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TL;DR: How do I choose between Urban Policy, Urban Planning, Urban Design, or Non-Profit Management with an Urban focus? In the end, what is really the difference?
I've tried to read through other posts, do my own googling, but I'm struggling and was hoping you all might be willing to help me slot the pieces together. I'm trying to pick a grad program to apply to.
Background: I have a BA in Geography and Environmental Studies where most of my classes focused on Urban Development, Urban Geography, and Environmental Policy. I did my Associates in a weird way and came out with an AA in Humanities, where my course work was interdisciplinary and focused on social issues of race and gender (I had to write a letter advocating for completion because I didn't fit into any one program). In undergrad, I did independent research on Gated Communities. It was a review of why people in different countries choose to live in them, and the effects they can have.
Work: I'm still at the first job I got out of college (about 3-4 years in now) working for a state DOT in the Geospatial Group of their Office of Transportation Data. I work with local governments to update the database, data from which is used to report to the feds for funding. I've done work where local governments want to move a state route, where I've chosen the new direction, created a map, and generated documentation that was approved by the state commissioner. I've also created a set of maps used by the winter weather response team for their plow and brine truck routes.
Interests: The way that people interact with public space and the way it interacts with them. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces had me hooked. I also get excited about topics like the correlation between city grids and depression. Whether planting trees really raises grades, or is that because people were displaced first. Feminist critiques of cities, and the ways in which they have changed, are good or bad, for women in particular. The focus I tend to take is the way neighborhoods, programs, structures, either foster or deter a sense of place and community. My favorite classes were: Urban Geography, Urban Development, The Politics of Science and Environmental Policy (this was great and was more about what was going on interpersonally that allowed a thought, policy, or theory to be accepted than it was about the things themselves. We read Golem.), and Cultural Landscapes (discussing how people affect the environment, then how it effects them).
Weaknesses: Math, Programming, being stuck in one spot all day, and drawing by hand.
Goals: I want to work in the Public or non-profit sectors. I love the idea of doing the reading, the research, looking at the data, then going into a community to use that knowledge to empower the people towards their own goals. Not a top down approach but coming in and saying "I don't know what you need as well as you do, but I do have tools and expertise to help you get what you need. So, tell me what that is." Then doing the work.
What program or type of program is going to support all of that the most: Urban Planning, Urban and Public Policy, Urban Design, or Non-profit management? The programs I've looked at do include focus tracks with elements of each, but which bucket is best?
Any advice, personal experience, or information would be incredibly helpful. Thank you in advance for taking the time to read that wall of text.
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