MJA87

I've really been hoping to hear from Evans soon since others have, but I haven't heard anything from them yet How did they notify you? EDIT: Just kidding, I just logged in to do a status check and was offered admission!! This is my first acceptance and I'm so excited! Does anyone know how to find out about funding?

All it means is that they've reviewed your application and that the decision will be out in March. There's really nothing more to read into.

I took two economics classes at my undergraduate institution last summer as a non-degree seeking student. I got As in both classes but, to my dismay, they had no effect on my GPA. They were listed in a separate section of my transcripts. I know they still help my overall profile and I'm still glad I took the classes, but I would just make sure taking classes now will affect your UGPA if that's your goal.

Goldman is definitely my top choice. UChicago Harris used to be very close behind them, but I've heard some concerning things about that program recently and I think it's slipping down my list.

I think this gets at the heart of the issue. If it were an academic field and the department was paying for you to attend while you did your research I might feel differently, but as it stands, I'm assuming the opposite is true. If my assumption is correct and you'll be expected to pay tens of thousands of dollars (and likely be indebted for years), you should absolutely go where you want. This might not be entirely analogous, but if you come to an agreement with a dealership on the price of a car and tell them you'll bring a check in tomorrow, but find a much better deal on the way home, I wouldn't expect you to honor the verbal agreement at the cost of thousands of dollars to yourself. I'd expect you'd call the dealership and apologize profusely and tell them the deal is off. The first university is going to be just fine, they have many more applicants than spots and have plenty of people lined up willing to pay sticker for admission to their program.

My advice would be to do what is best for you. If you truly want to go to Fletcher, apply to Fletcher. I'm sure the first school wont be thrilled, but I don't think you should potentially handicap your ability to pursue your goals because you feel some sort of loyalty to them. If you're considering Fletcher, I'm sure there are plenty of schools that would be happy to take your money. You're investing years of your life and potentially a lot of money; unless you entered into some kind of binding contract with the first school, you owe it to yourself to go where you want to go the most.

I'm not applying to WWS because they would laugh my application into the trash can, but I just wanted to say how awesome it is to see an Arsenal avatar on this forum. Good luck with your application, your numbers are really great. Come On You Gunners!!

There is an official forum for this type of post, please see http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/5-waiting-it-out/

I just wanted to bump this to get more dialogue going. I'm really interested to hear other opinions about Harris: is it a program in turmoil? Are its problems overblown? As I mentioned previously, I've read several negative things about Harris over the past few months and just wanted to hear from as many people in the know as possible.

Mine is showing the same status. I believe it means they've started reviewing everybody, and everybody can expect to hear around the same time.

Thanks a lot for this information; it's sort of scary but also very important to have. Harris was my #1 choice when I first started looking at programs last summer, but since then I've read almost exclusively negative things about the program. It's a shame because UChicago has such an incredible reputation and Chicago is such an awesome city. I'm wondering, financial circumstances being equal, would you recommend other programs like CMU Heinz, UW Evans, USC Price, and UTexas LBJ over Harris? Thanks again.

I agree with everything chocolatecheesecake said, especially about the internships and school extracurriculars compared to full-time work experience. It's absolutely a good thing to have those internships and extracurriculars (especially being the president of your SGA), but don't expect them to be counted as real world, full time experience. I'm not saying you won't get into any schools because of your sub-par numbers and lack of experience. If you look at the results for even some of the top schools, you'll see there are outliers in every class. If I had to venture a guess, I think your results will look something like this: Georgetown, GW, U Mich, UCLA less than 50% shot, USC less than 50% shot, U Penn, Cornell less than 50% shot, Northwestern no idea, possible admit?, UVA, possibly 50/50?, Duke, UNC possibly 50/50?, Brown not sure, but probably less than 50% chance, Syracuse less than 50% shot, and American less than 50% shot With that said, it is my hope for you that you're able to come back to this post and not only prove me wrong, but brag about how you got into Michigan with funding or something similar. I'm just being as realistic as I can.

Which program if you don't mind my asking? Out of the eight programs I'm applying to only two required mailed official transcripts, the rest were unofficials submitted online.

How late will they be? I'm no expert, but I believe if they're only a week or so late it shouldn't be a big deal. One of the schools I'm applying to said the process of matching up the physical transcripts to the online applications will take weeks itself.

Can I ask when you guys submitted your applications? Evans is the last school I'm applying to and unfortunately I've had to push back finishing up my statement for it because of traveling for work, but I plan on getting everything submitted today. Thanks and congratulations!

If, as you say, all of the schools have an environmental concentration, I would go with whoever offered the most funding. I'm not sure the prestige/name recognition difference between UW and Chicago for example is big enough to justify tens of thousands of dollars of additional debt. Graduating from UW with much less debt will give you more options with regards to what jobs you can take. Check the curriculum, make sure the location is okay, but if you're anything like me, you'll take the money in this situation.

I've been out of undergrad for over four years and I still felt compelled to have one of my letters be from a former professor. It was somewhat embarrassing at first, as I never really had a relationship with this professor other than doing well in all three of his classes in undergrad, but I'm glad I asked him. Professional letters are great and will help your overall application, but keep in mind you're applying to an academic program. They want to know that you can succeed in the classroom.

What percentile is it? What is competitive for your target programs? On the whole I would say its mediocre if not slightly below average for most programs.

I initially found LBJ's application process unclear too. Definitely not as straightforward as the other schools I'm applying to. With that said, I'm certainly interested in the school. I'm applying to mostly MPP programs, but the unique MPAff combined with the school's location (I was born in Texas but haven't been back in many years, plus Austin sounds great) makes it really intriguing for me.

There's not much to screw up: just look into the camera, speak confidently, and address the questions. I've seen schools ask for a brief video essay, but I've never seen it described as a "skit". I think it's important that the video is straightforward and shows you're a serious candidate, I wouldn't use it as an opportunity to get cute with a skit. You're applying for grad school, not to appear on a reality show.

Most (if not all?) schools take your best score for each section and combine them. As long as you retake in time and send your newer, better scores, your very low score won't be held against you. I'd recommend either really dedicating yourself to studying and doing practice tests for the next couple weeks and retaking the GRE in time to apply this year, or better yet, waiting until next year to apply and improving your entire application in the mean time.

Could I ask what stats you applied with, such as GPA, GRE, years of work experience, etc..? I'm also interested in what other options you had (what other schools and funding?) and what made you chose UGA? Thanks for taking the time to do this.

I've heard it basically is a diversity statement and that's (for the most part) how I wrote it.

The rest of your application sounds very good, just retake the GRE and get paid at some great programs. You can do it.

I'm interested to know what your decision making process was like. Once you knew your options and funding levels, what made you choose CIPA over all the rest?