divertan

Hello Xperto and chocolatecheesecake! Xperto, checked out your stats on the "Am I competitive.." thread - your work ex looks impressive! Chocolatecheesecake, if I remember correctly, you've been very helpful on these forums with advice and info on Duke and Sanford's MPP programme - so thank you! Just a couple of questions I had re the app process itself - One, my video essay was a little over the 1 minute limit (1:17 to be precise), and I spoke a little fast (but clearly, I've been told) because I couldn't figure out what to edit out from my final "script", and felt like I had to say it all...is this something I should be worried about? Two, though I loved math in high school, and did well at the time, I didn't really have the opportunity to study it in undergrad since I was doing law...is a 156 in Quant (GRE) going to hurt my chances? Alternately, will a 321 on my GRE likely offset a below average CGPA (3.2 on the US scale)? How intensive is the quant coursework at Sanford, and how open are they to admitting applicants with a pre-req deficiency in microecon...I'd be more than happy to make it up before matriculating, of course! Three, how many students in your class are pursuing an MPP/MEM degree at Sanford/Nicholas? Would you happen to know if ALL of them have natural science training and/or undergraduate coursework? I'm very interested in pursuing this dual degree, seeing as I want to do enviro policy in the long run, but just can't seem to tell from the Nicholas website whether I'm even a candidate for the MEM! I realise you're an MPP, but any insights would be great at this point! That's about it for now. Just saw Xperto's latest post on the thread, would be great to hear back from you on those questions too, as and when you have the time! Thanks again!

Hahaha this thread made me laugh so hard! Here's mine - When you finish your "school research" months beforehand, but still too late for a top ranked programme which has a relatively early deadline...only to find out (just 12 hours ago) through a kind soul on grad cafe, that said programme has extended its deadline by THREE months, and now you have less than 2 weeks to get your act together if you choose to apply!

It's a little late, but you could consider Duke's MEM programme too, at the Nicholas School of the Environment? Their stated deadline was Jan 15th, but they've just pushed it back to Jan 20th...so if you can get your recos and SOP together in that time, you should be good to go! Also, if you're looking at enviro policy as well, and not just MEM degrees, there's the Monterey programme in International Environmental Policy, the deadline for which is Feb 1st! Really wanted to apply to Indiana's SPEA, for the MPA/MSES, but didn't realise the deadline would be that early, and my test scores weren't ready at the time... Hope this is helpful!

Thanks so much, Glitter1nTheAir, have taken your advice...hopefully some Duke aspirants will get back to me on that thread! =D

Reposting (original post in the Waiting it out forum) - Hi! Have been surfing the grad cafe forums on and off for the last few months, and was hoping to meet other people who've applied to Sanford for the MPP and hope to matriculate in Fall 2015...was looking for a thread for this year's app cycle, just to keep myself calm I think, but couldn't find one - am I on the wrong forum for this? Thought us aspiring Duke MPP grads could get to know each other on this thread, share profiles and keep everyone updated on if/when they hear from Sanford, and how...so far, I've got an email thanking me for my app, telling me decisions will start getting sent in early March, and inviting me to their open house at the end of March...not like I could fly halfway across the world for it tho! I'm an international applicant, and qualified as a lawyer - worked at a top corporate law firm in India for a year and a half, and have been working in human rights/development sector since last January - have a pretty crap GPA (which doesn't exactly convert to the US scale, but should be a 3.2 according to the DES website), a decent GRE [321 - 156 Q, 165 V, 5 AW], and limited work ex in the policy sector... Would love to get to know other people who've also applied to Sanford this year, and best of luck! =)

Hi! Have been surfing the grad cafe forums on and off for the last few months, and was hoping to meet other people who've applied to Sanford for the MPP and hope to matriculate in Fall 2015...was looking for a thread for this year's app cycle, just to keep myself calm I think, but couldn't find one - am I on the wrong forum for this? Thought us aspiring Duke MPP grads could get to know each other on this thread, share profiles and keep everyone updated on if/when they hear from Sanford, and how...so far, I've got an email thanking me for my app, telling me decisions will start getting sent in early March, and inviting me to their open house at the end of March...not like I could fly halfway across the world for it tho! I'm an international applicant, and qualified as a lawyer - worked at a top corporate law firm in India for a year and a half, and have been working in human rights/development sector since last January - have a pretty crap GPA (which doesn't exactly convert to the US scale, but should be a 3.2 according to the DES website), a decent GRE [321 - 156 Q, 165 V, 5 AW], and limited work ex in the policy sector... Would love to get to know other people who've also applied to Sanford this year, and best of luck! Edited to remove an extra "the". Now going back to my SOP to ensure I didn't make a similar mistake there - neurotic, I know!