations of expert knowledge is.  

I think a second thing is that experts, public leaders, our students when they graduate need to be sure that they are serving all people in their societies. They need to ensure that what they're doing is not just good for people who already have big pieces of the pie but will be good for people who don't have much pie at all. And I think all of us who are in this line of work have a responsibility to look out for others and especially for others who are less fortunate than most of us are ourselves.

Ralph Ranalli: How much do you think distrust can be addressed by expert humility versus how much is just kind of out there in the political sphere and the public discourse? Because there's not a wide agreement on the role of government in people's lives, to say the least, right? I mean on one side of the spectrum you have Ronald Reagan saying the nine scariest words in the English language are: ‘I'm from the government, I'm here to help.’ And then on the other side you have former Congressman Barney Frank saying: ‘Government is just the word we use for the things we do together.’ Can you talk a little bit about how that political gap that makes it more difficult?

Doug Elmendorf: Yeah. I think politics are intrinsic in policymaking, right? In democracies, the people who will make the policy choices have been chosen through a political process, and that's as it should be. And even in countries that aren't democracies, leaders often feel some pressure from their constituents, and that's political pressure. Politics can't and shouldn't be divorced from policymaking. At the Kennedy School, we have taught for many years that good policies satisfy three criteria. One is that they're technically appropriate and actually if you're trying to get B to happen, that you push on A and that will tend to cause B to happen.  

But secondly, we say policies need to be administratively feasible. They need to work not just on a blackboard in a classroom where you can show that A causes B, but actually be implementable by real governments in the real world where there are a lot of constraints. And the third thing we say is that good policies have to be politically sustainable. They have to meet a felt need of people, non-experts, in ways that they can make some sense of. And I think those criteria can be satisfied through policies. I think sometimes experts need to learn not to explain things only in very technical ways for other experts, but to find ways to say things to people who are not going to spend their lives studying some topic but are smart and concerned and can understand an English language version, not an expert language version of what a policy is about.

Ralph Ranalli: Right. Because you're always going to have populists on the other side talking in a message that people can understand. And if you're talking in a message that people can't understand, you are always going to be at that disadvantage. You have to meet them on that same ground of accessibility.

Doug Elmendorf: Yes, I think that's exactly right. I do also think that we are dependent on public leaders not distorting evidence that they understand. It's very possible to have different views about a policy, even having read the same evidence—and we'll talk, I think, more about that—but sometimes people trying to win an argument will say things they know aren't true or will deliberately misrepresent some piece of evidence. Then it's very hard for the average citizen who's going about their own lives to make sense of the debate. And I do think that we suffer some in this country, and other countries suffer as well, from some public leaders who are not playing it straight with their constituents who are saying things that are not true and that they know or could easily know are not true. And then it's very hard to have the informed debate that our system of government depends on.

Ralph Ranalli: That may be your mastery of understatement talking given our current political situation. I mean, you were CBO director when the speakers were Nancy Pelosi and John Boehner. Did you ever think during that time that you would eventually look back on that as the good old days given the level of dysfunction in Washington and the level of polarization out in the electorate?

Doug Elmendorf: Well, that's a good question. When I was CBO director about a decade ago, my predecessors said they felt sorry for me and my colleagues at the time because things had been more civilized in some ways in their day. And now I look at my successors and I feel sorry for them thinking back about how civilized things were in my day. I will say though, that when I spoke with members of Congress in private, outside of the glare of the TV lights and away from the sound clips, I found them to be almost always very interested in understanding more about public policy. In public, I think sometimes they felt they had to play a certain role, get a certain clip they could use of themselves or of me saying something they wanted me to say. That was less constructive in my view. But in private, they often wanted to really understand how CBO was analyzing certain prospective policies. They wanted to see why our views sometimes differed from their views. And so we need more of that private, constructive sort of exchange and less, I think, of the public posturing.

Ralph Ranalli: Let's go down that politics road for a minute. Obviously, like you said, politics is inextricably linked with policy. I mean, to me, at its best, politics is a way to determine the best policies for the country and for its people. And at worst, it's probably just about determining who wields power, right? To you, what is the most appropriate, or perhaps productive, relationship between politics and policy?

Doug Elmendorf: Politics at its best, as you say, is the way that we make collective choices. In any society people will disagree about things and we have political systems to try to manage those disagreements and find a way to move forward collectively. And that's great. That's what we want to have happen. That's how policies should be set. And values are central to this. At the Congressional Budget Office, when it was established almost 50 years ago, one of the guiding principles has been that CBO does not make policy recommendations.  

And the reason is because policy choices depend on values and experts don't have values that are any better than anybody else's values, right? And so what CBO's job was to say, well, if you legislate A, B will happen, if you legislate C, then D will happen. But the choice between B and D is not a choice that CBO should make or a choice that CBO's analysts or director have any special authority for. But what the experts can tell you is if you do A, you might get B. If you do C, you make get D. But the choice has to be made with values. And in our country, we elect leaders to use our values, essentially to represent our values, as they make policy choices. And so that's what politics should be about. It should be about choosing leaders who will take on board our collective values and will then listen to experts about what the effects would be of different policies and to choose the policies whose outcomes seem most consistent with the values that we hold collectively as members of this society.

Ralph Ranalli: Right. How much of this do you think is a media problem? And I guess by media, I mean public discourse in its current state writ large, but my background is journalism. I was in the media for 25 years, and I always had a thing for policy. Yet I often found it hard in my own job, even when I was covering government, to get traction on stories that dove into policy. There was always this push towards the political, which was sexier. It's more controversy, it drives page views and clicks. And now we're heading into an election cycle and we're going to see more horse race stories about candidate controversies and less about what policies that the people who are behind the personalities are going to push. And then along comes social media, which is basically a turbocharged and more personalized version of that whole dynamic. And sometimes I think it feels almost like shouting against a hurricane.

Is there a way to work around that, to get any traction? Because things just seem to be going the wrong direction in terms of our ability to put these good ideas out there in a way that's actually going to get to the people they're intended to get to.

Doug Elmendorf: Well, it's a hard problem and if I had a great solution, you would've heard it from me by now. Let me offer a few thoughts. I think one is that I understand why a political story is a human-interest story in a way that a policy article might not be. And I think that requires experts and journalists who write about experts to try to develop narrative approaches wherever possible. I mean, I was trained—I'm an economist—I was trained to use tables and charts, not so much to tell stories. And as I came to the Kennedy School and became the dean here and became a different kind of leader, I was advised to use fewer bullet points, fewer big tables and charts, and to talk more about stories, to create narratives that people can understand and to follow. And that does not come naturally to me, in fact. And I've strived to do that and I'm a little better than I was, but I'm not great.  

And I think that's part of what we need, which is we need to take the experts’ analysis and process them through individual stories. That's not a matter of denying the complexity. It's not trying to just make up a story, it's trying to tell a real story, but in a way that people can understand. And I think people should try—we all need to try—to do more of that. I also say that the word media is the center of the longer word intermediary. And one thing that our political science colleagues have taught me is that there are a number of intermediaries in the political world who are in some ways weaker than they were. And so for example, with unions being less important in this country, with organized religion drawing fewer regular worshippers than in the past, and in other ways, some of the intermediating institutions, places where people would go to somebody they trusted to help them understand what was going on, that some of those have weakened. And so we've lost some of the good channels and have built some unfortunate channels for conveying information and we need to try to rebuild the good ones and corral the more dangerous ones.

Ralph Ranalli: It's interesting that you mention taking information that might be hard to digest in the way that experts consume it because we did a great episode not long ago with Todd Rogers and with Lauren Brodsky about doing that exact same thing. It featured Todd Rogers talking about making information more digestible to people who read, or, more accurately, people who skim, because we’re actually skimmers more than readers these days. And then Lauren Brodsky is all about presenting data in a way that involves narrative and that people can understand, because people are wired for story.

Doug Elmendorf: Can I say about Todd, I once had Todd come and talk with me and some of the leaders of the school about how we should communicate, and I do write in a different way now because of Todd.

Ralph Ranalli: And so do I.

Doug Elmendorf: And people will say now, “Well, channeling Todd Rogers, you should cut out that paragraph and just use the single sentence.” He's having some positive effect even right here.

Ralph Ranalli: I’d like to turn now to the role of values, which you mentioned earlier. And this one to me is one of the more intriguing issues involving policy and policy education. And so take, for example, HKS's mission statement. It's to improve public policy and leadership so people can live in societies that are more safe, free, just, and sustainably prosperous. That's a fairly short sentence, but there's a lot to unpack in there. And there are a lot of values inferences there— that justice is important, that freedom is important, that safety is important. We are ideally nonpartisan, but I think sometimes defending those values can make us seem partisan. What is the best way to walk that line between defending our values yet remaining nonpartisan?

Doug Elmendorf: We are definitely nonpartisan, and we need to be nonpartisan. That's not the same thing as having no values about the world. I think our job is to enunciate our values and explain how those values can help us serve the world, and then if people align for or against some of what we do in a partisan way, that's on them, not on us. I think in general as dean, I try to enunciate what the school is trying to do. I don't try to critique what others are doing.

Ralph Ranalli: Going a little further with that values discussion, some observers of higher ed have been criticizing DEI initiatives at universities—diversity, equity and inclusion efforts—and even criticizing the qualifications of some Black faculty members. What do you make of those critiques?

Doug Elmendorf: Let me comment first on criticisms of diversity initiatives and then turn to criticisms of faculty members. Some people view the words diversity, equity, and inclusion as a cover for identity politics or deliberate divisiveness. That is not how we use those words at the Kennedy School. It's not how we think about diversity. Our work on what we call diversity, inclusion, and belonging is about broadening our intellectual community and ensuring that everyone can participate fully. We pursue those goals because they're integral to our pursuit of excellence. When we bring to the Kennedy School outstanding students with a wider range of perspectives and experiences than before, and help them interact with greater curiosity and tolerance, they learn more while they're here and they'll be more effective public leaders and policymakers when they graduate. And when we can bring to the Kennedy School outstanding faculty and staff with a wider range of perspectives and help them interact with greater understanding, they learn more and accomplish more too.

That's why we cast a wide net in recruiting people to come to the Kennedy School on our student body, our faculty, and among our staff. That's why we talk about the benefits and responsibilities that come with pluralism along many dimensions of national origin, gender, race, religion, ideology, and more. That's why we encourage candid and constructive conversations between people so that we learn from our pluralism. Our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging is a crucial part of our pursuit of excellence. Now, regarding criticisms of faculty members, I am deeply distressed by what I see as a campaign targeting Black scholars and especially Black female scholars at a number of universities. Of course, Harvard and other universities take seriously any legitimate complaints about faculty members, but when allegations are focused systematically on people of a particular race or gender, we should all be offended. There should be no place for such targeting. At the Kennedy School, we are a community of faculty, staff, and students who were chosen carefully by each other. We all belong here and we will stand together.

The School will continue as best it can to safeguard our faculty's ability to do outstanding research and teaching on the issues of our time and regardless of the popularity of someone's topic or findings among some constituencies.

Ralph Ranalli: Yeah, I think that's a good example of standing up for your values.

Doug Elmendorf: Yes.

Ralph Ranalli: You've pretty much nailed all my segues so far, and you did it again with candid and constructive conversations, because not only has my writing been changed by Todd Rogers, but how I approach political conversations has been changed by a seminar I took with professors Erica Chenoweth and Julia Minson, and also the PolicyCast episode that we did with them about what we’re calling candid and constructive conversations. Can you talk a little bit about the thinking behind creating that effort and ultimately what is the hope for what it can achieve?

Doug Elmendorf: Yes, I love this topic. As I started saying before, in every society there will be disagreements, in every community, every organization, there'll be disagreements about what to do. And in order to have a society function or an organization function, those disagreements need to be managed, dealt with, recognized, resolved where possible. In many societies today, and in many organizations, there's a wider range of views than in the past because new voices have been given a chance to speak. And sometimes that happens through immigration into a country, but also has happened because in some societies women have a larger role than they were allowed to have before. Members of racial ethnic minorities can have a larger role than they had before. The voices around the table, as they become more diverse, which can be a great strength for society, also make it even more important and maybe more challenging to have a constructive conversation.

And so we've worried at the Kennedy School for several years that we were not having the right kind of disagreement, by which I mean a candid disagreement where we’re not just ducking an issue, but constructive and that we're trying to learn from each other, maybe find common ground, maybe not, but at least hear each other, understand where we're coming from. And so we've tried to build our ability to have those kinds of conversations in various ways. And this has started with when you apply to the Kennedy School as a student, you have to answer a question that is essentially, tell us about a time that you changed your mind. And if you can't think of any time in your life when you learn something that changed what you thought, then why come here because what would the point be?  

We now do this in orientation. We have workshops. I've done some myself, and every time I do one, I think I get a little better at being able myself to have that kind of conversation. People sometimes say the goal is to be tough on the issues and easy on the people. Our disagreement is not a personal one. We respect each other, we want to listen to each other. We may disagree very, very vigorously, very deeply, strongly about the issue at hand. And so we're trying to help people do that here. And then we felt a couple of years ago that we were not making enough progress. We'd done pieces of things at the School, the application uestion, the orientation sessions and so on, and we liked those, but there wasn't enough to make our efforts worthy of our view that it is a core competency of a learner, a colleague, a public leader, a public citizen, a core competency to be able to disagree in constructive ways.

And so we're trying to build that in now throughout the work of the school. I convened a group in the fall of 2022 to dig into this issue. Professor Erica Chenoweth chaired this group. They did a deep dive into the research literature about how to disagree, how to help people disagree better. As one of our guests said, they also did a deep dive into what attitudes were on campus and found many people who want to have those kinds of vigorous but respectful disagreements, but felt it was hard for them to do in one way or another.

Ralph Ranalli: Right.

Doug Elmendorf: We found a lot of interest in getting better, and they developed some recommendations, a long list of recommendations for tools to get better, and now we're going at it full blast. And so this year's admitted class got a welcome letter that said congratulations and various things including, I'm paraphrasing, come to this place because you'll get a chance to disagree with other people with different experiences and backgrounds and perspectives in a way that will help you learn.

Ralph Ranalli: Right. What I found really striking about that whole effort and how Erica and Julia were approaching it was the emphasis on listening. Because we've adopted as the show's motto a quote from former Harvard President Drew Faust, which is to “speak bravely and listen generously.” And I think listening is the counterintuitive part. It's not necessarily changing how you're speaking, although it is, but it really is changing how you're listening and your receptiveness to what the other person's saying and making them feel heard. I know that's changed for me, how I listen.

Ralph Ranalli: Has it changed for you?

Doug Elmendorf: It has, but it's changing slowly. I mean, part of why I feel the importance of this so deeply is that I don't always find this easy myself. And so the idea is not to tell people, oh, this is easy. Some people may find it easier than others. Our point is to tell people that if you don't find it easy, you can still learn and get better at it. This is a skill you can build. Sometimes people say it's a muscle that you can build.

Ralph Ranalli: That you have to exercise for it to not only become strong, but stay strong. I think that's a great analogy.

Doug Elmendorf: I think that's exactly right. And so part of what we need to do is to talk openly about the skill building and why we do it and practice building it. But part of what we need to do is to actually just do a lot of it. And that means having spirited debates here at the school. And sometimes we'll have outside guests who will spur those debates. Sometimes it'll be a faculty member or a student speaking in the class. Oftentimes there'll be a faculty member, a student, a staff member sitting in the dining area starting a conversation over lunch on a serious topic. And so we can all get better at it. We're trying to make it not a thing that you think either you have or you don't, but something that we can all be better at.  

I think you're right about the listening. I would emphasize that. Sometimes people think that when we encourage this kind of discourse that we're saying, you should just talk to somebody else and split the difference between you. And people sometimes view that as abandonment of their values. And I don't think that's the right way to think about it. What we say is that you want to be open to hearing, you want to understand where they're coming from, and that is both, I think a matter of personal respect, if you are a fellow student or a colleague, that you should respect them enough to want to hear what they think, even if you don't agree. And it's a matter of, but also practical value. If you're a lawyer, do you ever go into a courtroom without thinking through first what the other side will argue? No. If you're going to do a negotiation, would you ever go into that without thinking through what the other side will want and why? No, that would be terrible. And so it is a great practical value, even if in the end you still want to pursue exactly your view, to do better at that, you need to understand what the other views are going to be. It's both a moral and practical value.

Ralph Ranalli: It even touches on intellectual rigor too because it’s part of the process of rigorously looking at a problem and potential solutions.

Ralph Ranalli: I'd like to circle back to policy to where the rubber sort of hits the road, which is implementation.

Doug Elmendorf: Okay.

Ralph Ranalli: Bad policy implementation. I think you said this at the beginning, bad policy implementation can be really bad and it can even make a bad thing out of a good policy.

Ralph Ranalli: What comes to mind when I think about that is the recent U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Withdrawing from Afghanistan was something a lot of people supported, a lot of people thought was overdue, but the way it was carried out—we had pictures in the media of these poor Afghan people clinging to the landing gear of U.S. cargo planes as they took off. The implementation of it was just horrible. Talk a little bit about the underappreciated role of policy implementation for us.

Doug Elmendorf: Yeah, so thank you. The Kennedy School started 90 or so years ago as the Littauer School of Public Administration. We might now use the term public management. And it was, I think, meant to be about how to execute the functions of government. This school and other schools like ours became more schools of public policy, the formulation of the technically correct policy. And that's, of course, very important. As an economist, that's the part of governance that I would work on most myself. But there was a danger in that that we, I think, came to give too little emphasis to the importance of execution to the public management. How does the government actually put a policy into place? How are the goods and services delivered to people? And one thing we've done in the last several years at the Kennedy School is to put more emphasis again on public management. In our core MPP curriculum, we have a course on getting things done in the public sector. We've recruited new faculty members, both practitioners and scholars focused on public management. Our work with state and local governments is partly about policy, but very heavily about public management—that many of the government services are actually delivered at the local or state levels.  

And so I've been pleased to see the school give somewhat more emphasis to that aspect of the three-legged stool I described earlier. And I think this is important for at least two reasons. I mean, one is that if you deliver services well, if you execute foreign affairs decisions well and so on, people will be safer and freer and more prosperous. But I think secondly, it's important because good execution can help to build people's confidence in governance and in democracy in democratic states. And some of the objections to democracy, some of the skepticism you see about democracy in polls, I think come from political philosophy views. But I think much of it comes from thinking, well, the government's not doing that great a job at the things that I want the government to do.

Ralph Ranalli: How great can democracy be if it's working this poorly for me?

Doug Elmendorf: Yes, exactly. I think an important part of restoring faith in governance in this country and in some others, is better execution. And so the execution matters both for its own sake, just in terms of the direct benefits, but also helping to restore confidence in the public sector, which is crucial over time. People need to believe that their government is serving them, their government is to serve them, and they need to believe that civil society organizations are serving. And they need to believe that private sector organizations are serving them, not just serving themselves. And so the effective delivery is an important part of that.

Ralph Ranalli: Doug, to wrap up, what would you like to most see policy makers do and see the public do in their approaches to making good policy that accomplishes its mission of really helping the people it's designed to help?

Doug Elmendorf : I would like policymakers to be straight with the public. Of course, people will be boosters for their own preferred policies, but I'd love to have them occasionally say, I understand this policy is not going to solve every problem in the world. It'll have some downsides, but on balance  it's good and here's why I support it. And I would like policymakers to talk with experts in an appropriately constructive, critical way, which is to say, not just to listen and take notes and follow, to ask questions, to ask questions designed to get at the truth most effectively. And then to use that in what they do. And for the public, I would hope that they would first focus on interacting with other people in their societies, in their communities, who are different from them in a lot of ways. That may seem very exciting, as they often do to me, may also seem scary or unsettling, as they seem to other people. But still, we all need to try. And I know from my own very lucky experience at the Kennedy School, the more people I meet who come from places I don't know who have views about issues I don't share, the more I learn and the more I enjoy what I'm doing. And I would encourage all of us to do that. And then I would encourage people to listen to public leaders with some empathy for the difficulty of making good policy. There are not easy solutions for any of the big problems in the world, but also I think the public should be appropriately demanding. They should expect their leaders to be straight with them, to work hard on policies that can help improve people's lives.

Ralph Ranalli: That's great. Well, I want to thank you, Doug, for being here and talking about this and for your service to the school. I hope people take this to heart because it's always mattered to me, and I know it's always mattered to you, and I really hope it resonates with the folks out there.

Doug Elmendorf: Thank you, Ralph. This has been fun. It's been great to talk with you.

Outro (Ralph Ranalli): Thanks for listening. Please join us for our next episode and, if you haven’t already, subscribe to PolicyCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app. And please leave us a review while you’re there. Editorial assistance for PolicyCast is provided by Nora Delaney, Robert O’Neill, and Jim Smith of the Harvard Kennedy School Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Design support is provided by Laura King and Delane Meadows. Our social media management is provided by Natalie Montaner. If you’d like to learn more about PolicyCast or explore previous episodes, please visit our home page at hks.harvard.edu/policycast. And until next time, remember to speak bravely, and listen generously.

More from PolicyCast

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Law and Public Policy Essay Contest

The Law & Public Policy Essay Contest is designed to encourage students to participate in discourse on state, national, and global legal issues by combining their research and writing skills to increase understanding on a law or policy matter and advocate for a position. Because the practice of identifying issues, applying rules to a set of facts, and making a well-reasoned conclusion is fundamental to the study and practice of law, the Law & Public Policy Essay Contest aims for participants to hone their writing and research skills in and outside of the classroom and pursue excellence in their work.

Eligibility:

The contest is open to current undergraduate students enrolled at Montclair State University. Each submission must be an original, unpublished, academic work on a topic related to law and public policy. Essays written for a class assignment or exam are eligible.

Submissions must be emailed as Microsoft Word documents. Essays may be 5-10 pages (double spaced) and must include proper citations.

Judging Process:

A panel of Montclair Sate Advisory Board members, many of whom are lawyers, will judge the submissions based on quality of writing, research (as well as citations), and originality.

Winning Submissions:

Winners will be contacted by email. The first-place place winner will receive a $300 prize and the second-place winner a $200 prize (both in the form of gift-card to a vendor of their choice). Selected papers will be featured on the Pre-Law Program webpage.

Submission Deadline:

All entries must be submitted to [email protected] by 5 p.m. on Friday, May 12, 2023.

Information:

Contact the Pre-Law Program Director, Isabelle Ramos , [email protected] , with any questions

Meet our 2023 Essay Contest Winners

Sofia Acevedo Valencia is a Junior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Communication Studies. Passionate about giving back to our community, Sofia is volunteer for the Office of Health Promotion and a sister of Sigma Delta Phi. Sofia is a staff writer and Assistant Opinion Editor for The Montclarion. You can find her articles in the newspaper webpage where Sofia discusses pop culture, politics, and personal experiences.

Essay Summary: “A Tale as Old as Time: The Effects of Coca and Narco-Trafficking in Colombian Politics” was written for Comparative Politics during the 2023 Spring semester. The essay discusses the beginnings of coca and narco-trafficking, why they are to blame for Colombia’s corrupt political system, and how American intervention influenced these events. The essay also explains the importance of Colombia’s recent election of a leftist president, as well as his plan to legalize coca plantations of rural impoverished farmers.

Emma Geoghegan is a senior at Montclair State University majoring in Policy Studies with double minors in Sociology and Pre-Law Studies. Emma is president of the Pre-Law Society and vice-president and co-founder of the MSU Sociology Club. She also works with The Borgen Project to help fight global poverty by making it a priority of her Congressmen’s foreign policy agenda.

Essay Summary: “Segregation in New Jersey Public Schools” was written for the class Public Policy Analysis during the Fall 2022 semester. The essay talks about both the past and present of the issue of the divide of students in schools based on race, and how this often leads to worse outcomes for Black and Hispanic students. The paper explores how other states have worked on solving this issue and provides solutions based on them to help fix the issue in New Jersey. Policies such as busing, assigning students to public schools based on socioeconomic status instead of geographical location, and improving and expanding on the state’s school choice program are all potential resolutions to close the racial segregation gap and provide better opportunities to minority students.

2022 Essay Contest Winners

Sam MacPherson is a sophomore at Montclair State University double majoring in Political Science and Jurisprudence, pursuing an accelerated MA program in Law and Governance. Outside of class, Sam is a Vote Everywhere campus ambassador for the Andrew Goodman Foundation and works closely with MSU’s newly founded Planned Parenthood chapter. Sam is also actively involved in her local town council and is passionate about civic engagement.

Essay Summary: “Consolidating Power: How Years of Sham Elections in Venezuela Act as a Vehicle for Corruption and Collapse” was written for Comparative Politics in the Spring of 2022. The essay catalogs the history of Venezuela’s corrupt election system, as well as the implications these practices have on the country’s economy and citizens. The essay also draws comparisons to corrupt election practices in the United States, highlighting the influx of misinformation during the 2016 election via the Mueller report.

Essay Summary: The purpose of the paper “Gender-Related Cultural Competency Trainings: Analysis and Policy Recommendations” was to do study transgender cultural competency trainings to determine what educational strategies were being used, what cultural competency constructs were addressed, and what themes were present. This paper examined three cultural competency trainings and performed an in-depth content analysis on them. Findings showed that the trainings studied focused more on knowledge and skill than they did investigating bias and prejudice, and that cultural competency trainings in general have a very individual focus.

Public Policy in Government Essay

How it works

Public policy is used by the government to create order or to look into the issues that are affecting the citizens of the United States. They are carried out through following guidelines that are indicated in the constitution. A policy is not a tangible thing but rather, public policy is used to describe a set of laws, regulations, and mandates. They are made through a political process. This legal process helps the government be able to create laws that serve a great purpose to citizens.

(John, 2013). In healthcare with stem cell research public policies are implemented to achieve specific health care goals, build consensus and inform people (Who,int.2019).

A policy established and carried out by the government goes through several stages from inception to conclusion. These are agenda building, formulation, adoption, implementation, evaluation, and termination (Birkland, 2014).

Before a policy can be created, a problem must exist that is called to the attention of the government. Specific events can place a problem on the agenda. The next stage, Policy formulation means coming up with an approach to solving a problem. Congress, the executive branch, the courts, and interest groups may be involved. Contradictory proposals are often made. The president may have one approach to stem cell research funding, and the opposition-party members of Congress may have another. Policy formulation has a tangible outcome: A bill goes before Congress or a regulatory agency drafts proposed rules. The process continues with adoption. A policy is adopted when Congress passes legislation, the regulations become final, or the Supreme Court renders a decision in a case (Birkland, 2014).

The implementation or carrying out of policy is most often accomplished by institutions other than those that formulated and adopted it. A statute usually provides just a broad outline of a policy. Successful implementation depends on the complexity of the policy, coordination between those putting the policy into effect, and compliance (Birkland, 2014).

Evaluation means determining how well a policy is working, and that is not always an easy task. History has shown that once implemented, policies are difficult to terminate. When they are terminated, it is usually because the policy became obsolete, clearly did not work, or lost its support among the interest groups and elected officials that placed it on the agenda in the first place (Birkland, 2014).

Another component of policy formation is the role of interest groups. According to Hill and Varone (2014), interest groups can influence the process in ways such as lobbying government. This is where these interest groups can hire representatives to advocate for interests that the group has. They also engage themselves in election activities where they influence people to support and vote for individuals that are concerned with their interests. Citizens influence the process by focusing on issues that affect the public at large. They mainly focus on environmental and social issues. Due to their large numbers, they are able to hire lobbyists. They use tactics such as litigation and electioneering. Another tactic is the ability to mobilize citizens towards their cause and this is possible due to their large numbers (Hill & Varone, 2014).

Stem cells have been used in medicine since the 1950’s when bone marrow transplants were first used to treat leukemia. Congressional involvement in stem cell policy started as early as 1974. The first major amendment related to the use of federal funds for research involving embryonic stem (ES) cells occurred in 1996.

In 1996, Congress banned federal funding for research on embryos through the Dickey-Wicker Amendment, named after Reps. The amendment prohibited the use of federal funds for the creation of a human embryo or embryos for research purposes, or research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death greater than that allowed for research on fetuses in utero. In August of 2000, The National Institute of Health interpreted the amendment and released guidelines and stipulations in order to conduct research.

In 2001, President George W. Bush prohibits the federal funding of any research using ES cell lines derived after August 9, 2001, but his policy does not affect research in the private sector or research conducted with state funding. The President claims that more than 60 stem cell lines are still available for funding. Research on adult stem cells is not affected by this executive order.

In 2005 H.R. 810, to expand federal funding for stem cell research passed both the House and the Senate in the 109th Congress, attracting bipartisan support. However, the bill is quickly vetoed by President Bush. The House votes 235-193 in favor of the bill, but the two-thirds majority needed to override the veto is not reached.

In 2007, the 110th Congress, the Senate passes their version of The Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act (S. 5) with strong bipartisan support, 63-34. The House also passes the Senate’s version of the bill 247-176. Again, the bill is vetoed by President Bush, and again Congress cannot override the veto.

On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order lifting restrictions on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research that had been in place since The Obama Executive Order directed the National Institutes of Health to issue Guidelines to permit such funding. The NIH finalized its stem cell Guidelines on July 7, 2009.

Shortly after the NIH Guidelines were in place, James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D., (Boston Biomedical Research Institute) and Theresa Deisher, Ph.D., (Ave Maria Biotechnology Company) filed suit (Sherley v. Sebelius) in federal court challenging the Guidelines and the federal funding of hESC research. The plaintiffs alleged that the Guidelines violate the so-called Dickey-Wicker provision that has appeared in every Labor-HHS appropriations bill since 1996. That provision prohibits federal funding for research in which embryos are created for research purposes, or in which human embryos are destroyed, discarded or subject to risk.

On August 23, 2010, U.S. Federal District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth issued a temporary restraining order immediately prohibiting the NIH from further funding human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. Judge Lamberth’s order came following a Federal Appeals Court decision giving Sherley and Deisher standing to bring their suit. Judge Lamberth ruled that the plaintiffs were likely to win their case when it came to trial.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit stayed the preliminary injunction pending appeal and on April 29, 2011, a split three-judge panel lifted the preliminary injunction. The majority opinion concluded that the opponents of hESC “are unlikely to prevail because Dickey-Wicker is ambiguous and the NIH seems reasonably to have concluded that, although Dickey-Wicker bars funding for the destructive act of deriving an ESC from an embryo, it does not prohibit funding a research project in which an ESC will be used.” Federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth on July 27, 2011, rejected the claims of the plaintiffs and dismissed their suit. Judge Lamberth’s decision closely tracked the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals panel that ruled on the appeal of his preliminary injunction.On August 23, 2012, in a decision favorable to proponents of ES cell research, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court ruling dismissing a lawsuit that challenged the Obama administration’s expansion of federal funding ES cell research.

The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in an announcement on January 7, 2013. The announcement allows the decision of the appeals court to stand.

Many congressional members in the House and Senate seek to codify the stem cell rules established under President Obama’s executive order, preventing future administrations from unilaterally restricting or eliminating federal funding for stem cell research. Bills such as the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act, which would permit funding for research on stem cells derived from embryos produced but ultimately not used for in vitro fertilization, have been regularly introduced in the House and Senate since 2009, but no legislation has been enacted.

In 2013 The Supreme Court announces that it will not hear Sherley v. Sebelius, thereby upholding the previous ruling of the D.C. Circuit Court’s ruling. “This is a major victory for scientifically and ethically responsible innovative research,” Bernard Siegel, spokesperson for the Stem Cell Action Coalition and executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, says in a statement.

Also in 2013 President Obama signed the 21st century cures act into law. The 21st Century Cures Act includes provisions intended to assure timely regulatory review of regenerative therapies, including cell therapies enabled by stem cell therapy research.

Stem cell research has been particularly important in advancing the field of “regenerative medicine,” which focuses on replacing, engineering or regenerating cells, tissues and organs in order to achieve normal function. Over the past several years, there has been a heightened focus on ensuring the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is equipped to properly and efficiently review the safety and effectiveness of the treatments arising from this rapidly evolving category of medicine.

Fast forward to 2018 President Trump has also endorsed making life-saving treatments like stem cell therapies more available to more Americans voicing his clear support for “Right to Try” legislation, which would increase the medical options of the critically ill by helping them avoid the unduly burdensome and bureaucratic spider’s web of the FDA.

The language of the Right to Try legislation is simple, straightforward and offers protections for patients and manufacturers. Under the Senate version, an “eligible patient” who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness may be prescribed an experimental drug or biological product to treat their illness, so long as the patient has a qualified physician certify that he or she has exhausted all other treatment options and is unable to participate in a clinical trial. The patient must also provide informed consent to the physician and the physician may not be compensated by the manufacturer of a treatment for certifying the patient. The patient, physician and manufacturer must all agree on the treatment.

In 2018 an overwhelming and increasingly rare bipartisan display (94-1), the Senate has already passed the Right to Try Act. The House version is currently awaiting approval.

References:

• Who.int. (2019). WHO | Health policy. [online] Available at: https://www.who.int/topics/health_policy/en/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2019].
• John, P. (2013). Analyzing public policy. Routledge.
• Birkland, T. A. (2014). An introduction to the policy process: Theories, concepts, and models of public policy making. Routledge.
• Hill, M., & Varone, F. (2014). The public policy process. Routledge.
• University of Wisconsin-Madison. “”Twenty years on, measuring the impact of human stem cells.”” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 November 2018. .
• https://www.researchamerica.org/advocacy-action/issues-researchamerica-advocates/stem-cell-research
• https://www.aamc.org/advocacy/research/74440/embryonicstemcellresearch.html

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• Essay Database >
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Sample Essay On Public Policy

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Government , Budget , Taxes , President , Health , Finance , Politics , Workplace

Words: 1600

Published: 03/30/2020

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1. WHAT ITEMS DOMINATE THE BUDGET?

Employment and Job creation

The president’s speech featured employment as a major concern for the government. This is because it is the major macroeconomic indicators for economic growth and development of the country. The President expressed disappointment due to the manufacturing companies’ intention to hire workers from abroad. To avert the situation, he said that the key impediment to job creation is the stiff tax regime that has deterred potential investors from investing their capital in the country. He said that the proposal on tax reforms, which he had proposed to the budget committee, had been included in the budget for debate. He expressed confidence that proposals in the budget will reduce unemployment.

Research, technology and innovation

The President indicated that it was necessary to invest funds for research to enhance innovation in the technological and other economic pillars to supplement the objective of job creation. He said that the government had invested in establishing four high-tech manufacturing hubs by linking businesses with research universities to lead in efforts to advance in technology. The government will provide funds to five extra institutions to strengthen their commitment to establish at least 45 such hubs in the next 10 years.

Environmental pollution and green energy

The president understood right that a country cannot survive in a polluted environment. He indicated that the government had proposed funds to facilitate production of natural gas and generation of electricity using fuels. Further, the budget had reserved incentives to facilitate this objective. The president indicated that through his directive to the administration to liaise with states to draft new standards to oversee the regulation of carbon emission will yield positively. The president directive on pollution management affirms his understanding that despite creating job opportunities for the people, they cannot be productive without clean environment,

Quality Education

Another key element in the budget is the investment in affordable and high-quality education to every US Citizen. The budget proposes funding infant and toddler care to approximately 100000 children. To ensure high quality education and enhance accessibility of information to young children, the government, through the President directive had entered into an agreement with Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to ensure that 99% of students were able to access unlimited high speed broadband within a period of four years. The presidents exuded confidence in achieving the objective by noting that FCC had made connected more than 15000 schools. To subsidize the program, the budget estimates propose to cater for training expenses for teachers in on the country. Through his speech, President Obama noted that he had directed the department of education to facilitate linkage of high schools with colleges and employers to enable them gain knowledge invest their knowledge in relevant courses to gain skills that conform to the job demands. In addition, students will receive grants, which they will repay at 10% of their income. With this initiative, education would be accessible to all citizens.

Health care system Another key pillar to economic development of any country is health care for all citizens. If citizens are vulnerable to epidemics, children and their parents will die or become weak, thus resulting in a deficiency of skilled workers and low quality production. The president indicated that the budget had estimated funds to cater for the implementation of the Affordable care Act. The Act was formulated to enhance affordability of quality health care for all. More than 3million people under the age of 26 had been insured under their parents or guardians while over 9million people had medical insurance cover. The government had subsidized access health care by reducing prescription costs, retaining medical premium rates and expanding the eligibility age period to access medical finances.

Government’s efficiency in service delivery and Information accessibility

The President expressed commitment of the government to invest in improving service delivery to the people. The budget had proposed to set funds to facilitate provision of government data to the people through online channels and enable innovation and job creation

Security is one of the social aspects that guarantee sustainability of all development goals that have been achieved in a certain country and the world at large. The budget will facilitate the continued effort to help Afghanistan, Syria and other nations stabilize. This was the fulfillment of the government’s commitment to enhance security both externally and internally. In addition, the government will continue equipping its military forces and improving their social welfare in and out of service.

Immigration policy

The presidents shared the same sentiments with the private enterprises and business sector about the escalating effects brought about by the broken immigration system. He said that urgent reforms in the immigration system were necessary, and thus would reduce the budget deficit by approximately $1million in the next 20 years. 2. WHY IS THE BUDGET PRIORITIES AS THEY ARE? For a country’s economy to succeed in economic growth and development, the key macroeconomic policies have to be prioritized. If these pillars do not perform efficiently, the economy is unlikely to prosper. These pillars include full employment, price stability, economic growth and balance of payment. The budgetary committee realized that these pillars had to be supplemented by other indirect factors that include wage stability, quality education, health care and national security. This strategy is a successive process where one factor plays a role on how the other factor will perform. Job creation will increase people’s income and boost their purchasing power of goods and services. Consequently, consumers invest in productive sectors that boost their income and increase the government’s revenue through tax deductions. Moreover, increase in household income will enable parents to invest in their children’s education thus improving the country’s literacy level and skill development. The government is obliged to harmonize wage rate to enhance equality among workers and motivate college learners to invest their skills in manufacturing and other service provision sectors. Boosting the country production capacity and increasing employment may not survive for long if the health care of the country’s citizens is deteriorated. It is the government’s responsibility to ensure that people have access to affordable and quality health care. Improved health care will reduce the death rate thus maintaining the country’s workforce and skills. Finally, social and political instability is the greatest impediment to the country’s development. The government prioritizes the country’s internal and external security to create an enabling environment for its citizens. Moreover, it will attract investors whose contribution increases a country’s revenue to enable quality delivery of public goods and services to its people. 3. WHY THE DEFICIT? The main reason the budget is experiencing a deficit is due to overstretched expenses to the society. One of the major factors that contribute to the deficit is the social welfare of maintaining retirees through provision of pension benefits and upkeep money. The ratio of able workers to retirees continues to increase with skilled workers population shifting to retirees section. In addition, broken immigration policy has also contributed to the deficit. Strict rules on immigrants have contributed immensely to a reduction in country’s revenue. Potential workers and investors from other countries that would have injected their income to the country’s economy have been deterred by the country’s tough restriction rules. Another challenge is maintenance of affordable health care to the country’s citizens. This occurs as a result of increasing population and increased cost in healthcare services. This has overstretched the budget estimates to an extreme level. Another contributing factor is the uncertainty in the international market which may prompt the government to seek funds outside the budget estimates to cater for the eventuality. Finally, instability in wage rate is subject to the budget deficit .This is because many workers keep demanding higher wages, which results in the budget deficit. 4. WHAT WOULD YOU CUT, DROP, ADD, OR CHANGE? First, I would overhaul the immigration policy to create an enabling environment for the immigrants. I would reduce legal restrictions imposed on immigrants from other countries to enable them enter the country at ease. In addition, I would reduce interest rates charged on foreign investors to attract them to invest in our country. This would boost our national income reduce the budget deficit. In addition, I would introduce a policy to revise and harmonize the wage rates for all workers. This will cushion the government against frequent adjustments from employees and as well boost their motivation to work. I would also introduce a policy that would require every citizen to open accounts for savings. Doing so will reduce the government burden to offer humanitarian services since the savings can be used for precautionary measures. Finally, I would review on the procedures followed in the government engagement, in military assistance to other countries. This international engagement has adversely affected the budget allocation. I would propose a partial fund allocation to accommodate other willing countries to participate through their military and humanitarian assistance. 5. HOW WOULD YOU BALANCE THE BUDGET?

The Whitehouse (2014). The Budget Message of the president. Retrieved from The Whitehouse website: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview

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2024 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America

• Direct Admissions
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• Religious studies
• Sports management
• Most diverse
• Most liberal
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• Best greek life
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• Best for student athletes

1-25 of 1,483 results

Duke University

Durham, NC •

• • Rating 3.93 out of 5   1,206 reviews

Alum: Overall I highly recommend Duke University as an Undergraduate university because the sense of community is unbeatable and the professors are willing and able to help their students prosper. The athletics and school pride is shown often and proves to create community and garner relationships for a lifetime. One thing I would like to change about Duke University is the dorm situation. I think some dorms need to be remodeled. While many dorms are in the process of being remodeled and upgraded, it seems the school is not focused on making living situations better for all dorms, so I think one main place of improvement is living situations. ... Read 1,206 reviews

• grade  A+ Overall Niche Grade

Acceptance rate 6%

Net price $27,297

SAT range 1470-1570

#1 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

Blue checkmark.

DURHAM, NC ,

1206 Niche users give it an average review of 3.9 stars.

Featured Review: Alum says Overall I highly recommend Duke University as an Undergraduate university because the sense of community is unbeatable and the professors are willing and able to help their students prosper. The... One thing I would like to change about Duke University is the dorm situation. I think some dorms need to be remodeled. While many dorms are in the process of being remodeled and upgraded, it seems... .

Read 1206 reviews.

Overall Niche Grade : A+ ,

Acceptance Rate : 6% ,

Net Price : $27,297 ,

SAT Range : 1470-1570 ,

Princeton University

Princeton, NJ •

• • Rating 3.99 out of 5   468 reviews

Freshman: I am currently a first-year here at Princeton University and my experiences here have single-handedly changed my life. The school has offered me so much support in every facet of my life -- from academics, to finances, to extracurriculars. I feel that I am completely thriving here in a way that I was never able to before. Classes are suburb with professors who really care about not only about what we learn but also how we grow as individuals. Dining is amazing and we have the sweetest dining staff ever. There are so many options for clubs that you are never bored and can always find something for you. Overall, I feel like there is no better place for me than Princeton :). ... Read 468 reviews

Acceptance rate 4%

Net price $20,908

SAT range 1460-1570

#2 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

PRINCETON, NJ ,

468 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says I am currently a first-year here at Princeton University and my experiences here have single-handedly changed my life. The school has offered me so much support in every facet of my life -- from... .

Read 468 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 4% ,

Net Price : $20,908 ,

SAT Range : 1460-1570 ,

Brown University

Providence, RI •

• • Rating 3.84 out of 5   1,080 reviews

Freshman: Attending Brown University was an enriching and transformative experience. I cherished the vibrant community that fostered intellectual curiosity and diversity. The open curriculum allowed me to explore a wide range of subjects, fostering interdisciplinary connections and personal growth. The faculty were not only experts in their fields but also approachable mentors who genuinely cared about students' academic and personal development. I appreciated the emphasis on critical thinking and the encouragement to question assumptions. However, I would suggest enhancing resources for mental health support and increasing accessibility to financial aid for students from underprivileged backgrounds. Overall, Brown provided a nurturing environment that empowered me to thrive academically and personally. ... Read 1,080 reviews

Net price $25,028

#3 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

PROVIDENCE, RI ,

1080 Niche users give it an average review of 3.8 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says Attending Brown University was an enriching and transformative experience. I cherished the vibrant community that fostered intellectual curiosity and diversity. The open curriculum allowed me to... .

Read 1080 reviews.

Net Price : $25,028 ,

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Northwestern University

Evanston, IL •

• • Rating 3.7 out of 5   1,490 reviews

Alum: Northwestern has an incredible network of professors who are preforming cutting-edge work in all their fields. Impressively, after an entire undergrad career there is only one professor who I would name as not a good professor, and that review is simply isolated to their teaching ability, not their subject knowledge. The learning support system is also extensive, and students are incredibly supportive as well. There is a culture of enabling yourself and those around you to reach new heights. While all the academics and research are amazing, I would say Northwestern needs to work on its accessibility to mental healthcare and ties to the greater Chicagoland community. There could be many more community outreach programs designed to benefit the diverse and interesting Chicago population, from academics to student life. ... Read 1,490 reviews

Acceptance rate 7%

Net price $29,999

#4 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

EVANSTON, IL ,

1490 Niche users give it an average review of 3.7 stars.

Featured Review: Alum says Northwestern has an incredible network of professors who are preforming cutting-edge work in all their fields. Impressively, after an entire undergrad career there is only one professor who I would... .

Read 1490 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 7% ,

Net Price : $29,999 ,

Stanford University

Stanford, CA •

• • Rating 4.1 out of 5   1,280 reviews

Sophomore: My experience at Stanford University was incredibly enriching and transformative. The academic rigor challenged me to push my boundaries and think critically in diverse fields of study. The vibrant campus culture fostered deep connections with peers and faculty, sparking countless engaging discussions and collaborations. The resources and opportunities available, from research initiatives to extracurricular activities, were unparalleled, allowing me to pursue my interests and passions fully. However, I believe there's room for improvement in terms of diversity and inclusion efforts, ensuring that all students feel equally supported and represented within the Stanford community. Additionally, enhancing accessibility to resources for students from various socioeconomic backgrounds would further enrich the university experience for all. ... Read 1,280 reviews

Net price $14,402

#5 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

STANFORD, CA ,

1280 Niche users give it an average review of 4.1 stars.

Featured Review: Sophomore says My experience at Stanford University was incredibly enriching and transformative. The academic rigor challenged me to push my boundaries and think critically in diverse fields of study. The vibrant... .

Read 1280 reviews.

Net Price : $14,402 ,

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL •

• • Rating 3.82 out of 5   1,295 reviews

Sophomore: Starting out at this university was not easy for me since I had to face many challenges on my own, away from family and friends I had back home. However, I had adjusted to the quarter system and found my place at the college. UChicago academics have impressed me, even with the required core classes. The professors I have met so far all appear to be enthusiastic about their specific fields, and they can be especially helpful outside of class. Given that our campus is located within a neighborhood, there are plenty of community activities and restaurants that students can hang out at, such as a Mexican-Korean restaurant called Seoul Taco. There are multiple dormitory buildings on campus, and the southern one is especially convenient as it has a dining hall, gym, and a small store all in one general place. There are also plenty of clubs, called RSOs, ranging from many types of activities like boxing or Japanese drum practice (Taiko). I would like more transportation options to explore. ... Read 1,295 reviews

Net price $33,727

SAT range 1510-1580

#6 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

CHICAGO, IL ,

1295 Niche users give it an average review of 3.8 stars.

Featured Review: Sophomore says Starting out at this university was not easy for me since I had to face many challenges on my own, away from family and friends I had back home. However, I had adjusted to the quarter system and... .

Read 1295 reviews.

Net Price : $33,727 ,

SAT Range : 1510-1580 ,

• Will you get in? Understand your chances of getting accepted into any college in the country, and it's completely free

Rice University

Houston, TX •

• • Rating 4.09 out of 5   1,120 reviews

Graduate Student: Going to Rice University to attend the Shepherd School of Music at a graduate level is an experience separate from the rest of Rice. The Opera Department at Rice University has been one of the best programs in the United States producing incredible singers in the industry for a while now. Financial aid has been decreasing from full rides to having to pay a couple of thousands to attend +fees for a Master of Music. It is case by case, however. Pros: BEAUTIFUL theater that is incredible to sing in, program's very YAP reminiscent (in good and bad ways), world-class faculty, great networking opportunity, masterclasses/private audition opportunities Cons: your soul/free-time belongs to the Opera Department; if a release conflicts with the opera schedule, tough luck; there have been many issues with casting opportunities/favoritism; if you're a person of color, be prepared to be a token on all promo material; TOO many irrelevant time-consuming academics; having a car is a MUST in Houston ... Read 1,120 reviews

Acceptance rate 9%

Net price $18,521

SAT range 1490-1570

#7 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

HOUSTON, TX ,

1120 Niche users give it an average review of 4.1 stars.

Featured Review: Graduate Student says Going to Rice University to attend the Shepherd School of Music at a graduate level is an experience separate from the rest of Rice. The Opera Department at Rice University has been one of the best... Pros: BEAUTIFUL theater that is incredible to sing in, program's very YAP reminiscent (in good and bad ways), world-class faculty, great networking opportunity, masterclasses/private audition... Cons: your soul/free-time belongs to the Opera Department; if a release conflicts with the opera schedule, tough luck; there have been many issues with casting opportunities/favoritism; if you're a... .

Read 1120 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 9% ,

Net Price : $18,521 ,

SAT Range : 1490-1570 ,

University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA •

• • Rating 3.9 out of 5   1,356 reviews

Freshman: It's important to acknowledge that college experiences vary greatly from person to person, and while some may face challenges or difficulties, others may find their time in college to be transformative and rewarding. Instead of focusing on the negatives, perhaps you could consider exploring constructive criticism or discussing specific areas for improvement in the college experience. This approach allows for a more balanced and productive discussion that can lead to positive changes and improvements in the education system. If you have specific concerns about your college experience, it might be helpful to address them directly with the appropriate channels within your institution or seek support from counselors or advisors. Remember, challenges are a natural part of any educational journey, and there are often resources available to help navigate them. ... Read 1,356 reviews

Net price $14,578

SAT range 1480-1570

#8 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

PHILADELPHIA, PA ,

1356 Niche users give it an average review of 3.9 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says It's important to acknowledge that college experiences vary greatly from person to person, and while some may face challenges or difficulties, others may find their time in college to be... .

Read 1356 reviews.

Net Price : $14,578 ,

SAT Range : 1480-1570 ,

Columbia University

New York, NY •

• • Rating 3.82 out of 5   1,357 reviews

Freshman: It has been great! Being in NYC is a very special aspect of college life here, but Columbia also feels very separate from the city so you don't get distracted. The party scene for me is dull, I barely find parties to go to (or people to go with) but I'm sure Greek life is having fun. The people are so diverse and brilliant and the academics have me more immersed than I have ever been. It has been tough to adjust but I think that's something we need to go through to grow. ... Read 1,357 reviews

Net price $12,411

#9 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

NEW YORK, NY ,

1357 Niche users give it an average review of 3.8 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says It has been great! Being in NYC is a very special aspect of college life here, but Columbia also feels very separate from the city so you don't get distracted. The party scene for me is dull, I... .

Read 1357 reviews.

Net Price : $12,411 ,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA •

• • Rating 4.16 out of 5   662 reviews

Sophomore: Great place to be challenged, learn, and grow. A safe environment to fall and fail. Lots of support and resources available but you need to take the initiative to reach out about them ... Read 662 reviews

Net price $30,958

#10 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

CAMBRIDGE, MA ,

662 Niche users give it an average review of 4.2 stars.

Featured Review: Sophomore says Great place to be challenged, learn, and grow. A safe environment to fall and fail. Lots of support and resources available but you need to take the initiative to reach out about them .

Read 662 reviews.

Net Price : $30,958 ,

Pomona College

Claremont, CA •

• • Rating 4.23 out of 5   423 reviews

Junior: After three challenging, exciting, and transformational years at Pomona, I feel that I can confidently say that I wouldn't want to have studied anywhere else, and I'm already mourning that I'll have to leave this place after next year. Pomona maintains a truly unique culture among elite higher education. Students here are bright and academically top-notch, sure, but, more importantly, they are genuinely curious about the world, open-minded, and passionate about knowledge and justice. I have been challenged academically and personally, and grown more than I could have imagined as a result. The school has its problems, of course: for one, the administration is opaque and unresponsive to student needs. But the dedicated faculty, laidback California atmosphere, and student body more than make up for them. If you are given the opportunity to study here, seriously consider it: you will grow as a student and as a person. ... Read 423 reviews

Net price $17,000

#11 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

CLAREMONT, CA ,

423 Niche users give it an average review of 4.2 stars.

Featured Review: Junior says After three challenging, exciting, and transformational years at Pomona, I feel that I can confidently say that I wouldn't want to have studied anywhere else, and I'm already mourning that I'll have... .

Read 423 reviews.

Net Price : $17,000 ,

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, TN •

• • Rating 4.01 out of 5   1,346 reviews

Graduate Student: My time at Vanderbilt University was truly enriching. The academic atmosphere fostered a culture of excellence and intellectual curiosity that I found invigorating. The professors were not only knowledgeable but also deeply invested in the success of their students, providing invaluable mentorship and guidance. The campus itself is beautiful, with a vibrant campus life offering countless opportunities for personal and professional growth. I particularly enjoyed the plethora of extracurricular activities available, from student clubs to research initiatives. What stood out to me was Vanderbilt's commitment to diversity and inclusion, creating a welcoming environment for students from all walks of life. However, one area that could be improved is the accessibility of certain resources, especially for students from underprivileged backgrounds. Enhancing financial aid and support services for these students would further enhance the University. ... Read 1,346 reviews

Net price $27,553

#12 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

NASHVILLE, TN ,

1346 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Graduate Student says My time at Vanderbilt University was truly enriching. The academic atmosphere fostered a culture of excellence and intellectual curiosity that I found invigorating. The professors were not only... What stood out to me was Vanderbilt's commitment to diversity and inclusion, creating a welcoming environment for students from all walks of life. However, one area that could be improved is the... .

Read 1346 reviews.

Net Price : $27,553 ,

• 2024 Best Colleges with International Studies Degrees

University of Southern California

Los Angeles, CA •

• • Rating 3.99 out of 5   4,035 reviews

Freshman: I like the diverse, really friendly community, thoughtful curriculum, experienced teachers, and good campus life. I feel that the community is supportive and that I have many avenues to learn, change and grow here. The people are really nice! What I would like to see changed is a better work environment for the students and staff, more mediated spaces for discussions on difficult topics, and a better-organized structure for knowing what opportunities I have to contribute to the community or make the most of my educational experience. ... Read 4,035 reviews

Acceptance rate 13%

Net price $26,021

SAT range 1410-1540

#13 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

LOS ANGELES, CA ,

4035 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says I like the diverse, really friendly community, thoughtful curriculum, experienced teachers, and good campus life. I feel that the community is supportive and that I have many avenues to learn, change... What I would like to see changed is a better work environment for the students and staff, more mediated spaces for discussions on difficult topics, and a better-organized structure for knowing what... .

Read 4035 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 13% ,

Net Price : $26,021 ,

SAT Range : 1410-1540 ,

Yale University

New Haven, CT •

• • Rating 4.02 out of 5   1,050 reviews

Freshman: As someone who came from a low-income community and attended an underfunded high school, Yale is a dream come true. There are a plethora of resources for students with backgrounds like me, along with resources for the general student population. I like that Yale provides peer tutors for most STEM classes and writing tutors within the residential colleges (Hogwarts Houses) and the library's writing center. Additionally, the professors I've had thus far are wonderful and extremely helpful. They seem like they genuinely want their students to thrive and are willing to take some of their own time to help them. The student community at Yale is amazing and diverse. There is an astounding amount of clubs and activities for students to join, and I'm grateful for the many options I have. The housing at Yale can be hit-or-miss, especially when comparing the new residential colleges with the older ones. However, Yale's residential college system fosters a welcoming and tight-knit community. ... Read 1,050 reviews

Acceptance rate 5%

Net price $20,605

SAT range 1480-1580

#14 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

NEW HAVEN, CT ,

1050 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says As someone who came from a low-income community and attended an underfunded high school, Yale is a dream come true. There are a plethora of resources for students with backgrounds like me, along with... .

Read 1050 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 5% ,

Net Price : $20,605 ,

SAT Range : 1480-1580 ,

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Ann Arbor, MI •

• • Rating 3.95 out of 5   4,707 reviews

Senior: I always wanted to go UM and worked really hard to get here, and I believe that it paid off! I do, however, think that faculty can be a bit lenient and understanding of students personal life and their impacts on their education and their understanding. Additionally, I believe that safety on campus can be improved and that minorities are considered for safety in the same sense as the majority on campus as we are easily in harms way. As a student graduating, but continuing their education as a graduate student at the University of Michigan, I can say that enjoyed my time on campus. There were so many opportunities to meet other students in other fields and backgrounds. I can only hope that I can get better as a graduate student. ... Read 4,707 reviews

Acceptance rate 20%

Net price $19,205

SAT range 1340-1520

#15 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

ANN ARBOR, MI ,

4707 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Senior says I always wanted to go UM and worked really hard to get here, and I believe that it paid off! I do, however, think that faculty can be a bit lenient and understanding of students personal life and... .

Read 4707 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 20% ,

Net Price : $19,205 ,

SAT Range : 1340-1520 ,

Barnard College

• • Rating 3.87 out of 5   477 reviews

Sophomore: While the administration is having trouble reflecting the true needs of the students right now, my experience has been very rewarding so far. The academics are rigorous, but it always feels like the professors really want you to do well. There are plenty of opportunities and events for networking as well as an extensive extracurricular community. ... Read 477 reviews

Acceptance rate 11%

Net price $28,366

SAT range 1380-1550

#16 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

477 Niche users give it an average review of 3.9 stars.

Featured Review: Sophomore says While the administration is having trouble reflecting the true needs of the students right now, my experience has been very rewarding so far. The academics are rigorous, but it always feels like the... .

Read 477 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 11% ,

Net Price : $28,366 ,

SAT Range : 1380-1550 ,

University of California - Los Angeles

• • Rating 3.98 out of 5   5,583 reviews

Alum: It was amazing! I came to UCLA as a 3rd year transfer student meaning I had more perks than some of those who came in as freshmen. The housing I did off-campus apartment dorms which was amazing. They are like luxury apartments with plenty of space for roommates with open kitchens and fully furnished. The campus has a strong sense of community and it's easy to find friends and people you can connect with both in and out of your majors and initial interests. The college town Westwood is built against Beverly Hills and close to Rhodeo Drive, meaning it's not uncommon to spot a celebrity here and there. The local theaters host recarpets and UCLA students are often given entry to the premiers. the professors in my major (Art History) were some of the kindest and most interesting people I will have the pleasure to meet. My only issue is the workload, if you get overwhelmed easily, it's not the school for you. The quarter system is a monster for any major. ... Read 5,583 reviews

Net price $13,393

SAT range —

#17 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

5583 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Alum says It was amazing! I came to UCLA as a 3rd year transfer student meaning I had more perks than some of those who came in as freshmen. The housing I did off-campus apartment dorms which was amazing. They... .

Read 5583 reviews.

Net Price : $13,393 ,

Cornell University

Ithaca, NY •

• • Rating 3.79 out of 5   2,074 reviews

Alum: Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Cornell University. I was within the Policy Analysis and Management Department. Our courses were rigorous, but our professors encouraged collaboration with our peers through group papers, presentation, and problem sets. In addition, my peers were often happy and excited to work together. Outside of the PAM department, I was heavily involved with the Einhorn Center for Community-Engagement. Through my role at the Center, I really learned how to integrate community-engagement within my classes and professional work. I found that Cornell had many opportunities for students to engage with the Greater Ithaca community. ... Read 2,074 reviews

Net price $24,262

SAT range 1450-1560

#18 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

ITHACA, NY ,

2074 Niche users give it an average review of 3.8 stars.

Featured Review: Alum says Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Cornell University. I was within the Policy Analysis and Management Department. Our courses were rigorous, but our professors encouraged collaboration with... .

Read 2074 reviews.

Net Price : $24,262 ,

SAT Range : 1450-1560 ,

New York University

• • Rating 3.76 out of 5   5,731 reviews

Other: New York University (NYU) is more than just an educational institution; it's an immersive journey through academic excellence, cultural diversity, and urban vibrancy. As a recent graduate, I can confidently affirm that NYU offers an unparalleled experience that transcends the traditional boundaries of higher education. One of the most striking aspects of NYU is its location. Situated in the heart of Manhattan, the campus seamlessly blends into the bustling rhythm of New York City. From the iconic Washington Square Park to the countless cultural landmarks just a stone's throw away, NYU provides students with unparalleled access to the pulse of the city. ... Read 5,731 reviews

Net price $50,991

SAT range 1450-1570

#19 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

5731 Niche users give it an average review of 3.8 stars.

Featured Review: Other says New York University (NYU) is more than just an educational institution; it's an immersive journey through academic excellence, cultural diversity, and urban vibrancy. As a recent graduate, I can... One of the most striking aspects of NYU is its location. Situated in the heart of Manhattan, the campus seamlessly blends into the bustling rhythm of New York City. From the iconic Washington Square... .

Read 5731 reviews.

Net Price : $50,991 ,

SAT Range : 1450-1570 ,

University of Virginia

Charlottesville, VA •

• • Rating 3.92 out of 5   2,409 reviews

Senior: I grew to love the University of Virginia. I moved to Charlottesville during the pandemic, so I was not aware of the little "traditions" that UVA has - and more I learned about our school and traditions, I grew to like it. Visiting local Bodo's and getting number 1, visiting Carter's Mountain sunset series, partying and studying hard - all these experiences made my memories throughout my four years of UVA and two more to go! ... Read 2,409 reviews

Acceptance rate 21%

Net price $20,401

SAT range 1380-1500

#20 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA ,

2409 Niche users give it an average review of 3.9 stars.

Featured Review: Senior says I grew to love the University of Virginia. I moved to Charlottesville during the pandemic, so I was not aware of the little "traditions" that UVA has - and more I learned about our school and... .

Read 2409 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 21% ,

Net Price : $20,401 ,

SAT Range : 1380-1500 ,

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Chapel Hill, NC •

• • Rating 3.89 out of 5   2,660 reviews

Graduate Student: I started at UNC Chapel Hill in August 2023, and only a week or two after beginning campus, there was an active shooter on our campus. Luckily, I had just left to go home from class, but students were climbing out of windows, huddled together in classrooms, while a professor was gunned down and killed. Not very long after, there was another alert that there was an armed and dangerous person near or on campus. So, safety-wise, I wouldn't say that it's the best. Other than safety, it is a beautiful campus that's always bustling with students. Something that I would like to see changed is their safety regulations. Because the campus is so spread out, I think it's harder to keep out potential threats ... Read 2,660 reviews

Net price $11,508

SAT range 1140-1380

#21 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

CHAPEL HILL, NC ,

2660 Niche users give it an average review of 3.9 stars.

Featured Review: Graduate Student says I started at UNC Chapel Hill in August 2023, and only a week or two after beginning campus, there was an active shooter on our campus. Luckily, I had just left to go home from class, but students... .

Read 2660 reviews.

Net Price : $11,508 ,

SAT Range : 1140-1380 ,

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, PA •

• • Rating 3.71 out of 5   1,480 reviews

Freshman: Carnegie Mellon University suits those who believe in working hard, working hard, and playing hard occasionally. The academics are demanding and challenging, which ultimately creates dedicated, disciplined students, or burnout. Many people require some kind of passion to be here, as it takes passion to get through the intense workload. On the surface, the social life at CMU seems pretty dead. However, after actively looking for clubs, organizations, and student groups, I found there are a lot of opportunities to be part of communities that are passionate and welcoming. I also love that CMU is very invested in their student's success: it is easy to get help from academic advisors, pursue research positions, and take interesting opportunities to get your education outside the classroom. Overall, I am very proud and happy that I came here :). ... Read 1,480 reviews

Acceptance rate 14%

Net price $37,450

SAT range 1480-1560

#22 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

PITTSBURGH, PA ,

1480 Niche users give it an average review of 3.7 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says Carnegie Mellon University suits those who believe in working hard, working hard, and playing hard occasionally. The academics are demanding and challenging, which ultimately creates dedicated,... .

Read 1480 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 14% ,

Net Price : $37,450 ,

SAT Range : 1480-1560 ,

Washington University in St. Louis

Saint Louis, MO •

• • Rating 4.11 out of 5   1,572 reviews

Sophomore: I am a sophomore at WashU. The depth of the education and the number of opportunities (if you seek them) can be life-changing. The business school is super good at hosting recruitment events if your interested in business careers, and the academics ARE HARD -- You will do a lot of work. CS department could be stronger; premed/ bio/chem/pre-law deps / olin are excellent. The undergraduate student body is tight-knit and mostly extremely friendly. People are very smart but not obnoxious or entitled. Campus life is great because many of the undergrads (freshmen, sophomores, and some juniors) live on campus. The housing is excellent, and many students have kitchens on campus. St Louis is certainly not a luxury city (i.e. NY or LA) but does have good restaurants (DRIVE NOT WALK AWAY) and a cheap cost of living (concerts are usually way cheaper). It is way better than being in the woods, but not the bestest place. The school has partially impeded on the fun with their attack on greek life. ... Read 1,572 reviews

Net price $28,298

#23 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

SAINT LOUIS, MO ,

1572 Niche users give it an average review of 4.1 stars.

Featured Review: Sophomore says I am a sophomore at WashU. The depth of the education and the number of opportunities (if you seek them) can be life-changing. The business school is super good at hosting recruitment events if your... The undergraduate student body is tight-knit and mostly extremely friendly. People are very smart but not obnoxious or entitled. Campus life is great because many of the undergrads (freshmen,... .

Read 1572 reviews.

Net Price : $28,298 ,

Hamilton College

Clinton, NY •

• • Rating 3.72 out of 5   488 reviews

Alum: Looking back on my experience, I feel as though I didn't appreciate everything Hamilton College did for me. When you're in the moment, it's easy to see all the bad and be frustrated with things like the crappy campus food, a poor party scene, and a major lack of diversity. But, looking back, I do miss my time at Hamilton. I miss living in a walking community, I miss all the free food and free merchandise the school gave me. I miss the diner. I miss having small classes and being close to my professors. The community there, although not perfect, came together in moments that mattered. The school could be better. The lack of accountability from the administration on social issues and a constant battle between hate speech and lack of punishment for students who harmed others was a constant in all my 4 years. I hope the students continue to push forward and force Hamilton into a socially-accountable mindset. ... Read 488 reviews

Net price $26,803

#24 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

CLINTON, NY ,

488 Niche users give it an average review of 3.7 stars.

Featured Review: Alum says Looking back on my experience, I feel as though I didn't appreciate everything Hamilton College did for me. When you're in the moment, it's easy to see all the bad and be frustrated with things like... .

Read 488 reviews.

Net Price : $26,803 ,

University of Texas - Austin

Austin, TX •

• • Rating 4 out of 5   6,764 reviews

Freshman: I love that UT has a sense of community, especially in the sporting department. Being able to witness school spirit is an aspect I love about this school. I also enjoy the vast number of majors and programs, as well as student organizations that are available for all to join. However, I’ve had a slightly difficult time realizing that because UT is so large, it’s extremely easy to sink into the cracks, and figuring your own stuff out is essential. No one is going to hold your hand through course registration or career decisions, but I think- despite the inconvenience- it teaches students how to be an adult much more effectively than a gentler approach. Overall, I love UT and Austin and can’t recommend it enough! ... Read 6,764 reviews

Acceptance rate 29%

Net price $16,589

SAT range 1230-1500

#25 Best Colleges for Public Policy in America .

AUSTIN, TX ,

6764 Niche users give it an average review of 4 stars.

Featured Review: Freshman says I love that UT has a sense of community, especially in the sporting department. Being able to witness school spirit is an aspect I love about this school. I also enjoy the vast number of majors and... .

Read 6764 reviews.

Acceptance Rate : 29% ,

Net Price : $16,589 ,

SAT Range : 1230-1500 ,

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Scholarships for Public Policy Majors

If you're looking to enter a degree program that will prepare you for a career in public policy, then it's likely you're on the lookout for a scholarship to help you offset the costs of college tuition and fees. You'll be happy to know that there are many such scholarships available to both graduate and undergraduate students pursuing a degree in public administration, public policy and public affairs. In addition to scholarships that are offered by universities providing these types of programs, you can also look to public policy scholarships that are funded by foundations and professional associations. Applicants for these scholarships must meet specific requirements that typically include a 3.0 - 3.5 GPA, transcripts, recommendation letters, financial need and personal statements or essays. Some scholarships might be awarded only to applicants of particular ethnicity, enrollment status or residency. Get the financial support you need to complete your public policy degree program by searching the list below to find the scholarship that's right for you.

• competition 4.0
• effort level 1.0

• Major: Study |Education|Public Policy|Public Administration| Study |Education|Public Policy|Public Administration|
• School (K-12): Attend a school in |Portage, MI| Attend a school in |Portage, MI|
• Age / Grade Level: |High school senior| |High school senior|
• competition 3.0
• effort level 4.5

• Major: Study |Geography|Urban Studies|Urban Planning|Environmental Studies|Urban Policy| Study |Geography|Urban Studies|Urban Planning|Environmental Studies|Urban Policy|
• Ethnicity: Be |African American/Black| Be |African American/Black|
• School (College): Attend an |Historically Black College|Historically Black University| Attend an |Historically Black College|Historically Black University|
• competition 2.5
• effort level 5.0

• Major: Study |Business Administration|Political Science|Business|Accounting|Public Policy| Study |Business Administration|Political Science|Business|Accounting|Public Policy|
• Ethnicity: Be |Asian|Asian-American| Be |Asian|Asian-American|
• School (College): |any california college|any california university| |any california college|any california university|
• competition 2.0

• Major: Study |Natural Resources|Environmental Studies|Ecology|Zoology|Hydrology|Conservation Biology|Environmental Law|Environmental Policy| Study |Natural Resources|Environmental Studies|Ecology|Zoology|Hydrology|Conservation Biology|Environmental Law|Environmental Policy|
• School (College): |Institutional Member of Environmental Consortium| |Institutional Member of Environmental Consortium|
• Citizenship: |U.S. Citizen| |U.S. Citizen|
• effort level 1.5
• Major: Study |Urban Planning|Public Policy|Public Administration| Study |Urban Planning|Public Policy|Public Administration|
• Residence: |Permanent U.S. Resident| |Permanent U.S. Resident|
• School (College): |US Accredited College or University| |US Accredited College or University|
• Major: Study |Public Policy| Study |Public Policy|
• School (College): Attend |University of California, CA| Attend |University of California, CA|
• competition 1.0
• Major: Study |Public Policy|Public Health| Study |Public Policy|Public Health|
• Residence: Live in |United States| Live in |United States|
• School (College): |US Accredited Institution|Accredited Institution|Accredited U.S Institution| |US Accredited Institution|Accredited Institution|Accredited U.S Institution|

• Major: Study |Congress|Politics|Policy Issues| Study |Congress|Politics|Policy Issues|
• 2,500 - 5,000
• Major: Study |Political Science|Nursing|Elementary Education|Journalism|Civics|Government|Healthcare|Social Work|Secondary Education|International Relations|Global Studies|International Cooperation|Public Policy|Public Administration|Public Health|Early Childhood Education|Administration of Justice|Physical Assistant| Study |Political Science|Nursing|Elementary Education|Journalism|Civics|Government|Healthcare|Social Work|Secondary Education|International Relations|Global Studies|International Cooperation|Public Policy|Public Administration|Public Health|Early Childhood Education|Administration of Justice|Physical Assistant|
• Residence: Live in |Ventura, CA| Live in |Ventura, CA|
• School (College): |Four-year|Accredited Community College|State College or University| |Four-year|Accredited Community College|State College or University|
• effort level 4.0
• Major: Study |Geography|Marine Sciences|Marine Policy|Geological Sciences| Study |Geography|Marine Sciences|Marine Policy|Geological Sciences|
• School (College): Attend |University of Delaware (DE)| Attend |University of Delaware (DE)|
• Age / Grade Level: |Master's-level study|Doctoral-level study| |Master's-level study|Doctoral-level study|
• competition 1.5

• Major: Study |Education|Political Science|Nursing|Business|Criminal Justice|Healthcare|Public Policy|Public Administration|Information Technology|Public Affairs|Urban and Metropolitan Studies| Study |Education|Political Science|Nursing|Business|Criminal Justice|Healthcare|Public Policy|Public Administration|Information Technology|Public Affairs|Urban and Metropolitan Studies|
• Residence: Live in |Arizona| Live in |Arizona|

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