excusemyfrench

Hey TimB, thanks for the tips. I'm not independently wealthy and have no interest in million dollar condos, but I've been looking through NYU's internal housing registry and there appear to be some decent options on there. I've visited New York many times but have never stayed for longer than a week or so. I visited Admissions before applying as well and had a really great impression of them. Excited to be in the city next year. Good luck with your endeavors!

I think you're pretty competitive. The one thing I heard about UW grad programs (as a fellow Husky grad) is that they sometimes don't like UW undergrads. The other piece of advice that was helpful to me: you should only apply to programs in locations that you're willing to live in for awhile. Networking and community connections are key in the MPA/MPP world so if you go to American for example then come back to Seattle, it may be hard for you to get your foot in the door (especially when competing with Evans grads - it's a tight-knit circle from what I can tell). In the end, it's really about what adcomm is looking to build re: the incoming class but overall I'd say you'd have a great chance of getting past the grades/scores hurdle at least. Good luck!

As someone who was having a lot of trouble with the personal statement as well and just got into NYU Wagner, I have to say the best advice I got was this: "What do you want to talk about? What does your gut say you should talk about? As soon as you know, start writing. Don't edit. Don't polish. Don't think too hard. Write stream-of-consciousness if you like, but write because in that moment when you do, the real you and the real truth about what you believe and who you are and how you will contribute to the program will come out." You can polish it up later. I followed this advice and my personal statement, I have to say, was pretty damn awesome. Especially compared to the piece of crap I had before that. I strongly recommend the "just write" strategy. And I'm guessing NYU Wagner thought it was ok too. Good luck!

Hi again, So for my personal statement, the prompt specifically asked me to discuss how my personal background related to my professional experience. Without rehashing my entire resume, I chose one stand-out moment in one of my jobs where I faced a really difficult decision and described how I came to a solution that was successful, etc. blah blah. You don't need to dump your resume into the statement but you could certainly take one unique situation or problem and show how you used your particular set of skills and knowledge to solve that problem, etc.

Has anyone accepted an offer of admission yet?

Also, I should add that I assumed the OP was asking about the literary technique of a "hook"...

Hmm I think people are misunderstanding what a "hook" is. You can still be straight to the point and be interesting and different from the rest of the pack. Every other applicant will start out with "I became interested in neuroscience/literature/insert interest here when I blah blah blah." The hook can literally be the first sentence. Instead of saying THAT you can start with some interesting learning moment you had or something you discovered in all of your research up to this point (if you have any). Or you can just use the standard style that everyone else is suggesting. Of course, I don't know how PhDs work but already having one professional degree under my belt, I've felt it was a good thing to "hook" my reader with an unconventional first paragraph or sentence even for these kinds of essays. I feel like I have to stand up a little for the creative writers here! Either way, I'm sure you'll write a great SOP. Use your own voice. Do what comes naturally to you.

Good point. I happen to be a very good writer and can use hooks pretty well. But definitely stay away from it if you doubt your ability to integrate creative writing techniques into an SOP.

If not many people are taking the route you want to take and currently hold, I'd think that makes you unique and a stand-out from the rest of the usual suspects. So, yes, I think your work background makes you more interesting. If you're really concerned about the lack of alumni in your specialization, I'd suggest thoroughly researching the MPP programs for anything closely related to your career. On the other hand, wouldn't your line of work fall under "international"??? A lot of programs have international tracks in that sense. You could always apply to non-US programs like LSE, etc.

Your first paragraph is good. However, I'd definitely change the sentence "I still bask under the glory of my..." because that sounds incredibly arrogant and will turn off ANY reader. In fact, remove the reference to your GPA altogether. It'll be on your CV and transcripts, right? No need to mention it on your statement. Just talk about your project.

This is well-written but you lost me after Paragraph 4-5. Not only did I get a little bored, but I also didn't really know what you were talking about anymore in terms of your goals, why you want to do what you want to do. It just started sounding like a drawn-out version of your resume. What renewed my interest again was the "As a military spouse" paragraph. You were that severely injured?!? Yet you overcame it and are very successful. Now that's a story I want to hear more about. I suggest you lead with that particular life event and use it as an example of how your interests came together based on that experience, how your skills and knowledge were strengthened by going through a really damaging event to your own health, etc. What's even better is if you came to any new theories or ideas/goals for how health nutrition should be delivered as a service to people because of what you experienced (just a thought from a layperson). I'm guessing your drive to achieve and study human nutrition and healthy living was really affected by this moment in your life. Tell adcom about that. Apologies if I'm a little blunt but I figure you want some straight forward feedback. Good luck!

While it's not specific to a PhD essay, I'd say any good piece of writing that "hooks" the reader often starts with something unexpected or starts in the middle of the "story." To clarify, starting in the middle of a story or event usually creates mystery and in turn creates a need for the writer to explain what's going on, which then fulfills the reader's need to have the mystery resolved. It keeps them reading. I'd actually try to avoid the "I'm interested in this research and here's why blah blah" because honestly that's really boring - to start out with anyway. Think of a watershed moment in your professional/personal career/life that really solidified for you why you want to pursue your particular PhD or your research interest, etc. Consider the entire arc of that experience, then pick the middle or the "a-ha" point in time and start the first paragraph there. You can even start with a quote from something someone said that was really jarring or galvanized you to respond and stand up for yourself, anything really, that just captures the reader and makes them think, "I want to keep reading because I want to know what this writer is talking about" or "I want to know what happened!" Finally, the best advice I got was to simply sit down and start writing. Don't edit yourself, don't try to perfect the language as you write. Just write. The best essays are those that truly represent what you're thinking/feeling/believing, etc. You can always clean it up and make it sound professional later. Good luck!