Georgetown University’s board of directors approved in February 2023 a new undergraduate degree program offered jointly between the McCourt School of Public Policy and the College of Arts & Sciences starting in the Fall 2023 semester.

The program requires students to spend their first two years on the main Georgetown campus and the next two years on the downtown campus, which will eventually feature a new McCourt School building in close proximity to the U.S. Capitol Building. Students in the program will also participate in a mandatory internship program for one semester as part of an effort to promote experiential learning.

Sarah Whitehouse (CAS ’26), a member of the student strategy team for the McCourt School, said the degree represents a common intersection of the interests of Georgetown students.

“I think the new undergraduate degree is great because it offers a course of study that combines the interests of many students,” Whitehouse wrote to The Hoya. .

While Georgetown policy does not currently allow School of Foreign Service (SFS) students to graduate with two majors, Whitehouse said she thought changing this requirement might benefit students instead of having them commit entirely to the McCourt School.

“I think a better option may be allowing for easier/more dual majors between the College and SFS,” Whitehouse wrote. 

Currently, undergraduates cannot earn a degree in public policy, as the McCourt School currently only offers graduate degrees like the Master of Public Policy and the Master of Science in Data Science for Public Policy. Students in the new program can focus on public policy as a whole or choose a concentration, such as climate change and the environment, domestic and social policy and political institutions, energy and international development, according to a Georgetown University press release. 

In addition to the new degree, the newly constructed downtown site of the McCourt School will welcome students near the heart of Capitol Hill starting in the summer of 2024. The new building will provide an opportunity for students, researchers and faculty to come together in one unified space for the first time since the school’s founding in 2013.

“Our new building will unite McCourt School students, faculty, research centers and staff in the same location for the first time since the School’s founding in 2013, accelerating collaboration and spurring new partnerships,” a press release from the McCourt School reads. 

Jonathan Ladd, an associate professor in the government department and the McCourt School, said the new degree program provides unique opportunities for students.

“I think that it is a great opportunity for students,” Ladd wrote to The Hoya. “Georgetown students are very interested in the whole cluster of subjects related to the social sciences and policy-making.”

Ladd said he will teach the required undergraduate class titled “The Politics of Policymaking” in the McCourt School starting in the Fall semester of 2024. Ladd said the public policy degree is integral for Georgetown students hoping to explore the intersection of business, international relations and government in a single major. 

“The public policy degree will essentially be an interdisciplinary degree that will allow students to take classes in all of those topics with a focus on government policy-making,” Ladd wrote.