Hello. I am making a decision between the University of Michigan and USC graduate planning programs. I'm interested in international development and transportation. Both schools offer similar concentrations. I'd like some opinions about the general reputation of these programs. Is one program more highly regarded than the other? I know that they are both very good programs but I wanted some opinions from people in the profession or in graduate school now. Thank you very much. -Howard
P.S. If you would like to email me, please send a message to howiekarp at yahoo.com The system would only let me register my aol account, which I don't check. Also, I'm living in the San Francisco Bay Area and am looking for summer work/internship in planning before I head off to one of these schools.[/QUOTE]
Howard,
I went to U of M for undergrad and applied to USC for urban planning afterwards. I was seriously considering to apply to U of M's urban plannig, too, but I decided against last minute because after meeting with a former USC urban planning student, I was very impressed with what USC offered:
1. "Trojan family"-- that's what they call their alumni network. There are USC alumni EVERYWHERE in Southern California, and there are also many SPPD (that's the school that planning program falls under) alumni in prominent positions. The downside, in my opinion, is that this alumni network only seems to be extremely helpful within Southern California. But if So Cal is where you want to be, I think you should definitely consider becoming a trojan family member.
2. From my research of both U of M and USC programs, I think USC is a much better program. For one, USC offers these international labs that you can be part of during the summer time. I know that this years, students are going to China to be part of the planning of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Two, there are a number of professors who seemed to be doing some amazing work already in Asia, as some of them have worked extensively in the region doing consulting jobs for different governments and NGO's.
3. USC's urban planning program is housed in the School of Public Policy and Planning, and U of M's is under School of Architecture and Urban Planning. Because USC's is part of the policy schoo, as a planning student, you have the option to really get exposed to the policy aspect of urban planning. Your classmates will not only be just other planning students but students studying public policy and public administration.
4. A plug for U of M: Detroit (I am not sure how familiar you are with the city) is an AMAZINGLY interesting place for people with interest in urban development (was this a very obvious statement?) The city has SO much potential in development and there are already so many interesting things happening-- the downtown development, a lot of mass transit redevelopment, etc. Ann Arbor is also a beautiful city to be in for a couple of years.