Master in Public Policy

Arrive with purpose

The Jackson School continues the University’s tradition of attracting creative, intellectually curious individuals who define their own path in global leadership and service.

Leave with direction

Leave with the knowledge, skills, and connections that put you at the frontier of the fields critical for addressing global challenges in governance, security, development, and more, as well as the ability to respond as the world changes.

Students and alumni making their mark

From New Haven to capitals across the globe, the latest on Yale Jackson's students and alumni: milestones, achievements, and the paths our community is taking into the world.

Caroline Agsten sits in a chair in her office.

Featured

Caroline Agsten ’22 is leading Microsoft’s push for “information integrity”

Caroline Agsten ’22 is helping protect democratic resilience in an era of rising digital threats as a team lead at Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center. She credits the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs with giving her the interdisciplinary perspective and confidence to navigate uncertainty in a rapidly evolving field.

Sherab Lhamo Dorji surrounded by colleagues in Bhutan

Where summer 2026 fieldwork took Jackson students

From a UN border post in Tajikistan to a hydropower investment desk in Nairobi, this year's MPP candidates spent their summer putting Yale Jackson training to work around the globe.

Aiken Wang awarded 2026 Beck Prize

The award is presented to undergraduates who have demonstrated a deep interest in and commitment to global affairs, with a preference for students interested in a career supporting national security.

Yale Jackson alum Major Nicholas Dockery MPP ’23 awarded the Medal of Honor

Dockery received the highest military decoration, awarded by the President of the United States on behalf of Congress for actions during a 2012 ambush in Afghanistan.

All stories

Why Jackson?

"What makes Yale Jackson distinctive is its balance of rigorous academic training and real-world engagement. Students gain access to practitioners and policymakers, but they also have the space to step back and think deeply about their longer-term goals. It's not only about the next career step, but also about preparing to lead give, ten, or twenty years into the future — across government, NGOs, or the private sector."

Alden Young, Associate Professor of History and Global Affairs

Teach to Complexity

Acquire frontier knowledge and grapple with nuance. Yale graduates are equipped with the skills and experiences to think, evaluate, implement, and communicate as world challenges evolve.

Faculty & Research

4 Course Core

The multidisciplinary core focuses on political, economic, and social issues that are connected and recurring. With that framing, you then choose electives across the university or pursue one of four joint degrees.

Yale courses

Small Cohort Size

Enrollment in our Master in Public Policy in Global Affairs program averages 40 students. Forge close connections, collaborate despite differences, and take initiative in the areas you most care about.

Meet our community

100%

Funded Tuition

Every MPP student's tuition is fully covered through a Jackson tuition fellowship, external funding, or a combination of both.

In their own words

Hear from the students, alumni, scholars, and practitioners who make Yale Jackson a community unlike any other.

“I did not want a school with classes in the hundreds. The small seminars at Jackson were great practice for building networks and making decisions as a team. Through a policy course, I created a monitoring and evaluation plan for an organization in Kenya, which they used to raise funding for a new initiative. It's the kind of small-size practicum experience Jackson offered across many classes.”

Bomi Okuyiga, MPP '23

Pre-Jackson: UK Civil Service, Economist
Post-Jackson: International Development Research Center, Senior Program Manager

“I wanted a multidisciplinary perspective and to avoid siloed answers. The flexibility to take courses in other schools opened doors for me, and learning from practitioners clarified what I wanted to pursue.”

Didace Irafasha, MPP '25

Pre-Jackson: UN Development Program (UNDP), Researcher
Post-Jackson: International Growth Centre, Country Economist

“A constant challenge I encountered in my work before Jackson was how to connect good development ideas to real, economy-scale capital. The atmosphere at Jackson is so service-driven, impact-driven, critical, in how people thought about the challenges of the world. That helped me see a broader spectrum of opportunities with where I could take my interest in impact and development finance.”

Will Slotznick, MPP/MBA '24

Pre-Jackson: IDinsight, Senior Associate for Africa and South Asia
Post-Jackson: US International Development Finance Corporation, Associate Director- Office of Energy

“I came to Jackson to figure out how to shift from being a problem finder to being a problem solver. Jackson gave me the freedom to chase after every interesting question.”

Elen Aghekyan, MA '22

Pre-Jackson: Freedom House, Research Analyst
Post-Jackson: Google, Trust & Safety- Policy Lead

“Part of the reason I chose Jackson was the access to institutes, professors, and opportunities in the broader graduate ecosystem at Yale. Being researcher with the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute at the School of Management has been a fantastic way to do just that. It led to a policy consulting project where I presented my research findings directly to the governor of Connecticut.”

Dan Kent, MPP '26

Pre-Jackson: Research Program Associate at the Mellon Foundation
Post-Jackson: GenAI Policy Specialist at TikTok

"While at Jackson, I had the opportunity to travel to four different continents for coursework, research, and travel. Using New Haven as a base to study the world, I developed my linguistic skills, research ability, and domain matter knowledge. I utilized my time to sharpen existing skills that complimented my past work experience all while pursuing new interests like starting Mandarin language study. In my second year, I wrote a thesis that focused on the intersection of domestic and foreign policy."

Soham Basu, MPP ’24

Pre-Jackson: Atlas Organization, Lead Analyst
Post-Jackson: U.S. Foreign Service

"The balance between required and elective courses was ideal for tailoring my education to my career goals. Through the core economics classes and directed reading with professor Ardina Hasanbasri, I delved into topics in economics, to which I had limited exposure in the past. The writing programs led by David Morse were invaluable in learning how to craft structured and effective policy briefs."

Eiichiro Takinami, MPP ’24

Pre-Jackson: Myanmar Survey Research, Director
Post-Jackson: UN-ESCAP, Associate Expert Officer

"Much of the work I do today is informed by my experiences at Jackson, where I had unparalleled access to experts in these topics and was lucky enough to be guided by thoughtful mentors such as Senior Fellow David Rank and a year-long practicum with Ted Wittenstein. Professors Paul Kennedy and Arne Westad’s “Relations of the Great Powers since 1890” provided a framework to think about U.S.-China relations, and I travelled to Beijing to debate AI policy and Taipei to talk with officials about cross-strait relations."

Claudia Wilson, MPP '24

Pre-Jackson: BCG, Senior Associate Consultant
Post-Jackson: BCG, Geopolitics, AI, Public Policy Consultant

"The flexibility of the curriculum allowed me to take courses not only at the Jackson School, but also in the Political Science and History departments, the Law School, and School of Management. This interdisciplinary learning gave me a broader historical, social scientific, and strategic lens to ask big questions and examine global security challenges from various perspectives."

Irene Eun Jung Oh, MPP '22

Pre-Jackson: National Assembly of The Republic of Korea, Foreign Policy Legislative Assistant
Post-Jackson: Asian Development Bank, Security and Emergency Services Specialist

Courses and curriculum

Jackson’s academic requirements are designed to prepare leaders to address the most pressing problems in global affairs. Our multidisciplinary core curriculum provides a foundation focused on the acquisition of key concepts, ideas, and evidentiary methods found in economics, history, and political science. The courses also highlight the connections among recurring social issues across various countries and times. An integrated professional writing program, a leadership and ethics training workshop, and a summer internship/project requirement also help build skills as analysts, communicators, and leaders.

The formal MPP requirements are 16 credits, demonstrated proficiency in a modern language, and completion of a summer internship or project. The 16 credits must include the four required core courses listed below (each course is worth one credit). Students must also maintain a grade average of High Pass with at least two Honors grades. All students must also complete Jackson’s leadership and ethics training workshop.

GLBL 5030 – History and Global Affairs (Fall, first year)

Nobody can understand the present without a keen understanding of the past. After all, history is all we have to go on in providing the resources for making sense of the world we live in. Successful policymakers understand this and turn historical sensibility to their advantage in interpreting the present. They understand how good policy is grounded in sound historical thinking.

The purpose of the core requirement is to introduce advanced students of global affairs to the manifold ways in which history is discussed and perceived today. Different from the social sciences, history as a discipline is less about prediction and more about finding out where we come from and what challenges the past has bequeathed to us. It is also about grasping, in a critical fashion, that we know the future only by the past we project into it.

GLBL 5020 – Applied Methods of Analysis (Fall, first year)

This course is an introduction to statistics and their application in public policy and global affairs research. It consists of two weekly class sessions in addition to a discussion section. The discussion section is used to cover problems encountered in the lectures and written assignments, as well as to develop statistical computing skills. Throughout the term we cover issues related to data collection (including surveys, sampling, and weighted data), data description (graphical and numerical techniques for summarizing data), probability and probability distributions, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, measures of association, and regression analysis. The course assumes no prior knowledge of statistics and no mathematical knowledge beyond calculus.

A diagnostic exam before the first year will determine if a student is exempt from the course. Students approved for such an exemption must take a higher level one-credit statistics course approved by the instructor.

GLBL 5010 – Economics for Global Affairs (Spring, first year)

This core course introduces students to the critical issues facing the global economy today. One of the main goals of the course is to practice how to use measurement and economic frameworks to analyze current events. The course teaches students how to apply economic reasoning to policy issues in the real world building on the concepts covered in the first-semester economics course and new concepts presented in the course. We use these frameworks to understand questions such as: Why are some countries richer than others? How much is the inequality across countries, and should we worry about it? How are wages and interest rates determined? How do countries conduct fiscal and monetary policy to smooth the business cycle? What determines the gains from international trade and migration?

First-year students are required to take two prerequisite foundational economics courses in microeconomics and macroeconomics in the fall of the first year prior to enrolling in GLBL 5010 unless exempt or they pass the diagnostic exam in August.

GLBL 5040 – Comparative Politics for Global Affairs (Spring, first year)

Economics can tell us with increasing precision what policies maximize growth, welfare, and productivity. But how are policies actually made? Why are so many poor policies adopted and good ones foregone? In this course students investigate how government organization and the structure of political competition shape the conditions for better and worse economic policy making across a range of economic policies including macroeconomic policy, corporate and financial regulation, industrial policy, and trade. Students consider these policy areas in democratic and nondemocratic regimes, and in developed and developing countries.

Professional Writing Program

The ability to communicate effectively is central to becoming an effective leader and problem solver.

The Jackson School Writing Program has three primary components. First, three core curriculum courses (GLBL 5010, 5030, and 5040)—in addition to their substantive topics—are designed to enhance students’ writing skills across a variety of professional contexts. The primary instructors have designed these writing components in collaboration with the director of the Writing Program to ensure a coherent and holistic professional writing curriculum across the core courses. Second, all Jackson MPP students are able to meet individually with the Writing Program director, who is available to provide detailed feedback on all student writing. Third, the Writing Program offers professional writing classes in both fall and spring semesters that give students ample opportunity to hone their composition and editing skills while introducing them to the genre of professional policy writing and challenges faced by communicators in the field.

By availing themselves of these Writing Program resources, students will develop the professional writing and communication skills necessary to advance their careers as leaders in global affairs.

Leadership and Ethics Workshop

During their second year in the program, MPP students participate in a workshop designed to train students for impactful and ethical leadership in global affairs. In the workshop, students explore the array ethical challenges that continually arise in policy decision-making. The workshop nurtures both the practice of ethical leadership and the strategies that underlie it.

Summer Internship

MPP students further their academic and professional goals by engaging in an immersive summer experience. Taking place during the summer between the first and second year, the experience gives students an opportunity to complete an internship or research project that is policy related and relevant to the global affairs MPP degree. Jackson MPP students can receive up to $6,000 in summer funding if the internship that would be meaningful is unpaid or underpaid.

Modern Language

By graduation, all MPP students must achieve Level 4 proficiency in a modern language (other than English). To fulfill this requirement, students may show a third-year language course from within the last four years on their undergraduate transcript, complete through a second-year language course at Yale, take a language proficiency exam at Yale, or complete the accelerated language course at Middlebury College in the summer prior to matriculation. Yale Jackson has established a streamlined application process with the Middlebury College Language Schools, and will fully fund the course, including tuition, room, and board upon approval from the Assistant Dean for Graduate Education if the Admissions Committee requires language study from an admitted student prior to their enrollment. Due to limited funding, Yale Jackson will prioritize students for the course with no formal foreign language instruction.

The Jackson core difference

“The history core course gave me an understanding of historical relevance. Even though I don’t reference it in my day-to-day work, the class gave me a nuanced understanding of the world, and why the work we do is situated in a much, much broader context than a specific policy or a specific politician.”

Joy Yue, MPP '24

Pre-Jackson: Search for Common Ground Program Officer
Post-Jackson: United Nations Peacebuilding and Peace Support Senior Officer

“A value of the core is the fact that even though I don’t do economic or statistical analysis as a part of my job, I’m able to better understand the perspective of my colleagues who do that work and where they’re coming from.”

Eva Martin, MPP '23

Pre-Jackson: FEMA, Emergency Management Specialist
Post-Jackson: Global Support and Development, Maritime Engagements Manager

“Jackson is giving me the foundation I sought in economics, statistics, history, and policy. What brought me to Jackson is the ability to scale the work that I was doing on the micro — helping farmers with a one acre plot — and bring it to the national policy level.”

Isaiah Williams, MPP '27

Joint degrees

Increasingly, students pursuing global careers seek to integrate their skills in global affairs with a professional specialization that goes even deeper than what is possible in the two-year MPP program. A joint degree is an integrated education program that protects the integrity and requirements of both, while allowing you to earn two degrees in two semesters fewer than if the degrees were pursued separately. Candidates must apply and be admitted to each school separately, either concurrently at the outset or to the second program if they are in their first year of one of the programs at Yale.

MF/MEM- Yale School of the Environment

This three-year joint degree program combines the resources of the Jackson School and Yale School of the Environment. The program prepares professionals in the scientific, political, and economic aspects of international resource management and environmental issues. To complete the joint degree, students must complete the requirements for the Global Affairs degree in a total of 12, rather than 16, credits. None of these courses may be School of the Environment courses.

The YSE degree programs (MEM, MESc, MF, and MFS) consist of a core curriculum and electives (36 total credits for joint students). All joint degree students must complete the two-week YSE summer training program before their first semester, which imparts field skills and techniques considered indispensable to students pursuing careers in environmental research, management, and policy. YSE students must also complete 10-12 weeks of a summer internship or research following their first year.

For more information, contact:
Yale School of the Environment
environment.yale.edu/admissions
email: admissions.yse@yale.edu

MBA- Yale School of Management

The joint MPP/MBA degree program prepares professionals for international careers at the intersection of management and global affairs. To complete the joint degree, students must complete the requirements for the Global Affairs degree in a total of 12, rather than 16, credits. None of these courses may be School of Management (SOM) courses.

To complete the MBA component of the program, a student must fulfill all SOM’s normal requirements. The one-year of Core Curriculum study taken by all MBA candidates in their first year may be taken in either the first or second year for the joint degree student. Joint degree candidates take only 52 units, not the usual 72 units in SOM.

For more information, contact:
Yale School of Management
som.yale.edu/programs/mba/admissions
E-mail: mba.admissions@yale.edu

JD- Yale Law School

A four-year joint degree program is offered in law and global affairs leading to an MPP degree in global affairs and a JD degree in law. To complete the joint degree, students must complete the requirements for the Global Affairs degree, though only a total of 12, not 16, credits are required. None of these courses may be Law courses.

Students must also petition the Law School’s Special Course of Study committee and complete the requirements for the JD degree.

For more information, contact:
Yale Law School Admissions Office
law.yale.edu/study-law-yale/degree-programs/joint-degrees
E-Mail: admissions.law@yale.edu

MPH- Yale School of Public Health

The Yale School Public Health (YSPH) and the Global Affairs program offer a joint degree program in public health and global affairs. To complete the joint degree, students must complete the requirements for the Global Affairs degree, though only a total of 12, not 16, credits are required. None of those courses may be taken at YSPH.

For the YSPH component, joint degree candidates must complete all core and divisional required courses as well as the thesis/capstone and summer internship components. Exceptions for joint degree candidates include the reduction of required YSPH course units from 20 to 15.

For more information, contact:
Yale School of Public Health
ysph.yale.edu/admissions-financial-aid/
ysph.admissions@yale.edu

BA/BS- Yale College

Current Yale College students may apply to the five-year program in the spring term of their junior year.

The five-year BA-BS/MPP degree program in global affairs offers Yale College students interested in the field of global affairs the opportunity to earn a bachelor’s degree from Yale College and an MPP degree from the Jackson School of Global Affairs in a five-year joint program.

Undergraduate requirements

In their four years of Yale College enrollment, students complete a standard Yale College major. Students who are on track to complete their major and degree requirements, as stipulated by Yale College, may count up to four Jackson School-approved course credits toward their MPP degree. Students who have not completed all degree requirements for the BA or BS will not be able to enroll in the fifth year of the BA-BS/MPP program and receive financial aid until the undergraduate degree is posted to their academic transcript.

Master’s program requirements

Students accepted into the program must complete a total of 12 course credits, including Jackson’s core courses. At least two of those core courses must be taken during the student’s senior year at Yale College. It is also required that students demonstrate proficiency in a modern language (L4) and complete an approved summer internship or project. Students must maintain a grade average of High Pass (HP) with at least two Honors (H) grades. All students must complete Jackson’s non-credit leadership and ethics training workshop.

During the fifth year, students are in full-time residence at the Jackson School of Global Affairs and must complete at least eight course credits. All students must meet with the assistant dean for graduate education to map out their curriculum.

Horchow Hall in summer — The Jackson School spans four stately mansions along historic Hillhouse Avenue.

Life in New Haven

Our campus & community

Perennially ranked as among the most livable cities in the U.S., New Haven offers green neighborhoods, world-class art and theater, award-winning restaurants, and rich cultural life. With nearby beaches and hiking trails, a walkable downtown, and easy access to both Boston and New York, the city is ideally situated between the Atlantic Ocean and the Appalachian Mountains.

Campus & community

International Leadership Center outdoor gathering

Focused expertise

Centers & initiatives

Yale Jackson's centers and initiatives create focused spaces for exploration, research, and policy development on specific topics.

Centers & initiatives

Small size benefits

Collaborative peers

Yale Jackson students enjoy a vibrant intellectual and social community outside the classroom. The Office of Student Affairs works closely with students to support student-organized events and activities that bring together the Jackson community and enhance the student experience. These activities have ranged from student-led conferences and talks by eminent guest speakers to travel support for independent research and professional development.

Student organizations

Visit Yale Jackson

Jackson's Admissions Office hosts drop-in information sessions most weekdays at 11:45 a.m. from September through April (when classes are in-session). We also offer on-campus Visit Days when candidates can tour campus, have lunch with current students, attend classes, and meet with staff. And if you can't visit in-person, we offer virtual Q&A sessions twice/month.

Arrive with purpose

Leave with direction

Only at Yale

Students and alumni making their mark

Caroline Agsten ’22 is leading Microsoft’s push for “information integrity”

Where summer 2026 fieldwork took Jackson students

Aiken Wang awarded 2026 Beck Prize

Yale Jackson alum Major Nicholas Dockery MPP ’23 awarded the Medal of Honor

Why Jackson?

In their own words

Courses and curriculum

The Jackson core difference

Joint degrees

Our campus & community

Centers & initiatives

Collaborative peers

Visit Yale Jackson