| Full/part-time MPA program |
If you have not had any internship or work experience in a government agency
(nonprofits may be accepted), you have an internship class that is required.
This class is counted in the 39 units, but may take away from your choice of
electives. There is some assistance with finding an internship though you're on
your own for the most part. Having interned in government before starting this
program, I did not have to take this class. An informal survey of City Managers
in local cities in Orange County where the program is located showed that they
did hear of Cal State Fullerton's MPA program, which is a good thing. If you
want prestige, though, look elsewhere and be prepared to pay for it. A major
reason why people enroll in this program is because it is reasonably affordable,
usually near by and people have hear of it though it's not world famous. The
career fairs
held on campus have some public agencies in attendance, but are geared toward
undergraduates. When I went through the program, people either had been working
in government for years or were thinking of a career change and were hoping an
MPA would help out. Those who were employed part-time or unemployed were pretty
much out of luck. Generally speaking, an MPA is like an MBA, but for government
- the two are quite similar, except for the personnel/HR management classes
because the differences in laws and procedures affecting public and private
employees. Conceivable, with an MPA you would be qualified to become a
department head at a city, county or state or federal agency/department.
Because
of this program's concentration on theory, you'd probably be more qualified to
teach university courses than others - if you can retain all the theories and
who
developed them.
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California State University-Fullerton Admission & Application Surveys
