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	The Program Design
	Locations and Logistics
	MPA Admission
	Tuition
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The Executive Master of Public Administration Degree (MPA)
offered by
University of Colorado at Denver
Graduate School of Public Affairs
and the
Office of Personnel Management

Through the Executive MPA program, students can earn a Master's degree while dramatically improving their leadership competencies. The program is designed to be flexible-course work can be tailored to fit a student's individual needs and career objectives. Through a choice of formats, including online courses and weekend or week-long intensive meetings, students can fit their studies into the framework of their busy lives.

The Program Design

Like Colorado University at Denver's regular MPA, the Executive MPA option requires 36 semester hours of credit.

The Executive MPA begins with an intensive, indepth Individual Assessment Program where the graduate students evaluate their strengths and overall effectiveness as organizational leaders. Extensive pre-work is required prior to the program as students collect input from bosses, peers, customers, and direct reports on observed leadership styles, job strengths and behavioral preferences. During class, attendees participate in numerous lectures and activities in addition to receiving feedback from multi-rater assessments, diagnostic instruments, group feedback, and one-on-one consultation with assessment faculty and psychologists. Through the use of video-taped experiential activities, participants will review their experiences at several levels and assist others with observations and insight. The Assessment Program concludes with participants completing a personal development plan designed to improve their performance, enhance organizational success, and that will serve as a foundation for MPA course work. (2 credit hours)

During their program, students participate in one of the Management Development Centers' Core Leadership Training Seminars. These courses focus on developing competencies identified by the Federal Government as necessary for its highest-level managers, the Senior Executive Service. (4 credit hours)

Students select four courses from among the six core courses offered by CUDDenver's GSPA. The core courses include:

• Governance and Institutions
  
• Organizational Management and Change
  
• Democracy in the Policy Process
  
• Leadership and Professional Ethics
  
• Information and Analytic Methods
  
• Economics and Public Finance

These courses may be taken online, or students who live in Colorado may take them at one of GSPA's sites: Denver, Colorado Springs, or Grand Junction. (12 credit hours)

Students also take five elective courses, which may be selected either from the offerings at the Management Development Centers or from GSPA. Both partners provide a wide variety of courses; GSPA also has four areas of concentrated study at the Denver Campus: Environmental Management, Policy and Law, Local Government, or NonProfit Organizations. (15 credit hours)

At or very near the end of their program, students participate in an Advanced Seminar. In this course, students engage in a self-designed Professional Project that integrates their new skills and knowledge. In addition, they re-assess their professional competencies, charting the progress they have made during the program and designing a plan for future developmental experiences.

Most students take approximately two to two-and-a-half years to complete the degree. Completion within two years would require enrolling in six units per term and in each of the academic year's three terms (fall, spring, and summer).

Class Locations and Logistics

Seminars at the Western Management Development Center are held at its facility in Aurora, CO (a suburb of Denver). Students reside at the adjacent Radisson Inn Denver Southeast while attending. Seminars at the Eastern Management Development Center are held at its facility in Shepherdstown, WV and students reside at the adjacent Clarion Hotel and Conference Center. Classes at the Graduate School of Public Affairs are held on the Auraria Campus in downtown Denver, at its campus in Colorado Springs, or at Mesa State College in Grand Junction. Students must make their own living arrangements for these courses. Students who are outside Colorado pay out-of-state tuition rates.

The online courses require a personal computer with a modem, a graphics card and a sound card, and access to the Internet through an Internet Service Provider.

Admission to the Executive MPA

Each year, a class of up to 40 students will be selected for the program. Selection will be on the basis of potential for academic success and on the applicant's level of managerial experience, as well as on his/her desire for and potential to profit from executive-level education and training. A baccalaureate degree is required.

For students with limited executive experience or lower undergraduate GPAs, test scores on a standardized test such as the Graduate Record Exam, Graduate Management Admission Test or Law School Admissions Test are an excellent way to strengthen a candidate's application.

Applications may be submitted at any time. They are reviewed once a year on August 1st. Applicants will be notified of the Admissions Committee's decision around August. Accepted students agree to participate in the initial Assessment Seminar during the term in which they are accepted to the program.