The student will take 33 hours of core courses and twelve hours of electives in an area of specialization. The core courses are PADM 5009 , PADM 5010 , PADM 5600 , PADM 7850 or PADM 7851 , PADM 7900 , PADM 7902 , PADM 7910 , PADM 7911 , PADM 7912 , PADM 7914 , and PADM 7917 . These courses have been selected by the faculty of the Public Administration Institute to be included as core courses in the LSU MPA program. The four electives will be selected by the student in consultation with the director of the MPA program. The MPA is a non-thesis program. It does require an internship (for students who are pre-service) or a practicum (for students who are in-service). Students are responsible for getting their own internships though the institute will provide information about potential internships. An exit examination is given the semester in which the student is graduating.
All MPA students are required to maintain an MPA portfolio that includes a resumé, objectives, and information for all courses taken. The MPA portfolio must be presented to the faculty at the exit examination.
In addition, each student will be given a comprehensive examination in accordance with the Public Administration Colloquium (a capstone course that each MPA student will take during the student’s last year in the MPA program). This comprehensive examination will be evaluated by the professor of the Public Administration Colloquium and two other faculty members. The comprehensive examination will be related to up to three case studies that will be presented to the students at the beginning of the semester in which the Public Administration Colloquium is taken.
Finally, surveys of graduates will be conducted on a semester by semester basis in order to assess the ongoing effectiveness of the department.