seiryu

I hope this is helpful to future applicants: Previous Schools (Name, type, or tier): Top Public School Previous Degrees and GPAs: B.Sc. Math, Economics, >3.6 GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): V160 Q167 AW 5 Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): 3 yrs in a federal reserve equivalent of a developing country Math/Econ Background: calc 1,2,3, diff eq, real analysis, abstract algebra, numerical methods, probability theory (grad), linear algebra (grad), linear optimization (grad), topology (grad -phd level)/ Microecons (intermediate and advanced), macroecons (intermediate and advanced), international and development econs electives, economics honors class Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Economic policies Long Term Professional Goals: Economic policies in IFIs Schools Applied to & Results: Accepted: HKS MPA/ID, WWS MPA ($$$$), Harris MPP ($$), Goldman MPP, SIPA MPP ($), Stanford IPS Rejected: Yale Global Affairs Masters Ultimate Decision & Why: WWS, Economics and Public Policy track. Primarily due to the small class size and greater individual attention. The full scholarship helps, but even with a full scholarship from HKS I would've chosen to go to WWS. Advice for Future Applicants: 1. GPA- Try to get it above 3.5. 2. GRE- There has been discussions about how much weight is given to GRE by the adcoms. My advice is regardless, don't let them use this as a reason to ding you. Get a score above the safe threshold of V/Q/A - 160, 160, 5. This is really a beatable exam, just study for it like crazy and do lots of quality exercises and practice tests. I endorse magoosh and manhattan gre. 3. Work experience- I think there are many ways to think about work experience. My approach is to emphasize depth over breadth. I believe what you do counts a lot, and often you will only be given big projects/ assessments tasks after working for some time in an organization. I stayed in one organization for three years after graduation. So I had time to be involved in complete process of policy making: from risk assessment, escalation of risk to top management, policy recommendation, to representing my organization in responding to external parties. Because of the coherence it was easy for me to sell my experience to adcoms in applications. An added advantage of emphasizing depth over breath is your bosses would have more things to write about you in rec letters, because they know you for a longer period of time (this is only natural!). Having said that through, there is a risk of staying in an organization for too long, when the learning curve starts to flatten or when a person is starting to over-specialize. So there needs to be a careful balance. In any case, I strongly echo previous posters advice: DO NOT apply for a professional degree without first having professional experience. International experience is a plus. Internships are okay, but know that the responsibilities given to an intern cannot be compared to the ones given to a full-time employee.

for those of you who have gotten the admission packet, did you get it in a separate email from the one sent by OIT? or did it came together? I only received one email from OIT to set up my PUaccess so far..

Congrats on the admits! Well.. that's the general impression that I obtain from past replies in this forum. My guess is that since there are about 60+ students in WWS MPA, and they are divided into 4 distinct tracks, the Economics and Public Policy track should house an average estimate of around 15 students, compared to MPA/ID of 40 - 50 students at HKS. But we may need a current student to weigh in on this.. I'm aware that all WWS MPA students take the same core courses, so perhaps only for the elective courses that we get into smaller class and get more personalised attention from the faculty. I feel like we're hijacking the HKS thread. Perhaps we should move elsewhere. Btw, are you by any chance a Singaporean or Malaysian? You sound like one.

double posted

Hey Jorexer, I am inclined to believe that WWS's MPA doesn't lose out to HKS's MPA/ID in terms of quantitative rigour, especially if you are in the Economics and Public Policy Track (though I may be wrong... haven't really looked thoroughly into the syllabus). Personally, I am quite academically inclined, so I am attracted to the smaller class size, intimate discussion between students and professors that are (rumoured to be?) key features of the WWS program. I went to a big state school with over 40,000 students for my undergrad, so I really look forward to the kind of academic experience that small classrooms have to offer. I also think that career placement-wise, Princeton wouldn't be too far behind Harvard. Although again, I may be dead wrong. The Harvard brand name does seem have a further reach internationally compared to Princeton, and the MPA/ID degree is a strong gateway into international organisations like the World Bank and IMF, which incidentally are the organisations that are among my options. So... apologies if I sound uncertain. Like you, I'm also in a dilemma. I guess the funding decisions later would make our decision making process much easier.

Is it true that WWS funds all of its admitted students? I wouldn't be able to attend without full scholarship and stipend

Omg. I got in................ I was totally expecting a rejection from WWS! Beyond thrilled and shocked... and still in disbelief

Admitted into MPA/ID program. Super excited!

Thank you uncgrad2009! I wanted to email the admissions director too but I guess if you're doing it I shouldn't be asking the same set of questions twice. Looking forward to his response soon

Admitted with half-tuition. Don't think together with my savings will be enough to cover the cost though.

Admitted , but no funding