Degree and its requirements under review, with changes to be made for academic year 2020-2021.
Develop skills such as problem identification, analysis of solutions, writing, advocacy and persuasion, and prepare to practice public policy in real-world settings. As a student in our dual-degree program, you will gain insight into the procedures and decision-making processes of local, state and federal governments, and discover how to positively impact those processes. In addition to coursework and intensive seminars, you will complete a capstone project analyzing and developing solutions for a specific, real-world policy issue.
Faculty members provide extensive experience in public policy fields. We also draw nationally recognized experts and policy makers from Colorado and beyond to teach our students.
Our alumni hold positions in government, nonprofit organizations and private businesses, benefiting from the network of one of the nation's leading schools for international relations.
Bachelor of Public Policy
Graduate Transition
Students who pursue the dual degree normally complete their undergraduate work by the end of their junior year and begin working on the graduate degree during their senior year. You must apply for the graduate program during your junior year.
Master of Public Policy
This dual degree includes all the requirements of the major, plus 60 graduate level credits. As the capstone project of the M.P.P. experience, you will complete a Policy Memorandum.
Areas of Specialization
- Education Policy
- Business and Government
- Energy and Environmental Policy
- Social Policy and Nonprofit Management
- Communications and Public Affairs
Featured Courses
PPOL 4100
American Public Policy System
About this Course
The American Policy Agenda, which is required for MPP students, will provide an intensive overview of the development of American public policy in the 20th century, with special emphasis on the interconnection between the values of the public and private sectors. Through the lens of a useful descriptive model, graduate students will learn concepts of the role of government have evolved from: the (1) constitutional period, wherein political society was thought to be a rational device for the protection of property and liberty and prosperity was equivalent to the free management of affairs; to the (2) administrative period, wherein powerful regulatory agencies were created to control concentrations of corporate power and the idea developed that the market does not always reflect the social good; to the (3) bureaucratic period, wherein the stock market collapse of 1929 and the Great Depression reversed key ideas of limited government inherent in the constitution and, beginning with the New Deal, social engineering in the "public interest" defined virtually every problem as "national;" to the (4) social welfare period, wherein government became the source of vast entitlements and benefits and interest groups came to dominate the policy debate; to the (5) current period of stalemate, gridlock, and reconsideration, wherein big government is a given, along with a utilitarian social contract defined as that which provides the most efficiency, the most productivity, and the most consumption for the most people.
PPOL 4200
Microeconomics for Public Policy
About this Course
Microeconomics for Public Policy Analysis will provide a comprehensive, case-based overview for the MPP student of the consequences of contemporary public policies for individuals, households, and firms. Public policy is often said to consist of the distribution of scarce or valuable resources or benefits through the mechanisms of the public sector. This course will provide the opportunity to gain fluency and expertise in the application of economic analysis to such problems as transfer payments, entitlements, government subsidies, taxation, housing, education, labor, welfare and crime. Issues concerned with exploring the government's role in encouraging innovation, maintaining a growing economy, and budgeting under conditions of "surplus," will be explored using contemporary policy initiatives. Two competing visions of public policy will be examined: the role of economic policy in securing the benefits of "ordered liberty," which accrues to the individual; and (2) the vision of public policy as fundamental to the correction of anomalies in the market and in the distribution of scarce resources, often based on interest group claims of "disparity" and "inequality".
PPOL 4300
Quantitative Analysis for Public Policy
About this Course
This course will provide the MMP student with the tools of mathematical analysis needed for the advanced study of public policy issues and evaluation of alternatives. Topics will include descriptive statistics, probability, sampling, estimation, inference and hypothesis testing, variable analysis and correlation, regression theory, reliability and validity, and prediction and simulation. Students needing review of college-level algebra will be referred to appropriate tutorials. The overall learning objective of this course is to help students recognize and apply basic statistical concepts to Public Policy and, more in general, Social Science analysis. Students will learn how to use statistical software to: build datasets, describe data in a visual and analytical fashion, perform statistical tests, and construct basic statistical inference models. Students will also learn how to report their analytical findings for Public Policy analysis.
Featured Faculty
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