"Speaking Truth to Power"

Small font | Large font  Print Page

Programs Offered

Ph.D. in Public Policy

GSPP offers a doctoral degree program for students who seek careers in policy research with universities or research institutes. Usually only three or four PhD applicants are admitted each year, including those admitted from the School’s MPP students. Non-GSPP applicants who seek a policy research career and have completed graduate work in public policy comparable to our MPP are also eligible for admission consideration.

The PhD program emphasizes the generation of knowledge, theories, methodologies, and applications appropriate to the advancement of public policy analysis and management. Doctoral students pursue highly individualized programs of study and typically work closely with school faculty members who share the student’s subject matter interest.

A thorough preparation in policy analysis skills is a prerequisite for the doctorate. Applicants with a master’s degree in some other field usually must complete the MPP program at GSPP before applying for admission to the doctoral program. Applicants who have a master’s degree in public policy from another school may be partially exempt from this requirement but may be asked to take certain first-year master’slevel courses at GSPP not offered in other such programs.

Application and Admission

Applicants for admission to the PhD program should identify their research interests and the particular faculty member(s) with whom they are most interested in working. Since the program is small and individualized (it does not have a core program of study), the student must apply for admission in consultation with a GSPP faculty mentor. It is the responsibility of the applicant to establish this relationship with a GSPP faculty member.

Students should send a preliminary inquiry by October 15th to the Public Policy Admissions Office, including curriculum vitae and transcripts, suggesting possible mentors. The preliminary information will be circulated to the suggested faculty, to see if there is a match. Applicants will be notified of the outcome within four weeks.

Prior to enrolling in the PhD program, the student and his/her faculty advisor must submit a curriculum memo to the PhD committee that contains the courses the student will take during the first two years of study. These courses can be anywhere on campus (provided that they are open to GSPP students) and should include a methodology sequence, such as statistics, psychometrics, or economics. This curriculum memo can be updated at the end of each semester of PhD residency should the student and his/her advisor decide that additional courses should be taken or substituted.

There is no core program of study, therefore the PhD committee prefers applicants who have completed an MPP or equivalent, either from GSPP or a similar institution. For an applicant whose MPP is not from GSPP, planning a successful curriculum will require unusual effort at the application stage, and a serious commitment from the faculty mentor. This additional preparation is essential as such students are generally not familiar with the resources here.

The second memo in the application file is called Planned Dissertation Research. It outlines the subject that will be investigated for the dissertation, and should be related to the planned curriculum. However, the curriculum serves a broader purpose than merely preparing the student for the dissertation. It gives the student an infrastructure of knowledge and tools that will sustain a long period of subsequent research, and prepare him or her to teach in the type of university program that has been targeted.

The PhD Admissions Committee reserves the right to ask an applicant to sit for a preliminary examination before admission to the program.

The Application Procedure:

(Applicant must have a faculty mentor in place before applying).

  1. Graduate Application for Admission. Graduate application available at http://www.grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/grad_app.shtml
    Applicants applying to the PhD program need not fill out the Supplemental Application.
  2. Statement of Purpose
  3. Planned Disertation Research Memo
  4. Transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate work
  5. Three letters of recommendation
  6. Official GRE scores. International applicants must also take the TOEFL.
  7. A writing sample, most appropriately, a research paper under 30 pages. The term “research paper” is distinct from “policy analysis.” Its purpose is, in part, to make it evident that the student can make the transition from policy analysis to policy research.

Applications should be completed by December 5th.

Financial Support

Fellowships

Each year the School provides a $15,000 stipend plus fees for two entering PhD students for one year. All PhD students who are US citizens can then compete for an UC Berkeley Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Research and Training Program (IGERT) Fellowship during their first year. The IGERT program provides a stipend of $30,000 plus tuition and fees for years two and three of PhD residency. On average, two GSPP PhD students are awarded an IGERT each year. A more complete description of the IGERT can be obtained on the following website: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~raphael/IGERT/

Graduate Student Instructors

In addition, there are many opportunities for PhD students to be graduate student instructors at GSPP and other social science departments. These appointments provide a fee remission and a monthly salary.

Research Opportunities

There are many opportunities on campus for GSPP PhD students to engage in research (in many cases, paid research). For example, research opportunities exist at the Berkeley Institute of the Environment, the Energy and Resources Group, the UC Berkeley Labor Center, the Center for Child and Youth Policy, and the UC Berkeley Survey Research Center.

Questions

Further questions should be addressed to the GSPP Admissions & Student Affairs Coordinator, Carla Vaccarezza via phone 510-642-1855 or email .

Last Updated: 09/11/07