samiam

You're too late for this year - applications for Fall 2015 have closed at pretty much all schools worth attending.

This is more of an observation than a tip: I was surprised by how long it took me to get back into the habits of studying, having been out of education for a few years. Before I went back to school I had a job that was often long hours, but once I left for the day, my time was my own. Being a student was totally the opposite - I only had 12 hours a week of classes, and had to work out how to schedule the rest of my time (I am doing a coursework Masters so don't have research obligations). I never felt like I was 'off duty' - no matter what I was doing, I could in theory have been studying (even though I don't need to study constantly to do well in these classes). At the same time, the temptation to spend the afternoon drinking coffee with friends was always there, because 'I can always study later'. So you might want to think in advance about how you'll handle that dynamic.

There are lots of reasons people might block others on Facebook, many of which have nothing to do with who your friends are. I wouldn't read anything into that.

Don't stress. I found a typo in the first line of my writing sample for one of my schools, and I got accepted.

Anecdotes are not data, but I sent mine in only hours (and in a couple of cases minutes) before the deadline and got acceptances. So I don't think it matters on their end.

Is it 600 words or 600 characters? You say different things in different posts. If you have 600 words, definitely provide more detail along the lines of what Peachypie and jetvermillion suggested. Even if you only have 600 characters, there's a lot of 'filler' in what you wrote that you could take out so you can include more specific info e.g. They know all this already (who you're writing to, why you're writing, and that you want the to take this info into consideration).

Have you asked them about your proposal to audit and retake? Each school has its own rules for such things - they are the only ones who can tell you whether this is possible, and also what the consequences are for failing a class.

Georgetown has a 12 month Master of Policy Management: http://mccourt.georgetown.edu/academics/mpm

You only emailed him yesterday? Slow down. He probably has a million things to do, and a potential future student is unlikely to be at the top of his priority list. If you haven't heard anything in a week, then send a short, polite reminder by email.

Michigan and Berkeley are the names I most closely associate with education policy. Another option would be Harvard Kennedy - you can take courses from the Harvard Graduate School of Education as part of their MPP or MPA.

What sort of work do you want to do? It's hard to say much about whether a degree will improve your employability without knowing that.

I can't speak for MAs, but MPPs are not designed as a stepping stone to a PhD. They are professional programs intended to prepare people for jobs in public policy or administration, not for academia.

I echo what chocolatecheesecake said above about talking to people about your specific circumstances. For what it's worth, I'm about to start a mid-career MPA. I've chosen to do this rather than a two-year program for several reasons. (1) Cost - half the tuition fees and half the foregone income. Neither a one year or a two year would add much to my earning potential, so that's a wash. (2) Time - I think a year in the classroom will be enough for me. If I decide I want to wait another year before going back to my career, I'd rather spend it interning/volunteering somewhere left-field that I couldn't do professionally otherwise. (3) Flexibility - most two-year programs have multiple compulsory courses, most one-year programs have few or none so you can focus on what you want to do. (4) Peer group - I think I'll learn a lot from being around people who also have significant work experience under their belt. PM me if you want to discuss further.

Does your school have a gay student support group? Might be worth having a chat with them, as they may have a sense of what the reaction might be in your department.

You might get more advice if you post this in the Computer Science forum: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/33-computer-science/