fbpx Mid-Career MPA Summer Program | Harvard Kennedy School

The required Mid-Career MPA Summer Program is an immersive five-week experience held each year in July and August. Our MC/MPA students often cite the Summer Program as a highlight of their Harvard Kennedy School experience.

The Summer Program prepares you for the rigors of the academic year by building and renewing your analytic, conceptual, and study skills, and introducing you to core methodologies used at HKS. You’ll also start to develop important connections with your classmates and academic instructors, and become more familiar with the resources available to you at HKS, Harvard University, and in the Boston-Cambridge area.

The program’s coursework helps you to identify your strengths and interests as you prepare for the academic year. Your schedule most days will include required morning sessions in microeconomics and quantitative methods, and optional academic sessions in the afternoon. The optional academic sessions—which might include discussions on digital governments, trends in globalization, or American political institutions—are meant to preview the course offerings and instruction at HKS.

Along the way, the academic portion of the Summer Program is rounded out with social activities and networking opportunities. And importantly, the program also builds in time for activities engineered to help you define the academic, professional, and personal goals you want to accomplish during your year at HKS.

Mid-Career MPA Summer Program | students' published work
MC/MPA students research and write articles on a range of topics and ideas as part of the Mid-Career MPA Summer Program curriculum. Some are published. Get to know their work.