GradWannabe

I was on the waiting list for GPPI and found out last week that I am off the waitlist and have been accepted into the program. However, I am deferring until Fall 2007 for health and financial reasons. My acceptance is contingent on me taking microeconomics and getting grade B or better, which I am sure I can do 8) Now I just need to find $100k... :shock:

I got rejected from Berkeley's MPP program. They sent a letter making that quite clear. It was a bit of a reach though so I am not surprised. Neither accepted or rejected at at Georgetown. Waitlisted and have been anxiously checking my mail for a long promised mailing regarding the waitlist only to get this e-mail yesterday: The waitlist mailing scheduled for the week of April 3 has been cancelled. We will instead accept emails from students wishing to remain on the waitlist. If you have previously submitted an email, it is not necessary for you to do so again. You are also welcomed to submit additional information for the committee’s consideration. Sigh... I was also rejected from American University's MPP program, yet accepted to the MPA program. Mmmmmmkay.

I've got them we-only-admitted-15-from-last-year's-waitlist-and-none-for-the-previous-two-years waitlisted blues!

I want to get into an MPP program so quantitative matters. I studied for a month before taking the exam, but only scored 630. I have been out of school for over three years and my undergrad majors were a humanity and a social science. The humanity required no mathematics of any kind and the social science only required statistics, which I completed my freshman year. Needless to say, I was very rusty going into the quantitative portion of the GRE! Still, a 630 was an improvement over my early practice tests. I know the GRE is only one part of the application, but I think it is very important that I make a stronger showing in quantitative ability considering I do not have a quantitative background. I think I need at least a 700. I have other plans to improve my applications, including working on my personal statement as you suggest as well as investing some time in economics courses. I am not worried about letters of rec (other than asking for them *again*, feel a little weird about it). I wonder if enrolling in a basic math course at a community college might help me pick up the needed skills to improve on the GRE. It's certainly a lot less expensive! At the same time, the GRE prep courses are much smaller and geared toward the test.

Has anyone used test prep services and found that they were worth the cost? I studied independently before I took the GRE and saw my scores improve quite a bit, but they are still lower than I want, particularly my quantitative score. I am considering retaking the exam and using a prep course to help me prepare, but am hesitant because of the expense. Any thoughts on the services that are out there? Personal experiences?

San Francisco and Berkeley are excellent for not having a car. In fact, unless you live somewhere where you can park your car for free, it is best not to have a car. http://www.transitinfo.org/ helps you plan your public transit in the Bay Area. Davis is also good for not having a car since most people ride bikes and the University's transit system is very good. However, you will go bat shit crazy if you don't get outside Davis from time to time. It is a fantastic college town and I LOVED going there, but sometimes you just have to get outside of the town. You can get to the Bay Area on a bus that goes between Berkeley and Davis and that works for a lot of people. You can get into Sacramento on public transit as well, but Sac's transit is not good as the Bay Area. Washington, DC is a good place for not having a car though it is kind of annoying that the metro doesn't go to Georgetown (you can take buses though). You can catch trains to other east coast cities as well. Los Angeles is complicated. In some places, the transit is fine, in other places it is horrible (not available/scary). It depends on where you live and where you go to school. There is a very strong car mentality in LA, but public transit can be done. E.g. http://www.bigbluebus.com/busroutes/index.asp the Big Blue Bus, helpful of you got to UCLA.

Things have not gone as I had hoped with my grad school applications. Results have been rejection, waitlist, acceptance into a different program than the one I applied to with no funding (though who knows, second round funding could come through). Unless some sort of miracle happens with the waitlist school (i.e. admittance with funding), I am not feeling very good about matriculation in the fall. I *am* feeling that waiting another year could help me. It would give me a chance to try to boost my GRE scores, get more experience, save some more money, and do some soul searching to get more clarity of purpose. Has anyone else here gone through this or know someone who has where waiting and reapplying were the right choice? Is there any sort of stigma the admissions committee attaches to people who reapply if they have been rejected before from the school? I kind of don't want to wait it out and delay my graduate education further than I already have, but at the same time, I want a second shot at getting into a program I am truly interested in.