tigertigertiger

Thanks for the replies, everyone. Pleasantly surprised by my GRE as well, as I had only prepped for the GMAT (770). Would love to hear more about Yale-Jackson and HKS-- opinions/perspectives/advice welcome!

Hey All, Looking for some brutally honest feedback regarding my grad school chances with an F on my transcript. I missed a number of classes in a literature elective my junior year due to illness (unexcused, so I was technically in the wrong), my professor was unforgiving, and he flunked me for the course. Trying to overcome what I assume is a pretty costly blemish in the eyes of admissions officers, so please let me know if you have any insights-- will this keep me out of MPP programs generally? Program: MA in IR, MPA School Applying to: HKS, Yale Jackson Institute, Stanford MA, SIPA, SAIS, Harris Undergrad Institution: H / P / Y Undergrad GPA: 3.5 (with the F..., ~3.63 without) Major/Minor: Major in International Affairs, with a focus on International Trade. Thesis Topic: WTO / GATT Accession for Middle-Income Countries GRE: 170 V, 170 Q, 6 Writing Age: 24 Years of Work Experience: Two years Languages: Spanish Work Experience: Internship with a public sector banking group (think Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citi) after sophomore year. Spent ~five months working for the White House Council of Economic Advisers as a research analyst in the trade policy concentration, then spent two years working for BlackRock's Financial Markets Advisory Group in New York (advises government institutions like the Federal Reserve, Her Majesty's Treasury, ECB). Quant Experience: Introductory micro + macro. Intermediate micro. Introductory and intermediate political statistics. Econometrics. Latin American political economy. Strength of LoR 1: Dean of the College, with whom I've taken three seminars. Likely best LoR. Strength of LoR 2: Managing Director from BlackRock, who has extensive policy experience from working at the NY Fed. Quite close with him, so I'm hopeful this will be cogent as well. Strength of LoR 3: Thesis advisor-- likely good recommendation, as I did well on my thesis, but I'm not as close with her personally. Concerns: Lack of work experience and the obvious transcript blemish. Post grad school, I'm interested in banking regulation and the macroeconomy. Are my expectations too lofty?