Frequently Asked Questions

The Berkeley MPA is a one-year degree program that prepares mid-career professionals to act as strategic and visionary leaders.  It is intended for mid-career professionals who have a strong track record of work experience, including in leadership and managerial positions.  The MPA curriculum emphasizes leadership skills, strategic thinking and multidisciplinary analysis in order to advance participants in their careers and expand their professional horizons.  

The MPP is a two-year, full-time, in-residence degree program that emphasizes practical and applied dimensions of policy-making and implementation.  For more information on the MPP please consult the MPP page on the GSPP website.

The MPA curriculum is designed to build upon your work experience.  As such, we look closely at your career progression and level when making an admissions decision. Students in the current cohort admitted to the program have an average of 11 years of work experience with a range of 5 to 19 years. In addition, they held positions that demonstrated leadership, management, and a fit with the degree and their public affairs goals.

The MPA program includes applied Economics & Inferential Statistics courses designed for experienced professionals. Students are not required to have a quantitative background in order to be accepted into the MPA program or to be successful in the MPA program. If you have questions about the type of mathematical preparation you should complete before starting the MPA program, please contact us mpa@berkeley.edu.

We expect to enroll between 50 to 60 students for the next upcoming MPA class.

Applicants are advised to apply early. With each round, the class fills and later round applicants are competing for fewer seats in the cohort. Additionally, the limited fellowships awarded by the School are often exhausted in the early rounds.

International applicants requiring F-1 or J-1 visas must apply no later than our posted February deadline (Round Two Deadline) for their application to be reviewed and considered for admission. If an offer of admission is extended, then UC Berkeley will assist the individual in obtaining a student visa.

Students must be on-campus full-time during the summer term with classes running from 8am to 4pm and additional outside classwork.  During the fall and spring terms, students taking a minimum load of courses can expect 6 hours of in class time and 10-20 hours per week of outside classwork.

Absolutely. In addition to the core curriculum, which provides fundamental analytical approaches and skills, students in the MPA program are able to choose from among the rich offerings of the academic disciplines and professional programs on the Berkeley campus as well as from GSPP.

Depending on individual preferences, students elect courses to deepen or extend their analytical skills and/or to familiarize themselves with the substance of a specific policy area (energy & climate, national security & international development, information technology, urban policy & labor, health, education, race, gender & equity, etc.). In addition, the student’s Capstone project during the spring semester addresses a policy problem of the student’s own preference.

No concurrent degree programs have been developed for the MPA, and at present, none are envisioned.

A component of the MPA degree program is taking electives during the fall and spring terms. Students who choose to be in residence during the fall and spring terms may choose among the courses offered within GSPP and the greater UC Berkeley campus for their electives. All GSPP courses are open to both the MPA and the MPP students. 

We draw from the same faculty pool for the Masters of Public Policy (MPP) and the MPA. The MPA faculty are a diverse group of tenured lecturers and practitioners, chosen specifically for their ability to effectively teach to mid-career professionals.

The GSPP Career Services provides a wide variety of services for MPA students including, but not limited to: individual coaching, job listings and job search services, resume posting, career fairs and networking events, career management workshops and webinars.

Please review the Graduate Division website as well as the Graduate Student Handbook for more information including housing and other resources.

Please send us an email at mpa@berkeley.edu.