NYU Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service

Master of Urban Planning

New York, USA

DURATION

2 up to 4 Years

LANGUAGES

English

PACE

Full time, Part time

APPLICATION DEADLINE

12 May 2025*

EARLIEST START DATE

Sep 2025

TUITION FEES

USD 2,162 / per credit

STUDY FORMAT

On-Campus

* Fall 2025 Early Action Deadline

Key Summary

About: The Master of Urban Planning program focuses on the design and management of urban spaces, preparing students to tackle contemporary urban challenges. You'll explore topics like urban theory, land use planning, and environmental management, equipping you with a comprehensive understanding of how cities function. The duration of the program is typically two years, with options for full-time and part-time study.

Career Outcomes: Graduates can pursue careers such as urban planners, city managers, or environmental consultants. Other potential roles include policy analysts, community development specialists, and transportation planners, working in various sectors like government, nonprofit organizations, and private firms.

Introduction

The world is becoming more urbanized, and cities are growing denser and more diverse. It's exciting—it's also challenging. From transportation to environment and crime to education, urban issues are complex because they're interrelated. NYU Wagner gives you the unique opportunity to study urban planning in the context of these issues, within a school of public service. You'll interact with people from other disciplines who are grappling with these real-world social, cultural, and economic issues. And there's no better place than NYC to learn what happens when ideas meet messy urban realities. The skills and insights you'll gain here and the multidisciplinary toolkit you'll build with core courses in finance, policy, and management are what you need to design more livable and sustainable cities—anywhere in the world.

Program Highlights

A unique blend of planning, management, finance, and policy that prepares you to address financial constraints and resource limitations, and also market realities and political hurdles—the difference between beautiful designs and real impact.
A responsive program that adapts to evolving urban challenges and provides the full set of skills for you to grapple with them.
A tight-knit and energized student community with the resources of a larger school.
Flexibility for full- or part-time students, with options to switch between the two. Earn your degree in two years full-time, or 3-4 years part-time.

Admissions

Curriculum

The Master of Urban Planning (MUP) is a 45-credit degree program made up of core courses, a required specialization, electives, the Professional Experience Requirement (PER), and a capstone.

Total Credits Required: 45

I. Degree Core (18 Credits)

Statistical Methods || Microeconomics
Management and Leadership || Financial Management
Urban Planning: Methods and Practice || History and Theory of Planning

II. Specialization Requirements (9 Credits)

Each of the two specializations requires three courses (9 credits) to give students an introduction to key concepts and skills.

City and Community Planning	International Development Planning
Spatial Analysis and Visualization	Institutions, Governance, and International Development
Land Use Law	Decentralized Development Planning in Developing Countries
Urban Economics	Urban Economics

III. Electives: Program-Recommended and School-Wide Focus Areas (15 Credits)

You may choose courses across Wagner for your electives. To assist you, we've grouped courses by recommended Focus Areas.

You can go deeper in your specialization by choosing elective courses within program-recommended focus areas that help you develop more advanced skills.

If you wish to gain a breadth of knowledge and skills or sharpen your career focus, you may also choose electives within and across the school-wide focus areas.

Environmental Planning
Global Perspectives
Housing and Economic Development
Transportation and Infrastructure
Urban Analytics
School-wide

IV. Capstone (3 Credits)

The Capstone Program, a year-long consulting or research project that's required for all MUP students, puts you out in the world, resolving a problem or conducting an analysis for a client organization.

V. Professional Experience Requirement

NYU Wagner is deeply committed to education outside of the classroom. First-hand work experience in your field of choice can be a pivotal experience, and our New York City location offers countless opportunities for career exploration. To this end, NYU Wagner requires all MPA and MUP students to graduate with professional experience that is directly related to their degree program and field of interest.

Students can fulfill this requirement in one of two ways:

Enter NYU Wagner with at least two years of full-time, degree-relevant, professional experience; or
Complete the Professional Experience Requirement (PER), which means working in a degree-relevant job or internship while attending NYU Wagner and before enrolling in Capstone. Students typically fulfill the PER via a relevant work experience over one semester (i.e. 15-20 hours per week during a semester, or 35-40 hours per week in the summer).

Once you begin classes, NYU Wagner’s Office of Career Services staff is available to advise you on strategies and resources for identifying degree-relevant positions, submitting strong application materials, conducting successful interviews, or seeking a PER waiver for previous experience.

Program Tuition Fee

Faculty

English Language Requirements

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