WhatAmIDoingNow

Not to be debbie downer, but you won't have that $10,000 savings in the second year. Part time work during the school year and additional work during the summer could alleviate that $10,500 need in the first year. In the second year, you would need to have a pretty decent paying part time job or take out some of those higher interest loans.

Is this on top of undergraduate loans? Or would this be your only student loan debt?

There is also the Como Co-op that his between East and St. Paul campuses. http://cscc.umn.edu/ I don't know how they are for living, other than they do not allow dogs unless they are service animals.

Cost of living at Indiana would be the lowest, And may make it the cheapest overall. I have a hard time believing you can live at Maryland for $30,000 for the whole degree plus what ever tuition you would pay.

I Wait listed, without saying I'm wait listed. They will know if there is room for me in their cohort in mid April... So wait listed.

I have no idea where these people who think "go for your dream, the worry over debt is for people who can't handle risk" are coming from. It is foolish to enter into grad school without creating a provisional plan for financing and the debt repayment options. Do a cost benefit analysis that takes into consideration the cost of attendance and living, compared to opportunities the school affords.. It depends on the opportunities and how the school fits with your interests and goals. You are screwed if you are attending a school just for prestige, it costs you $120,000 in principle debt, and you didn't excel or get that network that gets you a well paying career. If your dream school will only cost you $10,000 more to attend than the cheaper school that you are not too excited about, it could be worth the $10,000 to attend the dream school. Like Chocolatecheesecake said, this isn't black and white and s/he gave really good suggestions. And prestige from the view point of whom? If you have spoken to faculty and employers in the field and they say it is a strong program, then OK. If other students who applied are saying so, grain of salt. If you are looking at US News and World Report/Princeton Review... as long as the school is top 20, that is all I would use those rankings to check. They aren't very useful, other than checking for if the program shows up on the radar.

It you do, you are better off going federal and getting the repayment plans and loan forgiveness plans. That being said, do not take out more than you need. Apply for scholarships, paid internships, and fellowships. Take into consideration the cost of living and the cost of attendance as the total cost of the MPP and do a cost benefit analysis.

I know my profile is easy to figure out if someone from the admissions committees at the programs I applied to saw my activity. The academic world is rather small, and I am likely the only person who applied to the combination of schools that I chose with the area of interest that I have. I am sure that the people who got into the programs that I got into have or will figure out who I am too. But I don't know why anyone would care too much unless I said something inflammatory.

To add, I would also take a graduate course that fulfills a requirement from those schools (a graduate econ course or something) to show that you are ready for the rigor.

Well Evans just responded to my email. "Thank you for reaching out. We will be sending out decisions sometime this week."

Especially when we consider that there are 3 weeks left until April 15th. There is not much time for visits when people do start receiving admissions, if these programs have not been notifying people of acceptances.

I would aim for mid 160s for verbal and 160 for quant. You may not need those high scores, but it is worth aiming for them. I would also expand the programs you apply to, you'd be surprised at what opportunities are out there.

Evans (UW) still hasn't sent any acceptances. They stated they wanted notices to go out mid February to mid March... I feel your pain.

Some programs look at the total GPA, and others look at the total and the last two years. If the required minimum undergrad GPA is a 3.0 for a program, you will have a very difficult time getting past that screen. First, calculate your total GPA with all of your college courses. Then calculate the combination of courses that are actually going towards the credits that will qualify you for graduating. That will give you some base to judge how to move forward. A great GRE can sometimes make up for a terrible GPA. It sounds like you have a decent narrative for your personal statement. At worst, you can register for some graduate courses as a non-degree seeking student to show you are prepared.

That is the point of deposit. I would wait to pay the deposit until a day or two before the deadline, give SAIS a couple weeks to get back to you. I assumed the deadline for the deposit is April 15th. If SAIS ends up admitting you, go there. If you paid the deposit at the other school, you end up eating that cost. Losing out on $200 is better than not getting any spot in the fall.

Can you do the RA and find a paid internships? The nice thing about the RA is that it is guaranteed, while finding employment may take some time. Your supervisors also take into consideration that your academics come first, which employers may not, depending on where you get a job. If you do paid internships, you can align your academic assignments to your internships and it is great for your resume/cv and networking.

For the rest of the spring: Finish out my current job, clean up our finances, sell/donate items that we do not want to move across the US, figure out the logistics of moving for me, my husband, and our dog, and finish my bucket list for my current city/state. For the summer: Moving in with family and apartment hunting in the new city, start my GRA position, read up on publications from key faculty and on theory, learn my new city, and implement the logistics of moving my entire household to the new city by September. Possibly plan a wedding reception if we have time.

What do you want to do with your degree? And where do you want to work when you get your degree? Honestly, I would care more about reputation and cost to attend, rather than US World News and Princeton Review rankings. You can do poorly or you can excel in top ranked and bottom ranked programs. I wasn't impressed with USC, Cornell, and Duke for what I want to do, but they have their strengths in certain areas. Each program has its own specialization and expertise. If you want to study policy implementation or international policy, Humphrey has courses and faculty that specialize in implementation studies and the Humphrey has a strong international presence. If you want to study social and urban policy, USC has some really cool projects and faculty working in that area. Look at what the faculty are doing at the schools and the classes that you can take. I only looked at those schools for the PhD programs, not the MPP programs. Of your list, I only applied to the Humphrey, so I only know about their MPP program and the faculty hold their graduate students in a much higher regard than I have seen at other programs I looked at and have worked with. While $22K sounds like a lot of funding, if the tuition, fees, and housing costs $55K per year, that is more than my MPA cost in total at the state university that I attended. I would weigh the costs. Are you from Minnesota? I don't really understand why someone would be afraid that the University of Minnesota would limit their ability to work outside of Minnesota. Edit: That being said, I do know that certain Western states are more difficult to get work in if you attended an Eastern private liberal arts college for undergrad. But with an MPP, I don't think it would be a problem.

For those of you who are thinking about PhD programs, here is a pretty comprehensive list of current PhD programs: http://www.appam.org/assets/1/7/PhD_Descriptions.pdf The programs are not ranked. This is a great starting point to look into different programs, to then look into the faculty and how the programs fit with your interests.

What are you applying FOR? Master or PhD? I would be more worried about the verbal, the quant is fine. Either way, those scores should be fine to meet admission requirements. Your references, experiences, education, and SOP will be far more important that a couple more points on the GRE.

I wouldn't worry about age. I would alter my strategy. Many students in my MPA program were in their 30s and 40s. If you hold out a couple years, make sure your job will pay for it and stay instate. You will be pretty close to fully vested.

This works best in person or via telephone or Skype. If you can't get them to ask you about where else you have applied, mention it yourself and ask if they have experience working with people there. Be genuine and sincere, asking for guidance. Ask general, open ended questions about the field and how the schools/faculty are perceived. Be comfortable with pauses until they give you information, let them fill the void of sound. I am typing from my phone, so I apologize for errors.

Have you asked the schools about the other schools? There is a way to do this tactfully. The academic world is small. The schools I applied to had wonderful things to say about each other and were able to name good things and some frustrations they have experienced with each other.

That should be fine. These people have been sifting through so many applications, SOPs, emails from other students, their own students' writing assignments, etc. Brevity is welcomed, unless you left out important information.

Seriously! Especially since relocating takes time and planning. My summer and fall calendars are on hold, because I literally don't know where I will be until these hold outs decide. Each school has completely different logistics for me to relocate. I have weddings and family events that I can't commit to or decline, because I don't know where I will be. Evans, if you are going to reject Or accept us, please inform ASAP. These notices are not earlier than last years' notices.