Politicalgeek

Sorry to do this but: you will want to know that it's "poli sci," not "polysci."

I'm sort of late to the "party" but I just wanted to say I totally feel you. I worked so much harder in my masters program than undergrad, and my GPA ended up being exactly the same! My UG was a humanities program at a SLAC and my masters was a quant-heavy policy program at an Ivy. In my masters program, grading was on the curve, and all the students who majored in econ and finance hogged the As. Me and my interdisciplinary humanities degree just couldn't compete. :roll: Now I want to do a social sciences PhD and I hope I can compete!

If possible, try to do something related to your field. I did a public policy masters, and some of my most successful classmates worked as consultants while in school. You'll be in the national center for journalism - what about using the time to develop freelance clients?

No joke: if you have absolutely zero quant background I would recommend the Cartoon Guide to Statistics. It was a recommended book in my intro stats class at HKS. I used it to study for my final and it was really helpful. Also, if you have no experience with regression analysis, you might want to read Freakonomics, which won't teach you any quant, but gives you a really good idea of how powerful statistical analysis can be. It actually got me really excited to study regression analysis.

A lot of good info, but as someone who lived in Minneapolis/St Paul for 7 years (4 as an UG), and loved it, I want to add some points: - You can definitely find a studio for under $600, even a 1br. At that price, though, for a 1br, you will have to do some tradeoff between size, quality and neighborhood. I had a large 1br in an old, unrenovated (but historic and quite charming) apartment in a marginal neighborhood for $685. But when I left, it took the LL months to find a replacement, so it's possible I paid over-market value. - A good neighborhood that hasn't been mentioned is Seward, which is south of the West Bank. This is a really cute neighborhood with a nice mix of students and families. It has a great co op, several supermarkets, a few coffee shops and some great restaurants. It's also right near the river, which is nice. The rents there are cheaper than Uptown. Oh, and it has a Light Rail stop, so it's convenient to get downtown or to the airport/mall of america. - In general, you might want to avoid the neighborhoods north of Lake St, between Hiawatha and Nicollet*. These neighborhoods, Phillips and Whittier are some of the only high-crime neighborhoods in Mpls. Of course, it's Minneapolis, so the crime rates are still low, but there are definitely better neighborhoods to live in. These neighborhoods do have some good restaurants, though, so definitely check them out in the daytime. - Minneapolis has some of the best food I've ever had, and I've lived in NYC, Seattle and Boston. Particularly good is the Vietnamese food. Mpls also has a huge, cheap farmer's market, which is great for that grad student budget. - I like St Paul a lot, especially the Grand Ave area, but beware that the express buses from this neighborhood only run at rush hour. If you expect to socialize in Mpls or work late in the lab, you might want to live near University Ave - there's a bus that runs down University Ave straight to the U and it runs all night. *Though close to Nicollet it's a lot safer, and Niollet has some of the best restaurants in the city (its nickname is Eat St).

Definitely look at the HKS page. Briefly, I will say that there is an enormous difference between the two programs. The MPA/ID is solely focussed on economic development. Many of the graduates go on to work for the World Bank, IDB, etc or for their home finance ministries, and the majority are international students from developing nations. It is a great program if that's your goal. The MPP is a broader degree and its graduates end up lots of different places - some of my former classmates are in the White House, some in consulting, I work for a nonprofit advocacy organization.

Do you mind if I ask why you want an MPA? What exactly do you hope to get out of it, and what area of nonprofit work do you want to go into? In general, I think MPAs, especially for nonprofit work, make more sense when you've got a few more years of experience under your belt.

Sorry, I should have clarified - I did the MPP and my response was based on that experience. The MPA/ID is extremely quant-heavy, as I'm sure you know. I have no idea how your experience and education would balance out your GRE score, but you may want to retake before you apply.

wooldogg: Most people with aid had outside aid - ie, Pickering Fellowships, or fellowships sponsored by their home countries (all the damn Germans got to go for free). There were very few Harvard-sponsored fellowships and there are probably even fewer now, what with Harvard's endowment woes. I got a very small scholarship but it was mostly loans. HKS does have a loan forgiveness program but it's quite limited and there are a lot of hoops to jump through to qualify.

I finished at HKS (it'll always be KSG to me!) in 07. My advice is going to sound self-contradictory, but bear with me: I would try to get your Q GRE score up, but don't worry too much about taking the stats/econ course unless your school requires it. My story: I double-majored in two humanities fields as an undergrad. In fact, I hated math so much, I changed my major to humanities so I wouldn't have to take stats! Five years after graduation, and I find myself wanting to study public policy. Oops. But it worked out ok, and I somehow managed to get into HKS, UMN (Humphrey) and a few other schools. Anyway, I got in and started freaking out about my lack of quant background. I asked the chair of the core curriculum at HKS if I should take a stats or econ class over the summer and she said not to worry about it, unless it would make me personally feel more comfortable. I decided to spend the summer having fun instead, and I'm glad I did, because, at least at HKS, they do everything they can to make sure that you pass those quant courses. Each section has a TA and several course assistants, all who lead review sessions and study groups. Further, pretty much everyone does their problem sets in groups, which helps a lot. Also, the classes are designed to help you understand econ and stats, not to be an economist or statistician. This is an important distinction. To my surprise, I discovered that I really loved econometrics, and am now thinking about doing a poli sci degree. Not all policy schools are like this, though, so it's good to know what you're getting into before you settle on a program. UMN, for instance, does require you to have taken econ before you matriculate. Anyway, sorry for the long response, but you look fairly solid. HKS loves teachers - there were many in my class. And the classics background may actually help you, especially since you went to a good school for UG. Smart people with interesting stories are HKS gold. Oh, and I know you didn't ask about this, but think carefully about your career goals and how much debt you're able to take on before you apply for schools. I work in non-profits, and I love it, and I also loved my time at HKS, but I'm going to paying these loans off for a long time. Most public policy schools don't offer much in the way of non-loan aid.

HKS grad here. I'm not intimately familiar with their admissions criteria, but from your quick description, you sound like a really solid candidate. Your international background will help a LOT, especially as there aren't a lot of African students at HKS (at least compared to Europe, Asia, South America). I would play up your finance background, your personal story and paint a big, bold picture of what you plan to do with your degree.