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The Fatal Eggs

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Everything posted by The Fatal Eggs

  1. Program Applied To: quant focused MPA/MPP programs (is there even a difference?) Schools Applied To: Harris, SAIS, SIPA, GW Schools Admitted To: Harris MACRM ($), SAIS IDEV ($$$), SIPA MPADP (0), GW (0) Schools Rejected From: none Still Waiting: none Undergraduate institution: T20 LAC, international student Undergraduate GPA: 3.5 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): ?? Undergraduate Major: Economics and a fun liberal arts major GRE Quantitative Score: 160 GRE Verbal Score: 166 GRE AW Score: 5.0 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 3 Years of Work Experience: 3 Describe Relevant Work Experience: 1 year as economics RA in institutional economics, IO work the last two years Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): I started by introducing the policy area I'm interested in with some anecdote about my work or personal life, then I talked about why that policy area is important for international economic development and the direction I see it going in in the future. At that point I also talked about where I see instrument design in that area going based on my work experiences and how that influences my career plans post-MA in terms of what kind of organization I want to work at in what capacity. In the space remaining I talked about why [school X], but the idea was to show fit throughout the essay rather than to tack on "oh btw I find Prof Y super fascinating and want to be a member of student org Z" at the end. Because my programs had wildly differing word counts, prompts, and supplemental essay requirements, I ended up writing a separate SOP for each school. I estimate that ~2/3 of each SOP is unique to each school. I found that, once I got all my ideas out and organized in a 1000-word monster doc, customizing the SOP wasn't difficult at all, and each consecutive one was better than the last. But I had a pretty well-formed idea of where I'm going in this career when I went in. Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): 2 from undergrad advisers, 1 from current boss. I realized too late that someone with my amount of work experience is supposed to have 2 work, 1 academic >.< I suspect my LORs were pretty strong, but if I did the process again, I'd pick different people and I'd have my application mostly ready by the time I contacted them. It's really important to give your recommenders a brief for the points their letter should emphasize so that it reinforces the narrative you're creating in your application. The best I could do for mine was a resume and an abstract of my SOP. Other: I pulled out of applying for the HKS MPAID at the last minute because I didn't feel like I was competitive enough and now I'm majorly regretting it. SAIS was my first choice out of this batch, but the MPAID would've been my firstest choice. I'm contemplating asking SAIS to defer and trying again next year, this time with HKS/WWS/Yale. I also regret not talking to my colleagues about my process more, because it turns out that everyone is super excited to get me in touch with alumni/professors/admissions offices. I think I would've benefitted a lot from shopping my application around for opinions - and I didn't even post in the chances thread! Additionally, through the process of coming up with my SOP and now, thinking about where to go for grad school has made me think that I haven't learned everything I can from my current situation. I feel like I need to hone in better on what policy I want to do and develop some basic networking skills in order to take full advantage of this generous opportunity I now have. But overall I'm happy and I see my funded offers as proof of readiness for the field, because from where I sit, being able to construct a compelling narrative for why your program warrants scarce public funds is 90% of the job.
  2. Hi. I hope this isn't too off-season. I'm researching into applying for Comp Lit programs for 2016, and I've come into a bit of a dilemma. My field covers one geographical area, but involves 2-3 different languages and cultures, and I am moreover interested in a particular theoretical framework. When I consider whether a school would be a good fit for me, should I consider the scholarship being done in the national literature departments that pertain to my languages, or just the comp lit program? I've been advised by a professor that I should look at the strength of the national literature programs when I am considering a comp lit program at a university for job market purposes, but I wonder if this advice holds when applying in terms of showing program fit. In my home comp lit program, people were allowed to write comp lit theses under advisors who were not affiliated with comp lit, but I wonder if this is a thing elsewhere? If I find a grad student (or a couple of grad students) with interests similar to mine, is this a sign that the program is open to my area of interest, or is it a sign that they won't be taking on people in my area until these guys graduate? Finally, how do you know if a journal in the humanities is considered good?
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