Residential MPA

Are you ready to build leadership and strategy skills required for addressing complex policy challenges and improving lives? The Brooks School offers an interdisciplinary, Ivy League MPA degree that can launch or accelerate your mission-driven career across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Smiling woman student sitting outside in front of a large metal world sculpture — Juliet Jordan MPA ’22

Concentrations

Data Science

Develop the capacity to apply advanced data science techniques to analyzing public affairs problems and gain a cutting-edge understanding of current challenges and opportunities surrounding data science in a public sector context.

Data Science Concentration

Economic Policy

Explore how public policy affects economic and financial decision-making in international organizations, federal/state/local offices, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

Economic Policy Concentration

Environmental and Sustainability Policy

Master coordinating, leading, and managing teams of specialists to develop and implement environmental management plans and policies.

Environmental and Sustainability Policy

International Policy and Management

Gain a high-level understanding of the role of international organizations in global policy and politics, how these organizations interact with each other and with non-governmental organizations, and best practices in affecting change on a global scale.

International Policy and Management Concentration

Public and Nonprofit Management

Acquire a strong set of budgeting, investment, debt financing, and data-driven analytical skills as well as managerial skills including negotiations, leadership, staffing, and compensation.

Public and Nonprofit Management Concentration

Science and Technology Policy

Develop the capacity to lead, coordinate, and utilize inputs from teams of specialists to make and shape policy around disruptive and transformative technologies.

Science and Technology Policy Concentration

Social Policy: Health, Education, and Inequality

Learn the tools and policy history necessary to design, manage, and evaluate public sector programs across various policy areas, including health, education, child and family policy, housing and urban policy, welfare, and transfer programs.

Social Policy: Health, Education, and Inequality Concentration

I came to the MPA Program with the career goal of serving in a federal government agency, so that I could help underserved communities in the U.S. and/or abroad. The Washington Externship program gave me the opportunity to work with Foreign Affairs and Foreign Service Officers at the State Department—people who formulated policies to fight human trafficking and poverty, and promoted economic development and adapted to political changes within the Western Hemisphere.

– Mauricio Cortes ’17

Benefits of Getting an MPA at the Brooks School

Grounded in experiential learning

This is a degree where you make an immediate impact through consulting/advisory opportunities, internships, externships, graduate certificates, and capstone projects.

Get your foot in the door

Career management and professional development starts before you step foot on campus to help you connect with our alumni community and network with cutting edge organizations in the field.

Complicated public policy problems don’t wait

Public policy challenges don’t wait for the sharpest minds in the field to finish graduate programs; spend a semester off-campus living, working, and making an impact in real-time as part of a rigorous externship semester program.

The biggest policy challenges we face are inherently interdisciplinary

The biggest public policy challenges we face as a global community, including climate change, poverty, and inequality are inherently multifaceted. With an interdisciplinary curriculum, our students have access to faculty and practitioners across Cornell.

Our beautiful campus is located in Ithaca, New York

Our program is located in one of the best college towns in the nation; Ithaca, New York. Enjoy a higher quality of living in the scenic Finger Lakes Region, a diverse community, and dynamic downtown.