Hi everyone. Long time reader, first time poster. I should note that I'm in the middle of my junior year at undergrad, so this post is not really to assess competitiveness but rather to temper expectations. As in, "Why are you applying to this school/program? You should apply to X instead." I'm a non-traditional applicant with a good amount of work experience, but I'm very new at this grad school game. I'm interested in intelligence and security studies programs, and have based my list around schools that either offer those kinds of programs, or have strong concentrations.
Program (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPA, MPP, MIA
Schools Applying To: SAIS, Georgetown, GWU, SIPA (Maybe), Princeton, Harvard
Undergraduate institution: Columbia Undergraduate GPA: 3.6 Undergraduate Majors: Middle East Studies GRE: TBD. I did merely okay on the SAT Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): Still attending Years of Work Experience: 10 years Describe Relevant Work Experience: Military intelligence analyst. Multiple deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, and one to Japan. Could talk all day about the various analytical work I did there, but suffice it to say I covered a lot of topics and territories. In Afghanistan I developed a training curriculum for one of the first Afghan National Army intelligence units, and trained several classes of analysts over the course of six months. It was a very rewarding experience.
Right now I'm working as an budget analysis intern for New York City. Languages: Intermediate Persian (Iranian Persian and Tajik dialect) Quant: Light. Macroeconomics and statistics. I haven't worked up to Calculus yet, but I'll get there. Strength of SOP: Hard to say for now, but I have a very clear idea of what I want to accomplish in the IC and can draw upon past experiences to substantiate it. In the past, I've written SOPs for scholarships like FLAS and Critical Language Scholarship that were moderately succesful. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): N/A Concerns: My quant experience is light, which will probably hurt me at places like SAIS. I'm concerned that I'm looking at the wrong programs. For instance, when looking at HKS' website, I'm not certain if I should be applying for the MPP program or the mid-career program due to my work experience. Similarly, I'm unsure if I should apply to Princeton's MPA program, or swing for the fences and try for their Security Studies PhD.