Penn State School of Public Policy

Penn State's School of Public Policy tackles today's most significant problems by creating professionals with the skills to identify, analyze, and solve our major policy issues. The MPP degree program draws on the strengths of expertise across Penn State’s University Park campus including political science, sociology, statistics, education, health policy, and economics, providing a multidisciplinary approach to the study of public policy.

Current areas of specialization include data/science analytics, health policy, children and family policy, labor and employment relations, information technology, international policy, and criminal justice. The flexibility of Penn State’s MPP program allows students to choose an existing specialization or to design a concentration that draws on the expertise of faculty from across the University Park campus.

As governments, non-profits and other entities are increasingly motivated to analyze the impact of policies and programs before pursuing new regulation, they require more individuals who have the practical policy analysis and program evaluation skills, which are taught in Master of Public Policy (MPP) programs. Opportunities for a graduate with a master’s degree in public policy include positions across the public and private sectors. Public policy expertise is in high demand, and a master’s degree is highly valued by employers in local, state and national government; non-profit organizations; think tanks; policy consulting organizations; foundations; and international positions, as well as private sector companies that need policy specialists to create and analyze public policies.