Rudolph Scholars Chart Their Course in Policy Amid COVID-19 Disruptions

In the wake of the pandemic and its widespread disruptions, the University of Chicago’s Susanne H. Rudolph Scholarship is helping students pivot.

Covering partial tuition for one year for UChicago students who continue their studies in a designated master’s or professional program — including certain programs in the Harris School of Public Policy — the scholarship is available to students the year after they complete their undergraduate degree.

Two current Rudolph Scholars, Jasmine Gulati and Madeleine McAdams, are among those who have used the scholarship to enroll in Harris’ Master of Arts in Public Policy (MA) degree program. Gulati, who as an undergraduate majored in Biology and who was a Health Policy Scholar, is now also applying to medical schools. McAdams, a public policy graduate who minored in Health and Society, hasn’t decided on her next step.  

Both shifted to pursuing the one-year degree after their original plans were upended by the pandemic. Gulati planned to spend a gap year at a clinical job in Boston. Working in the New Jersey office of her physician mother — which gave her a firsthand look at the impact of COVID-19 — changed her mind about Boston and prompted her to seek the MA. McAdams changed direction after the tech company she was interviewing with in New York last spring had a hiring freeze.

Both recently spoke about their experiences at Harris, their future plans, and how they got here. 

Why go for the MA?

McAdams

One reason I wanted to go to grad school was to meet people who already had a little bit of experience in the workforce to see what paths they took and to figure out what kind of direction I want to go in. I am very interested in going to law school, but I’d like to work for a couple years before I do that, probably something in tech or healthcare.

Gulati

My mentor recommended that I do a joint MD-MBA or an MD-MPP, or in this scenario it’s an MD-MA with a certificate in health policy. I’ve always been driven to pursue my clinical experience, but I felt that one aspect I hadn’t explored fully was the health policy side of medicine.  In the wake of the pandemic, this interest in health policy has only been amplified. I think in the future, doctors are going to play a larger role in medicine’s policy-oriented side and I recognized the importance of that and wanted a taste of it. When I applied to be a Health Policy Scholar and I got it – that was a very big push for me in getting this degree.

Was the Rudolph Scholarship key to your deciding to get the MA?

McAdams

Absolutely. I’m so happy that I’m getting this degree at Harris, and it’s been the right choice. I know that would be true even if it weren’t for the impact of the pandemic.

Gulati

I’m already going to have four years of medical school loans, so when I received the Rudolph Scholarship it was a little bit of a weight lifted off of my shoulders. I could follow this interest without pushing myself further into a situation that might be a little harder to navigate out of in the future.

What has the time at Harris exposed you to?

McAdams

There’s just a myriad of issues plaguing the healthcare system right now that really need to be addressed. And all of the data skills that we’re “hammering down” at Harris will be really useful for that and for my future professionally. I can definitively say that everything we’ve learned has real-world applicability.

Gulati

Being at Harris, I started working with Dr. Vineet Arora at Pritzker School of Medicine on a sleep quality improvement project and found that Dr. Arora also has an MA from Harris. So she is essentially doing everything I would love to do one day, working at the crossroads of policy and clinical work, and I don’t think I realized that until coming to Harris this year.

You chose to study healthcare policy at Harris, whose dean, Professor Katherine Baicker, is a leading scholar in the economic analysis of health policy. Did that affect your decision?

McAdams

A big factor in my choosing Harris and pursuing the master’s was definitely the reputation of the faculty, including Dean Baicker, and their areas of interest.

Gulati

When I first applied to this program, I met with Ranjan Daniels, Harris’ senior associate dean of student recruitment and global outreach, and he was raving about Dean Baicker and the fact that her interests and my interests and my background lined up, and in that way I thought being at Harris would be a very good experience for me.

What has surprised you so far?

McAdams

One of the things that definitely surprised me was that even during COVID, I’m able to establish relationships with some of the other people who are here. Harris draws in such a wide array of students from all different backgrounds, all different age groups, all different work experiences, and then we work together. Hearing the input from my peers has been really amazing and I’ve managed to develop, even though they’re on Zoom, several friendships. It’s just been great to have a peer group who’s so passionate about policy.

Gulati

There’s one MA student, an MD who has been practicing for around 20 years, but she decided to switch from the clinical side of things to the policy side. She put her practice on hold and decided, “I’m going back to school and getting a policy degree.” And for me, meeting her was astonishing because she’s essentially following the path I hope to in reverse. Listening to her, I realized how we both reflect the idealism that clinical work and policy are not only interconnected but are a key bridge in healthcare.