A great way to get an idea of the kinds of things you learn in graduate school is to speak to people who have actually gone there and ask them about the courses they took. There are a ton of choices in classes to take, so make sure you don’t scare yourself off from a particular program by talking to someone whose interests diverge significantly from your own.
Since I share a similar interest in problem-solving for marginalized communities and the field of social entrepreneurship as many of you, I think you’d find the classes I took at HKS interesting. You can access a listing of all Harvard Kennedy School courses here.
The courses I took are courses that a Harvard Kennedy School MPP could take as one of their electives during the first year of the program or during their second year, which is all electives. An MPA2 or MPA/MC would be freely available to take any of these courses during their first or second year.
When possible, I’ve hyperlinked the courses to the course description or to the closest current course being offered. My Program: Master in Public Administration (MPA2 dual degree with Harvard Business School)
Fall
[Edit 7/20/2015, I had to unlink all my class descriptions from the Harvard website!!! Harvard didn’t offer them any more….]
- Markets and Market Failure with Cases (taken at Harvard Graduate School of Design)
- Community-based Strategies to Support Children & Strengthen Families
- The Arts of Communication
- Public Narrative: Identity, Agency, Action
- Strategic Management for Public Purposes
- Entrepreneurship in the Social and Public Sector
Spring
- Food Policy and Agribusiness
- Corporate Finance (taken at Harvard Faculty of Arts & Science)
- Elementary French (taken at Harvard Faculty of Arts & Science)
- Intensive Writing for Politics and Policy
- Followership
- Financial Control in Nonprofit and Public Organizations
- Social Psychology for Managers and Policy Analysts
- Leadership for a Networked World
- Reading and Research: Barbara Kellerman (I did an independent study project with my professor of the course Followership on the challenges and opportunities of Black women who run online-based businesses—which is totally what I do now!)
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This is definitely helpful, Kaneisha! I’d love to see what you took at HBS!
I’m glad to hear it, Amanda! I will put it in the editorial calendar and share in the upcoming weeks. I’m interested to know which courses seem most interesting to you and other readers!