Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
clearly these are not the same degree but a friend of mines who is taking his MPA in Philadelphia told me they are nearly identical, whereas a fashion director friend of mines who has a MBA says they are not.
Can someone please give me the basic differences, and is it possible to do a dual degree with both?? As far as future income goes i am well aware that MBA pays more but also cost alot more.
Go to any university's website and look up the curriculum; they are not similar. I can start an MPA program tomorrow. I need a year's worth of pre reqs to even think about an MBA program, which focuses much more on the business of making money (bus mgt, econ, finance, accounting, etc.) Again, go to the websites of a couple of universities and you will see the difference.
Go to any university's website and look up the curriculum; they are not similar. I can start an MPA program tomorrow. I need a year's worth of pre reqs to even think about an MBA program, which focuses much more on the business of making money (bus mgt, econ, finance, accounting, etc.) Again, go to the websites of a couple of universities and you will see the difference.
clearly these are not the same degree but a friend of mines who is taking his MPA in Philadelphia told me they are nearly identical, whereas a fashion director friend of mines who has a MBA says they are not.
Can someone please give me the basic differences, and is it possible to do a dual degree with both?? As far as future income goes i am well aware that MBA pays more but also cost alot more.
That person is incredibly wrong. Just no.
If you want to sort of split the difference, you maybe can do an MBA with a social entrepreneurship concentraton... some MBA programs offer it. That's more of a traditional MBA program geared towards people who want to run a company that makes a profit but uses the money for good, or sells products that are about social change in and of themselves.
A few places do offer dual degrees... I think NYU is one. Not sure of the others. Usually that means you have to be accepted to both programs though and it can be kind of a pain to go throguh 2 admissions processes.
The other option is to do an MBA and get a certificate in non-profit management from somewhere else.
As the excellent link supplied above explains, an MPA isn't going to teach you anything about making a profit. It's more about givernement and non profit work.
Go to any university's website and look up the curriculum; they are not similar. I can start an MPA program tomorrow. I need a year's worth of pre reqs to even think about an MBA program, which focuses much more on the business of making money (bus mgt, econ, finance, accounting, etc.) Again, go to the websites of a couple of universities and you will see the difference.
it seems like while the MBA pays a lot more it also puts you through ridiculous debt, less flexibility and a small opportunity to see a wide variety of fields.
MPAs are sort of a hybrid of a MBA, political science and law degree. Honestly, I've always sort of thought MPAs were really sort of designed for existing managers in the government or non profits to provide them upper level training that isn't available or any good where they work. They aren't usually a stepping stone into a mid level managerial job elsewhere. Unless you go to a very prestigious program like Harvard or Rice, it is very hard to get a job that you wouldn't have been able to get without the degree based on your prior work experience.
Anyways, there are MPAs that are nearly identical to MBAs because both programs are run by the business school, so there MPA is basically a MBA with a few electives in administrative classes like procurement or the budgeting process. If the MPA is run by their own department or have stronger ties to the liberal arts department, it will have less focus on nuts and bolts business topics.
You can do a very quant heavy MPA with a lot of focus on accounting, finance, IT, and organizational behavior, similar to a MBA. Or you can do a very soft MPA with more focus on policy sci and administrative stuff. At larger colleges, most MPA classes are basically cross listed upper level classes in other departments. You don't have a lot of core MPA program specific classes designed just for MPA students. As an undergrad, I took an upper level poli sci class called municipal battles, a class on how city government agencies deal with contentious issues with federal and state agencies, voters, city council, the media etc. About 1/3 of the class were MPA students.
I'm currently a MPA student at USC. Unlike the poster above said, the classes here are designed specifically for MPA masters students. I would also say the MPA can translate well to the business world. About 25% of my cohort work in the private sector.
If you have any other questions about MPAs, let me know.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
