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University of Southern California

Dual Degrees

Doctor of Philosophy in Education / Master of Public Policy

A student presenting a map in front of a classroom.

The Doctor of Philosophy in Education / Master of Public Policy dual degree offers students interested in careers in education policy rigorous training in education, policy research and analysis. Students emerging with this dual degree will apply in-depth knowledge of policy processes, content and analysis to critical questions of contemporary education policy.

The PhD/MPP typically requires five years of full-time study. The first academic year is devoted to MPP courses, and the second to PhD courses. The MPP practicum is completed in the third year, the PhD qualifying exam in the fourth year, and the PhD dissertation in the fifth year.

Students can enter this program one of two ways: (1) apply simultaneously to both programs (requiring payment of one application fee and a request for a fee waiver for the second application) and state their intent on each application to be admitted to the dual degree program; or (2) apply to the PhD during the first semester as an MPP student.

If admission is approved by each school, students will be admitted to the dual degree program. Students must complete 84 units (48 from the PhD in Education and 36 from the Master of Public Policy). The MPP program requires a foundational background in statistics for all students. Incoming students must complete three prerequisites: a college-level statistics course and two pre-semester program labs.

Requirements

Students are required to complete 84 units of course work, including 48 units in the Rossier School of Education and 36 units in the Price School of Public Policy.

Public Policy Core (24 units)

  • PPD 503 – Economics for Public Policy
  • PPD 554 – Foundations of Policy Analysis
  • PPD 555 – Public Policy Formulation and Implementation
  • PPD 558 – Multivariate Statistical Analysis
  • PPD 560 – Methods for Policy Analysis
  • PPDE 668 – Applied Econometrics for Program Evaluation

Policy Analysis Practicum (4 units)

  • PPD 561a – Policy Analysis Practicum (1)
  • PPD 561b – Policy Analysis Practicum (3)

Analytic Electives (8 units)

  • PPD 542 – Economics for Public Policy
  • PPD 587 – Foundations of Policy Analysis
  • PPD 647 – Public Policy Formulation and Implementation
  • PPDE 636 – Urban Ethnography and Critical Cartography
  • PPDE 660 – Environmental Policy and Design Analysis
  • PPDE 661 – Methods for Policy Analysis
  • PPDE 665 – Economic Impact Analysis: Methods and Applications
  • PPDE 671 – Economic Analysis of Education Policy
  • PPDE 672 – An Exploration of the Intelligence Community – From Policy to Cyber Espionage
  • PPDE 673 – Foundations of Environmental Policy
  • COMM 650– Survey Construction and Validation (Annenberg)
  • SSCI 581 – Concepts for Spatial Thinking (Spatial Sciences)

Rossier PhD in Education Curriculum

Statistics Prerequisite

All entering MPP students are required to demonstrate proficiency in foundational statistical methods. The statistics prerequisite can be satisfied in one of two ways:

Statistics or Econometrics Course Taken Prior to Enrollment in the MPP

Completion of a college-level statistics or econometrics course with a grade of “B” or better within three years of matriculation. At minimum, prior coursework must have included essential topics in descriptive and inferential statistics such as measures of central tendency and precision, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. If relevant statistical coursework was completed more than three years prior, a waiver may be granted based on the level of statistical training completed and the degree to which currency with this material was maintained through subsequent professional use.

PPD 504 Essential Statistics for Public Management

If a student has not completed a college-level statistics course with a grade of “B” or better within three years of matriculation, they will need to complete a summer course prior to starting the MPP program. USC offers PPD 504 Essential Statistics for Public Management each summer; a grade of “C” or better in PPD 504 is sufficient to satisfy the statistics prerequisite. Students may also choose to satisfy the requirement by taking a summer course at another institution. The course must be for a grade and earn a grade of “B” or better.

Pre-semester MPP Labs

The Statistics/Stata Lab provides an introduction to the program, acclimates students to skills that will be further developed in their first-semester courses, and helps to create a genuine camaraderie within the first-year student cohort. Entering MPP students are required to participate in the Statistics/Stata Lab. The lab meets the week before the start of the fall semester. The Statistics/Stata Lab provides initial exposure to the statistical software that will be utilized extensively in PPD 558 Multivariate Statistical Analysis.

Statistics/Stata Lab topics include:

  • Brief review of inferential and descriptive statistics
  • Introduction to Stata software o Creating graphs in Stata
  • Introduction to datasets in Stata
  • Importing and manipulating datasets in Stata
  • Data management
  • Do-files

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