LSE-Columbia Dual Degree MPA 101

Columbia SIPA offers international dual degrees with partner schools from around the world, including Sciences Po, Hertie School, LKYSPP, FGV-EAESP, GraSPP, and the London School of Economics (LSE). As an LSE–Columbia Double MPA candidate, I spent the first year of my degree at LSE. As I’m now settling into SIPA, I wanted to share my impressions of that year.

The dual degree with LSE is a two-year graduate degree program that allows you to earn two degrees within two years, at two globally renowned universities. In the first year at LSE, the focus lies on establishing a deep understanding of political science, economics, and quantitative analysis. In the second year at SIPA, you will build on this training and choose a concentration and will complete a Capstone advising an external client. This also means you get access to the resources and networks of both schools, which is a very unique opportunity. 

At LSE, you’ll be studying at the School of Public Policy, which is located on the fifth floor of the Central Building on the LSE campus in central London. This is where you’ll run into your Columbia cohort of around 20 people, but also spend time with the larger MPA cohort of around 200 people that will spend both years at LSE. For non-study social time, George IV on campus is the unofficial (or maybe official) pub for postgraduates, so this is where you’ll find students from all departments of LSE.

The first year of the degree is very structured, as the three core courses you’ll take are compulsory. PP440 Micro and Macro Economics teaches the essentials of economic concepts, models, and policy analysis. You’ll talk about supply and demand, market failure, inflation, fiscal policy, and exchange rates. PP478 Political Science was my personal favorite, as I did my undergraduate degree in political science. Professor Ali Cirone is excellent and will lecture on the concepts and models for understanding political actors and their outcomes, including voting, interest groups, corruption, democratization, and conflict. PP455 Quantitative Approaches and Policy Analysis is the class I struggled with the most, and I recommend using Khan Academy as a free resource to practice quantitative concepts if you’ve either never studied them at the undergraduate level, or if it’s been a while since then. This class teaches the quantitative evaluation of public policy, including randomized control trials, difference-in-difference estimation, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity designs, and cost-benefit analysis. 

On top of those three year-long classes, you also choose one unit of option classes. I took PP414 Policy-Making: Process, Challenges and Outcomes and PP4E5 Innovations in the Governance of Public Services Delivery as my electives at LSE. I especially recommend taking PP414 with Vanessa Rubio Márquez, who is also the program director for the dual degree. She is extremely supportive of her students, and one of the best teachers I have ever had.

In my opinion it’s actually one of the biggest advantages of the dual degree that you complete most of your core requirements at LSE. You can check which LSE classes are accredited at Columbia on the SIPA/LSE dual degree page. This frees up a lot of space in your second year to focus on a concentration and maybe even a minor, to engage with the clubs at SIPA, or to do an internship or have a part-time job.

I want to be honest and say that especially the first year is extremely rigorous. Especially if you don’t have a background in quantitative methods, this will be quite challenging as both the expected quality of the work you hand in, but also the quantity is very high. The university is a producer of world-class economic research and this level of deep analytical engagement will be asked of you as well. To give you an impression, LSE’s Philippe Aghion won the Nobel Prize in Economics while I was a student there and Nobel laureate Sir Christopher Pissarides also still teaches at LSE. I’m grateful for this experience, because it pushed me to adapt to the level of intellectual prowess that was being asked of me. I learned an immense amount and now have skills that will serve me well in this field and that I use every day. 

For studying, I recommend the Senate House Library if you want to take a break from the fifth floor. For when you’re not studying (and you’ll be doing that a lot), try to take advantage of London’s beautiful parks. Some of my personal favorites are Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill, Greenwich Park, and Hampstead Heath. A special tip is to book a slot to swim in the ponds in Hampstead Heath (be quick, though; they go fast). It was one of the most special experiences I had there to swim in the Ladies Pond hidden from view by trees, with ducks swimming by and bees humming around you.