Graduate Schools
Getting Into Grad School in Planning
Ten years ago I wrote "Graduate School 2008: Nuts and Bolts of Applying". As deadlines draw near for this year’s round of applications it is a good time to revisit and update this advice.
The Washington Post Gives Transportation Planning Studies a Star Turn
A recent article in the Washington Post does a nice job of describing transportation planning as an exciting field, with important and engaging applications.
Q&A: New Orleans Planning is 'Visionary within the Envelope of Feasibility'
The following interview, as published in the 4th Edition of the Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs, features Jason Neville, senior planner for the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority.
DC Planning Office Seeks To Restrict Georgetown Enrollment
Washington DC's office of planning will begin restricting Georgetown's enrollment if the university does not manage to provide housing for 100% of its undergraduates by 2016.
Managing Your Academic Adviser
It’s the middle of summer and few people are thinking about the return to school. However, in the coming month or two new students will need to start interacting with their faculty adviser. The following tips can help make it a productive relationship.
Trains So Fast They'll Make Mama Proud
To hear my mother tell it, I gave Joe Biden the idea for high-speed rail. Charitable and glowing, yes, but isn’t that what mothers are for? All the same, I can’t help but glow a bit anyway when I think about how far we’ve come as a country in embracing high-speed rail.
Planning Schools: To Rank, Or Not To Rank?
Professor Lance Freeman's recent post about Planetizen's rankings of graduate planning programs does an excellent job of summarizing some of the thorniest problems with school rankings. The editors of Planetizen certainly agree with Professor Freeman when he states that rankings cannot accurately predict whether a particular program will provide a particular student with the type of education he or she would deem best. There are far too many individual factors involved, and any student who makes their decision primarily on the basis of such rankings would be doing themselves a great disservice. This point is also the reason why most of the 142 pages of the 2007 Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs consist of detailed profiles of programs -- not rankings.However, we continue to believe, as Professor Freeman also acknowledges, that rankings do provide a useful measure of comparison for students who are evaluating a graduate program of study in planning -- something that is likely to be the largest single investment in their educational career. Therefore, we are planning to publish a new edition of the Planetizen Guide to Graduate Urban Planning Programs in the spring. In addition, we're working to improve our rankings process to help address some the concerns that Professor Freeman and others have raised.
Decision Time for (Prospective) Graduate Students
For those admitted to graduate planning programs in the U.S., March is the season of choices and decisions. Offers appear. Decision deadlines approach. Wait lists are formed. Even those who thought they knew what they wanted may be tempted to change their minds. Having been affiliated with seven vastly different planning programs, and having worked both as a faculty member and practitioner, I can attest that the choices aren’t simple.
Placer County
City of Morganton
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Dongguan Binhaiwan Bay Area Management Committee
City of Waukesha, WI
Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Indiana Borough
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