# Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies (AYSPS) is a school of public policy and one of 12 schools and colleges that constitute Georgia State University. Founded in 1996 as the Georgia State University Policy School, the school was named after civil rights leader Andrew Young in 1999.
AYSPS houses the Departments of Criminal Justice & Criminology, Economics, and Public Management & Policy, the School of Social Work, and the Urban Studies Institute. The school offers undergraduate, master's, and doctoral degrees, and graduate certificate programs. It houses six research centers, including the Georgia Health Policy Center, the Georgia Policy Labs, and the Experimental Economics Center, and the Public Finance Research Cluster, which consists of the Center for State and Local Finance, the Fiscal Research Center, and the International Center for Public Policy.
Based in downtown Atlanta, AYSPS enrolls on average 1,490 undergraduate students and 540 graduate students each year. Community internships and job opportunities are a major draw for enrollment, as the school is within walking distance of one of the nation’s largest concentrations of local, state and federal governments and also close to several nonprofit headquarters, such as Care USA and Habitat for Humanity.

## History and Culture

The beginnings of the Andrew Young School were in the establishment of a Master of Governmental Administration degree in 1972. This would later evolve into a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) which was offered originally though the Institute of Governmental Administration. After shuffling around throughout the decades, the Georgia State Policy School was established in 1996.
Three years later in 1999, The Policy School was renamed the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The name pays respects to Andrew Young, a civil rights leader from Atlanta who served as United Nations Ambassador from 1977–79, as mayor of Atlanta from 1982–90, and was instrumental in bringing the Olympics to the city in 1996.
His leadership and Georgia State University's status as one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation allow Andrew Young School's programs to be inclusive and make a global impact. Roughly one-fifth of graduate students come from developing countries, 59 percent of students are women and nearly one-half are African Americans.

## Rankings

U.S. News & World Report's 2024 Best Graduate Schools Public Affairs list ranks the Andrew Young School No. 16 overall: No. 3 in Urban Policy, No. 5 in Public Finance & Budgeting, No. 6 in Nonprofit Management, No. 9 in Local Government Management, No. 14 in Public Management & Leadership and No. 26 in Public Policy Analysis. Criminology ranks No. 18, the School of Social Work ranks No. 51 and Economics ranks No. 65.

## Departments

Andrew Young School of Policy Studies includes five academic departments:
* The Department of Criminal Justice & Criminology
* The Department of Economics
* The Department of Public Management and Policy
* The School of Social Work
* The Urban Studies Institute

## Degree Programs

A major pillar of the philosophy of the Andrew Young School is the belief that economics, public administration and social policy should not be separated. The result is an approach to policy studies that is multidisciplinary, evident in the numerous interdisciplinary degrees offered and partnerships in research with other departments throughout Georgia State University.
Notably, a Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics was established in Fall of 2017, based on a deep historical connection of the disciplines and using analytically rigorous tools to prepare students for careers in law, economics, and business. The Andrew Young School also offers a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Economics in partnership with the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, and various other interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate degrees.

### Undergraduate Degree Programs

* Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Economics
* Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Economics
* Bachelor of Business Administration (B.B.A.) in Economics
* Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (B.I.S.) in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics
* Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Criminal Justice
* Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in International Economics & Modern Languages
* Bachelor of Interdisciplinary Studies (B.I.S.) in Social Entrepreneurship
* Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Public Policy
* Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Social Work

### Graduate Degree Programs

* Master of Arts (M.A.) in Economics
* Master of Arts (M.A.) in Economics - Public Policy Track
* Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.)
* Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) / Juris Doctor (J.D.)
* Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) in Policy Studies
* Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) in Social Work
* Master of Science (M.S.) in Criminal Justice
* Master of Interdisciplinary Studies (M.I.S.) in Criminal Justice Administration
* Master of Interdisciplinary Studies (M.I.S.) in Urban Studies
* Peace Corps Masters International Program

### Doctoral Degree Programs

* Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Criminal Justice and Criminology
* Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Economics
* Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Public Policy with the Georgia Institute of Technology
* Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Public Policy
* Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies

### Graduate Certificate programs

* Nonprofit Management
* Planning and Economic Development

## Research Centers and Programs

The Andrew Young School has an international presence in its research efforts with more than 135 faculty having worked in more than 70 countries worldwide. This translates to more than 230 scholarly papers, journal articles, chapters and books published annually and more than $26 million in active sponsored grants in the 2019 fiscal year. The school runs ten research centers and conducts numerous research collaborations within Georgia State University, born of the Andrew Young School's interdisciplinary approach to research and education.

### Research Centers

* Public Finance Research Group
** Center for State and Local Finance
** Fiscal Research Center
** International Center for Public Policy
* Evidence-based Cybersecurity Research Center
* Experimental Economics Center (ExCEN)
* Georgia Health Policy Center
* Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange
* Georgia Policy Labs
** MAPLE (Metro Atlanta Policy Lab for Education)
** Child & Family Policy Lab
** CTEx (Career and Technical Education Policy Exchange)
* Nonprofit Studies Program
* Usery Workplace Research Group

### Interdisciplinary Research Collaborations

* Second Century Initiative with College of Education and Human Development
* Future of Cities Research Institute with School of Public Health
* Global Research Against Non-Commutable Disease (GRAND) Initiative with School of Public Health and College of Arts and Sciences
* Cyber Security and Public Policy with Robinson College of Business and College of Arts and Sciences
* The Center for the Quantitative and Statistical Sciences (QUEST) with School of Public Health, College of Education and Human Development, College of Arts and Sciences, Robinson College of Business, Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Global Studies Institute
* Intimate Partner Violence Initiative with Department of Psychology and School of Public Health
* Population Health and Precision Medicine with Institute for Biomedical Science, the Department of Biology, the School of Public Health and the College of Law’s Center for Law, Health and Society