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College of Liberal Arts

Dual MCP-MPA Degrees

Community planning is one of the essential activities carried out by governments in the United States, resulting in a significant overlap and synergism between expertise and career development in public administration and community planning. Thus, a dual degree program in the Master of Community Planning (MCP) and the Master of Public Administration (MPA) should be valuable and attractive for many of the students in these two fields, especially when combined with the Economic Development graduate minor.

Students apply separately to each program and are admitted (or rejected) based on the program 's current admissions criteria. They proceed normally through each program meeting the requirements for all MCP and MPA students. In essence (as detailed in the course requirements below), the students take the core classes in both programs with the MPA core counting as MCP electives and vice versa. They are also encouraged, but not required, to take the Economic Development minor. Because of the overlap in course content, students can choose either of two sets of core courses involving research methods and policy evaluation. This allows students to receive both degrees with 57 credit hours, as opposed to the 88 credit hours that would be required if they were taken separately.

Course Requirements

Course Credits When Offered

Common Core

   
CPLAN7240 Quantitative Methods   3 Fall
OR POLI7000 Research Methods   Fall
     
CPLAN7620 Research Methods   3 Fall
OR POLI7520 Program Evaluation   Spring
     
CPLN7800 Synthesis Project   6 Spring
  Total Credits 12  
     

Required MCP Core

   
CPLN6000 History of Urban Form   3 Fall
CPLN7220 Planning Implementation   3 Fall
CPLN7400 Planning Studio   6 Spring
CPLN7420 Planning Law   3 Spring
CPLN7440 Planning History   3 Spring
CPLN7460 Digital Technology   3 Spring
  Total Credits 21  
     

Required MPA Core

   
POLI7140 Budgeting   3 Fall
POLI7150 Personnel   3 Spring
POLI7260 Organization Theory   3 Fall
POLI7330 Adm Leadership   3 Spring
POLI7350 Seminar in Pub Adm   3 Fall
POLI7360 Policy   3 Spring
  Total Credits 18  
     
Electives*   6  

Total Hours For Dual Degree

57  

*Students are encouraged, but not required, to take the graduate Economic Development Minor which consists of:

POLI7700 Economic Development 3
"A Intensive Econ Development Training Course" NC
Relevant electives from CPLN, ECON & POLI 6
  Total Credits 9

 

 

 

 

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Last updated April 19, 2007