2024 Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment
In 1919, a few great minds imagined a school that would never settle for the status quo, one that would critically rethink learning and the social, political, and economic structures that shape our world. The New School was the result. Today it is an intellectually progressive university housing schools and colleges including the Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment.
This legacy—coupled with Milano’s commitment to promoting social equity, civic engagement, and economic inclusion—prepares students to become the hands-on leaders the world needs.
WHERE CRITICAL INQUIRY MEETS SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
From the moment students arrive at Milano, they begin to combine learning with doing in our practice-based programs. These programs prepare students to assume roles in public, private, and nonprofit organizations.
The school’s alumni, from more than 90 countries, lead crosssector collaborations that promote sustainability and social good. Partners range from UNICEF to the New York City Department of Education to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
“ Students come to our program with a passion for tackling the most pressing environmental crises of our time. They leave with the commitment and skills to create a more just and sustainable world.”
—
Ana Baptista, associate professor of environmental policy and sustainability management
A DEGREE IN MAKING A DIFFERENCE
An Increasingly Interdisciplinary Future
Milano is a community committed to developing contemporary solutions through interdisciplinary research and practice. As part of The New School, Milano offers students access to resources throughout the university, including outstanding graduate courses in the social sciences at The New School for Social Research (NSSR), in design thinking and skills at Parsons School of Design, and in media advocacy at the School of Media Studies.
The result is work that transforms interdisciplinary learning into dynamic new approaches. Milano students put their theories to the test, engaging in clientbased projects each year. They conduct intensive research, gain the skills needed to develop solutions for organizations, and ensure accountability by employing ethical and socially responsible practices. They apply their learning in a number of ways, from designing political strategy to directing nonprofits, developing financial plans, and coordinating partner networks. Learn more about our community at newschool.edu/milano/community.
A New Approach to Management and Entrepreneurship
Milano is a school designed for purpose-driven individuals who want to make a measurable difference. Whether you are headed into the business, nonprofit, or public sector, our programs help you develop the management capacities you need to be an effective leader, entrepreneurial thinker, and changemaker. By applying critical approaches, inclusive practices, sustainability principles, and interdisciplinary research methods to real-world challenges, you learn how to develop innovative organizational models and benefit your career, your life, and the world.
Design Your Program
Milano’s programs enable students to develop skills and in-depth knowledge in areas of their choosing. Our environmental program, for example, offers concentrations in Policy and in Management. Students can pursue a number of in-depth subject areas while earning an MS in Public and Urban Policy or pair their Milano major with a graduate minor such as Impact Entrepreneurship. For more information, visit newschool.edu/milano/academics .
FORGE NEW CONNECTIONS
Faculty Who Share Your Values
Milano’s faculty includes nationally recognized experts leading their fields. Committed to developing innovative responses to social, organizational, and environmental challenges, they work directly with students to translate their passion and ideals into social change while helping them build professional networks and opportunities. Learn more about Milano’s faculty at newschool.edu/milano/community.
7:1
student-to-faculty ratio
Gain Critical Skills
26% international students
Milano graduates emerge with skills and experience—in critical thinking, effective communication, analysis, and interdisciplinary teamwork—that make them sought after by employers. They gain a deep understanding of the social, political, and economic forces that shape their communities while developing the ability to lead change. They acquire cross-functional technical and interpersonal skills, including professional relationship building and creative problem solving, which take into consideration the needs and expectations of all stakeholders.
Flexible Career Paths and a Lifelong Community
Milano’s programs allow for focused study while preparing graduates to succeed in a variety of fields and sectors or shift into new ones. The career paths of our alumni are varied, spanning all sectors. They become leaders in local and state government, policy and advocacy organizations, social enterprises, consulting firms, benefit corporations, foundations, grassroots organizations, international NGOs, and environmental agencies and organizations.
Alumni remain part of the Milano community, collaborating with peers, offering career advice, and serving as ambassadors who provide networking, internship, and job opportunities. To learn about our graduates and their changemaking careers, visit newschool.edu/milano-alumni.
Milano will continue to support you throughout your professional life, with individual career advisement, career workshops, seminars, panel discussions, and networking events with prospective employers. newschool.edu/career-services .
NEW YORK CITY: YOUR LEARNING LAB
Participatory. Collaborative. Action-Oriented.
Milano makes the most of its location. The school connects students with innovators, policymakers, organization leaders, and community activists working in a global capital, New York City. Our courses offer students the opportunity to interact with industry professionals and make a difference in the real world. For example, in Urban Policy Lab—the Public and Urban Policy program’s signature course—students drafted food policy recommendations that eventually became law. At Milano, learning is experiential.
Our Programs
ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT (MS)
Overview
The STEM-designated MS in Environmental Policy and Sustainability Management enables you to play a leading role in advancing climate policy and environmental justice. Around the world, efforts are being made to promote change by applying the insights of communities and grassroots organizations with close relationships to the land and its ecologies. As a student in this program, you learn to employ this approach, drawing on Indigenous knowledge and engaging with communities to address social and ecological challenges affecting local and global populations. The program offers concentrations in Management and in Policy, enabling you to focus your studies on subjects that align with your goals and interests.
Curriculum
The Master of Science degree is awarded upon completion of 42 credits. Students complete two core courses in economics and methods, eight required program courses (including a capstone seminar), two courses in either the Policy or the Management concentration, and two electives. The required courses introduce you to the relevant natural science, financial analytics, public policy, and management dimensions of environmental and sustainability studies. You complete the program with a capstone seminar, in which you develop an individual research- and practice-based project in a collaborative, multidisciplinary learning environment. The program can be completed in two years of full-time study and offers working professionals the option of completing the degree through part-time study. Full-time students lacking relevant experience are encouraged to undertake a noncredit professional internship to gain exposure to the field, develop new skills, and build a professional network. newschool.edu/epsm-curriculum
Recent Course Offerings
Climate Change: Systemic Crisis, Systemic Change
Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility
Environmental Justice: Race, Class, and the Environment
Global Environmental Politics and Policy
Indigenous Ecologies
Principles of Environmental Science
Renewable Energy
Sustainability Perspectives and Practice
Urban Resilience
PUBLIC AND URBAN POLICY (MS)
Overview
The MS in Public and Urban Policy program prepares you to go out into the world and change it. You engage with policymakers through real-world client work, applying a multidisciplinary approach and social justice lens to solve complex policy problems. Collaborating with a diverse set of stakeholders, you develop the skills needed to evaluate critical public policy issues in real time and design creative solutions. Our graduates overcome differences between groups and foster social justice and public value in diverse and ever-changing political and organizational environments. They pursue fulfilling careers in government, international agencies, the private sector, and nonprofits large and small. The program is accredited by the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) and is affiliated with the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM), the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP), and the Urban Affairs Association. The MS in Public and Urban Policy program is a past recipient of the NASPAA Social Equity Award.
“For more than 50 years, the Public and Urban Policy program has combined client-centered projects with training and topical courses to prepare students to intervene in today’s most pressing policy issues.”
Alex Schwartz , professor of
urban policy
Curriculum
The Master of Science degree is awarded upon completion of 42 credits. Students complete two core courses, six required program courses (including a capstone seminar), and five elective courses. The program can be completed on a full-time or part-time basis; students can also move between the two formats in the course of their studies. The required courses provide a solid foundation in traditional techniques of policy analysis and exposure to alternative theoretical and political perspectives; they include clientcentered applied courses primarily using New York City as a learning lab.
Full-time students lacking relevant experience are encouraged to undertake a professional noncredit internship to gain exposure to the field, develop new skills, and build a professional network. newschool.edu/pup-ms-curriculum
Recent Course Offerings
Advanced Quantitative Methods
Community Development
Finance Lab
Housing Finance and Real Estate Development
Inequality and Varieties of Capitalism
Subject Areas
Policy and Advocacy
Political Economy of the City
Public Finance and Fiscal Management
Transportation Policy
Urban Economic Development
Subject Areas are sets of related courses that enable students to tailor their graduate studies to their personal and professional goals. newschool.edu/pup-subjects
Applied Quantitative Methods and Data Visualization
Finance
Global Urban Futures
Housing and Community Development
Inequality and Social Policy
Paths to Your Degree
Traditional full-time path (2 years)
Part-time path (3 to 3.5 years)
Policy and Design Strategies
Politics, Media, and Advocacy
Race, Gender, and Economic
Stratification
Urban and Regional Economic Development
PUBLIC AND URBAN POLICY (PhD)
Overview
The doctoral program in Public and Urban Policy is rooted in The New School’s tradition of critical inquiry and commitment to progressive social change. Successful applicants have a relevant master’s degree and experience that prepares them to apply research and analysis at the highest level to global public policy questions.
Graduates of the program have gone on to work as researchers in consulting firms and international organizations; policy analysts for local, regional, and national governments and agencies; and faculty members at colleges and universities.
Curriculum
The Doctor of Philosophy degree is awarded for completing 60 credits, passing the qualifying examination, and writing and defending a dissertation. The 60 credits consist of up to 30 credits transferred from a master’s degree program and 30 credits (ten courses) taken in residence. The curriculum is interdisciplinary, and students are encouraged to explore alternative theoretical perspectives and research methodologies. This flexibility is made possible by the wide range of elective policy and management courses offered by Milano, as well as the opportunity to take courses in the Julien J. Studley Graduate Programs in International Affairs and the social science departments of The New School for Social Research. newschool.edu/pup-phd-curriculum
Ranking in the Urban Policy specialty area on U.S. News & World Report ’s 2020 Best Graduate Schools list
“At Milano, we prepare students to translate their commitment to social justice into relevant scholarship and informed engagement with urgent local, national, and global problems.”
—Michael Cohen
, director of the PhD Public and Urban Policy program
Qualification Examination and Dissertation Proposal
Students who complete the course requirements submit a qualifying paper (a critical survey of the literature on a specific public policy issue) and take the qualifying examination. The examination is based on the content of Political Economy and Public Policy Analysis I and II and the Research Workshop. Those who pass the qualifying examination are eligible for the Doctor of Philosophy degree and can proceed to present and defend a dissertation proposal.
Recent Dissertations
• Children in the Storm: U.S. Disaster Policy for Children from Hurricane Katrina to Hurricane Sandy
• Systemic Strategies to Address Homelessness: A Situation Analysis of the Response in San Antonio, Texas
• Immigrant Foodways: Restaurants, Street Food, and Ethnic Diversity in Queens, New York
• The Gun Economy: Private Markets, Public Policy, and Gun Violence
• Interactions Between Economic Development, Housing, and Transport Policies and the Mobility Experience of Workers in Greater Mexico City
• Do Property Tax Limitations Affect the Ability of Local Governments to Deliver Public Services?
• The Design of Community Participation: Decision-making and Control over Resource Provision in New York City and Lagos
SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES
(Graduate Certificate)
Overview
Milano offers a graduate certificate for students interested in expanding their current role or exploring new professional directions in the sustainability field. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university is required for admission to our 18-credit certificate program. Candidates come from diverse fields including business, law, public administration, education, psychology, social work, and sociology. Students enrolled in a master’s program at The New School may be able to earn a certificate concurrently with their graduate degree. New students are admitted to the Sustainability Strategies certificate program in the fall semester.
Policy and management models are increasingly taking into account the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and financial sustainability, using the triple-bottom-line approach. This approach creates a need for managers who understand critical sustainability challenges and are capable of devising strategies for addressing them. The Graduate Certificate in Sustainability Strategies curriculum prepares working and aspiring professionals in business, government, and nonprofits to serve as planners, directors, and advocates in organizations that seek to define and implement sustainability as a value and a goal, especially environmentally oriented nonprofits, emerging “green” industries, and government planning and regulatory agencies.
Recent Course Offerings
Climate Change: Systemic Crisis and Systemic Change
Corporate Sustainability and Social Responsibility
Sustainability Perspectives and Practice
In keeping with our commitment to interdisciplinary scholarship and collaboration, The New School offers a number of graduate minors—structured study pathways that immerse students in disciplines outside of their primary field, expose them to alternative modes of research and practice, and broaden their skills and career options. Milano students have the option of completing a graduate minor in a closely related field, such as global urban futures or impact entrepreneurship, or exploring other subjects and emerging interdisciplinary issues, such as capitalism studies, design studies, and digital storytelling. newschool.edu/graduate-minors
Research Centers and Programs
Students have access to a number of Milano-affiliated research centers, labs, and institutes, enabling them to directly apply the policies and principles they learn about in their coursework. (Learn more about our research hubs at newschool.edu/milano-centers .) They also take part in the many public lectures, seminars, conferences, film series, and other special events offered regularly by Milano and other schools and colleges of The New School. Read about a few of Milano’s research centers below.
“Milano offers those looking to challenge the social and environmental injustices at the root of our planetary crises the broad knowledge and critical methodologies needed for systemic change.”
Leonardo Figueroa Helland, professor of environmental policy and sustainability management
Transforming Policy in New York City
The Center for New York City Affairs , Milano’s applied research institute, drives innovation in social policy. The center’s programs include InsideSchools, which conducts independent research on New York City’s public schools; Child Welfare Watch, a statistical survey monitoring New York City’s child welfare system; and the Institute for Transformative Mentoring, a dynamic professional training program.
Integrated, Community-Based Approaches to Climate Change
The Urban Systems Lab (USL) is a New School interdisciplinary research, design, and practice hub that integrates data analysis and visualization with other disciplines to provide information and strategies for developing more equitable, resilient, and sustainable cities. Recent USL partners include The Nature Conservancy, Brooklyn Grange, Green Roof Research Alliance, and WE ACT.
A Legacy of Social Innovation
The Impact Entrepreneurship Initiative is a university-wide program offering early-stage entrepreneurial students from diverse backgrounds the training, resources, and networks they need to transform challenges into opportunities. The program’s ultimate goal is to foster a more inclusive economy and advance social, economic, and environmental good.
A Center for Climate Justice and Design
The Tishman Environment and Design Center is a New School institute that integrates bold design, policy, and social justice approaches to environmental issues. Milano works closely with the Tishman Center to connect students and faculty to innovative course offerings, community partnerships, and opportunities for interdisciplinary research. The center plays an active role in applying The New School’s design and social justice tenets to the climate change movement.
Our alumni have gone on to forge careers that contribute to the public good and benefit institutions across the country and around the world. Listed below are some of the places Milano graduates work.
Milano Graduates in the Workforce
U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Public Citizen
NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development
San Francisco–Marin Food Bank
World Bank
Planned Parenthood International
Human Rights Watch
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Service Employees International Union
NYC Department of Youth and Community Development
Moody’s Investors Service
New York Immigrant Coalition
Booz Allen Hamilton
U.S. Department of Transportation
Deloitte
ClimateWorks Foundation
NYC Office of Management and Budget
Bloomberg Philanthropies
NYU Langone Health
Warner Media/CNN
“ Students come to Milano for our inventive and generative approaches to the field of management and to nurture more inclusive, equitable, sustainable, and prosperous organizations.”
Latha Poonamallee, professor of management and social innovation
FINANCIAL AID AND FUNDING
Our comprehensive financial aid program provides competitive and renewable merit-based scholarships for those who qualify. All applicants, including international students, are considered for merit aid. U.S. citizens and permanent residents can also apply for government grant, loan, and work-study programs as well as programs for veterans of the U.S. armed services. (At the graduate level, federal aid is largely loans to augment other funding sources.) To learn more about tuition and fees, visit newschool.edu/milano/tuition-fees .
In addition, Milano offers a number of fellowships for which students can apply. These include the Impact Entrepreneurship Fellowship and the Public Engagement Fellowship, designed for aspiring leaders committed to addressing equity, inclusion, and social justice challenges while pursuing a master’s degree at the Schools of Public Engagement, which houses Milano’s programs. The New School also proudly recognizes returning Peace Corps volunteers and Americorps/Teach for America participants, and partners with organizations such as Fulbright and the Organization of American States with funding opportunities.
You don’t need an admission decision to begin applying for financial aid. The Office of Financial Aid can answer questions about applying for financial assistance, calculating the overall cost of attendance, and billing and payment options. For more information, visit newschool.edu/milano-funding and email questions to sfs@newschool.edu.
75% of master’s students awarded merit-based institutional funding ¹
WE ARE THE NEW SCHOOL
Since its founding in 1919, The New School has been a center of independent thought, dialogue, and action. We are a community that applies integrative approaches to global problems and leads the systemic change needed to make the world more equitable, more sustainable, and better designed for all. Today our university is made up of colleges offering courses in art and design, music and performance, the liberal arts and social sciences, management, media, and more.
Get in touch and take the next step
Contact our team, learn about admission requirements, attend an admission event, or make an appointment.
Contact the program
212.229.5150
admission@newschool.edu
For important information including accreditation, student rights, campus safety statistics, and tuition and fees, visit newschool.edu/your-right-to-know. Published 2024 by The New School. The New School is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Photo credits: David Barron, Moran Michelle Danker, Chris Eckert/Wave, Ben Ferrari, MacKenna Lewis, Matthew Mathews, Siobhan Mullan, Jacob Arthur Pritchard, Martin Seck, Matthew Septimus, Michael Kirby Smith/Wave, The New School.
This brochure is printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper with UV inks that conserve energy and material and do not release VOCs into the atmosphere—reflecting the university’s embrace of environmental responsibility.
