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MPPgal

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  1. MPPgal
    I second that. Keep in mind that because when you sign your contract you will not have a social security number yet (you can only apply for one 3 days after classes start) they have no way to check your credit record and thus many leasers require you to put up 2-3 months rent deposit instead. Rent depends on living accomodations (shared flat or single one, one bedroom vs studio and location). In general, depending on the city they will range from 600 dollars to 1200+ utilities will be about 30 for internet and 50-80 or so for a smartphone (if you have an unblocked one already you can lower this) if you can live with an old style phone it is a lot cheaper. School health insurance many times comes as part of your tuirion package, if not it is about 1-2.5k per year. A used car, depends it can be as low as 2000 dollars up to 10k depending model etc. The insurance is about 500 a year if you are either female or over 25, a bit more if you are a male under 25. I would say 6000 should be enough except to but the car, unless you go for a very cheap one, an option i did in undergrad was to buy a car between a couple of international students, this works well if you are only planning to use it to do grocery shopping and you all live close by. Also, in places like Ann Arbor, Austin, DC, NYC, Madison you might not need a bike and be ok with just a bike, I am Mexican so I just drove but plenty of other internationals have none and are fine, they just get a car to go or zip car if they really need one or borrow one to go to IKEA.
  2. MPPgal
    Europe tends to look at grades and only at grades, when they state first class honours they mean it, but Latin American studies is an easier degree to get into at least in Oxbridge, for the rest you must be set. However, I do have to say that the US has much better Lat Am studies programs than Europe, I do recommend Berkeley, UT Austin, UCLA, USC and even Arizona State even over Oxbridge as Europe is just not focused enough.
  3. MPPgal
    As an international who applied last year, my impression of speaking to international students at SAIS and Georgetown was that plenty had internships with the world bank etc, few had job offers though. So that is the thing for career building Dc is the place to be, if what you want is to stay beyond, NY, Chicago or even California, Texas, Florida etc are better, consider that no matter where you go you can always intern during the summer in DC, other places might have less jobs but they also have a lot less people applying for said jobs. I managed to get a well paid internship in Austin, 20 hrs, my area of interest, free health insurance etc and all supposedly working for the university, something key if you are international as you are not allowed to have paid positions during the academic year outside of your university, thus bigger schools have a huge advantage as they have a lot more jobs availiable while SAIS for example, has Johns Hopkins more than an hour away. In general it is not to hard to secure this type of deal in my school, I know Georgetown has some TAs, SAIS less.
  4. MPPgal
    you are fine but to get better aid do try and take you gres again and up your quant you should get into gwu and american no problem but for gppi and duke a higher quant will help
  5. MPPgal
    Get a job and build a resume for 2 plus yrs that will make up for bad grades!
  6. MPPgal
    LBj gives good money SPEA not so much, not sure about Evans. Your GPA and experience sounds good to get funding remember that public schools in general have less funds availiable to out of staters while private schools even if expensive have a lot more money to give in financial aid so I would add GWU and cornell to your list. I think you have a good shot at getting at least an out of state waiver at LBJ.
  7. MPPgal
    I had a 3.4 and got a full scholarship and a few other good scholarship offers, do you have good and relevant work experience (at least 2 full years), good LOR? just make sure you do well on your GREs, I studied a lot and got a 164Q, 160V(non native speaker) and 4.5 that made the difference. Most schools even when they say they don´t tend to supplement GPA with GREs so do really well in one and you are set. Obviously be realistic, Harvard and Princeton are hard and just take very few, but all other schools (Harris, LBJ, GPPI, SAIS, Wagner, etc) you should be set
  8. MPPgal
    Sadly LSE and Oxford ONLY look at your GPA, but I would say you have a good shot at SAIS or any other American school for sure.
  9. MPPgal
    Also MGPS is not really an IR program, if that is what you are looking for then this might not be the program for you as it is a little more practical than the theoretical IR.
  10. MPPgal
    As a current LBJ student, you should be more than ok, even if not for scholarships but it sounds like you would pay instate tuition anyways. Feel free to ask any questions.
  11. MPPgal
    Have you looked at the international development course within GPPI, this might be your best bet, it is development focused public policy with a bit more math than MSFS
  12. MPPgal
    Of course not! I know people in my program who had bad grades and came from bad law programs so dont worry about it.
  13. MPPgal
    Sadly they dont really see where you did your schooling, apply to both, I thought I didnt have a chance and I got into most places. Remember, one extra pplication has a small marginal cost in time and can giv eyou one more place to decide.
  14. MPPgal
    You have a chance, yes, are you ideal, no. Honestly for 99% of the population Harvard´s MPA 2 is a chance, lets put it like this the people I know who got in this year included the speaker of the President of my country, so my question is, you are only willing to stop what you are doing for harvard or do you want an MPP, if the first then go ahead, but 5 years is a bare minimum of experience you are competing against people with 10 or more years so chances are pretty dim, if you want an MPP then diversify, I would say you are an ideal candidate for Columbia, Chicago, GT, etc
  15. MPPgal
    never mind just saw your verbal, that is more than enough. Just increase the quant
  16. MPPgal
    Your aw is more than enough, especially for a non native English Speaker, however your quant is the problem, you, sadly are compiting against a lot of people from your country (India I assume), many with engineering degrees that have at least a 165, you do not need that much as you might not be a math person but you need to increase it to at least the median for that school, aka a 160 ish should be ok a 162+ ideal, this will also compensate for your lack of quant background. Also, if your argument is Im good at English just bad a t math then your verbal should be higher, I would say at least a 160 (i am bad at verbal good at math and that's how much I got), especially for tufts and GT. Also, you are applying for a professional degree, you have work experience and yet you only have academic LOR, you need at least 1 from your boss or direct supervisor or your intern coordinator etc.
  17. MPPgal
    On eof my reasons for not going to GPPI last year was the fact that I got the impression while visiting that the fact that it was not a school was significantly limiting the department, its resources etc. so yeah why not!
  18. MPPgal
    Princeton asks you to send your gres directly
  19. MPPgal
    Yes that is true, if you like something that flexible then go for it and it is true it is easy enough to do that, one thing though, it is easier to get financial aid if you apply to double degrees from the start. As someone interested in energy I think Georgetown is not a very strong option but SAIS and indiana are, just my two cents on that.
  20. MPPgal
    Just an advice as a current UT Austin student interested in energy stuff, the EER program is really flexible, way too much so (there are no core classes), most people recommend doing it in conjunction with public policy, global public policy (you can focus on development for example) or business to give you more direction.
  21. MPPgal
    I am international and have never had issues getting clearance, but that is for think tanks not for foreign service where they obviously will not hire international students.
  22. MPPgal
    Facts: there are no real differences in job placement between those degrees as an international student, the reality is that we have a hard job getting a job especially in the think tank or non profit world because as an international you are only allowed to stay for a year (vs science degrees where you are allowed to stay for 3), thus it becomes extremely difficult to do this as any firm has to spend a lot money in training you to lose you in a year and then if they want to keep you they have to spend a lot on visa sponsorship, many think tanks do not have that money or are not willing to do it when there are plenty of good domestic students availiable so you need to show you are amazing, to do this apply to a place close to where you would like to work DC schools,or others with good security studies think tanks, Austin has stratfor for example, Boston has a couple too, NYC, Chicago, etc so you can intern with them legally while in school and show them how amazing you are and already be trained and thus be able to at least stay a year. It is a hard path no matter what and you will have an easier time to get a job as an economic analyst or in the for profit world.
  23. MPPgal
    LBJ at UT and Korbell at Colorado offer pretty egnerous packages for internationals
  24. MPPgal
    MPA and MPP are the exact same thing, or not depending on the program. In general reputation I would say the best one is Princeton's MPA followed by Harvard's MPP and then things get a bit murky depending on your specialization etc etc. Sadly you need to do your research because it depends on what you like (some MPPs and MPAs are more quant, some are more management based, some are freer some are less, I recommend researching, Chicago's Harris, Georgetown's GPPI, Berkeley's Goldman, Michigan's Ford, Indiana SPEA, Duke, UT's LBJ, George Washington University, Syracuse's, Columbia's SIPA, NYU. Also worth checking out are Cornell's, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, American University, University of Maryland.
  25. MPPgal
    Check the EER-MPAff degree at UT Austin
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