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| MSU campus with the Bridger Mountains in the background. |
The degree requirements given below are effective for students admitted to the program in the Fall Semester of 2011 or after. Students who entered prior to Fall of 2011 may graduate under the requirements effective when they entered the program or can choose to adopt the Spring 2006 requirements. Full time students should be able to graduate in two academic years.
The MPA degree requires completion of 36 credits.
Core Required Courses
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PSCI 520: Leadership and Government Administration
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PSCI 551: Quantitative Research Methods
- PSCI 552: Public Policy Processes
- PSCI 554: Foundations of Public Administration
- PSCI 555: Human Resources Management
- PSCI 557: Public Budgeting and Finance
- PSCI 558: Organization Theory
- PSCI 559: Program Evaluation/Policy Analysis
- PSCI 560: Ethics and Public Service
Electives
Students will select three elective courses that support both their intellectual interests as well as their professional/career objectives. These three courses will be identified and selected in cooperation with either the MPA Director or the student’s Professional Paper Chairperson. Pre-career students (those entering the program with fewer than two years of professional work experience) will be required to complete a 3 credit hour, 300 work hour internship as one of the three elective courses. Elective courses may be taken outside the Political Science Department and may include one 400 level course.
Capstone and Professional Paper
The Capstone course (PSCI 574) is taken during the student's last semester of course work. The purpose of the Capstone is to allow MPA students an opportunity to effectively integrate underlying theories, concepts, themes, and patterns found throughout the program's course work into a final, Professional Paper. This Professional Paper should constitute a significant scholarly and/or practical research project. A final presentation of the course and/or project will be given to Public Administration and Political Science faculty, student peers, and other interested parties. All MPA students in the program are expected to attend these final Capstone presentations.
Skills to be Acquired
Upon graduation, MPA students are expected to have achieved the following:
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Written communication and analytical skills: the ability to gather and analyze disparate sources of data, and communicate major findings, conclusions, and recommendations in a well organized and clearly written manner.
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Critical thinking/problem solving skills: the ability to discover or interpret underlying patterns, use of logical reasoning, and integrating/explaining diverse points of view.
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Oral Skills: The ability to express ideas and convey information to others in an effective manner.
Comprehensive Exam
The purpose of the comprehensive exam is to verify the student's mastery of the general concepts derived from the course of study, the integration of those concepts across course topics and the ability to apply the material to real-world administrative problems. Comprehensive exams can be take at any point following the completion of all eight of the core courses.
