JBrodsky

Ditto. The coping is underway. ;-)

I wonder if that was that... still no waitlists or rejections?

I'm really curious about that too...

Congrats... fingers still crossed I suppose. :-)

In the case of Princeton, you get your decision right in the email, I believe. I don't think that they refer you to a website.

Good luck everyone. At least the waiting will be over. :-)

Ditto on being antsy!

Just for the Dubin and a couple more, I think; the majority do not have them.

Out of curiosity, did anyone here apply for the Dubin or other fellowships? I'm curious when interviews might happen, not that I have a great shot at one.

I heard from a friend that the decisions are made and admissions are trying to get the decisions out a bit earlier this year... so perhaps early next week? Good luck.

I can't match this poster's tremendous experience, but I'd say she and fliers are on the money. I was very focused on law school after undergrad. I did the right kind of internships, got the right kind of scores. etc. Luckiliy, however, I had a pretty clear idea of the kinds of things that I wanted to do, and spent a lot of time thinking about what I didn't want to do, and along the way I interviewed about 50 lawyers who were doing what in my mind was "interesting" sorts of law. International public and private, interesting litigation, etc. For me, in the end, the debt, relative lack of geographic mobility (particularly internationally), and in the end, the realization that I had no desire to actually practice law dissuaded me. I met a few lawyers who said that law is a great degree no matter what you want to do, teaches you how to analyze, etc. They were a very small minority. Law's great, I think, if you want to practice it. Otherwise, it's a long slog through torts and everything else, and a lot of debt, to "get your foot in the door." Just my two cents. Statistics do indicate that it's a bad time to graduate from law school, though.

It says "MPA/ID HARVARD" under your nickname. I just thought you were in since it only listed one program, rather than an array, and didn't have any of the "Applied.. Waitlisted...Accepted..." categories.. Ha. I didn't notice that it had your season of app on there too; my apologies.

To be fair to Kaka, it appears that he/she is in the MPA/ID program, which is a whole different matter. I was assuming that you were talking about the MPP/MPA. My apologies if not. And Kaka's general point about the strong desirability of work experience is also true. However, HKS, and to a lesser extent, Princeton, both let in a few outstanding people straight from undergrad. I've had friends do it. Some feel they would have gotten more out of it with work experience, but that's a different question.

Congrats to all who got in... I wasn't so fortunate this time. Ah well, on to other summer plans. :-)

Trust me, while it is of course helpful to have such classes, HKS preferences for quant aren't nearly as hard and fast as some of the above posters mentioned. That may be less true for WWS; I'm less familiar with that program. Do such courses matter? Yes. Can you get in without (all of) them? Yes. Feel free to PM me if you want more specifics. What's more realistic is to say that in the absence of work experience, not having such courses may count against you more, or there might not be something on your resume to counterbalance them (yet). However, if you have stellar attributes in other ways, it certainly isn't impossible. It's just difficult for anyone on here to give you meaningful advice without knowing more than merely your scores. Oh, and finance courses aren't substitutes for econ and cal, of course, but they certainly don't hurt.

That's a bit of a harsh reply, I think. Doesn't seem like he/she is a troll. Assuming I'm correct there, I'd say you have decent chance. Normally 700 isn't amazing for quant, as you probably know, but it happens to be exactly what I got, and it worked for me. Your work experience and the rest all sound alright provided that you can paint a focused and consistent picture of what you've done and what you want to do and the connections in between.

Beginning Urdu. :-) So not that far off.

I did one of these for Arabic a few years ago, but I can't find the notification associated with it... What time of day do you think it will come? Being obsessive, I know, but I've had to beg to get my decision window for this other thing extended. Blah.

Talked to them on Friday because I have an exploding offer that I have to decide on for funding that isn't quite as attractive. They said not by Monday, but certainly by Friday, and possibly by midweek. Then again, Monday would be great.

Applied for Beginning Urdu and am antsy for a decision... Incidentally, I just got back from a year and a half in China on a research grant. I spent part of it up in Harbin and the rest in Beijing. Do they still have the CLS Harbin? I met some alumni of that program. Best of luck to you all.

My two cents: The US news rankings are worthless. When I was working in NYC and DC, senior people with whom I worked generally considered SAIS, SFS, HKS, SIPA, WWS, and Fletcher to be in the top tier for international policy/etc, but it varied widely once you drilled down to specific fields. Lots of other schools out there are great, especially if you know you're going into security, quant-based policy analysis, or what have you, and can chose based on school strengths. Internationally, it seems that overall school name means more than anything else. When I was in China, everyone thought (assumed) HKS was the best, and rated Yale, Columbia, and Princeton highly as well. As for Princeton specifically, I think it might have a little less brand recognition due to the relatively smaller alumni base. In that respect, it's not unlike Stanford Business School. Both seem to do rather well despite that. Bottom line, all policy schools have strengths and weaknesses. While you could probably identify a top tier (sort of), the utility of that is difficult to really quantify. Despite this, I imagine that most people would consider WWS a top program (some in Washington think that it is THE top policy program).

Hmm. I grew up in pretty rural area and ended up going to UNC. Possibly because of my childhood experiences, I think I like cities even more than a lot of people who grew up in large metropolitan areas. I've since lived in New York, DC, and Beijing with extended stays in places like Amman, Bombay, and Delhi. I completely understand that large metropolitan areas have their sort of energy that smaller places generally don't possess. That said, as mentioned above (and in various media outlets), Chapel Hill does "college town" better than almost anywhere, but also offers a bit more as well with RTP in the area. There are lots of cultural, music events, etc. It's also quite diverse, both the student body and the population in general- I met my fiance (originally from India) there.- though again, it's not Queens. Ultimately, it comes down to a matter of taste. I think that if any small-er place might satisfy your diversity/excitement requirements, Chapel Hill has a good shot. I have to add that I'm a bit curious that the quoted poster above juxtaposed Princeton, of all places, with Chapel Hill. While I haven't spent years in the former, it's almost certainly less diverse than Chapel Hill is, particularly socioeconomically. Princeton also struck me as rather boring, barring the opportunity to weekend in New York, of course. Again, no disrespect meant to Princeton.

There are a lot of options to be frank. I agree with what all of the others said; don't necessarily privilege name above everything, especially if you're genuinely interested in a public service career. I got funded offers at a couple of schools and turned them down for a partially funded one at Harvard. Honestly, though it wasn't because of something as simple as the name; it's because it's just the best for what I want to do, as far as I can tell at least (and I only made that decision after weeks of research and interviewing students and professors at both and talking to a number of mentors). To be perfectly frank, if Harvard hadn't been such a good fit, I'd almost certainly have gone to one of the other schools that I applied to. They all have their strengths. As it is, I deferred for a year to do a 1 year funded academic program first, which will allow me to apply for some outside scholarships. That's always an option. Long story short, apply to a number of schools and see where you get in. You can always defer or try again the following year. There's no magic bullet, and I think the general requirements to get funding from these schools is the same: good work experience, good numbers, good recommendations, focused goal, fit, and unique/well-written papers. Of course, almost anyone could tell you that. Getting all of that together is the tough part. Your experience is a great start, though. Best of luck! I hope you find this forum a useful resource, especially once you have more specific questions.

I feel you on this one. I'm still on the fence about the same decision.

Seconded! I'm abroad as well. :-)