MPPgal

I am rejecting it, in addition to the other answers (no funding, etc):
1) Thesis advisor is a U chicago alumn and really didn´t recommend it, in fact she refused to write my LOR to there because in her words it is a cash cow for the university with terrible reputation with in.
2) Do not like that core classes have an average of 100 students vs 30 for GPPI or LBJ (sorry this might be the LAC mentality but if I am paying 60 k a year I want a personalized education)
3) Bad weather (already spent 4 yrs in upstate NY and they say it is even worst in here)
 
in fact the only pro I could see was that in some neoliberal sectors of my governement the Chicago name sounds a lot (currently work in that type of place), yet in others they compare you to the chicago boys (which is very associated with the dirty wars in LatAm and is a terrible rep to have). Just my two cents!

I would argue the opposite, as being here i actually can speak of classmates better than a self reporting on grad cafe, most out of staters who decided to attend got at least an in state tuition waver and many got some good money as well, aka enough to cover tuition. However most in state people did not, that is for sure, yet it is still one of the most affordable schools so for in staters they are getting an amazing education for 10k a year plus living expenses.

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.

Are you in-state or out of state? For in state that is correct, for out'of state it is almost double the tuition. If you are in-state you have an amazing deal already.

My advice: as risk and debt averse as I am the Harvard name is worth it, that does not apply to any other school other than WWS, get in debt it will pay for itself.

Yes, fastest growing city in the country and it is called inflation but overall and compared to other cities in the country it is pretty cheap (inclluding Seattle for sure) http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

yes, I had a very easy question Nelson couldnt answer, he said to contact the woman in charge of career services, he even forwarded my email, I then emailed her, and again and again this was 3 weeks ago she never responded

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.

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.

I just heard I was offered a spot on the wait list today. Not bad considering it's one of my top picks! Congrats to all those who received funding and offers!

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!

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.

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.

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.

My GPA wasn´t stellar, I mean it was a 3.4 and I did come from a small LAC where professors knew me and were super cool about LORs but still I knew coming straight out of undergrad I couldn´t get into what I wanted to study (international development back then) especially as I am international and had a full ride through undergrad and no money. So what did I do, went a got a job, NGO jobs do not pay great but they give you experience, and good LOR, then I studied A LOT for my GREs which I aced (at least in the Q section, Im not a native english speaker so I only got a 160 on that). I also learned that although development studies was great I wanted a program more focused on environmental and quant abilities as that was what I lacked the most. So my advice, get out there and get a job in the area...seriously the world needs people...then that will give you great LOR and then study like you never did in college to ace the GRE and you should be fine!

Princeton asks you to send your gres directly

Again, you will get in the issue is that how to compare you with an international with 5 years work experience abroad and who does not have english as a first language, the only way they can is with quant gre's, thus why they matter so much. Honestly the best way to not run out of time is to practice A LOT. Send me a PM and I can email you some great GRE paper exams that are great to improve your speed.

SAIS and Tufts both have a more "business aspect inside" for both I think you will be very competitive, don´t bother with Ox if you do not have a 3.7, the UK only sees your GPA when they do the initial cut, you should be fine with LSE. MPP is hard without work experience but SIPA should be fine

Neither SIPA nor HKS give a lot of financial aid, it is a lot easier to get into SIPA though, for better financial aid check out Carnegie Mellon (good for engineering backgrounds), LBJ, GWU, NYU, Duke.

1- If you want financial aid an HKS already rejected you once even if you do get in dont expect financial aid (they are terrible at that). Chicago gives some people good financial aid, same as Georgetown, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon,SAIS,LBJ and Korbel give a lot of international really good financial (most of us got full rides)

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

Whose Dionne or Blitzer? who is better on TV? I can see Blitzer being funnier and Dionne being more profound? And yes I am embarrassed about the bathroom incident but how was I to know? 

Agreed I had no idea who the guy was (also international student here) and in fact I thought that although he was entertaining and obviously a very cool person he made it sound that luck, rather than SAIS was the reason he had such a succesful career lots of "a guy told me to apply as a correspondant and it just so happened this was 5 days before the Gulf war started" type of quotes, when I contrast that with E.J. Dionne´s (also had no idea who he was an embarrasingly enough I asked him where the bathroom was) appearance at GPPI who basically said "they allowed me to pick where to teach and I chose GPPI because ti is the best" the second one wins! 

Not sure I understand why.
 
I'm not from the US (obviously), and I had never heard of that guy before (no, I don't watch CNN that often). So, not prejudiced.
 
But having a school bringing in a journalist, who apparently had a rather solid career do not seem hilarious at all to me. Rather something interesting, that shows that SAIS can lead to different successful careers. So, it is in fact a selling point.
 
Then maybe the guy is politically oriented and so, but even then, I think this only fact is something interesting to show the potential of a school.

Just wanted to leave an update for future applicants: I asked a few weeks ago through email and they said they wouldn't know for a few weeks. I went to admitted students day and got advice from current students on negotiation. Then I emailed again saying what a great fit I thought I was and how much I wanted to go, and how much I was willing to take out in loans, and how much I would be paying at my second choice (less.) They emailed me back giving me a decision extension and saying they would let me know in about 2 weeks. They ended up offering me $25k + an assistantship over the original $10k no RAship.
 
I saw a quote the other day on women's pay that I think sums it all up well "You don't get paid what you deserve, you get what you ask for." Get it girls!