DCA-John

on the results page looks like they sent out the MPP over two days - March 18th and 19th

At least you'll be productive - I'm gonna wind up spending all day tomorrow just watching my inbox.

Looks like last year it was: MPP on March 18 MPA/ID on March 19 MPA2 on March 25

Last year they came out the day after.

Price is Right Challenge Results! Contestants are below. Looks like I won (unless I missed somebody) - except they haven't announced MPA/ID yet, so my prize is that I get to continue checking my email every 5 minutes blingem 3/11 at 5pm. DCA-John March 17th, 1 PM YLSnKSG March 18, 2:38 PM Tigereyes25 march 18th 3pm Latamstudent March 18th, 5pm Hattaba March 19th 6 pm Idealthinker 21st of March at 1pm Quixotic Man March 22, 5pm. abogs78 March 23, 3 PM Musicguy595 March 28th, 6pm.

There's always people with an ax to grind. For what it's worth, I visited last year and spent the day talking with MPA/ID students. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the program and spoke very highly of the administration and professors.

I'm not saying it's not impossible - it's just a lot harder. Plan on coming up to DC a lot. I do quite a bit of hiring, and for junior and mid-level positions based in DC I generally don't bother if the person's not already in DC. There's such a large pool of potential applicants, why bother with phone interviews and then flying the person in if you like them? In general, the decision to pursue grad school can be valued with a discounted cash flow model. You're giving up two years of income and paying a bunch of tuition now, with the payoff of (hopefully) increased paycheck in the future (as well as the intrinsic emotional benefit of whatever job you get (which, of course, doesn't pay the rent...). If the school in DC will give you more interesting, more lucrative prospects post-graduation, then you should choose the DC school. I would talk with both career service departments to see where alumni go and what salaries they earn (most B-schools track this - not as many MPA programs do)

well - sounds like you need to be in DC. You're not going to get jobs through your school career counselors. You're going to get jobs (particularly in the narrow focus you're looking at) by networking. There's probably 2-3 brownbags / talks / conferences / etc per week in that field in DC. Most are free and open to the public. Go, network, make an impression - that's how you get a job. proximity to this is what you get by being in DC.

depends on what you want to do afterwards. If you want to work in DC, it's probably worth it. It's going to be a lot harder and require a lot more networking to get a job in DC if you're not going to school there

This feels like a slippery slope, but I'll allow it Everyone gets one change

Given the recent crop of rumors, let's review contestants in the Price is Right challenge. When is the first batch of emails coming out? All times EST. Closest without going over wins. Any other guesses? blingem 3/11 at 5pm. DCA-John March 17th, 1 PM YLSnKSG March 18, 2:38 PM Tigereyes25 march 18th 3pm Latamstudent March 18th, 5pm Hattaba March 19th 6 pm Idealthinker 21st of March at 1pm Quixotic Man March 22, 5pm. abogs78 March 23, 3 PM Musicguy595 March 28th, 6pm.

Also dancing ability - they asked you to submit a video, right?

that would be consistent with the last couple of years - hopefully they'll get decisions out sooner, but I expect to see something around the end of next week as well. I didn't think anyone cared about AW scores - either way, at this point, there's no use worrying about it, since it's out of your hands at this point

I've developed a Pavlovian response to the blinking red light on my Blackberry...

For MPA/ID, last year there was an email from MPAID_Program@hks.harvard.edu with the subject "MPA/ID Admissions Message‏" the decision (waitlist, in my case), was in the email.

so true... Let's do Harvard's timezone - EST

HKS admissions, Price is Right-style... Let's hear your guesses when the first batch of emails goes out. Closest without going over wins I'm going to say March 17th, 1 PM

Speaking as a federal contractor - I wish I could say there's a lot of prestige and better pay, but don't get your hopes up... Smerd raises a good point though - what you're getting from a better ranked program is a network. You're going to learn more or less the same thing wherever you go - the quality of instruction and resources available might be a little better, but you're essentially buying a better network at a higher ranked school. You get jobs through networking, not through applying on websites, so the stronger and better connected your network, the better chance you have of getting the job you want. The caveat though, is that you need a network in the field you want to go into. If you want to do international policy, and you're at a domestic school, there's not a lot of value in the network. In undergrad it's okay to not know what you want to do - if you don't have a really clear vision of what you want after you finish grad school (and how your chosen program will get you there), it would be a really good idea to defer for a year and think through that. Case in point - I have an MBA from a top-25 school. I chose the school because they offered me a full scholarship. However, I have not really been able to use my network from there, since it's a manufacturing school, and I work in international development.

define private sector and government. In general, private sector is going to be more interested in an MBA than an MPA if government = "US federal government," then the school is not as relevant, since everything is driven by the GS schedules anyway, which I don't think really factor for school prestige if government = "world bank, UN, etc..." then school prestige definitely matters

Didn't see that in the results - did someone post in another forum?

Unless they send out emails in the next hour or so, looks like it won't be this week. Bummer.

I don't know about the program itself, but I would steer you away from generic development programs. You'd be better off getting subject matter expertise (unless you're going to one of the top schools for a development-focused MPA). If you have any interest in agriculture, U Florida is somewhat well known for agriculture in the developing world (although Michigan State and UC Davis are the leaders in that field). Ag is a hot area in development right now - you'd have a good chance of getting a job after graduating if you had an ag econ / agronomy degree and good international work experience. If you were deadset on this program, I would recommend networking and taking as many electives as possible at the school of agriculture.

True, but it's probably a smaller pool of applicants for less slots, so easier to winnow down. For what it's worth, it looks like the PhD applicants were notified from about the 4th through the 9th last year. Then the MPA and MPA/ID students were notified on the 18th. Looks like another week or two of waiting...

They said that last year as well - as I understand it, they plan to announce by (not on) March 31. Last year they sent out emails on march 17. Fingers crossed!

Sorry - went back and read the Zuckerman application materials. They're not doing in person interviews this year (which they had in past years), although they don't say anything about phone interviews.