lazuliii

I would really love to go to Goldman, but I didn't get funding. I remember other folks in the same situation posting in previous years about how they planned to make it work financially with the fee remissions that come from graduate assistantships. This seems really risky to me, given that they're not guaranteed (and Berkeley is an expensive part of the country to live in). Is anyone else in the same boat here? Thoughts?

So, I tend to bang this drum quite a bit here, but I personally think that it's not wise to take out a lot of debt for an MA/IR, MPP, or MPA because the salaries in those jobs aren't that high and the rankings don't matter nearly as much as they might for an MBA or JD, for example.  A big part of my decision to attend LBJ was financial. I was accepted to a couple of DC schools, but with little financial aid. Between the higher tuition and higher cost of living in DC, I was looking at about $80,000 more over two years to go to school in DC. As much as I wanted to go to school in DC, I knew that I wanted to go in to government or NGO work and I just couldn't bring myself to spend $80k more to be in DC. On the other hand, between financial aid, working, my savings, and the lower cost of living in Austin, I graduated from LBJ debt-free which was a great feeling to have when I graduated since it meant that I had more options and didn't have to take the highest paying or first job that came along.

If you're interested in working for the federal government, where you go to school will have very little effect on your starting salary. The salary determination process is more or less an equation of education + work experience = GS level X, step Y. The brand name of a school might make a difference in opening doors at NGOs and make a small salary difference, but probably not a big enough difference to offset much extra debt since salaries are generally lower in the NGO/non-profit sector. If you've got your heart set on consulting, then the extra debt to attend a more prestigious program might be worth it, but if you change your mind partway through the program you could be stuck with consulting anyway to pay off the debt. If you come in to the masters as a mid-career student with a lot of work experience though, you could have a higher salary after graduation, so a larger debt payment might not be as big of a problem.

After graduation, I started working with the federal government at a little over 55K in DC, which is more or less average for someone with a master's and a couple of years of work experience. After taxes, social security, etc, I was left with a little less than 40k/year to live on. That's manageable in DC especially since I'm single, but if I had a large student loan payment like the $600-$900/mo payments you can incur if you take out $60K-$80K of loans or had a family, it would be really tough to live in the DC area on that. My salary has gone up a bit in the almost 5 years since I graduated, but it would still be tough if I had a huge loan payment every month. Without debt, I'm able to live comfortably, though not lavishly, save for future needs, and put away some money towards a down payment on a condo/house later on.

Also, being in DC can give you a leg up in networking, especially for the private sector and NGOs, but all of the big policy schools will have a decent alumni network in DC and the big employers of MPP/MPA/IR grads will hit the big policy schools. We had recruiters at LBJ from a lot of government agencies, several consulting firms, and many different international and DC-based NGO/Non-profits.  People in my graduating class went on to work at any number of federal agencies, UN orgs, think tanks, get PhDs, etc. and going to school outside of DC didn't really seem to hold anyone back.  So, while I was initially a little apprehensive about going to school outside of DC, I don't really think it hurt me in the long run. I got 2 great federal internships and then was eventually hired by one of them. Now, I'm in DC and have been able to take advantage of the LBJ alumni network here and build my own network through my current job and living in DC.
 
I'm not sure how much debt you'd be looking at, but 100k in loans with a 10-year repayment at 6.8% interest equals a $1,150/mo payment and, with the interest you actually end up paying $138k.  That's a house in some parts of the country and at least a decent chunk of a condo in a place like DC.  The opportunity cost is higher because if you invested that $1,150/mo in a fund with a 10% annual return, you'd have $237k after 10 years.  Even if your investment only hit 5% a year, you'd still end up with $179k in the bank after 10 years.  So, not only are you paying $138k, you're not saving or investing that same money, so you're losing out on interest and investment gains.

It's ultimately a personal decision, since everyone has a different tolerance for debt, but I generally don't think that a lot of debt is advisable or necessary for most MPP/MPA/IR grads since salaries are not usually that high. I also think that the name of the school, while not irrelevant, is not as important in the public and NGO/Non-profit sector as it is in the private sector. So, paying big bucks for a name brand is not as important as it might be for law schools or MBA programs. For example, a person that I met at an admitted student day for LBJ when I was trying to decide where to go ultimately turned down LBJ to go to HKS. We now work for the same employer, doing the same job with the same promotion potential, and my salary's actually a bit higher because I had a little more work experience before being hired. He has a ton of debt that he's trying to manage, but I don't.

I also think that, if you don't have a good match between program fit and financial aid, it is worth taking another year to work on your application package and/or research other schools. If you got in to top ranked program X with no funding, chances are good you'll get in there again or at least in to a similar program if you apply later. In the mean time, you can do things to improve your application package like trying to boost your GRE, improve your resume, improve your statements of purpose, etc. I would also strongly consider casting a wider net when you apply to schools the second time around because maybe you can get in to slightly lower ranked school Y with decent funding and have similar career prospects after graduation.  

Previous Schools：University of Michigan

Previous Degrees and GPAs: Double major in Political Science and Russian Studies. 3.8 GPA.

GRE Scores: V 800 / Q 770 / AW 4.5

Previous Work Experience: 2 years (by fall 2012, when school starts). 1 year unrelated corporate stuff, 1 year teaching English in China, multiple analytical internships throughout both years. I assume we're not counting undergraduate stuff, because I did a boatload of IR-relevant things then as well.

Math/Econ Background: Stats, Micro, Macro, some data modeling courses

Foreign Language Background: Russian (professionally fluent), Mandarin Chinese (intermediate)

Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Security Studies

Schools Applied to & Results: Princeton WWS MPA (rejected), Yale Jackson MA (rejected), Georgetown MA Security Studies (rejected), Tufts Fletcher MALD (accepted + $), SAIS MA Strategic Studies (accepted + $), Pittsburgh GSPIA MA Security + Intelligence Studies (accepted + $), GW Elliot MA Security Policy Studies (accepted + $)

Ultimate Decision & Why: GW Elliott. Why? I got a full ride + stipend to go there. It has a dedicated Security Policy Studies degree, which is more in line with my interests and goals than a generalist IR degree. It's in DC. Literally the only option that could have competed with GW would have been a fully-funded Georgetown admit, which didn't happen (not even close, haha). Very easy decision.

Advice for Future Applicants: Get started early (like a year ahead of time). The more time you allow yourself to research your schools, get recommenders, polish your SOP, and double-check that all admission materials have been received, the better your chances are.

On that note, double-check EVERYTHING - GRE scores received by university, transcripts received, pre-reqs met, recommenders submitted their stuff, fin-aid deadlines, etc. Then triple-check it. There are horror stories of people on this forum whose stuff got lost, and application thrown out. As much as you care about your application, the people handling it (low-level university functionaries, often recent grads) do not. I highly recommend making a spreadsheet to keep track of all this stuff.

Bust your butt studying for the GRE. There really is no reason not to. It's a highly masterable test - all it measures is your ability to prepare for the questions they ask. Based on an admittedly small sample size of 1, it makes you more competitive for fin-aid. I got significant funding at every school I was admitted to (including several full rides), and I think the GRE was a major part of this.

Get work experience before you apply. Get work experience before you apply. Get work experience before you apply. Ge... okay I'll stop now, but based on what admission representatives have said, and the admission results of people on this forum, WE is a vital part of your package. Don't neglect it. It doesn't have to be 100% relevant (if you were already doing what you wanted to, why would you want to leave the field to go to grad school), but it should improve your skill set in some way. Could be foreign language, could be budgeting + management, whatever.

Spend at least 100 hours on your SOP. Preferably more. Write them, polish them, have others edit them, personalize them to each school. Show your commitment to the field by highlighting relevant experiences, instead of telling them about it.

I personally found it very useful to make every sentence in my SOP belong to one of three baskets.

1) What you have already accomplished and why. My work at Alphacorp directly engaged my interest in international development. Experiences like managing a project to create accessible drinking wells in drought-ridden areas of Mali confirmed my belief that public service, not fame or riches, must be the axis of my career.
2) What you want to do in the future and why. Although my work in the field was invaluable education in the realities of international development, it also left me wanting more. Creating high-level policy would allow me to address more of the issues facing Mali than working in the field. I want to transition from a practitioner to a planner in order to create widespread change.
3) How University X will SPECIFICALLY build upon past experiences (point #1), and prepare you to achieve your future goals (point #2) University X's curriculum closely matches my professional plan. Development-focused classes such as X and Y will give me a more focused and relevant education than a generalist degree. I particularly relish the chance to work with Professor John Doe, whose experience leading the Africa section of USAID is exactly the sort of career I hope to achieve.

No stories about when you were 8 and how thuper thuper passionate you have been about the field since then.
No hokey inspirational quotes ("excellence is a habit, not a virtue...").
No "Webster's Dictionary says 'public service' has this meaning but really I think it's this."

Where you've been, where you want to go, how University X will get you from point A to point B. That's it.

Previous Schools: A small, liberal arts college in Maryland.
Previous Degrees and GPAs: BA in Political Science and History, 3.8 GPA
GRE Scores: 165 Verbal, 145 Quantitative, 4.5 Writing
Previous Work Experience: 2 years on Capitol Hill, 1 campaign cycle as a Field Director, 1 year interning at a political consulting agency.
Math/Econ Background: NONE! HAAAAAAA, I suck.
Foreign Language Background: Um, I'm pretty good at one of Tolkien's Elvish dialects.
Intended Field of Study in Grad School: MPP in Program Analysis with a concentration in Environmental/Energy Policy.
Long Term Professional Goals: Legislative Aide.
Schools Applied to & Results: George Washington (accepted), University of Maryland (accepted), and American University (accepted).
Ultimate Decision & Why: GW. Because it's the highest-ranked school of them all, with the highest-ranked program, but moreover, simply because it felt like a truer fit. They take a very pragmatic, career-oriented angle to their curriculum, not all Ivory Tower academia, which I tend to appreciate at this point in my life.
Advice for Future Applicants:
 
Okay, listen guys. Everyone else has give some great practical advice, so here's something less useful but equally important: DON'T FREAK OUT.
 
Go back up and look at my quantitative score. GO LOOK AT IT. Yeah, you flinched, didn't you? That uncomfortable feeling in your gut is called pity. I pitied myself too, once I saw it. But guess what. That sad, pathetic demonstration of math delinquency didn't stop me, and neither will one bad aspect of your application stop you. Whatever your stats, do not let yourself get hung up on them. They're what you have, so stop stressing over them, and focus on the parts of your application you can currently control, such as your Statement of Purpose. Put your heart and soul into that statement, and it will make up for a great many things. It certainly did for me.
 
It's very easy, amidst all the expectation and the pressure, to second-guess yourself. It's very easy to start questioning whether you're really a competitive candidate, or whether you're just faking it extraordinarily well, which very easily spirals into an existential crisis of "what the hell am I doing?" and "what the hell am I doing if this doesn't work out?" Every single one of us has been there. But don't let those thoughts eat at you and erode your conviction. Your intuition has led you this far, so trust it. You know what you're doing. You will be okay. Chances are, you will get in somewhere, and if all else fails, trying again the following year is becoming more and more commonplace. And it demonstrates to the admissions committee that you're serious, which increases your chances. My friend applied to Georgetown 3 years in a row before he was finally accepted, and his program coordinator told him his tenacity is what gave him the edge. I know waiting another year and trying again is approximately no one's idea of an ideal scenario-- but it isn't a death sentence for your career, either. You have that option, along with a slew of others, even if it's hard to see that through the fog of stress this process induces.
 
So don't freak out. Assuming you've applied to multiple places, the odds of acceptance to one of them are in your favor, and even if the unfortunate comes to pass, you'll be okay anyway. You really, truly will.
 
And remember: you don't want a place that doesn't want you. If they reject you, they obviously weren't a great fit, so you probably would not have been happy there anyway. Give them the finger, move on, do amazing somewhere else, then send them your resume a few years later so they can see the kind of alumni they missed out on having.
 
Lastly, when it comes to making a final decision, block out all the noise. You will have a profusion of opinions with which to contend, and you should heed exactly none of them. Hearing them out is fair, but then sit yourself down and forget every word. You will be the only one who has to live with your decision. You will be the only one there, putting in the work, and paying down the loans. Not your mother, not your cousin, not your sister or your friend or your undergrad adviser. You. Just you. This is a party of one. Kick everyone else out.
 
And good luck.

Previous Schools University of Chicago
Previous Degrees and GPAs: Anthropology major, 3.94 GPA
GRE Scores: V 167, Q 159, 5.0 Writing
Previous Work Experience: chronological: interned at Mayor's Office, affordable housing non-profit, and resource-access non-profit in Chicago; AmeriCorps year in Boston through a program with a focus on social entrepreneurship; ensuing 3 years at a Boston non-profit doing lots of quality assurance, program development, and grant-writing. 
Math/Econ Background: Three quarters of Chicago-required calculus (turns out it's good to have your medicine forced down your throat), one quarter of general statistics, and then intro to micro and macro-econ through the Harvard Extension School. 
Foreign Language Background: Native English speaker; fluent in German
Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Public policy with a focus on social policy; specifically, poverty alleviation
Long Term Professional Goals: Improving state or federal poverty policy with a focus on improving access to benefits and efficiency of delivery/success. Don't much care about the state/federal question so long as the projects are fascinating and creating an impact.
Schools Applied to & Results: GPPI (accepted with $20K/year), Ford (accepted with $10K/year), Duke (accepted with full ride), Heller (accepted with full ride), HKS (waitlisted), LBJ (accepted with fellowship that covers tuition plus a hefty stipend)
Ultimate Decision & Why: LBJ School (MPAff). LBJ has a great curriculum in terms of what I want to do, with an ability to specialize in the core sequences. LBJ also has a very strong focus on applied learning, which is very appealing, and relatively easy access to research assistantships. The atmosphere is very collaborative and perhaps the friendliest of the schools I encountered, which I appreciate - I loathe environments where folks are constantly jockeying for position. They also gave me piles of money. I'm a bit of a money-hoarder, so the opportunity to avoid debt entirely was hard to turn down. Lastly, my fiance was applying to economics PhD programs at the same time, and Austin turned out to be the best match for both of us.
 
Advice for Future Applicants:
Study for the GRE! Chances are you can stand to improve either your math or verbal scores. Verbal is relatively easy - sit yourself down with some flashcards - but math is harder. I literally spent the summer and fall of 2012 re-teaching myself high school math, partially because I had a crappy basic math background to begin with. Spend an hour a day working through problems. I recommend the Manhattan Prep books for anyone who has to re-learn concepts (as opposed to learning test taking tips). For those of you who are good at math, you'll still want to practice the type of problems that are on the GRE. A lot of them are stupid mind tricks, and if you get too far into trying to actually do proper math to calculate the answer, you won't have enough time to finish. If you ever feel the need to write out a proof or do calculus, you've put too much though into it.  Check application deadlines early on. Now is a good time. LBJ technically has a rolling application, but HKS is also way out in front with that end of November deadline. You don't want to rush yourself or your recommendation writers. Speaking of which: ask for recommendations early on. Late summer/early fall is a good time - you don't want to start too far out lest they forget. Good recommenders will want examples of past work (if academic) or will want you to walk them through your resume. It's also a good idea to send them drafts of your SOP. In a perfect world, your recommenders will speak to things that you highlight in your SOP, and will burnish areas that you don't have time to delve into in great detail. It's also great if they can rate how wonderful you are. E.g., "Bobby is one of the top two employees I have ever supervised." You want everything to read as one nice, interconnected package.  Start drafts of your SOP early on and keep working on it. Make other people read it. Accept their criticisms with grace. Stick to the word limit. Make an effort to truly customize each SOP to each school. You don't have to go crazy - you don't need to re-write the whole thing - but at least have a paragraph where you focus on what makes each school great. Make sure to include specific details rather than generic attributes. Also, make sure your SOP focuses particularly on what you want to do and why - it shouldn't be a re-statement of your resume. Resume. Ugh. Make sure it isn't hideous. I personally hate statements of goals or focus, but I think that's an individual thing. If possible, try to quantify your accomplishments as much as possible. Did you write an 800+ page RFP that secured $20M in funding for your organization? Great! Don't sabotage yourself by saying that you "create and respond to funding proposals". TLDR; Make sure that your entire application is a logical argument for why you are awesome and should be admitted. Do not give them any opportunities to focus on any real or potential weakness. Yes, you want to acknowledge any obvious problems (perhaps you failed statistics), but immediately re-direct to the strength (you re-took the class, or you re-taught yourself statistics in this job that you are awesome at). Think of yourself/your application as a sleight of hand performance. You always want to be in control of what the audience is thinking, to be able to anticipate any troublesome distractions, and to be able to re-orient them back on your chosen course.

Hi all - first-time poster here, but like others I learned a lot from this board while researching schools so hopefully this is helpful to others:
 
Previous Schools: Big state school with less-than-stellar academics

Previous Degrees and GPAs: B.A. in public health, minor in leadership (3.9 overall); 
 
GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing):630/760/5.0

Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): Total of 5 years (~3 years full-time, ~2 years part-time) in health policy research, extracurricular global health work in college + some random community service activities, studied abroad for a semester
 
Math/Econ Background: AP Calc in high school, but not a single math class since then with the exception of intro to statistics for sociology majors. I took micro and macroeconomics at a community college last summer but no other economics classes.

Foreign Language Background (if applicable to your program): Intermediate Spanish

Intended Field of Study in Grad School: MPA/MPP, focused on health/domestic policy

Long Term Professional Goals: My background is in health policy research, and I'm thinking of switching over to the advocacy side of things. Not entirely sure what that looks like yet (foundations? non-profits? state/federal government?).

Schools Applied to & Results: Georgetown MPP (Accepted, $20k), GWU Trachtenberg MPP (Accepted, no funding), NYU Wagner MPA in Health Policy/Management (Accepted, full tuition), Princeton WWS MPA (Accepted, full tuition + stipend), Harvard Kennedy MPP (Accepted, no funding), and Harvard School of Public Health SM2 in Health Policy/Management (Accepted, half tuition). 

Ultimate Decision & Why: Princeton WWS. My decision pretty quickly became a choice between HKS and WWS and after visiting both the choice became very clear. I think HKS has an incredible program, and folks with very specific interests are probably better served by such a large university with more faculty, classes, alumni, etc. in that area. The downside, of course, is that it's easier to get lost in a sea of hundreds of students - HKS's new admit day felt oddly formal and impersonal to me. Resources are a big difference between the two, though in a lot of ways, the resources available at WWS (summer funding, travel grants, etc.) are available at HKS too - you just have to compete for them. Perhaps as a result of the financial aid situation, more HKS students are bound for the private sector (a current student told me that 75 first-year MPP students were applying for a summer internship at McKinsey) which felt odd for a school with a tagline of "ask what you can do..." 
 
In the end, though, I'd choose WWS over HKS even if the money were even. The curriculum is exactly what I want to learn in grad school. The faculty and staff at new admit day genuinely seemed to care about the success of their students. Career services is phenomenal, and current students looking for jobs told stories of alumni "falling over themselves" to help with informational interviews, networking, jobs, etc. Above all of that, I think the most surprising part of the visit was the community at WWS. The current students are accomplished yet extraordinarily humble, friendly and just plain happy to be there. Many of them travel together over winter/spring break. Princeton certainly isn't Cambridge, but the train to NYC is quick and not prohibitively expensive. 
 
Advice for Future Applicants: 
 
1. Don't underestimate yourself. I was very close to not applying to HKS because I didn't think I had a shot. Admissions is a crap shoot, and if you can find a way to swing the application fees it's worth going after a few "reaches."
 
2. In my opinion, the question isn't if you can go to grad school right after college, but if you should. I thought originally about applying straight out of undergrad, and am so happy that I didn't. I have a much clearer understanding of what I want out of the program, will contribute more to class discussions, and probably got into much better schools than I would have right after college. It's a tough job market for sure, but even somewhat-related work experience is better than nothing.
 
3. I had a fairly significant typo on the second paragraph of my personal statement, but it apparently didn't sink my application. This isn't to say you shouldn't proofread, but if you have a team of people that read your essays a gazillion times and somehow one typo slips through in an otherwise flawless application, try not to spend the next four months beating yourself up about it. (Like I did.)
 
4. Once I was in decision-making mode, I tried to talk to as many current/former students as possible. (And not just the ones that called me because the admissions office asked them to.) Asking questions like "what's your favorite part of (school)?" or "what do students complain about the most?" or "what would you change about the program if you could?" were more informative than any glossy brochure or website. And if you're trying to discern fit, there's no substitute for talking with current/former students, even if it has to be over the phone/Skype. Use your networks - I was surprised by the number of friends/colleagues with connections to students at schools where I applied.

GSI positions are competitive, but there are quite a few.  This Fall the Ford School has 21 GSI positions.  It's probably safe to assume no incoming 1st years will get one, so of the 2nd year class (~120 students) and 3rd year dual degrees still around (~30 students), the worst-case scenario odds this Fall are somewhere around 21/150 or 14%.  In the winter, the school offers 10-15 positions and now there are first-year students that may apply to some, so the odds get tougher.
 
There are a couple of tricks that will help your odds.  The first is to quickly take classes that are offered every semester.  Statistics, Public Management, and Values & Ethics are good candidates.  This gives you a shot at applying to them every cycle.  The second is to build relationships with professors.  This may seem obvious, but some students don't attend professor office hours or really interact with them and this is a lost advantage.  You can also apply to GSI positions around the university.  Many students in my first year cohort had GSI positions in other programs.

I stopped by Ford on my way home today to talk with them. If you got funding it would be mentioned in the email. The only exception is if you were recommended for a university fellowship through Rackham. Those are awarded in October. Well, and they gave me a few grand for stopping by the office. 

Hi socal_kid!  I have been admitted to GSPP without fellowship and I had a few queries
 
1.If one is offered a RA/TA on campus is it sufficient to manage considering I don't have funding? The great thing is I have a cousin nearby who  I can stay with (no rent!)
 
2. Do you have any idea how many people apply every year and how many international students there are in each batch? From the stats on the website, in 2012 there were just 16. 
 
3. Therefore, is the class not as diverse as it can be as there are so few international applicants?
 
4. Is the focus of GSPP more domestic rather than international?
 
Thank you!