Client-Based Projects

Hire Goldman student consultants to help solve your policy problems!

WE ARE CURRENTLY ACCEPTING PROPOSALS FOR SPRING 2021.

Every year, organizations engage Goldman School student consultants for policy analysis consulting projects.  During the spring semester, students analyze a policy problem faced by an organization, and – with faculty guidance -- develop recommendations to address it, drawing on interdisciplinary analytic and problem-solving skills learned in their MPP/MPA coursework.  Depending on each student’s program focus, these skills will include a mix of economic/program evaluation/benefit-cost analysis, data analysis, legal analysis, policy/political analysis, and implementation/management analysis.

 GSPP offers three types of client-based projects:

• Advanced Policy Analysis (APA) Projects.                                         

  In their final (fourth) semester of study, MPP students are required to write a high-quality professional paper (Advanced Policy Analysis or APA) in order to complete the Master of Public Policy degree.  With faculty supervision and advice, each student conducts a thorough analysis of a major policy question facing a “real-world” organization/practitioner, applying the interdisciplinary methods, approaches, and perspectives studied in GSPP’s core curriculum.
  
  MPP students are highly qualified professionals, with an average of 4 years of professional experience in the public, private and non-profit sectors, both domestic and international.  MPP graduating students have all completed the MPP’s rigorous and quantitative core curriculum, which includes two semesters each of statistics and economics, a course on the fundamentals of policy analysis and two or more courses on law, leadership, management, or politics. In addition, MPP students have already completed a client-based policy analysis group project and a summer policy internship where they have applied the core skills learned during their first year of study.
  
  During the spring semester, MPP students spend 16 to 30 hours per week on their APA (this represents 40% to 75% of their time); the number of hours depends on the scope of the project.  Their findings and recommendations are presented to the client and APA faculty in a professional-quality written final report. Typically, APA projects are compensated.

• Capstone Analytic Projects  (CAP) Projects

• The Capstone projects undertaken by MPA students in their final (third) semester of study are very similar to the APA projects described above:  each student works with a client organization to analyze and resolve a problem, challenge or missed opportunity.  MPA students are highly-qualified mid-career professionals, typically with over 10 years’ experience in a range of professional workplaces that include consulting, government, military, philanthropy, social policy, the arts and tech.  Many already have an advanced degree such as an MBA, Law degree or MD degree.  The required coursework for the MPA spans the same disciplines as the MPP core but for fewer semesters and academic credits.   Like APAs, most CAP projects are compensated.

During the spring semester, MPA students spend 10 to 15 hours per week on their CAP.   Their findings and recommendations are most often presented to the client and CAP faculty as a professional-quality written report, but may take other forms (a reorganization plan; a PowerPoint slide deck; etc.) depending on the needs of the client organization. 

• Introduction to Policy Analysis (IPA) Projects. (We are no longer accepting IPA proposals for Spring 2021)
  In the spring of their first year (second semester), Goldman School MPP students take a workshop class called Introduction to Policy Analysis, or IPA. During the course, students work in three to five person teams to produce professional policy reports for use by a real world "client," typically a public sector or non-profit organization confronting some policy problem or opportunity.