Urban Planning and Policy, MS (Boston)

The Master of Science in Urban Planning and Policy program trains leaders interested in building just and sustainable solutions to today’s critical urban problems. Students in the program develop the theoretical and analytical tools to understand contemporary challenges of social, racial, and environmental injustice in cities and urban regions. They develop professional tools to work effectively in the realms of planning, policy, politics, and advocacy to impact urban challenges, including affordable housing provision, equitable and sustainable economic growth, sustainable transportation, and climate change adaptation and mitigation. This innovative program combines the expertise in urban planning and policy analysis data analytics of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs with expertise in physical planning, design, and data visualization at the School of Architecture. The core curriculum of the program provides students with a solid foundation in essential skills and concepts, including techniques of effective community engagement, research design and statistics, economic analysis, legal foundations of urban planning and policy, and the history of urban development and urban planning. Students also have the opportunity to develop substantial expertise in a specialization area, including urban analytics, urban sustainability and resilience, urban design and physical planning, and urban development policy and planning.

The optional cooperative education experience (co-op) is available to eligible students. Cooperative education is central to both the Northeastern experience and to the College of Social Sciences and Humanities experiential liberal arts framework. Northeastern’s signature co-op ecosystem provides qualified master's students with six-month work experiences in businesses, nonprofits, and government agencies in Boston and across the United States. Graduate students take their work from campus learning spaces, apply their knowledge outside of the classroom, and then bring knowledge and skills gained in community learning spaces back to our campus learning spaces during the cocurricular experiential integration course.

In addition to the co-op option, students in the program have opportunities to gain experience in the application of their knowledge and skills via internships, class projects, and a capstone research report. They graduate prepared for careers working for state and local government, federal agencies, community development corporations and other nonprofit organizations, research institutes, and as private-sector planning consultants.

Complete all courses and requirements listed below unless otherwise indicated.

Core Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Planning and Policy
PPUA 6201	The 21st-Century City: Urban Opportunities and Challenges in a Global Context	4
PPUA 6502	Economic Analysis for Policy and Planning	4
SUEN 6340	Topics in Urban Environmental Design	4
Research Design
INSH 6300	Research Methods in the Social Sciences	4
Quantitative Techniques
Students in the urban analytics focus area are encouraged to take INSH 5301.
Choose one from the following:		4
INSH 5301	Introduction to Computational Statistics
INSH 6500	Statistical Analysis
Planning Law
Choose one from the following:		2-4
LPSC 5201	Law and the City
PPUA 5201	Urban Planning and the Law
Planning and Social Justice
Choose one from the following:		2-4
PPUA 5233	Contemporary Community Development
PPUA 5235	Participatory Community Planning Methods
PPUA 6219	Race, Justice, and Belonging in Planning Practice

Focus Areas

Complete one of the following focus areas:

• Urban Design and Physical Planning
• Urban Analytics
• Sustainability and Resilience
• Urban Development Policy and Planning

Urban Design and Physical Planning

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Gateway Course
ARCH 6340	Graduate Topics in Architecture	4
Tracks
Complete one of the following tracks:		8
Urban Design and Real Estate
ARCH 5310	Design Tactics and Operations
ARCH 5530	Innovative Models in Real Estate Development and Design
Physical Planning and Design for Sustainable Urbanism
SUEN 7230	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 1
SUEN 7240	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 2
Urban Experience Track
ARTG 5150 and ARTG 5151	Information Visualization Principles and Practices and Information Design Critique Seminar
ARTG 6310	Design for Behavior and Experience
Capstone
SUEN 6120	Graduate Studio 2: Sustainable Urban Systems	6

Urban Analytics

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Gateway Course
PPUA 5262	Big Data for Cities	4
Required Courses
ARTG 5150 and ARTG 5151	Information Visualization Principles and Practices and Information Design Critique Seminar	4
PPUA 5263	Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy	4
Capstone
PPUA 7673	Capstone in Public Policy and Urban Affairs	4

Sustainability and Resilience

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Gateway Course
LPSC 7312	Cities, Sustainability, and Climate Change	4
or SUEN 6310	Cities, Nature, and Design in Contemporary History and Theory
Methods
Complete one of the following:		4
PPUA 5261	Dynamic Modeling for Environmental Decision Making
PPUA 5263	Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy
SUEN 7230	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 1
Capstone
PPUA 7673	Capstone in Public Policy and Urban Affairs	4
Elective
Complete one of the following:		4
PPUA 5231	Transportation Policy
PPUA 5234	Land Use and Urban Growth Policy
PPUA 5238	Climate Change and Global Urbanization
PPUA 5249	Sustainable Urban Coastal Policy
PPUA 5260	Ecological Economics
PPUA 5261	Dynamic Modeling for Environmental Decision Making
PPUA 5264	Energy Democracy and Climate Justice: Technology, Policy, and Social Change
SUEN 6110	Graduate Studio 1: Sustainable Urban Sites
SUEN 6120	Graduate Studio 2: Sustainable Urban Systems
SUEN 6220	Implementation and Visualization for Urban Environments 2
SUEN 6310	Cities, Nature, and Design in Contemporary History and Theory
SUEN 6340	Topics in Urban Environmental Design
SUEN 7230	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 1
SUEN 7240	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 2
SUEN 7320	Pro-Seminar: Issues in Designed Urban Environments

Urban Development Policy and Planning

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Gateway Course
Complete one of the following:		4
PPUA 5230	Housing Policy
PPUA 5231	Transportation Policy
PPUA 5233	Contemporary Community Development
PPUA 5265	Global Urbanization and Planning
Methods
PPUA 5263	Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy	4
or PPUA 5236	Introduction to Real Estate Development for Urban Policy Makers
Capstone
PPUA 7673	Capstone in Public Policy and Urban Affairs	4
Elective
Complete one of the following:		4
PPUA 5230	Housing Policy
PPUA 5231	Transportation Policy
PPUA 5232	Immigration and Urban America
PPUA 5233	Contemporary Community Development
PPUA 5234	Land Use and Urban Growth Policy
PPUA 5236	Introduction to Real Estate Development for Urban Policy Makers
PPUA 5265	Global Urbanization and Planning
PPUA 5270	Food Systems and Public Policy
PPUA 6506	Techniques of Policy Analysis
PPUA 6551	Nonprofit Organizations and Social Change
SUEN 6110	Graduate Studio 1: Sustainable Urban Sites
SUEN 6120	Graduate Studio 2: Sustainable Urban Systems
SUEN 6340	Topics in Urban Environmental Design

Electives

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Complete 4-8 semester hours of the following:		4-8
ARCH 5310	Design Tactics and Operations
ARCH 5530	Innovative Models in Real Estate Development and Design
ARCH 6100	Graduate Skills Studio
ARCH 6330	Seminar in Modern Architecture
ARCH 6340	Graduate Topics in Architecture
ARTG 5100	Information Design Studio 1: Principles
ARTG 5120	Research Methods for Design
ARTG 5130	Visual Communication for Information Design
ARTG 5330	Visualization Technologies 1: Fundamentals
ARTG 6330	Information Design Mapping Strategies
DA 5020	Collecting, Storing, and Retrieving Data
DA 5030	Introduction to Data Mining/Machine Learning
INSH 5302	Information Design and Visual Analytics
PPUA 5230	Housing Policy
PPUA 5231	Transportation Policy
PPUA 5232	Immigration and Urban America
PPUA 5233	Contemporary Community Development
PPUA 5234	Land Use and Urban Growth Policy
PPUA 5236	Introduction to Real Estate Development for Urban Policy Makers
PPUA 5238	Climate Change and Global Urbanization
PPUA 5244	Comparative Public Policy and Administration
PPUA 5245	Education Policy in the United States
PPUA 5249	Sustainable Urban Coastal Policy
PPUA 5260	Ecological Economics
PPUA 5261	Dynamic Modeling for Environmental Decision Making
PPUA 5263	Geographic Information Systems for Urban and Regional Policy
PPUA 5264	Energy Democracy and Climate Justice: Technology, Policy, and Social Change
PPUA 5265	Global Urbanization and Planning
PPUA 5270	Food Systems and Public Policy
PPUA 6212	Research Toolkit for Urban and Regional Policy: Project Management
PPUA 6216	Research Toolkit for Urban and Regional Policy: Grant Writing
PPUA 6506	Techniques of Policy Analysis
PPUA 6551	Nonprofit Organizations and Social Change
PPUA 7237	Advanced Spatial Analysis of Urban Systems
SUEN 6110	Graduate Studio 1: Sustainable Urban Sites
SUEN 6120	Graduate Studio 2: Sustainable Urban Systems
SUEN 6210	Implementation and Visualization for Urban Environments 1
SUEN 6220	Implementation and Visualization for Urban Environments 2
SUEN 6310	Cities, Nature, and Design in Contemporary History and Theory
SUEN 6340	Topics in Urban Environmental Design
SUEN 7230	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 1
SUEN 7240	Urban Ecologies and Technologies 2
SUEN 7320	Pro-Seminar: Issues in Designed Urban Environments

Optional Co-op Experience

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Requires two consecutive semesters of Co-op Work Experience and Experiential Integration:		2
PPUA 6964 and INSH 6864	Co-op Work Experience and Experiential Integration

Program Credit/GPA Requirements

48 total semester hours required (50 with optional co-op)
Minimum 3.000 GPA required