plenum123

In for Cornell, Brown, GPPI, SAIS, UCLA. Waiting for HKS , SIPA

Dude, I think you are too much into MBA program. I believe you applied to some MBA programs before and got rejected. Did you even get a chance to interview or get feedback from them though? If not, you are shooting in the dark again I am telling you.

Let's put it this way...I am just a voice of unpretentious reality Honestly too, we should mainly pay for professors, and building maintainence, not luxurious administrations regardless of how talented or desirable they are. "I think they do it because they want another year of classes to educate their students" It's vague with no support evidence. If I am an Adcom, I would ding you right away. ....................................Just saying

They wanna make money. FYI, the president of the university receives around 600,000USD per year, not to mention other employees' benefits, just saying.

Well, a sub 3.0 is rough. A school would take that seriously as if you have a criminal record. If you get rejected from school you applying to, you may need to do some college level course work or certificate and do great (all A's) and get a little higher in GRE.

http://www.finaid.org/calculators/loanpayments.phtml I refer to this website for loan info.

It depends. After HKS you will have to pay back around 1,300-1,500 USD monthly for your loan(130,000USD) for 10 years if I am correct. Since you plan to pursue higher Ed, will you be able to afford it? Harvard is nice on the resume though.

Hopefully. I got my acceptance letter yet seeing a dime.

I attended HKS admission session in NYC months ago, the HKS rep. stated that you need to apply both school in the same application cycle and get accepted at both school to pursue dual degree (3 years) HKS/HBS. You can finish HKS and then apply but you are not allowed to apply during academic year in hoping to do the joint program. And that would be 4 total years to complete both degrees.

For a government Job, I dont think it matters much from what I looked thru the job posting. ( they ask for experience and advance degree (from anywhere) to jump the salary grade). Private sectors with financial and technology aspects such as Google, JP, Goldman S. (if you are not an engineer), however, restrict candidates to have MBA, JD degree ( from top schools), or CPA. And mostly, they hire students who previously did an internship with them (of course you need MBA and JD from top program to be able to get an internship opportunity).That means MPA career path is pretty limited. But in the future if you need to switch your career choice to private sector and need to get an MBA, Top name grad school would help you in MBA admission process (providing that you have a good GPA from your previous degrees, High GMAT, know how to sell yourself on your resume, and good BS stories). But if you can afford it, it's no brainer to attend the best one.

In for Brown, GPPI, Cornell. Waiting for SIPA and HKS

Wow, I am stunning. If your statement is true, Harvard University is full of narrow minded D-bag people. HKS is considered one of the top programs in the field. If Harvard MBA, HLS students look down at them, other public policy schools would even be worse. In my view, this degradation is rare in reality. For MBA, you compete with students from other fields that's why it's tougher and HBS favors former Harvard students who work in Top bussiness firms than those who got 4.00 GPA from public school and 750 GMAT. MPP is more limited to those who involve in public affairs and that's the reason it's less competitive. To prevent students to use HKS as a backdoor to HBS, they dont allow HKS student to apply after they get admitted. It has to be done simultaneously. If you can get into Harvard HKS, do good on LSAT or whatever test, then you have the "edge" to apply to any Law school and gain advantage I am super sure. And the reason that you would pick other B-school over HKS is that they get paid more statistically and you can land a nice financial job anywhere . Am I right? And Aint these B-school grads who jeopodized our economy and begging for tax money to bail them out? I dont think that they 're that sophisicated after all. All in all Harvard is a great school.

If you have GMAT 700 up ,solid essays and relevant WE it's doable. But MBA candidates seem to have more competitive work experiences with big name companies which allow them to elaborate their stories in essays much better and easier. While MPP/MPA line of work is very flat. You will be competing with engineers, finance folks, and other fields. But Law school is very straight forward. GPA x LSAT. It is true that MPP program is much easier to get in. Even Johnson school at Cornell is tougher to get accepted than HKS by comparing admitting rates. Plus, you can not dual with HBS unless you apply at the same application cycle. And no, they are not smarter than you, you just need to find your theme to properly answer WHY MBA WHY NOW and be sharp during an interview (if you get invited)

There were around 1,729 applicants the previous years. That year I believe they required policy memo too. However, there's only 1 SOP + optional essay this academic year. This would attract applicants all around to try their luck which will significantly increase number of applicants. I 'd say the number would be around 2,000-2600 apps with 18-20% % admission rate.