Kuldeep Dixit

Why pursue a Master of Urban and Regional Planning at Virginia Tech?

Current student Kuldeep Dixit shares his experience:

What attracted you to the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at Virginia Tech originally?
After my undergraduate studies, I started working on urban air pollution and realized its negative impact on communities. I have an engineering background which helped me in figuring out the technical aspect of the problem, but I felt that a broader understanding was missing because of the scope of the problem, especially on the policy and planning front, and that motivated me to apply for the MURP degree at Virginia Tech.

What are 1 or 2 things you have come to appreciate about the program since you began?
I think the flexibility of the program is the most attractive feature to me-you can specialize in any area of planning which interests you by earning relevant certificates. I also appreciate the faculty teaching us here in the MURP program who come from diverse backgrounds. I think everyone can find at least one faculty member here who is associated with one’s area of interest.

What would you like to do after you graduate?
I have applied for a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech and I will enroll in the Planning, Governance, and Globalization (PGG) program after completing the MURP program. I will hunt for an academic position after my Ph.D. but it is too far in the future to say with certainty.

How is the MURP program preparing you for those goals?
The MURP degree here at VT has a thesis route, which I have opted for as it will help me prepare for the thesis writing in the Ph.D. program. I am also working as a GRA here with Dr. Steve Hankey while completing the credits for the MURP. The work involves mobile air quality monitoring in which we bike around Northern Virginia collecting a bunch of air samples using various instruments installed on the bike. It has helped me to remain in touch with various research studies.

In what ways do you feel connected to your classmates and the program?
The student community in MURP is supportive, and I feel I can share anything with them because the environment is very open. I learned a lot about urban planning from classmates and friends, some of whom are working as planners. I think the group projects as part of various classes have also helped in enriching my planning experience here.

Overall, how do you feel about your decision to study at VT for a MURP?
I think I made the right choice to enroll in VT’s MURP program. This program exposed me to the community and policy aspects of the complex issues that I previously lacked. Using this knowledge, I can view problems through various lenses that help me better understand issues like urban air pollution and use different tools to implement a positive change. Kuldeep has spent the past year at the DC campus and will continue his studies at the Blacksburg campus in the fall.