MDP Class Profile: 2023-24

• Incoming Students: 9
• Minnesota Residents: 22%
• International Students: 56%
• Gender: Female: 56%, Male: 44% 
• Domestic Students of Color: 22%
• Average Age: 32
• Average GPA: 3.38
• Average GRE Verbal Percentile: 73%
• Average GRE Quantitative Percentile: 57%
• Percent of Class total: 5%
   

MDP Career Statistics: Class of 2023

10 graduated, 10 known reported (100%)

• Known employed or continuing to further degree: 100%
• Actively job seeking: 0% 
• Government employment: 10%
• Nonprofit employment: 60%
• Private sector employment: 30% 

Prospective applicants: please note that all applications are reviewed holistically, and profile numbers should not be viewed as admission cutoffs. Please contact the Office of Admissions with any questions about candidacy.

Note: These numbers reflect the most recent data available; due to rounding, percentages may not always add up to 100 percent.

The Master of Development Practice requires 50 semester credits, including 43.5 credits in interdisciplinary required courses and a 3-credit capstone workshop. The remaining credits are taken in elective courses. An intensive two–week development practice orientation and an international field experience also are required.

REQUIRED CORE COURSES 

• MDP 5001 Ways of Knowing for Sustainable Development 
• MDP 5002 Program Development Workshop 
• MDP 5005 Qualitative Methods for Development Practice
• PA 5501 Theories & Policies of Development
• PA 5503 Economics of Development 
• PA 5521 Development Planning & Policy Analysis

STATISTICS COURSES

• PA 5031 Statistics for Public Affairs or PA 5045 Statistics for Public Affairs, Accelerated (4cr.)

ADDITIONAL METHODS COURSE OPTIONS

• PA 5003 Introduction to Public Financial Analysis & Management; or
• PA 5032 Applied Regression (recommended concurrent with PA 5521); or
• PA 5046 Econometrics for Public Policy (4cr.); or
• PA 5311 Program Evaluation; or
• OLPD 5501 Principles and Methods of Evaluation; or
• EPSY 5243 Principles and Methods of Evaluation

PRACTICUM EXPERIENCES

• MDP 5004 Summer Field Experience
• MDP 5100 Post-Field / Pre-Capstone Seminar
• MDP 5200 Capstone Workshop in Development Practice

FLEX CORE

EDUCATION AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• OLPD 5103 Comparative Education (3 cr); or
• OLPD 5104 Strategies for International Development Education; or 
• OLPD 5107 Gender, Education & Development

SUSTAINABILITY SCIENCE

A minimum of 3 credits must be taken from the Socio-Ecological subgroup. The remaining 3 credits may be taken from EITHER the Socio-Ecological or the Socio-Political subgroup.

Socio-Ecological

Take a minimum of 3 credits from the Socio-Ecological course group:

Complete course(s) and earn 3 or more credit(s) from the following:

• ESPM 5251 - Natural Resources in Sustainable International Development (3cr.)
• FNRM 5411 - Managing Forest Ecosystems: Silviculture (3cr.)
• PA 5724 - Climate Change Policy (3cr.)
• AGRO 5321 - Ecology of Agricultural Systems (3cr.)
• GCC 5008 - Policy and Science of Global Environmental Change (3cr.)
• EEB 5534 - Biodiversity Sci: The origins, maintenance, consequences, detection and assessment of biodiversity (3cr.) Environment
• GEOG 5401W - Geography of Environmental Systems and Global Change (3cr.) 
• GCC 5032 - Ecosystem Health: Leadership at the intersection of humans, animals and the environment (3cr.)
• PA 5242 - Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making (3cr.)
• PA 5751 - Addressing Climate and Energy Challenges at the Local Scale (3cr.)
• PA 5761 - Environmental Systems Analysis at the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (3cr.)
   

Socio-Political

• PA 5531 - Global Sustainable Development in Practice (3cr.)
• GCC 5017 - World Food Problems: Agronomics, Economics and Hunger (3cr.)
• APEC 5831 - Food and Agribusiness Marketplace (2-3cr.) 
• LAW 6709 - Agriculture and the Environment (2cr.)

LEADING CHANGE FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

• PA 5101 - Management and Governance of Nonprofit Organizations (3cr.)
• PA 5771 - Change Leadership for Environmental, Social and Governance Action (3cr.)
• ESPM 5202 - Environmental Conflict Management, Leadership, and Planning (3cr.)
• GCC 5031 - The Global Climate Challenge: Creating an Empowered Movement for Change (3cr.)
• GCC 5032 - Ecosystem Health: Leadership at the intersection of humans, animals and the environment (3cr.) 
• PA 5011 - Dynamics of Public Affairs Organizations (3cr.)
• PA 5144 - Social Entrepreneurship (3cr.)
• PA 5151 - Organizational Perspectives on Global Development & Humanitarian Assistance (3cr.)

GLOBAL HEALTH

• PUBH 6108: Foundations of Global Health (2 cr); or
• PUBH 6320 Fundamentals of Epidemiology

You may be exempted from selected core course requirements if you have relevant prior coursework. In that case, you can take additional elective credits to meet the 50-credit requirement.

Program Planning Worksheet
The Program Planning Worksheet (PPW) helps current students plan their degrees from start to finish. Students must submit a completed and approved PPW before graduating.

Capstone Workshop (3 credits)
Capstone Workshops are designed to provide a learning opportunity for MDP students in their second year to apply their knowledge through a client-based team project.

International Field Experience
Students are required to complete a 10-week (400 hours) international field experience, which will include professional work and academic cross-cultural training. Students will complete the field experience during the summer between the first and second year of the program. 

ELECTIVES (TO BRING TOTAL DEGREE CREDITS TO AT LEAST 50) 

• ANTH 8120 - Problems in Culture Change and Applied Anthropology (3-6cr.)
• ENTR 6025 - Introduction to Entrepreneurship (2cr.) Online may be available
• ESPM 5061 - Water Quality and Natural Resources (3cr.)
• ESPM 5108 - Ecology of Managed Systems (4cr.)
• ESPM 5604 - Environmental Management Systems and Strategy (3cr.)
• GEOG 5385 - Globalization and Development: Political Economy (4cr.)
• GEOG 5561 - Principles of Geographic Information Science (4cr.)
• HORT 5071 - Ecological Restoration (4cr.)
• OLPD 5011 - Leading Organizational Change: Theory and Practice (3cr.)
• OLPD 5048 - Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Leadership (3cr.)
• OLPD 5104 - Education and the Sustainable Development Goals (3cr.) Online may be available
• OLPD 5502 - Comparative evaluation theory for practice (3cr.) Online may be available
• OLPD 8101 - International Education and Development (3cr.) Online may be available
• OLPD 8596 - Evaluation Internship (1-9cr.)
• PA 5105 - Integrative Leadership: Leading Across Sectors to Address Grand Challenges (3cr.)
• PA 5136 - Group Process Facilitation for Organizational and Public/Community Engagement (1cr.)
• PA 5137 - Project Management in the Public Arena (1.5cr.)
• PA 5144 - Social Entrepreneurship (3cr.)
• PA 5190 - Topics in Public and Nonprofit Leadership and Management (1-3cr.) Topics Course
• PA 5251 - Strategic Planning and Management (3cr.)
• PA 5271 - Geographic Information Systems: Applications in Planning and Policy Analysis (3cr.)
• PA 5301 - Population Methods & Issues for the United States & Global South (3cr.)
• PA 5405 - Public Policy Implementation (3cr.) Online may be available
• PA 5504 - Transforming Development (3cr.)
• PA 5522 - International Development Policy, Families, and Health (3cr.)
• PA 5561 - Gender and International Development (3cr.)
• PA 5601 - Global Survey of Gender and Public Policy (3cr.)
• PA 5622 - GAINS: Gender and Intersectional Network Series, Leadership Workshop I (0.5-1cr.)
• PA 5623 - GAINS: Gender and Intersectional Network Series, Leadership Workshop II (0.5-1cr.)
• PA 5721 - Energy Systems and Policy (3cr.)
• PA 5801 - Global Public Policy (3cr.)
• PA 5825 - Crisis Management in Foreign Affairs (1.5cr.)
• PA 5890 - Topics in Foreign Policy and International Affairs (0.5-5cr.) Online may be available, Topics Course
• PA 5910 - Developing Your Public Service Career (1cr.)
• PA 5926 - Presentation Skills: How to Inspire Your Audience and Change the World (1cr.)
• PA 5927 - Effective Grantwriting for Nonprofit Organizations (1.5cr.) Online may be available
• PA 5928 - Data Management and Visualization with R (1.5cr.)
• PA 5929 - Data Visualization: Telling Stories with Numbers (2cr.) Online may be available
• PA 8302 - Applied Policy Analysis (4cr.)
• PA 8991 - Independent Study (0.5-4cr.)
• PUBH 6102 - Issues in Environmental Health (2cr.) Online may be available
• PUBH 6815 - Community-based Participatory Research (2cr.) Research
• PUBH 6845 - Using Demographic Data for Policy Analysis (3cr.)
• PUBH 6933 - Public Health Nutrition for Adults (2cr.)

The required field experience is an opportunity at the end of the first academic year for MDP students to develop and apply new competencies, skills and knowledge through a client-based, team project in the field, typically internationally. Each student team will be matched with a NGO, public or private sector client engaged in some dimension of sustainable development. While the specifics of each project vary, all will include some degree of project design, in-depth research, analysis and the creation of a final, professional deliverable suited to client needs and expectations. The field placement typically occurs over 10 weeks.

MDP students have a range of co-curricular options at the Humphrey School including the Public Affairs Student Association (PASA); school affinity groups such as the Humphrey International Student Association (HISA), the Gender, Sexuality, Policy and Event Committee (GSPEC) and the Humphrey Students of Color Association (HSOCA); and finally, University student groups such as the Interdisciplinary Perspectives on International Development (IPID). In addition, many students participate in the Minnesota International NGO Network (MINN). The University also features numerous thematic case competitions like the Global Health Challenge and Moving the Cities and sends delegations to multi-national summits like the Climate Council of Parties (COP). These experiences extend the curriculum in meaningful and interesting ways by fostering networking, skill-building, and practical engagement beyond academics.