By Alison Stein Wellner

Q. I am about to complete my first year working in a nonprofit, historical-research organization. I am keenly interested in nonprofit work and am considering master's of public administration programs, but don't yet know specifically which nonprofit field I'll focus on. Should I work toward an MPA while gaining work experience and worry about narrowing my interest later? And how do MPA programs compare against each other?

A. You should definitely narrow your interests before you apply to graduate school, says Kristen J. McCormack, director of the public and nonprofit management program at Boston University. It's important to really know what you plan to do with your degree, and why you want that degree before you start to fill out those applications. That's because you'll usually be asked to write an essay, if not go through an interview during your application process, and "admissions officers will see it if you don't know exactly why you want to do the program," she says. "I see them write it on applications all the time: 'This person is really smart, has great skills, but it's not clear why they want the program,'" she says. Such uncertainty on the part of a prospective student, she says, will likely result in him or her not being accepted.

To home in on your true interests in the nonprofit world, Ms. McCormack suggests a few strategies. She encourages you to tap your available networks of contacts. "Get in touch with your alumni network from your undergraduate school, or with a professional group, and do informational interviews in a variety of nonprofit sectors," she suggests. By spending time with people who are working in the field, you'll quickly get a sense of where your true interests lie -- and whether an MPA will really be helpful to you in your chosen career path. She also recommends that you take a look at The Harvard Business School Guide to Careers in the Nonprofit Sector, by Stephanie Lowell (Harvard Business School Press, 2000, $22.95).

As for your question about how MPA programs compare with one another, U.S. News & World Report ranks graduate programs of all stripes, public-affairs programs among them. The magazine states that it ranks the programs based on "all factors bearing on excellence, such as curriculum, record of scholarship, and quality of faculty and graduates." You can see the top five schools free online. (They are, in descending order: Harvard, Syracuse University, Indiana University at Bloomington, Princeton University, and the University of California at Berkeley.) The site also ranks MPA programs with nonprofit specialties -- in descending order, the top five are Harvard, the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, New York University, the Johns Hopkins University, and Seton Hall University. For a fee of $9.95, you can get online access to all of the magazine's school-ranking data. While you're visiting the magazine's site, you might want to check out the article "Does Grad School Make Sense for You?" You can also find online an overall list of graduate programs in nonprofit management.

Got a question about job hunting, recruiting, or managing in the nonprofit world? Send it to us at hotline@philanthropy.com.