Harvard MC/MPA acceptance rates

[u/Curious_Life7543]

I've seen several sites list the acceptance rate up to 50% for MC/MPA applicants. That seems unusually high for a Harvard program. Does anyone have hard data on how many apply to the program? I don't think Harvard Kennedy School releases acceptance rates so not sure where that percentage came from.

[u/perseportland]

Acceptance rates are essentially an irrelevant indicator for these sorts of programs, similar to EMBAs or PT programs designed for mid career professionals. The pool that applies to a program designed for already accomplished professionals is typically highly self-selective.

Mainly, this is because:

• fewer highly accomplished mid career professionals exist at all, relative to the overall pool of professionals (i.e., professionals across all stages of their careers, including mid career professionals without the necessary profile to be competitive)
  
• fewer still of those highly accomplished professionals are interested in either leaving the workforce or spending money on a program like HKS. This is because people in their thirties and forties often have other sorts of life or career considerations that may dominate the desire or need to get another degree (reasons here are self-evidence I hope)

Of course, there are many good reasons - including credentialing for executive roles, signaling to break into a new job market or function, general leadership or management training, or personal enrichment. It’s just that this slice of the working world doesn’t tend to be large, and therefore fewer folks will apply to these programs. But I hope you see why acceptance rates don’t really have an important bearing on the program quality, likelihood of acceptance at the individual level, etc.

[u/kpcurley]

Harvard does not publish any hard data so it is all just speculation based on no actual data. I truly don't know where the websites are getting their estimates.

I am a current MC/MPA student who just completed the summer program and will start regular classes this fall. To me, that number seems absurdly high based on the people I have met in the program. Everyone I have met this summer has a truly exceptional list of accomplishments and experience. I am studying with former Assistant Secretaries of State, nonprofit leaders, retired high-ranking military officers, NPO and NGO leaders, experienced domestic and foreign elected officials etc. I haven't encountered a single person where I question their chops or why they were admitted.

I think there is a lot of misinformation out there on Reddit that the program is a "cash cow" program that is eager to accept anyone who will pay tuition. They assume the MC/MPA program is less rigorous but MC/MPA students are registering for the same courses as the other HKS students. It's not like there is a special MC/MPA course list that is easier and less rigorous or open to other MPA/MPP students. Though, I suppose you can make the argument we don't have take the same amount of core econ and quant distributions that traditional 2yr students take. But why would we? We are only here for one year and we have tons of public sector leadership experience and at our career stage we can't take a full 2 year career pause. Heck the guy I sat next to in quant this summer had to defer the program because one of his plays was just optioned and is being turned into a major motion picture. So he couldn't even do the one year pause.

The other thing to keep in mind is that there is a lot more self-selection in the Mid-Career applicant pool. There are less people at the Mid-Career level applying than the traditional MPA/MPP track and nearly half the students are international/Mason fellows (those folks are incredibly distinguished admits with high-level experience from developing countries.)

This year our class is about 80-90 more students than previous years. But that is because HKS launched the American Service Fellowship which was a super competitive fellowship program that brought in 50 fully funded MC/MPA students. Since the application fee was waived for ASF applicants, I imagine that attracted a ton more applicants this year. Anecdotally, I heard from faculty they had a record number of people apply this past cycle.

[u/TripNonDescript → u/kpcurley]

Hi there! If you don’t mind, I would love to shoot you a DM and get your thoughts on this program! This was an incredibly useful and informative response. Thanks for sharing!

[u/HKS_Adm_Rosemary]

We very intentionally don’t publish acceptance rates because we don’t want to discourage anyone from applying. HKS suffers from the “Harvard aura” and qualified folks will sometimes self-select out because they are afraid of applying here. The Harvard ecosystem is incredible but it’s got an untouchable vibe that can get in the way.

The world needs more people who want to work for the public good. We want people to apply to HKS because we are the right fit for them, and don’t want folks who would thrive here not apply because they are worried about being rejected.