Admissions Blog

Our admissions team tries our best to answer your questions as thoroughly as possible—on the phone, online, and especially on our blog. With regularly updated information, the admissions blog is a great resource for anyone looking to learn more about Harris. We’ve gathered our top five posts from the fall to help you as you complete your application for the next deadline.

Valerie Jarrett, Senior Advisor to President Obama and Senior Distinguished Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, delivered the keynote address for our Diversity Days 2020 programming. She discussed her background and trajectory into her role, the unique challenges she faced, and advised students to listen to “the quiet voice that lives within all of us” to choose which path their careers will take. Watch the interview and other Diversity Day highlights.

Now that we’ve sent messages, made calls, and released decisions, we want to share a message to show how impressed we were with our applications from Early Action. We reached out to some of our staff readers anonymously and asked them to share what impressed them about this group of applicants.

This is an exciting time for our admissions team. We are preparing to release decisions to students who submitted their completed application for the Early Action deadline on October 5. It was a pleasure getting to know more about you, all that you have done to improve your communities, and all that you are planning to do with a graduate degree in public policy. Read more...

The Admissions team has rolled out a series of virtual sessions on application tips. We have rounded up the recordings for your reference as you complete your application.

The relatively short time you spend in graduate school is a long-term investment in your future. It opens doors for your professional path, advances your leadership skills, and increases your earning potential. Following are some tips to help you understand the financial planning needed for your graduate school investment.

Thanks to all who attended our Virtual Open House last weekend! If you missed it or would like to review, the recordings are available here.

Are you interested in applying for our Data and Policy Summer Scholar Program? Read this note from Lana Kugli Ou, who completed the DPSS program in 2018 and will join the MSCAPP program in fall of 2021!

Its first in-person event of 2020, the University of Chicago Center in Beijing successfully hosted a parent reception for incoming Harris School of Public Policy students on September 19. Abiding by University health and safety guidelines, the Center welcomed 16 guests to its space to listen to Harris staff speak on Zoom, along with 46 other online participants.

We talked with Geet Chawla, Master of Public Policy (MPP) Class of 2021, about how his team won the Clinton Global Fellowship.

Thinking about applying to Harris? Our Open House offers a high-level overview of the value of a policy degree, our degree programs, and the network of students you will meet here. If you missed our recent Open House, or you attended and would like to review the sessions, you can access the recordings here.

We spoke with Jennica Betsch, MAIDP’20, about her summer internship with Innovations for Poverty Action.

Learn more about the recently launched Center for Effective Government, a hub where scholars, practitioners, and students can investigate efforts to change the way our political institutions are governed.

BrightHive is a company working to promote and enable responsible data sharing. BrightHive provides legal and ethical frameworks, technical standards and tools, and guidance through a data governance process to help their partners establish data trusts—collectives of organizations securely connecting and collaborating to create new, shared data resources. Two Master of Science in Computational Analysis and Policy (MSCAPP) students from the Class of 2021—Amanda Whaley and Hana Passen—interned together as Knowledge Engineers this summer with BrightHive. Whaley and Passen worked on the Strategic Initiatives team, getting hands-on experience building partnerships and collaborations. We asked them to write about their experiences.

For students interested in development issues, this summer held a virtual International Policy and Development Series. Watch the videos to learn more about faculty research in this area!

“The Common Read is one of the many ways we build community at Harris. Our goal is to create an environment that is inclusive and respectful of differing opinions and where challenging popular discourse and thinking critically is strongly encouraged. The Common Read is a shared experience that forms our commitment to learn, grow, and question during our time here at Harris.” — Michelle Hoereth, Director of Diversity & Inclusion

Senior Associate Dean Ranjan Daniels, AM’94, recently interviewed Luis Miranda, MBA ‘89, who shared with incoming students the importance of developing resilience during challenging times. Miranda has been involved in setting up two highly successful companies—HDFC Bank and IDFC Private Equity—before he pivoted to the nonprofit and social impact space. In 2018, Miranda founded the Indian School of Public Policy (ISPP), a public policy school focusing on the design and management of institutions and rules that govern society. Through ISPP, Miranda continues to collaborate with UChicago on events to connect alumni and policy leaders in India with Harris students.

As people and economies around the world reel from the impact of COVID-19, one thing is clear: facts are at a premium. The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics (BFI), working with economists from across campus, has supported and disseminated rigorous research on COVID-19 and the Pandemic Recession that has informed some of the most important policy discussions in 2020.

In Spring 2020, we posted Faculty Reading Recommendations. The post proved so popular that we decided to revisit and expand the topic. This time we asked Harris professors what inspires them—books, blogs, podcasts, you name it!  This is the second blog in a two-part series. Read the first round of recommendations here.

In Spring 2020, we posted Faculty Reading Recommendations. The post proved so popular that we decided to revisit and expand the topic. This time we asked Harris professors what inspires them—books, blogs, podcasts, you name it! The response was overwhelming, so we’ll release this in two parts. Enjoy part I.