MPPgal

Yes, what you say is precisely true. That is also why I chose MPAff, I feel learning new theories on Idev I can do on my own, learning more statistical methods to quantify development and even more qualitative tools I cannot, MPAff choses a lot more on the methods and practical skills than in the theory, plus you still can take 7 optative classes from MGPS and thus get the same amount of international exposure.

It really depends on the area of the world you are interested in, for Latin America for example you can't beat UT, which was my main reason for chosing it over Gtown. However, other areas are well represented, mostly Africa and Asia. I do think GTown might be better in those areas though, also if Idev is what you care then I suggest doing MGPS not MPAff as MPAff is less international. In terms of internships I have had a paid internship since I started doing Latin America focused stuff, because Texas has so much of that and unlike DC the pool of people applying for policy jobs is a lot smaller. I however am an international student and doing MPAff and in general have never felt limited in its international curriculum because the MPAff program is so free and there are so many classes with dealing with Lat Am anyways. If you would like to chat send me a message and I can give you a bit more info depending on your area of interest. So it depends if what you want is working for the world bank, stay in DC. If you want to work for a smaller ngo that tends to pay less and dont want to be in debt, come to Texas.

The easiest way it to email your department and ask them to pass along your message. Most people tend to find roomates that way at least in my school.

Congrats. Financial aid is separate from LBJ fellowships, you will receive info on fellowships with your official letter that should be sent in the next two weeks or so. Financial aid is something extra you can apply to and depends on the university while fellowships are distributed by LBJ.

Yes agreed, I would add to it to find specific professors and classes you are interested in. Yes you might want to come due to location but you need to sell youself through more. Aka you want to work with professor x as his work with refugees etc etc. Make your research show the school is a perfect fit in more than just geographical locations and do remember it is aprofessional program and as such professional LORs are a must!

She is really nice, my guess would be to wait until may or so and reapply for Spring next year. Do try and talk to her she probably can[t tell you how to get in but can give you good pointers. I am not in the GPS program although I am international and have taken a few of their classes, to be honest though MPAff is so free you can take a lot of GPS while it is not the other way around so you cand shape either program to your needs. Anothe roption you might want to look into is studying Social Work, they require less quant and they also have a double degree with us (only MPAff though) although everyone I know doing that degree seems interested in working with international people. Good luck!

Yes and international experience I think that might be your low point, for MPAff your curriculum sounds fine but if you want to do something that is global you need to link it to world. Remember you are competing against internationals, people with peace corps experience etc. You need to link it much more. I fnot I would say try for MPAff it seems a lot more tailored for education.

Yes it sounds that way, don´t worry my guess is they will come out when they did last year so first week of March. I would keep an eye out Friday. I have no idea as I am in no way associated with the admissions committee but that is my incling as it was on Friday afternoon last year when most of us heard. keeping my fingers crossed for y´all!

Do not over think it or worry too much, last year I did and it helped little except for endless nights of no sleep with weird theories including international, alphabet letters and number patterns. I remember correctly the first of us to hear we were admitted were on a Friday and up to Thursday people kept hearing also for Friday people our emails came in on a Sunday, and this was in March, so do not think that not hearing is necessary a bad thing.

March 4th should be fine, remember they can notify people until mid March and really mid April without having to say waiting list so that´s fine.

MGPS and MPAff admissions are at the same time, do check your status page, last year they changed it without sending emails. Also, last year it took them about 4 days since the first of us heard until the last did. http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/services/apply/checkstatus

Wow they did it early this year, congratulations!

You do not need to submit GREs for SAIS Bologna either if you are a foreigner. I submittted anyways as I did well on them and helped me but they skype interview all foreign applicants instead.

Your GPA is fine you are applying to a professional degree, you have work experience etc. Mid career well 5 years is the bare minimum you are competing with people who have 10 plus years in government so it will be hard so i would not recommend that as a smart move, honestly Princeton and Harvard are a gamble for anyone you might be lucky you might not (improving your quant score to at least a 160 is a good idea as for us international that is the easiest way to compare us to the rest as our degrees are different etc), I will say that your profile you will have a very strong case for Chicago, Columbia, Georgetown, Syracuse, Berkeley, Duke, etc. Just Harvard and Princeton are harder and you might just be lucky. Also, improving your GPA can help getting a better scholarship. Now for your goals, do be careful an MPP is not a conduct to be a politician, it is to be a good public administrator, if you want to become involved in politics do that from home, the MPP and being in a different country will do little for you.

I mean this in the nicest way possible and I say this as a non native English speaker myself, your English really needs polishing, make sure you get someone you trust a lot to read over your SOP because there are A LOT of mistakes in this paragraph and that could negatively affect you. Don´t worry total immersion helps a lot and once you are here your English will rapidly improve but for now you do need some extra help. Your first question well if it matters to you it matters, whether it is what makes you want to go into public policy and should be mentioned in your statement of purpose or not is up to you. Attending seminars and experiences all go in your resume and of course they help, don´t worry you will do fine, one thing though as an international student do make sure to get decent GREs (at least a 150 in verbal as it is not your first language and a 160 in quant) remember you are against a lot of other internationals and high GREs are the easiest ways to compare you and get them to look at your amazing application, it seems you hhave a lot of relevant experience so I think you can do well but for that you do need to sell yourself well and thus try to get a few native English speakers to look over your application.

Unless your interest is in current incan politics you are in the wrong forum, go to one of archeology, this is for government affairs, or IR.

This is not a major it is a masters degree, huge difference, but ceteris paribus if money is what you are looking for do not study an MPP go and get an MBA.

You are fine, the rule of thumb is one yr work experience makes up for 1 point goa, so consider yourslef an almost 3.7, you have peace corps and mpp schools love peace corps and 2 yrs of professional experience in something quant. And low gpa is under 3, you are fine.

If you want money you need more work experience and ro gre scores, that q score is waaay too low. If you can't sell your academic side you need to sell your professional and thus have at least the average work experience aka 2-3 yrs. Your GPA is average for that sort of program, your WE is low and so are your gres, just fix one of the two or both and you should be fine. Also, i would recommend getting at least 1 of your 3 references to be someone who knows you professionally, perhaps your immediate supervisor in Georgia, you are stating you want the degree to do something more professional, and yet you are only selling your academic side. For writing the trick is to do it long, very long aka 7 paragraphs, i had a 3.5 the first time too and uped it to 4.5. My advice would be to stay teaching one more year and thus save more money, retake the gres because they are waaaay too low and then re apply, you are young. But hey who knows you might have luck and you might get in this year.

You have a perfectly good chance but honestly with Public policy work experience is what matters if you already can get an MPP get it and instead try getting a job, that will let you know what special skills and stuff you might need that you want to specialize and study. After that just get an MPP from a school y would go to UMD as it si the best location wise.

You need to get that quant up, especially for a PhD, you need at least a 155 (and that is if everything else is perfect) I recommend at least a 160 or above and your verbal needs to be higher if you are arguing the i suck at math but Im great at analytical

Send me a PM with your email I have the ultimate quant book that got me my 165 it is called math bible and some great practicing exams taht are great to time yourself I got them from my instructor friend and have it on pdf I want to share my good fortune plus I think kaplan etc are wastes of money so just send me your email and Ill share it. For practicing real exams I recommend manhattan, it costs about 20 bucks and they are super hard but thus once you nail those the real exam is easy.

I had a 3.5 the first time, i am glad i retook it. Sadly the writing unlike waht kaplan tells you is all about writing long essays, the first time I did 5 and had time to spare, the second time I did 7 and did not and got a 4.5, English is not my first language thanks to having gotten higher than a 4 i managed to not have to take a writing class in grad school and I am pretty sure it helped me get better financial aid. So if you can do it.

There is not a magical cut off but you will find very few people making it through without. I have plenty of friends in admissions commitees and most recommended that. In order to get around that you either need a LOR from someone someone in the committee knows personally etc. Again, as internationals it is harder for them to compare how does the best Turkish Univeristy compare to the best Chilean one in terms of acceptance rates? Kind of impossible to determine, how does a Belgian 16 GPA compare to a Mexican 90%....again pretty hard to tell. So good GRE scores are the easier way, I do know a couple of internationals who had below 160 GPAs but most of them were older students (35 and above) with good GPAs from US masters so that helps a lot.

Yes, political science in the US is pretty econometrics based, you need to have at least a 162 in q, remember for most programs that is the first filter, it is hard for them to compare you to other students as you come from a different school, country and culture so your GREs are they way to compare you. Send me a personal message with your email and I can send you the ultimate gre studing book for quant ....I got a 165 and I am not a science person so I can help.