Etownenviro

Hopefully future environmental policy people will find this helpful! Previous Schools A Big 10 University (Go Cats!) Previous Degrees and GPAs: BS Environmental Science with a GPA over 3.6 (math & science GPA over a 3.8) and relatively high GRE scores Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): Worked all throughout undergraduate in various positions in and related to local government and spent a year working in DC for a trade organization for local government Part-time Work Experience: environmental education volunteer Math/Econ Background: I took the entire calculus sequence in college along with macro and micro econ and a decent amount of statistics. I believe it helped I earned very good grades in these classes since none of my jobs directly used these skills. Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Environmental Science/Policy Long Term Professional Goals: US government and then as a sustainability director/dept head of a major US city Schools Applied to & Results: Indiana SPEA ($$$$$) University of Michigan SNRE ($) Duke Nicholas ($) and Yale FES (rejected for less than 2 years of work experience) Best Advice: 1. I STRONGLY second the above advice about speaking with the admissions people as much as possible. I almost applied to 2-3X as many schools but after speaking to admission reps it was easy to drop certain schools from my list even if I was temped by their website and prestige. I ended up choosing the school that was the nicest and most helpful all the way through the application process, they answered by every question and were constantly going above and beyond what I expected. Think about the application period as a trial run for the different schools and you will see which schools operating philosophies best line up with what you want from a program. 2. Don't let perfect be the enemy of good! Especially if you want to work for the government or in (much) of the non-profit sector. I was rejected by my dream school (Yale) and almost sat out this year because I was so hung up on the brand name. I see lots of people here oooo-ing and ahhhh-ing over Harvard, Princeton, etc... and while they are fantastic schools there are so many others. I will be attending my cheapest and least glamorous (sounding) choice in the fall but they will take me exactly where I want to go, give me two degrees in the same amount of time, and it will be at almost no cost to me. It took me a LONG time to decide on SPEA since I had so many friends talking up how great Michigan/Duke were or suggesting I wait a year and reapply to Yale and while it would be fun to say I went to Yale it wasn't worth another year of waiting to maybe get in and Duke/Michigan weren't worth 3-4X more debt. If you have a great offer from a school you would be very happy to attend say yes! Don't dwell on the other schools that didn't offer enough aid or rejected you, remember you are great and you can still be great where ever you end up going! 3. When working on your application try to tell a cohesive story that includes your resume, statements, LORs and any other information the schools ask for. I think it really helped my application that I was able to tie together everything I had done into a thoughtful story. At the same time don't think your story needs to reinvent the wheel. If you want to go into healthcare policy for the same reasons as other people you know then thats great! Don't stress about having similar essays because they are coming from different perspectives. On the other hand if you have a less common story like mine with local government and environmental policy thats fine too, just because its different from what other people are saying on gradcafe or to you when you show them your essay doesn't make your story less good or important. 4. You can do it! Work hard, apply smart (at times take gradcafe with a grain of salt) and you will be happy with your application cycle!

Hey husky4ever I got a 159/160/4.5 in the GRE and have above a 3.6 and received a very large (nearly full ride) scholarship to SPEA. I don't know how much essays and other things like work experience are tired into the scholarship decision but it's possible that a few points could have a big impact if my experience is normal. That being said I found the admissions staff very transparent so you could always ask them how they consider the GRE in with everything else. Good luck!

Looking at that oncourse/onestart thing with the "looking for housing" section so many of them still are for this summer or are posts from undergrads. I wish I wasn't so far away so I could just visit ans find somewhere in person...

Just submitted me deposit as well! I'm excited to get set up with everything and start looking for housing.

When I was there for visit day I ended up taking the bus and I believe the bus that comes from SPEA and the business school stops at all of those apartment complexes so that may be why they are super popular with SPEA people. Also I don't want to live that far away from the school but there are some complexes with swimming pools and all kinds of other amenities if your willing to be like a 10-15 minute bus ride away or probably the same amount of time biking so if those are important to you they can also be found in Bloomington. I also spoke with a SPEA student the other night and they said basically as long as you have a place by the end of July you should be totally fine and that right now a lot of the housing will still be for summer sublets as their school year is just wrapping up. So it seems like it might be a week or two before the fall listings are really up.

I visited SPEA and was also accepted to the duel degree and although I'm not specifically interested in international development I did speak with a lot of students that spent time abroad either as a semester or as a summer internship so its definitely possible to get international experience while you are there if thats a concern. Overall I thought it was a really good program with a huge alumni network!

Unfortunately I didn't apply to Berkeley and really don't know anything about the program so I really cannot give you a real comparison. I know they don't have a specific energy concentration but inside of sustainable systems they did have a lot of offerings. I would email michigan and get their course catalog so you can just compare energy offerings directly. I doubt I will be ending up at Michigan, it is extremely expensive even with the aid I was given and I received some great financial aid from other schools. I LOVED the research they were doing but since I'm not 100% on a phd, I'm just hoping to work in government or possibly private sector, it doesn't seem 100% worth it to take on the higher debt for increased phd prospects.

@RicardoBello Thanks! I just checked it out as well and it looks like housing isn't a problem in Bloomington which is good to know! I'm still in shock with how cheap it is, it is kind of amazing coming from somewhere where the COL is very high haha.

@ awex I think I will also be paying my deposit this week baring some crazy offer from another school. The other schools I was accepted to are a good bit more well known on this board and generally considered more prestigious due to their undergraduate reputations so I was struggling choosing SPEA over them but after visiting and seeing the school, talking to students and professors, and seeing that Bloomington has the potential to be a pretty good place to live for a few years helped make my choice a LOT easier. Slightly off topic but does anyone know how early we need to find housing to be able to live somewhere relatively close to campus that is also dog friendly?

I only have one year of work experience but I worked nearly full time throughout my time in undergrad so I feel like that counts for something extra. I was speaking to a student at the gala about that actually and she said that there is a really wide age range that is more dependent on the program someone is in. For example the MSES seemed to be mostly coming straight from undergrad but many of the MPA and MPA/MSES people seemed to have at least 1 if not 2-3 years or work experience. That was just who I bumped into though and what the person I was talking to thought (they were also in the MPA/MSES program so I don't have any info on arts admin). I thought Bloomington was surprisingly nice! It was a wayyy nicer college town than I expected because I was also worried about living in a small city/town but everyone seemed to really enjoy Bloomington and a few people I spoke with said they had never even been to Indie because they just felt like Bloomington had plenty to offer. I stayed around for a while on Saturday and checked out more of the downtown and found it really cute! They have just about everything in walking distance and there is a free campus bus that takes you just about everywhere you could want to go. This is a big plus for me since I'm hoping to not do a lot of driving and wanted to either go to grad school in a city or in a college town where this wouldn't be an issue. I will also likely be paying my deposit for SPEA sometime this week! I think they did a good job with the experience day and that really pushed me over the edge along with seeing all the awesome classes they offer and how they seem to do a really good job of integrating science, policy, and decision making.

What did you think of the program? I really enjoyed it and think there is a good chance I may end up there in the fall. I received a large stipend & tuition remission and hope to work for the government afterwards so this program is a pretty good ft for me financially and seemingly career wise.

I also attended NU undergrad and can also attest it's an amazing school experience and yes in downtown an apt can be 1,200 a mo but honestly as someone who also grew up in Evanstin if your willing to live in south evanston on like main or dempster (both walkable to campus plus there is a free NU bus stop that goes by there) instead of in like evanston place or another large complex near the campus you can pay less than that easily. I lived in really nice buildings and never paid more than 700 including utilities so there are good deals if your willing to look a little! Also for leaving chicago I haven't felt tied or forced to be in the Midwest at all! NUs brand name can take you back to DC no problem if that is a concern for you. $30k is a lot of money but I think the cost of living being lower probably helps the overall cost but obviously NYU is also a great school and it sounds like they can both serve you well.

bump. Does anyone else have any thoughts on Michigan's program?

I'll be there for the MPA/MSES group on Friday!

bump. Is anyone else considering SPEA?