traveler91

Hi all, first time poster here. I'm planning to apply for fall 2016 entry and focus on international development and emerging economies. Program (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MIA Schools Applying To: SAIS, Georgetown, Fletcher, SIPA (maybe) Undergraduate institution: Large, public university. Big 10 school Undergraduate GPA: 3.42 Undergraduate Majors: Economics GRE: TBD, studying now Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 2.5 years Years of Work Experience: 2.5 years Describe Relevant Work Experience: Internship with US Embassy Rome, Economic Section. Internship with implementing partner on an economic growth project funded by USAID. Hired full-time to backstop that program upon graduation. Currently in Afghanistan doing technical implementation on the program and will be here until I go to grad school. It'll be over 18 months of field experience by the time of entry (fall 2016). Languages: Beginner Italian. Intermediate French. Quant: Lots of economics courses, calculus, statistics, upper level econometrics Strength of SOP: I just started thinking about it, but I want to stay in international development after grad school, so I will probably focus on tying grad school into the narrative of my development career and future goals (USAID FSO). Working on how to make it stand out from the masses of others that are aiming for international development. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): Internship supervisor from Rome- current State FSO. COP for the USAID project I'm on. Vice President from current organization. All my professional references should be pretty strong, I've been promoted twice within the same organization in 2 years and earned a field position on my project. No academic references. Concerns: My lack of an academic reference for starters- I went to a huge school and took my entire senior year in Europe so I've not been in contact with any of my professors for over 2 years. One bad semester in undergrad that really hurt my GPA overall and in major. Very concerned about that and how it'll be viewed by admissions committees. Minor concern for SAIS is their new interview process- do they conduct them via Skype for those based outside the States/will it seriously hurt my chances if I can't do one? Any advice on ways to strengthen my application would be much appreciated!!