Georgia Institute of Technology | Ivan Allen CollegeSchool of Public Policy
Students on campus with BuzzUndergraduate Studies in Public Policy






PolicyCurriculum

The Bachelor of Science in Public Policy is comprised of core and elective classes that provide a mixture of skills and substantive policy knowledge. As Georgia Tech graduates, our alumni have a unique perspective on problem-solving, combining ethics, technical competence, critical thinking, communications, research techniques, and analytical and leadership abilities.

Public Policy Core
The core curriculum for the major consists of:

POL 1101 Government of the U.S.
PUBP 2012 Foundations of Public Policy
PST 2050 Philosophy and Political Theory
PST 2068 Science and Values in the Policy Process
PUBP 3010 Organizations and Policy Implementation
PUBP 3110 Research Methods and Problem Solving
PUBP 3201 Introduction to Social Policy
PUBP 3600 Sustainability, Technology, and Policy
PUBP 4113 Statistical Analysis for Public Policy
PUBP 4600 Senior Seminar/Thesis

The core curriculum provides a multidisciplinary set of tools and perspectives, including logic and ethics, organizational behavior, research techniques, political processes, and integrative and analytical skills. Students take an additional fifteen hours (five courses) of public policy electives, usually focusing on a concentration in a substantive area of public policy or in policy analytic methods. To enhance their understanding of vital economic analysis tools and the historical context of policy, students also take twelve hours of courses in microeconomics, macroeconomics, and recent US history. A capstone course usually taken in the student’s last year before graduation, the senior seminar involves writing an original policy analysis relevant to a public or non-for-profit agency.

One of the greatest assets of BSPP graduates is their Georgia Tech background. They take many of the same classes in the university-wide core as all other Tech students. These include two semesters of mathematics (calculus and finite math, including probability and statistics), two laboratory science courses (chemistry, biology, environmental science, or physics), four social science courses (history, economics, international affairs, political science, public policy, sociology, and selected courses in psychology), four humanities courses (including two courses in English composition), and a computer programming course (usually with a multimedia focus). Public policy majors also take an additional six hours of science, computing, or engineering courses, selected in consultation with advisor. Most students have at least 17 hours of unrestricted electives.

Many students select minors (eighteen hours) or certificates (twelve hours) in areas of particular interest. The Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts offers 39 certificate and minor programs in areas such as language (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Linguistics, Russian, and Spanish), area studies (Asian, Europe, Latin America), humanities (American Literature, Film Studies, Cultural Studies), or disciplines such as Economics, History, International Affairs, or Sociology. The School of Public Policy offers minors and certificates in Political Science, Public Policy, Pre-Law, and Philosophy.