MPPgal

Previous Schools Union College (top 40 LAC in NY) Previous Degrees and GPAs: Economics and anthropology major (3.4 GPA) 3.8 GPA in my senior year GRE Scores: Verbal - 160, Quant - 165, Analytical - 4.5 Previous Work Experience: 2.5 yrs in important public policy think tank in Latin America, 3 internships in NGOs in DC, New York and Mexico city (each one semester long). Math/Econ Background: Economics major, econometrics (worst grade of my transcript), and 3 calculus courses Foreign Language Background Spanish native speaker, English bilingual, intermidiate French, took 1 yr of Russian in college Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Public policy, environmental Long Term Professional Goals: Environmental international NGO Schools Applied to & Results: Accepted: Indiana University SPEA MPA, Georgetown GPPI MPP(17.5 K per year), Erasmus Mundus MAPP, U Chicago Harris MPP, U Texas Austin LBJ School MPAff (Johnson Fellow, Full ride+ 14k per year and opportunity of RA job 20 hrs a week with professor on environmental policy issues Mexico-USA), SAIS Bologna MA. Denied: LSE MPA, HKS MPP and WWS MPA Ultimate Decision & Why: LBJ school: Financial: full ride, living expenses plus extra income with a job (can basically save money) Reputation: Great school and very well known in Mexico (my home country) due to famous alumn in the policy sector. Focus: although quite domestic it has a very strong Latin American focus which is where i want to focus so for me it just makes sense. Also it´s status as a "generalist school" allows for a lot of couses Curriculum: only 3 core courses the rest are flexible core allows to focus on what you are interested (environmental policy in my case) Faculty: The fact that a professor offered me an RA job even after they had offered me all that money really showed how they cared. V.S. other schools: After all considerations of what I want out of a graduate program, it became a choice of going to LBJ for free or going to Georgetown for a total of $50k per year... Even though Georgetown has the prestige of being awesome and I really did like the school and how personal the open house was I think the fact that GPPI is not a school yet has some issues (money for one), no Phd and some comments of lack of core faculty (many current students complained about terrible practitioner professors). Advice for Future Applicants: For international students (and obviously domestic ones) you really should try and visit all the schools you are accepted into (or are considering), it puts all things in perspective (for me it became super clear SAIS was not the place for me) while allowing you to meet your professors who might offer, also save money while you work (I did it and it meant I could attend most schools while only taking little debt). Also super study for the GREs (do not pay for classes but dedicate an hour a day for a few months using the math bible and manhattan and you will be all set), I took them two times (the second time improving my verbal and writing a lot and my quant a bit even though I had to take it in another location due to ETS canceling my exam one day before but I feel improving them made the difference when it came to really good scholarship offers). Do feel free to contact me.

I would take Berkeley, I think 30k is not that bad as far as debt go, I chose the free option because they gave me all this perks and the other option meant 100k, but 30k and especially working close to a professor is very beneficial and can give you a heads up to get a great job, plus that much money realistically can be paid in 2-3 years by just geting an avergae 60k a yr job and not spending too much!

Hey does anyone know hard it is to get a place with at least a washer and drier and hopefully furnished, I don't mind paying 1k a month for something decent bur rather not have to furnish it from scratch

No idea about that field but Davis isthe better school and with much better location unless you like freezing

Thanks! i am international so moving to dc is harder but yeah I think I will attend UT, it seems like an amazing place!

Argh freaking out here. So I visited GPPI yesterday and loved it. Their open house was so personalized and intimate, and the lectures were great. Yet, I did hear from current students about the issues associated with internationals not finding jobs post-graduation and the fact that as an institute vs a school makes it have no money. The school in itself is beautiful and I liked the professors. The problem is Austin also increased their offer and offered a job on transnational (my country-US environmental issues) which seems a match made in heaven and will give an additional income, a GPPI student flatly said to just take Austin´s offer. What to do, GPPi seems so pretty, but rationally speaking Austin just makes sense!

Hehehehe or lets stop it, I have met 4 people attending LBJ in the last three days at other open houses, all of them including one who self refered as the annoying international student seemed really nice and highly accomplished, so I at least are happy to declare I have decided to attend and hope all the awesome people I have met also come!

For south asia development go for soas definetly your best fit

Agreed! I am almost sure I am attending!

yep, I agree conpletely, I think that I just felt the bologna campus had hardly any environmental focuse, it is all energy, and in general it did not seem latin america was a major area, even less so for environment or development, at the same time I was a bit disapointed by the lack of student job iffers in the student panel but might have been a bad selection criteria for the panelists. Like I said, great program and it sounds great but not my best fit.

So Revolution where have you decided?

Posted them in the bologna website, good but not a good fit for me

Open house thoughts, things I liked: Bologna students do seem to bo a close group, opportunities to travel and a nice city (but yeah a bit student abroadish), less issue getting into classes so bitting points are saved, things I didnt like: energy, respurces and environment program offers very few environment courses in bologna, hard for internationals to find internship during summer, most just go back home due to visa restrictions in the US after first year , seemed very european focused with little emphasis on other regions, the student panel was far from impresive, put of 6 students only 2 had jobs, one was international and got a job at home that seemed to be due to his own connections, the other one a pickering fellow, 2 were first yrs, yet the other two had no jobs lined up and IT IS APRIL!!!!!

Thanks, it is mpre about how exciting DC is in public policy while Texas is very chill and not very active politically!

Ill be honest, I am leaning about LBJ due to fit, but between GPPI and sais, when the first one gave money I definetly like the first one more. Are you at the open house now as well, hehehe, I have already met two gradcafe usuals, aparently im transparent as they recognized me!!!

Same here can report back after GPPIs open house but I am definetly leaning for GPPI aftersais open house (great program not for me)

Sure, 3.4 GPA from top 40 LAC in New England, econ anthro double major International student from Latin America GRE: 160V 165 Q 4.5 2+ yrs work experience at think tank in my country Good LOR, two from thesis advisors, 1 from my boss International experience 2 yrs in South Asia, 4 yrs in the US plus being international Leaded international students asossiation in college, quite a few social service and being an active member of 2 NGOs Got full tuition and 14k for living expenses per yr plus possible RA opportunity in my chosen field

I guess my specific questions are, when I toured professors where very open and approachable, students seemed highly accomplished, busy but approachable and nice. Was this the impression you got? Was it an international friendly school? Despite annoying person with an accent (again international student is a status where you need to be not a permanent resident or a citizen and has nothing to do with how you speak English). Sorry I freaked out, I had a very bad experience during my undergrad in a school with very few internationals where the administration was flat out racist (sent us emails about how to shower properly because apparently our lack of an American passport prevents us from knowing how to do this) so I really just don´t want to be on a school like that ever again and it does worry me that LBJ has a lower proportion of internationals than other places (10% vs 31 % in GPPI for example). But anyways, how did the networking seem, etc?

Thanks Miskina, because of course Americans can never be rude or speak in loud voices when others are speaking, I hope this is not the general attitude towards internationals, LBJ is my first choice and I do not want to spend two years with people who discriminate you on the basis of having an accent. Can someone give actual specifics about how it was great? What was discussed, what where people´s impressions other than the fact that one guy with an accent (who might have been American by the way) was rude?

Definetly Duke and as a second choice Michigan!

Hey, so any of you went to the open house today? How was it?

Yes, the funding offer gives it the reputation that is a great program in a great school that is not a cash cow unlike HKS. it is also the most exclusive one and has the perfect level between professional and academic (unlike HKS which is a bit too professional). Go there and be happy!

Oh the RA position will have an hourly rate on top of the 14k

So I got accepted into Georgetown and UT Ustin for public policy masters, Georgetown gave me 10k a yr and after negotiating it they increased it to 17k but I still need to pay 25k a yr and very expensive living expenses, Austin gave me full tuition plus 14 a yr living stipend. Location wise for international public policy DC is better. Then this week Austin stepped it up and a professor in environmental policy (my area of interest) offered me an RA job on US-Mexico water management issues (I am Mexican). Should I take the name and location or the money and research opportunity?