Admissions Blog

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.

We hope you are getting excited to meet your future classmates here at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. We’d like to share a little about your incoming class. While we’ll share more detailed information once classes begin, below are a few pieces of information we think you’ll find interesting:

Meet David McMillon, PhD Candidate and Math Camp Instructor whose work exploring solutions to the School-to-Prison-Pipeline issue recently won the highly competitive 2020 National Academy of Education (NAEd) Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

We reached out to Maddie Soskin, MPP Class of 2021, who works as a consultant with the Illinois COVID-19 Response Fund to tell us more about this opportunity and how it is connected with her studies at Harris.

We wanted to share a recent message from UChicago President Robert J. Zimmer and Provost Ka Yee C. Lee announcing the extension and highlighting the impact of the COVID-19 Community Support Initiative launched in March.

If you are an incoming admitted student, you will have the opportunity to hear from key leadership at the June 24 Harris Incoming Student Assembly. Below are short bios of each speaker:

Esha Banerjee (MA'18), writes on how to write an effective admissions essay.

As a continuation of our "Day in the (Virtual) Life" series, Alejandro D. González López, MAIDP'20, writes and reflects on what a typical day looked like for him during the spring quarter.

We reached out to Leah Castleberry, MPP Class of 2020, to ask about her work as a Research Associate at the Beyond Schools Lab, directed by Dr. Eve L. Ewing. The Beyond Schools Lab is a small research group focused on understanding the how seemingly non-educational structures of social inequality—issues such as affordable housing, transit access, gender inequality, immigration policies, and policing—shape the everyday lives of young people and their experiences with school.

If you are an admitted student, you may already be thinking about how you can best prepare for the fall. We asked Hanna Seferos, an Academic Advising Specialist in Academic and Student Affairs, to share some key resources that will help you get ready to hit the ground running at Harris.

Many students, regardless of their academic background, choose to enroll in Math Camp as a way to connect with their peers and begin focusing on graduate school. Math Camp also prepares you for the math exam, required of all incoming master’s students.