All graduate schools have a similar structure and theme. You enroll in classes, which hold varying levels of difficulty, but all have the expectation that you, as a graduate student, are capable of grappling with difficult subjects and assignments. Lectures turn more into group discussions, and are only as good as your preparation for the topic. In concluding your final semester, or semesters, typically, you complete a thesis paper. This is the proof of your mastery of the subject in which you have enrolled. Guided by advisors and fellow students, you make your mark by way of adding your perspective, informed by courses and devoted work. This is common. However, what is uncommon is the creativity and freedom allotted to the student about what, why, and how they decide to make their mark. The Heller School is uncommon in this regard. The only true limit that the Heller School imposes on its students' ambitions is that of time. And I have no doubt that if time could be manipulated, the Heller School would take full advantage, so it may provide its students with even greater freedom and a greater likelihood of success, even if marginally.
An example of this can be found in my own experience. The advisors, professors, and staff at Heller have allowed me to chase every bold idea I have had with respect to my final year, to show mastery of my subject. They afforded me the opportunity and permission to complete a Summer Fellowship at Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, where, in rather extreme ambition, sought ways to expand Medicare’s Drug Price Negotiation Program and explore ways to lower drug costs at the federal level. This project, in a standard graduate program, may not have occurred for credit, as my program is in conflict resolution and coexistence, not exactly a related topic. Yet, they trusted my idea and ambition to apply my subject to an atypical area. Secondly, yet again, staff and faculty at Heller allowed me to extend my enrollment by a semester, to allow me to undertake an ambitious project, developing a strategic plan for my hometown, the City of Santa Barbara, in addressing its housing challenges. It’s allowed me to make meaningful relationships with local leaders and challenge my understanding of economic and social policy in practice. Once again, they have supported my ideas and ambitions to take my program's subject and apply it to areas and topics of my choosing, and have empowered me in choosing the right medium to present my perspective. Not confined to a paper.
The reason why the Heller School has such confidence in its students and motivation to support even the most atypical ideas is that all staff, faculty, and students here have a common understanding that the world is filled with difficult, complex challenges. And these challenges arise in many forms. Why should our ideas to address these challenges be bound by self or institutional limitations when the challenges we face do not have these bounds? The Heller School acknowledges this and makes every effort to counter these limitations. If coming to Heller, please be ambitious. Be audacious in approaching a challenge you care about. Show your mastery of a subject in a way that you feel is best to address the issue you care most about. And trust that the Heller School will do its very best to clear a path forward for your success.