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UC Berkeley Goldman MPP 2015


naso

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Can I ask what you mean when you say "housing and employment"?

 

I've seen it referenced on these forums that Berkeley awards many (if not all?) of their MPP students with some pretty nice assistantships, but I cant find anything to that effect on their website. Does anyone know if that's true or not?

I've been working for an organization that builds and operates affordable housing. I'm a community organizer with them. Doing that work has gotten me really interested in both how to create housing that's affordable as well as jobs that provide incomes that eliminate the need for affordable housing. I want to study how the two intersect and interact.

 

In the acceptance e-mail, it said something like over 50% of students get assistantships. This seems to be the best evidence for the rumors about assistanships that I've heard as well.

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Congrats to everyone who got in - I got my notification at around 6 30 PM PST too (a huge surprise since I didn't expect to hear anything past 5 PM PST). Anyway, very very pleased even though I didn't get a fellowship. I was also a bit surprised that the mail didn't end up going to my promotions tab (I use gmail and usually all of my Goldman emails go there), and realised that they'd sent the email through a different email ID? (gsppadm@socrates.berkeley.edu instead of gsppadm-socrates@berkeley.edu)?

Anyway, hang in there you guys, from what I've heard about past years' acceptances, they seem to send out notifications in batches :)

Edited by freeverse
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Congratulations to those who have been accepted! I am a current first year MPP student at the Goldman school and I would be happy to answer your questions or refer you to relevant individuals. This forum was useful to me around this time last year and I am feeling nostalgic.

Best of luck to the rest that are waiting to hear back!

Thanks for your message! Goldman is my top choice. While I have gotten in, I was not selected for a fellowship. I wondered if you had any advice//suggestions on where I may look/what I might do to make this acceptance an attendance. I am in international student, so I imagine most of the benefits to US/Cal residents would not apply. Thanks!

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Congrats to those who got in!

 

Any idea how competitive GSPP is? My understanding is that it is more selective than HKS and on par with WWS? Is this correct? 

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Mine still says submitted as well. No idea if that is good or bad! 

 

Same here. I've been going crazy all weekend checking my email/status page after seeing people getting results on Friday.

 

I put my chances at getting into Goldman at around 25%, and I wont be heartbroken if I don't get accepted. It's an amazing program and my numbers aren't up to snuff, but the not knowing and still holding out hope is frustrating. 

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Congrats to those who got in!

 

Any idea how competitive GSPP is? My understanding is that it is more selective than HKS and on par with WWS? Is this correct? 

 

The actual range for acceptance rates for a number of schools was posted on the forums a couple of years ago. I remember reading it not terribly long ago and it went something like this. Apologies for not being able to find it. 

 

edit: here's a thread with some info. 

 

 

WWS -- in the teens (let's face it, not many people are going to turn down a free ride at a high profile school)

Goldman -- 20-25% range (relatively affordable, nice weather/area, away from DC which flags concerns for some)

HKS -- HKS mid 20s (name brand, unbeatable network, crushing debt)

 

I believe they are the 3 most competitive schools. However, those are generalizations and the person who wrote out his findings noted that you need the yield (i.e. number of accepted applicants who actually enroll into the school) to make sense of the data Goldman (and other schools that don't provide yield) publishes on its website. 

 

I've noticed from an old post that Goldman received 489 applicants in 2009 and 781 applicants in 2014 (posted on their website). Given that Goldman normally enrolls a class of 75-90 students, admission is getting increasingly competitive. So from what I gather, your assumption stands for the most part. However, it's all speculative without the hard data! And I know my numbers are a bit off but in the neighborhood  ;)

 

Well, the school is going to open soon :mellow: *gulp*. Wishing everyone good vibes!

Edited by kooyah
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It was kind of mean for Berkeley to keep us waiting and especulating this way. Ill only forgive them if admitted :P

Lets hope the remaining decisions are sent early today. Ill freak out more if they send them after 5. As for the percentage of admitted students I think it should be around the same number of HKS. However I believe Berkeley searches for very different profiles.

Good luck!!

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Just received my notification! Email came in 10 minutes ago at 9:28 AM Pacific time. I got a $5,000 fellowship for one year.

 

Big congrats to you naso!!

 

Don't mind me, I'll just be furiously refreshing my inbox. There goes my productivity for the afternoon. 

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Big congrats to you naso!!

 

Don't mind me, I'll just be furiously refreshing my inbox. There goes my productivity for the afternoon.

lol, this is excruciating. I'm sure there's some perfectly reasonable sorting algorithm or carefully considered game strategy that's informed their decision to batch decisions this way, but it's slowly driving me insane.
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Seriously... Berkeley is my #1 choice, and the wait is killing me.

 

But my last name falls near the end of the alphabet, so... hopefully that's why I haven't heard?

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Seriously... Berkeley is my #1 choice, and the wait is killing me.

 

But my last name falls near the end of the alphabet, so... hopefully that's why I haven't heard?

 

Sorry to debunk your theory, but my last name begins with an A and I haven't heard either.

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Seriously... Berkeley is my #1 choice, and the wait is killing me.

But my last name falls near the end of the alphabet, so... hopefully that's why I haven't heard?

Sorry to debunk your theory, but my last name begins with an A and I haven't heard either.

Yes, agreed, I don't think the batching is predicated on so arbitrary a sort as plain alphabetical order.

I am not sure, of course, but it feels like maybe they're announcing by admitted type, e.g.: 1) admitted w/o funding-> 2) admitted w/funding-> 3) wait list-> 4) rejected [or, 3) rejected-> 4) wait list]).

Either that or their release reflects some kind of Optimal Stoping Theory roulette system that "pods" candidates together.

Or it's completely arbitrary :)

Edited by the galen
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That is how it looks to me, as well. The longer I go without notification, the less optimistic I become.

The weird thing is I sort of haphazardly applied last year (long story, see below) but got my rejection at 7 PST on the dot on the 6th.

It would be cruel and pointless for them to switch to notifying the rejected last, and yet I don't see any rejections on the results board, so...

(long story: my wife got a 9th Circuit clerkship and we moved to NorCal whence I've been virtually telecommuting to D.C.)

Edited by the galen
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I thought I saw someone else post this question already, but for some reason I can't find the post. I'm sorry if I'm repeating a question that has already been addressed.

I got in, but what does this mean?:

". . .you have also been awarded a GSPP departmental fellowship. This award covers full enrollment fees for the 2015-2016 academic year. For your second year, we will provide a stipend of $5,000 for your educational and/or living expenses."

Does that mean one year of tuition and $5,000 the second year? Or does it mean something else? I have absolutely no idea.

Thanks for your support, guys. Congrats to those who got their decisions and best of luck to those who are still waiting.

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Maybe they release decisions in the order in which they received the applications? I sent mine with one hour to go. 

 

 

Maybe. Mine was in with a few hours to go.

 

Sorry.. I sent mine with just a few hours to go and got notified on Friday...

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Yeah, so based on the sequencing (and the fact that the vast majority will be rejected, yet no one's reported a rejection yet), I assume the last batches to be released are wait list + rejections.

 

Since they've already notified admits with no funding, the question is whether notifications for the admitted with funding are done, or set to drag through yet another excruciating day(or, god forbid, days). 

 

I really love the idea of Berkeley. They have some really cool workforce-centric research and applied projects they're working on that are perfect fits for the policy I intend to drive. And it doesn't hurt that we recently moved to NorCal and are now debating whether or not we want to stay forever and start a family here.

 

That said, it's a huge bummer that they decided to further delay (and thereby needlessly exacerbate) the anxiety of 700 or so human beings--700 families, really--who will not, ultimately, make the cut.  :angry:

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WOOOOOOOO!!! Full Ride plus a $10,000 stipend (for the first year). SO. FREAKING. ECSTATIC!

*HEAVY BREATHING*

Congrats! Lmao, I think they're literally announcing on a graduated funding schedule followed by denials... Cold blooded!
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WOOOOOOOO!!! Full Ride plus a $10,000 stipend (for the first year). SO. FREAKING. ECSTATIC! 

 

*HEAVY BREATHING*

 

That's insane, congratulations!!

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