Namaste, from India! Good to see the Fall 2016 aspirants coming together.
What are your goals?
Short term: Getting best in the industry exposure to development practices (mainly quantitative research) across the globe by associating with International NPOs. While experimenting with subjects like 'Religion' and 'Development' to add some taste in life.
Long term: Working with organizations like UN, World Bank for tackling challenges in developing and 3rd world countries.
Some time in the future: Working on a community farm where we grow our food while the birds sing merry and deers hop after coming from delivering a guest lecture at the Ivy league university. Phew!
What programs best fit your passions / desires / plans and why?
MPA / MPP is what I feel will give me an opportunity to build an educational background and networking opportunity to work out what I learn. More focussed on praxis than theoretical aspects of development. Hoping to take up something related to study of religion and theology.
What have you done up to this point to narrow down your choices?
Document: Started noting the +ves and -ves on the forum about courses and colleges.
Starting with an Excel sheet marking scores-universities admitted and scholarships.
Networking: Prodding alumni and students of the universities in target.
Looking forward to next few months of sharing information, concerns and results
Cheers!