CSU Urban Planning Grad Program vs KSU Urban Planning Minor (Cleveland: insurance, employment)

[Mr216]

Hi, I am currently a student at Kent State University studying applied communications. I am torn on what I want to add on to that though, I was considering a minor in marketing while going to graduate school for urban planning at Cleveland state but I'm not sure on if it is a good graduate program or not. Also would picking up a minor in urban planning at Cleveland State be a major step down vs going to Cleveland State's MUPDD program? I am seriously torn on which path to take and would love some advice. Would picking up a minor in Marketing while going to CSU for the MUPDD for Cleveland state be the best route or Picking up a minor in urban planning in Kent along with my communications major be fine? Also I would like to market cities something like Positively Cleveland or work in a cities urban planning department to help think of ways to revitalize a city.

[SquareBetterThanAll]

This is one of those fundamental questions many people (myself included) have struggled with.

Do you go with an Urban Planning major, do something (I presume) you would really like to do, but have less opportunities for employment?

Or do you major in something more general, with broader applications and more overall employment opportunities, but not so much of what your passion really is?

Only you can answer that question. It depends also on what you really want to apply for - organizations like Cleveland Plus are just marketing agencies at the core, and won't have much to do (if anything) with urban planning.

On the other hand, if you really want to do urban planning and work for the planning department of city or similar government agency you will need a degree and/or background dealing with that area. Marketing is not going to cut it.

The thing to keep in mind is that both planning positions and regional development agencies like Cleveland Plus have a very small amount of positions to go around so if you want to stay in the Cleveland area it may take you a long while to land a job doing/working for something like that. For faster employment you will likely need to be willing to move.

General marketing, on the other hand... much larger pool of jobs to draw from. You probably would not need to search outside of the area. But you could wind up putting together industrial supply catalogs or selling insurance. Who knows.

It's a tough call. Just make sure you know the opportunities and the risks for whichever way you decide to go.

[ECBeastor]

A few of Cleveland State's Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs Master's programs are very highly regarded. One focus has been ranked #2 in the country by US News several times over at least a decade http://www.urban.csuohio.edu/us_news...nkingsMemo.pdf .

Urban Planning is in the Levin College of Urban Affairs so I would assume by association it would be held in similar regard, but I don't know that for certain. Perhaps, look into one of the highly regarded programs and minoring or having a focus/concentration in Urban Planning, if possible. I know they offered electives in Urban Planning under the MPA program.

From what I remember, Sylvester Murray, Professor Emeritus at CSU, was a big reason why the program was so highly regarded.