Introduces students to the real world of United States public policymaking while developing their skills as participants in the policymaking industry. It is structured around a set of case studies of current or recently resolved policy issues as well as a set of readings addressing how policy is made in general. Each student will pick a policy issue and will be required to produce a full set of written work on that issue.

One credit course to identify and plan for the Policy Capstone. To be taken in the second semester of the first year for full-time students. Topics to be covered in group meetings include description of a research or project prospectus, samples of capstone projects, and responsible conduct of research. Students will complete UNH training offered by the IRB and will learn about the IRB approval process. The final product is a prospectus for the capstone project, to be presented in writing and orally to MPP faculty and students.

Actual experience in a policy setting. In some cases this will be a credit-bearing internship, supervised by a faculty member who will provide the academic structure to parallel the applied experience. In other cases a policy internship may not be appropriate for academic credit; in such cases the internship experience fulfills the requirement but does not provide credits. Carsey faculty will provide guidance and oversight for these internships as well.

A consideration of research techniques and problems of methodology in psychology. The first semester stresses the principles of statistical inference, correlational approaches, and their interrelatedness in design. Topics considered include probability theory, linear regression, function-free prediction, the theory underlying statistical inference, parametric and nonparametric tests of significance, and principles of analysis of variance. The second semester extends correlational approach to the techniques and methodology of multiple regression and considers the appropriate use and theoretical bases of complex designs.