Humphrey School of Public Affairs

I went here for one of their masters programs. It was bad. Basically it is just a couple more years of slightly more intensive undergraduate coursework. You have large (30+ students) classes, which are taught by a mixture of faculty and adjuncts. What really killed me though was that the Humphrey School uses 2nd year grad students as TAs for graduate classes! I'm not making this up. So you are paying for graduate tuition but being treated like an undergrad....awesome (sarcasm). With the large class sizes, you can forget about making real, deep, meaningful connections with the vast majority of your professors (most of whom are so busy with their own research that they could care less about you). Unlike academic graduate programs (the Humphrey School provides professional degrees) you don't have small seminar classes where you really gain a deep meaningful understanding of topics. Instead, be ready for a graduate program of power-point infused lectures with mind-numbing "group projects". Finally, to reinforce the feeling of being back in an undergraduate program, the school is very cliquish. Some people are cool, but I met a lot of people who were really slimy. There is certainly a faux ethos that many people conform to, which just gave me a bad vibe. Anyhow, the school is obsessed with putting out a good image but they really could care less about their students. The students are just cash cows to help fund the glorious image of the Humphrey School. Sure, there might be some great faculty members at the School....but you won't get to study with them and they certainly won't get to know you. But hey, at least you can say that your $40,000 helped fund someone's sabbatical!
1 12 years ago (14-12-2013)

Great school with supportive and open faculty and staff
5 9 years ago (20-06-2016)

Love
5 8 years ago (20-03-2017)