esotericish

Are you looking at one versus the other based on the math requirements?

If your MPP is giving you good, usable skills it might help. Like statistics or econometrics or something. I'm not sure what you learn in an MPP. Either way, though, it's probably not worth the opportunity cost of applying. If you put together a good application with good research interests, the admissions committee might even give you a little bump because of your work experience.

There are lots of people in these programs who value non-American academic experience. Don't sell yourself short and only apply to low programs. Also, living in DC on a stipend would be brutal.

Don't rule out schools based on your GRE score. Also, don't put that much stake in rankings. Yeah, if you go to Harvard or Stanford you'll be better off. But if you go to any decent program (whatever arbitrary cutoff you decide) and work with people who want to work with you, publish something, generally do well, you'll get a job. I'm at a top ~20 or so and the three people we have on the market this year are definitely going to get jobs. But they're also really good.

Looks like you have a very good application. Curious as to why you're only applying to schools in the DC area? I think with your application you could do much better than those schools, and DC would be a terrible place to live on a stipend.

Then you'll probably be fine! Nobody here can tell you what the score means, but they can tell you (quite obviously) that higher score = better chances. So if you really wanted to maximize your chances, and have the time and resources, you could take the GRE again. I'm not saying I would in your position, but a higher score wouldn't hurt.

If you can get your Q score higher that would really benefit your application. While people will correctly tell you GRE score doesn't make or break an application, you'll see very few people in top 10 programs with a low Q score in particular.

Not a ton of options. You're pretty much stuck between Time Warner and maybe AT&T Uverse. I don't think Verizon is there yet. I do know Google Fiber is currently being installed in some places in Raleigh.

Ah gotcha. There are a couple people at the Emory program that study this -- Danielle Jung is definitely one.

Have you looked at the literature in the field and then seen where the people teach who are writing that literature?

(disclaimer: not a female) My girlfriend is your age and works in a very professional environment. Her favorite places to shop are Marshalls and TJ Maxx, where you can get some really professional looking stuff for a good price (they're only really good for womens' clothing, though). Other than that, if you pay attention you can often find great deals on Banana Republic during sales.

GW has a really good board for this. Padmapper is also very solid in DC. Zillow is the other resource I'd suggest.

Seems pretty reasonable to me, especially during summer and winter. Likely to be less otherwise. I am also in NoVA

Do you count internet and cable in there?

Well, like I said you can take buses pretty much everywhere nearby state, and you can probably watch to most of your necessary shopping, but to get anywhere outside of the immediate campus area will be pretty much impossible without driving, unfortunately. Uber does run in Raleigh now so that's always an option.

Yeah it's not bad if you stay in the immediate vicinity of NC state, but having a car is really the way to go. Pretty much every undergrad has one. Not having one definitely limits your options on where you can live, though.

Don't get an MA if you really think you want to do a PhD! It's not a good use of resources and you'll set yourself back two years. If you're not sure a PhD is for you, go work for a year or two, starting with internships -- make some money and see how you like it. It's pretty nice. And it won't hurt your application. No chance to do an undergraduate thesis? that would really help. If you do well on your GREs, combined score of 330 or so, you probably have a good app. For your LORs, there's no reason you can't get good ones. Go talk to your professors and get to know them. I had two very solid LORs from poli sci professors whom I knew well, but I was told by a few adcom members that my best one was from my foreign language instructor, who I became pretty close with and wrote a very personal letter. I think your economics background and (presumably) your quantitative skills that come from that is what a lot of adcoms like to see, so you have a good shot at good programs if you do some of the things I've said here.

Definitely look to live real close to the metro, and take a look at how much that metro ride will cost you every day. It can get really pricey. Also, Columbia Heights is a really expensive neighborhood.

welcome to DC

If you have to drive, don't do it. Really. Not sure how much parking is, but metro during rush hour would probably be around $7 round trip.

I think you might as well try to get your GRE up higher since you have time. It sounds like with the rest of your application you'd be a pretty good applicant...doesn't look like there's a good reason to rule any top programs out.

Alternately, you could try some internships and the job market and see if you really do want to spend the next 6 years of your life in school. I did that for about 3 years and it was vital experience. This exactly.

yeah, why get a PhD? you're better off just entering the work force now. Think about the opportunity cost of those 5-6 years in grad school, both monetarily and career-wise. And yeah, Johns Hopkins is ranked in the 50s, and as far as I know hasn't had a decent placement in years. I'm not even sure where Tufts is ranked? Definitely not a top 50 school. You should really think long and hard about even considering attending a school outside the top 20-30.

I think you'll find a strong correlation between reputation and prestige. The unfortunate truth is if you don't go somewhere with a good name recognition, you're very unlikely to get a job. The places you list above have very poor placement rates. You should do some research into how well these schools place people into jobs and use that as a starting point.

why not?