Hi all! I'm trying to narrow my list of schools down in this next week, and I'd love to do so based on my chances of getting in, because I think it'd be smart to not just fill up my application pool with reach schools.
Program: MPP/MPA
Schools considered: DEFINITELY: Berkeley, HKS, WWS PROBABLY: Chicago Harris, SIPA, Duke, Michigan MAYBE: American, CMU, GW, Minnesota, NYU, UCLA, USC, UT Austin, Wisconsin, Yale Jackson
NOTE: I know this is a HUGE number of schools, but like I said, I'm working on narrowing it down, probably to 8-12 in total, including my three definite applications.
Major: Politics/Near Eastern Studies
GPA: 3.5 (3.54 departmental, cum laude) (NOTE: Definitely not as high as I would have liked, but my college had grade deflation when I attended, which may or may not have played a role)
GRE: 170 V / 161 Q (unofficial; I just took it yesterday)
Undergrad school: Top-tier Ivy (HYP)
Years since UG: 1 year
Work experience: 1 year (going into 2nd year) doing Teach for America in a rural Southern placement area. I've been teaching high school science in one of the poorest counties in my state; one of the poorest overall in the country. Before I graduated, most of my summer or part-time work revolved around charter schools, education policy, and international studies.
Coursework: Statistics ( B ; Microeconomics (taking this summer)
Language: Intermediate Spanish, Intermediate Mandarin Chinese, Intermediate Arabic (Modern Standard + Egyptian Colloquial), and Intermediate Turkish
SoP: Not drafted yet; will probably revolve around my interest in comparative social policy (particularly racial/ethnic inequality), which merges my academic focus in undergrad (more international bent) with my current work with TFA (more domestic bent).
LoR: Politics professor at my undergrad (advised some of my independent work; gave me an A plus, which my college highly discourages), TFA coach/manager, and I'm still thinking of the third one, but there's several professors who gave me good grades who I am considering
Other: I'm applying to a master's because I'm considering all of my career options (mainly public sector, social sector, and academia). I may want to jump ship from the academic life after two years of an MPP/MPA, but the current soft plan is to get a Ph.D. in either policy or politics, do research, write, publish, and maybe teach at a college or university (I do love teaching, just not necessarily science!). I've talked to a few schools, and they were enthusiastic about the idea of me getting a doctorate after the MPP. If anybody has any insight with policy academia, I'd love to hear your insight!