MPAallday

Did any schools offer funding? If not, do you think you'd be able to finance your education at either university?

Previous Schools (Name, type, or tier): UTSA Previous Degrees and GPAs: BA in Political Science (~3.2 GPA by the time I finish) GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): 159/156/4.5 (highest) Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): Campaign internships throughout undergraduate career and teaching assistantship job for the political science department. Math/Econ Background: Took the required statistics courses for political science majors and performed well. Nothing serious. Foreign Language Background (if applicable to your program): N/A Intended Field of Study in Grad School: MPA focusing on education policy. Long Term Professional Goals: I would like to work in policy analysis, although I am contemplating a dual degree in law if offered it. Schools Applied to & Results: A&M Bush (accepted + scholarship), UTSA (accepted + funding), MPA@UNC (accepted + assistantship), Indiana SPEA (accepted w/o funding), UT LBJ (accepted from wait list), UVa Batten (accepted from wait list), Maryland (rejected) Ultimate Decision & Why: LBJ. Being from San Antonio -- and a sister UT school -- LBJ was my top choice from the beginning. They offer very inexpensive tuition rates for Texas residents (even without funding it's a little over 5k a semester). Their program is also well connected throughout the Texas political scene (and well beyond), where I hope to work one day. Advice for Future Applicants: Start your applications early. I waited until the last minute to submit a lot of mine, including Maryland (the only school I was rejected from). I honestly believe this affected the ultimate decision I received from them. Although I ended up getting into my top choice program anyways, there are innumerable advantages to being organized and starting your application process as soon as possible in the fall.

Hey alloy! I had a thread on this topic a while back -- deciding whether or not to enroll while waiting it out at another school. Basically, the consensus I got from the thread was that it's been done before (withdrawing from another university to attend your first choice), but it's generally frowned upon. Apparently schools do not want you there if you do not want to be there anyways, so I'm assuming they will understand that that's how the game works. Of course, it depends highly on the programs involved. Which one are you withdrawing from?

Accepted from the wait list today! So so so so excited.

Officially accepted! I'm so excited to be "in" at a prestigious university like UVa! Ahhh!

Awesome news! I'm still debating between A&M, Virginia, Indiana, and UT. Hopefully SPEA comes through with some funding for me, or else it looks like I might take another offer.

Congratulations! That's amazing! I hope you can contain the excitement as you head to Cal!

That's one way to look at it. You're paying it forward (or perhaps backward) to someone on the wait list, and quite possibly making their year.

What'd you get out of the message? I thought it looked pretty good.

That's very kind of you pavlik. Thanks for the update!

I just got an email saying that I was top of the wait list. It looked really promising. Now I'm just worried about tuition and fees, since it's around $62k for the whole degree without aid (according to this: https://sfs.virginia.edu/tuition/2013-2014#GCHN).

Thanks for the advice!

Take the offer from WWS, unless Harvard is offering a decent amount of funding. It's literally an Ivy League school that hands out full-rides (and more) to students. What more could you want?

When it comes to policy schools, six figure debt is ludicrous -- regardless of the name. If I was you I'd be leaning towards Luskin, since it seems like UCLA is going to come through with sizable funding for you. La Follete also seems like another solid option. Ask for extensions from your choices if at all possible.

Congrats on your decision awex! I'd definitely look at Craig's List for some good off-the-market prices.

Hey guys! So I already know there are tons of topics based on this subject, but I'd love y'all's input on my situation! I've been accepted into Bush and SPEA, but wait listed at LBJ and Batten (two of my top picks). What do you think the likelihood is for someone getting off those wait lists (or any wait list in public policy)? I'd love to attend UVa or UT, but I'm wondering if I should accept Bush or SPEA in anticipation of a rejection. A little background: I'm straight out or undergrad, but have a strong upper division/last 60 GPA (which is what LBJ says they care about), and decently good GRE scores. I also have about a year of relevant work experience and national-level work for a political party. I'm also a Texas resident, which kinda dissuades me from SPEA's exorbitant costs.

Yea I don't think it does either -- mostly because a lot of the posters here are looking for IR programs. They didn't offer me funding after all, at least during the first round, but apparently they extend more offers once the mid-April deadline passes. I wanted to visit next weekend but it seemed like they offered little financial help to out-of-state visitors.

So I didn't see a thread for admitted students for SPEA yet -- which surprised me. Feel free to correct me if there's already a thread on this! Anyway, I got in just now! They just sent me an email, albeit with no info on funding. Does anyone know when they will send this information out? Hopefully this thread isn't a duplicate!

When it comes to these two schools I would recommend assessing price and cost of living as the biggest factor. MPA degrees -- while valuable -- simply aren't worth getting into tremendous debt. Whether the least expensive one is Austin or Seattle I don't know, but it's your call to make.

I'd take the offer from the University of Kentucky. First of all, the difference between their rankings isn't that big to where it would warrant such a horrible deal from Syracuse. They're offering to pay for your tuition and give you extra cash -- which is an amazing offer from a top 20 school! Maybe it would require further consideration if Kentucky was around ~#50 or so, but for such a small difference in prestige I wouldn't throw myself into the depths of student loans.

The previous two links didn't work so I went ahead and reposted them in workable links :

Well luckily for you policy and public affairs schools eat up work experience! Your GRE scores aren't really bad, they're decent (the AW is poor but -- IMO -- it's compensated for by experience copy editing and the rest of your resume). Schools are aware that GRE scores are more reflective of test-taking ability (and sometimes pure luck) than they are of actual intellectual capabilities. Your GPA is good, and would probably hover around the average for most of those schools. Also, speaking another language fluently gives you a big plus in the process. I wouldn't worry too much, your stats look relatively competitive for where you applied.

Of course! A&M is a fun school, and it's literally a couple of hours away from both Houston and Austin (and three hours from San Antonio and a little more from DFW). So you'll have access to lots of stuff to do.

Yea the Bush School is notable as being one of the most generous and affordable (if not the most generous and affordable) policy school out there. It's not super-prestigious yet, but I have a feeling it's getting there. Coming from a big city (San Antonio), I can vouch for this. Most of my family members are Aggies though, so I was well indoctrinated as a kid. There's plenty to do if you immerse yourself in the campus culture, and the city is sizable enough (~230,000 people in the metro area) to provide you with all the amenities you want/need.

That's awesome! Yea A&M appears to be quite generous with its funds. That's probably how it attracts so much talent with its policy program. I'm interested in how much the assistanships would realistically be able to supplement my tuition. I'm trying to assess how much the degree would cost overall, and the website doesn't really specify how much assistantships usually award.