The Woodrow Wilson School
of Public and International Affairs
The Woodrow Wilson School was founded at Princeton
University in 1930 as the School of Public and International
Affairs. A professional school that prepares talented women
and men who seek careers in public service, it offers a
rigorous education for undergraduates and graduate students.
Its degree programs include a two-year course of study
leading to the Master in Public Affairs (M.P.A.), a one-year
program for mid-career professionals leading to the Master
in Public Policy (M.P.P.), and a Ph.D. program in public
affairs.
In its early days the School was a small,
interdisciplinary program at the undergraduate level. Beyond
normal course work, students took part in semester-long
"policy conferences" in which they focused on policy issues
and conducted original research in order to formulate policy
recommendations. These conferences are still key to the
school's undergraduate curriculum.
In 1948 a graduate professional program was added, and
the school was named in honor of President Woodrow Wilson.
That program was greatly strengthened in the 1960s through a
generous gift from Charles and Marie Robertson.
The fledgling school shaped the internationalist outlook
of a new generation of leaders that emerged from World War
II. It counts among its alumni two secretaries of state, a
secretary of defense, several senators and governors, a
chair of the Federal Reserve Board, leaders of nonprofit
organizations, many ambassadors, and other influential
policymakers.
Today the school emphasizes policy-oriented research and
learning in its graduate program, serving interests in both
domestic public policy and international affairs. M.P.A.
candidates follow a core curriculum and then branch into one
of four fields of concentration: international relations,
development studies, domestic policy, or economics and
public policy. Two joint-degree programs (in law and in
urban and regional planning) and two certificate programs
(in demography and in science, technology, and environmental
policy) expand the graduate curriculum.
While school undergraduates have opportunities to study
abroad (recent overseas policy task forces have been in
South Africa, Australia, Israel, Hong Kong, and Great
Britain), M.P.A. students gain valuable experience as policy
practitioners in the required summer internship between the
first and second years of the program. They can also
integrate their formal education with professional practice
during the academic year by working for a public affairs
organization.
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