jfdirth

I am caught between two programs at the moment and having difficultly deciding. I was accepted at La Follette with no funding yet, but have an opportunity to get funding through secondary rounds of decision, while at Georgetown I was accepted with $15,000 a year in funding. Even with that funding from McCourt though I would still have to pay about $7,000 more in tuititon per year and increased costs for living expenses. At La Follette I have a very strong network built as I went to another Wisconsin school for my undergrad and built a sizeable network in the state government and political players, but La Follette graduates have a tendency to stick around in Wisconsin post-graduation and I would like to move out to Chicago or possibly DC depending on job opportunities. At McCourt, I have very little in a established network and a good deal of their graduates stay in DC metro which is nice but they have a lower placement rate and most of their jobs are comparable to what I would get at LaFollette expect at the Federal level. I don't really care too much for presitege of McCourt, but I am wondering if that is worth something to employers over La Follette, and finally La Follette is ranked higher often over McCourt, but I am not sure how trustful those rankings are. Thoughts?

Programs Considering: Harris (Top choice), LaFollette, Ford, Berkeley, Humphrey, and NIU. Looking at Harris' MSCAPP as first choice. Undergraduate Institution: Regional Public University in the Midwest Undergraduate Major: Political Science, Public Administration, and Sociology GPA: My GPA: 3.7 For my Majors it's: 3.9 for Political Science and 3.8 for Sociology. GRE score: I've only taken the GRE once and here are my scores: Q: 163 V: 156 AW: 5 The first question I have to anybody that might respond is should I take the GRE again in order to boost my verbal score a little bit? I know that it's a bit lackluster for some of the programs I'm looking to apply to. Work experience: This is my biggest concern as a undergraduate attempting to go straight to an MPP/MPA program from undergrad. I have some work experience that might be viewed as professional but I need some opinion on whether or not admissions at these schools will consider it. I have 3 years as the Legislative Issues Director for my Student Government: Largely a position equivalent to a Legislative Liaison, I talk with legislators on policy issues and inform the Student Senate about current policy going through the legislature. I am also interning with my District Representative on the campaign side. I've been both a teaching assistant and the research assistant for the Sociology department at my school. Finally, I am a chair of a budget committee for the University that deals with about $1 Million each year and handles budgets and capital projects associated with that funding. Quantitative requirements: I have basic level statistics, intro macro economics, public budgeting, and a research methods class in both Sociology and Political Science/Public Administration at my school. LORs: Nothing I am too concerned about, I have a good deal of professors I can look to for LORs plus the Congressman I am interning with if all goes well. Also some other elected officials I have a great work relationship with as well. Concerns: My chief concern is the piece on professional work experience, something that I will evidently lack if I want to get into a program right after my undergraduate. Further, my verbal GRE score seems a bit lackluster for a top ten program but that might be me being too pessimistic. A final but a lesser concern is my undergraduate institution, since I don't come from a flagship state university or high caliber private school, does that impact the decision making process at all? Thanks to anyone in advance.