Master in Urban Planning and Master in Public Policy

Master in Urban Planning and Master in Public Policy

Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) offer a joint degree program in public policy and urban planning.

The joint degree program permits students to pursue a Master in Public Policy (MPP) degree at HKS and a Master in Urban Planning (MUP) degree at the GSD and to complete both degrees in three years, rather than the four years that would be required if the two degrees were pursued independently. Students in the joint degree program must complete all of the basic requirements for both the MPP and MUP degrees.

A committee made up of GSD Professor Ann Forsyth and GSD Professor Jerold S. Kayden (“Faculty Committee”) oversees the degree program. The Faculty Committee is responsible for making decisions regarding the structure and requirements of the program and for working with students.

overview

ADMISSIONS COURSEWORK
The GSD offers degree programs across a variety of design disciplines. Find out which program is right for you. COMPARE DEGREE PROGRAMS

Planning Faculty

Planning Faculty

The Master in Urban Planning (MUP) program curriculum is taught by faculty from the Department of Urban Planning and Design, and also by a variety of visiting faculty as well as faculty from Harvard Kennedy School who teach courses cross-listed at GSD.

Core Urban Planning Faculty

 

Other faculty teaching in Urban Planning

UPD Thesis Guidelines

UPD Independent Thesis

Urban Planning and Urban Design students are not required by their degree to complete an Independent Thesis. The thesis project is an opportunity for students to pursue a design project they have researched and developed independently. UPD students are required to declare their second-year curricular pathway by the first Monday in April in their second semester. Eligible students who declare thesis will be required to submit a secondary petition by Friday, May 1, 2026, which requires their topic and the signature of their advisor. UPD students who declare an Independent Thesis will be required to enroll in Thesis Prep in the fall of their final year.

Independent Design Thesis (ADV-9302; 8 units) is a full-year commitment and with Thesis Prep carries a total of 12-units.

Eligibility:

Urban Planning students who receive a minimum grade of “Pass” in both core studios are eligible to declare an Independent Design Thesis for their final year.

Urban Design students who receive a minimum final grade of “Pass” in both Elements and UPD Option Studio and, at minimum, a “High Pass” in one of the two OR a minimum final grade of “Pass” in all first-year courses and, at a minimum, a “High Pass” in at least three 4-unit degree requirements or distributional electives are eligible to meet their degree requirements by declaring thesis. The Independent Design Thesis is taken in place of the fourth-semester Option Studio.  Students who are eligible and declare an Independent Thesis instead in their fourth term must enroll in an Option Studio in the fall semester of their third term.

 

UPD Thesis Handbook 2025-2026
Recent UPD Theses
Addendum: Open Source Thesis Guide at the GSD
UPD Faculty Eligible for Thesis Advising in 2025-2026

UPD students must declare thesis by Monday, April 6, 2026, by submitting their second-year declaration form:

MUP Declaration Form
MAUD MLAUD Declaration Form

UPD students who declare Thesis will be required to submit a Secondary Thesis Petition form by Friday, May 1, 2026, with their topic and the signature of their advisor:

UPD Secondary Thesis Petition

Selected UPD theses are available through HOLLIS  (Harvard Library), or as hard copy in the Francis Loeb Library.

For current thesis students, all final PDF theses must be submitted to the Thesis Director and Program Manager by no later than 9:00 AM (ET) on May 18, 2026. The Department reserves the right to withhold student grades until thesis materials are submitted.

MAUD/MLAUD Curriculum Details

MAUD/MLAUD Curriculum Details

Approved Courses for Distributional Electives

MAUD/MLAUD Distributional Electives 2025-2026

Required Course Schedules

MAUD/MLAUD Required Course Schedule Fall 2025

Required Forms

  • MAUD/MLAUD Declaration Form: Option Studio and Thesis
  • UPD Secondary Thesis Petition

Requirements by Date of Matriculation

MUP Curriculum Details

MUP Curriculum Details

Approved Courses in Urban Planning Methods

Approved Project-Based Courses

Approved Courses in Areas of Concentration

Required Course Schedules  

MUP Required Course Schedule Fall 2025

Required Program Forms

Declaration Form: Area of Concentration
Declaration Form: Studio, Thesis, or Project-Based Courses
UPD Secondary Thesis Petition

Requirements by Date of Matriculation

Additional Resources

Harvard Negotiation Workshops and Courses

MUP Waivers and Substitutions

The Urban Planning program offers students with prior experience the opportunity to pursue waivers and substitutions for various required courses.

It is a student’s responsibility to pursue waivers in a timely manner. The Quantitative Methods waiver exam is offered during the month of August each year. Petitions to waive a required course or program requirement must follow the petitioning process outlined by your program and include the necessary supporting documentation in time for approval prior to beginning the program. Note that waiving a course does not reduce the total number of units required for graduation.

Waiver Exam


Waiving GSD 5215: Analytic Methods of Urban Planning: Quantitative, which fulfills the quantitative methods requirement, is granted by passing an exam. This exam is offered once per year in August. 

Analytic Methods (Quantitative) Waiver Exam

GSD 5215: Analytic Methods of Urban Planning: Quantitative
Professor Carole Voulgaris; [email protected]
Next exam: August 1-31, 2025 (date and time chosen by the student)
Deadline to request exam: Thursday, August 28, 2025

To request the exam, students should email Professor Carole Voulgaris at least two business days in advance, specifying a preferred date and time between August 1 and August 31. Students will receive the exam via email at the requested time and must return the completed exam within three hours. Each student will have a unique exam covering the same material.

Students are welcome to consult any statistics books or online resources during the exam. They will need access to statistical software during the exam as well. R is recommended, but other appropriate choices include Python, Stata, SPSS, MATLAB, or Excel (with Analysis ToolPak or AnalystSoft StatPlus).

Study materials

In preparation for the exam, students may wish to review the following resources:

Kahn Academy modules:
Summarizing categorical data
Summarizing continuous data
Data distributions
Relationships between continuous variables
Sampling distributions
Confidence intervals
Significance tests
Two-sample inference
Chapter 23 of R for Data Science (Grolemund and Wickham)

Waivers


If you believe you have already taken coursework that might qualify you to waive out of any required courses, you must submit a petition and supporting documentation including syllabus from the prior course(s), transcript(s), and in some cases a portfolio. All requests to waive a required course need to be received prior to enrolling in a student’s first semester.

Petition to Waive VIS 2127: Representation for Planners

Petition to Waive VIS 2128: Spatial Analysis

Petition to Waive HIS 4152: Urban Planning Theory and Praxis: Comparative-Historical Origins and Applications

Petition to Waive 5103: Public and Private Development

Petition to Waive SES 5216: Qualitative Methods for Urban Planning

The deadline to submit a petition to waive a first-year required course is 11:59 PM ET Sunday, August 17, 2025. The petition form will automatically close.

Substitutions


Several alternate courses across the university have been identified that can be taken during a student’s time at the GSD to meet some of their program requirements. Please refer to the MUP Curriculum Details for up-to-date information on preapproved courses.

The MUP program uses a formal online petition process for students to propose an alternate course to satisfy a Methods Requirement. Petitions to substitute a preapproved course with an alternate course must be received before the course selection deadline in the corresponding semester.

Petition to Substitute Economic Methods

Petition to Substitute Legal and Institutional Methods

Over-Enrollment


MUPs are required to enroll in a minimum of 20 units per term. To enroll in over 20 units in a particular term, the student must submit a Max Unit Petition via my.Harvard. The petition form will be visible within the Documents tab once a student is enrolled in 16 units.

50% Enrollment Outside the GSD


Generally, no more than fifty percent of units may be taken outside the GSD in a given term. To be considered for more than fifty percent of units outside the GSD, submit the form below.

Max Unit 50% Enrollment Petition

Petitions to exceed 50% enrollment outside the GSD must be received before the course selection deadline in the corresponding semester.

Studio Culture Policy

Policy Overview

Harvard University and the Graduate School of Design aspire to provide education and scholarship of the highest quality—to advance the frontiers of knowledge and to prepare individuals for life, work, and leadership. Achieving these aims depends on the efforts of thousands of faculty, students, and staff across the University.

Some of us make our contribution by engaging directly in teaching, learning, and research, others of us, by supporting and enabling those core activities in essential ways. Whatever our individual roles, and wherever we work within Harvard, we owe it to one another to uphold certain basic values of the community:

Achieving the mission of the GSD requires an environment of trust and mutual respect, free expression and inquiry, and a commitment to truth, excellence, and lifelong learning.  Students, program participants, faculty, staff, and alumni accept these principles when joining the Harvard Graduate School of Design community.

Community members have a personal responsibility to integrate these values into every aspect of their experience at the GSD.  Through our personal commitment to these values, we can create an environment in which we all can achieve our full potential.

(Harvard GSD Community Values Statement)

The goal of the GSD studio teaching method is to achieve a free exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect.

At the core of all of our activities at the GSD are our collective values of excellence, respect, honesty, integrity, and accountability. The GSD has adopted a Community Values Statement which is regularly communicated to all members of the GSD community.

Policy Document

The Dean, chairs, and administration have developed written procedures and policies for core and option studios that are sent to all instructors before the semester begins. The intent of the procedures and policies is to provide clear guidelines and instruction to faculty and also to convey our philosophy about studio instruction; the goal of the studio teaching method is to achieve a free exchange of ideas in an atmosphere of mutual respect. Information is collected and posted to provide critical information to aid students in their understanding of the practical and pedagogical considerations that go into the studio system at the GSD. The studio culture policy, along with all related information and guidelines, is a product of collaboration and time between faculty, staff, and the Student Forum and is meant to assist and provide support for students during the studio sequence.

Download the GSD’s Studio Culture Policy (PDF).

 

Job Search and Opportunities for MUP Students

Seek out career information well before graduation:

Organizations both big and small worldwide are interested in GSD students and alumni. Urban planning training brings a wealth of knowledge and transferable skills outside of traditional practice to many industries including but not limited to consulting, planning, government, higher education, non-profits, and beyond.

What are the key skills MUP students develop?

Which industries hire MUP graduates?

What types of jobs do MUP grads pursue?

Below is a snapshot of employers who hire GSD graduates and interns:

Additional Resources for Urban Planners

Occupational Outlook Handbook for Urban and Regional Planners

Info about a Career in Urban Design

Sarah Hutchinson

Concurrent and Joint Degrees

Concurrent and Joint Degrees

Student working with heavy machinery and wearing protective glasses.

Concurrent Degrees

Students may pursue concurrently two degrees offered by the Graduate School of Design, thereby reducing the total amount of time necessary to obtain both degrees if they were pursued separately. To pursue concurrent degrees, a student must be admitted into each degree program independently. Admission to or enrollment in one program does not guarantee acceptance by another.

The minimum full-time residency for obtaining concurrent degrees is two academic terms more than the residency requirement of the longer of the two programs. Current students admitted to a second program must, upon admission to the second program, contact the relevant Program Manager to receive an approved plan of study. Prospective students interested in a concurrent degree should contact Admissions

  • Master of Architecture (MArch)
  • Master of Architecture in Urban Design (MAUD)
  • Master in Landscape Architecture (MLA)
  • Master of Landscape Architecture in Urban Design (MLAUD)
  • Master in Design Studies (MDes)
  • Master in Urban Planning (MUP)

There are no MDE, MRE, or DDes concurrent degrees.

Joint Degrees

Students enrolled in the Master in Urban Planning (MUP) program can apply to pursue two degrees simultaneously between the GSD and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (HKS) or Law School (HLS). Students must be admitted into each school independently pursuant to that school’s own admissions criteria. The minimum full-time residency and curricular requirements at the GSD for students seeking joint degree status depend upon the degree program to which the student seeks admission. 

Joint degrees are only offered in the MUP program.

The GSD offers degree programs across a variety of design disciplines. Find out which program is right for you. COMPARE DEGREE PROGRAMS