My colleague Alexandra Hensens had a great idea of creating platforms where students can rank the courses and comment about the experience. I thought it was great idea since studying at Cornell requires a lot of sacrifices and financial investments.  The process to pick the right courses and the best teachers with lack information can be hectic.

For those of you that are starting in spring and are thinking or haven’t take  the Issues in Public Administration course this is my review on the class and I hope this will help you to make an informed decision.

At the beginning the T.A. made a public announcement in the class: “Don’t take this course, it requires a lot of writing, an intensive amount of hours and is very demanding particularly if you are not acquainted with the US academic writing style”. At the beginning the class was packed, people where standing in the door, the second class you started to see the desertions. All of that mentioned by the TA was true, I invested from 6 to 8 hours per week outside the class time just reading the papers, analyzing the material and breaking down the class take aways. I ended going one hour per week to a tutor and also using extensively the Knight Institute office hours. http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/walkin/walkin.htm

On Thursdays (some of them) I worked till 2 or 3 am finishing memos that require an extensive and careful analysis of the problem at stake. Also you need to have the concepts of the readings to produce a substance argument base on theoretical frameworks. I had to drop one class to take another one on academic writing to improve my English writing skills. This course, with Non Profit Finance (from Joe Grasso) was the ones that changed some areas of my hair to gray. You definitely have to work really hard, however the learning experience, the readings, cases, the speakers, round tables and the lectures are top notch.

I ended the course with new friends that know I considered them part of my family, since we worked hand in hand for endless hours on a S.W.O.T analysis of an NGO and our results are going to be actually reviewed and implemented by the organization. Also now I have several theoretical frameworks for problem solving, cost and financial benefits, budgetary procedures and stakeholder analysis in the public administration arena. The course also foster my interest in the e-government and open data trends of public administration and opened the door to be the first CIPA student accepted in the e-government clinic at the law school.

The papers and memos were turned on time with a detailed and specific feedback that allowed me to improve my academic writing skills at another level. The class discussions where very substantial in both theory and practice, there is room also to learn from the perspectives and experiences of your class mates and the instructor (Tom O’Toole) pondered the issues and challenged us to go beyond in a brilliant critical thinking Socratic learning environment on government, public policy and management.

The papers used in the course are exquisite and the book of Bryson in Strategic Planning is a master piece that I strongly recommend to read it all of it and buy it!

If you are willing to work hard and take the hits of the first memos (this can be frustrating particularly if you are accustoming to have A grades). The knowledge and the straight forward detail and substantial approach of the professor and the speakers are worth all the hard work!