Hi all! I'm trying to narrow my list of schools down in this next week, and I'd love to do so based on my chances of getting in, because I think it'd be smart to not just fill up my application pool with reach schools.
Program: MPP/MPA
Schools considered: DEFINITELY: Berkeley, HKS, WWS PROBABLY: Chicago Harris, SIPA, Duke, Michigan MAYBE: American, CMU, GW, Minnesota, NYU, UCLA, USC, UT Austin, Wisconsin, Yale Jackson
NOTE: I know this is a HUGE number of schools, but like I said, I'm working on narrowing it down, probably to 8-12 in total, including my three definite applications.
Major: Politics/Near Eastern Studies
GPA: 3.5 (3.54 departmental, cum laude) (NOTE: Definitely not as high as I would have liked, but my college had grade deflation when I attended, which may or may not have played a role)
GRE: 170 V / 161 Q (unofficial; I just took it yesterday)
Undergrad school: Top-tier Ivy (HYP)
Years since UG: 1 year
Work experience: 1 year (going into 2nd year) doing Teach for America in a rural Southern placement area. I've been teaching high school science in one of the poorest counties in my state; one of the poorest overall in the country. Before I graduated, most of my summer or part-time work revolved around charter schools, education policy, and international studies.
Coursework: Statistics ( B ; Microeconomics (taking this summer)
Language: Intermediate Spanish, Intermediate Mandarin Chinese, Intermediate Arabic (Modern Standard + Egyptian Colloquial), and Intermediate Turkish
SoP: Not drafted yet; will probably revolve around my interest in comparative social policy (particularly racial/ethnic inequality), which merges my academic focus in undergrad (more international bent) with my current work with TFA (more domestic bent).
LoR: Politics professor at my undergrad (advised some of my independent work; gave me an A plus, which my college highly discourages), TFA coach/manager, and I'm still thinking of the third one, but there's several professors who gave me good grades who I am considering
Other: I'm applying to a master's because I'm considering all of my career options (mainly public sector, social sector, and academia). I may want to jump ship from the academic life after two years of an MPP/MPA, but the current soft plan is to get a Ph.D. in either policy or politics, do research, write, publish, and maybe teach at a college or university (I do love teaching, just not necessarily science!). I've talked to a few schools, and they were enthusiastic about the idea of me getting a doctorate after the MPP. If anybody has any insight with policy academia, I'd love to hear your insight!
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Posted · Edited by maybefuture2016er
Hi all! I'm trying to narrow my list of schools down in this next week, and I'd love to do so based on my chances of getting in, because I think it'd be smart to not just fill up my application pool with reach schools.
Program: MPP/MPA
Schools considered: DEFINITELY: Berkeley, HKS, WWS PROBABLY: Chicago Harris, SIPA, Duke, Michigan MAYBE: American, CMU, GW, Minnesota, NYU, UCLA, USC, UT Austin, Wisconsin, Yale Jackson
NOTE: I know this is a HUGE number of schools, but like I said, I'm working on narrowing it down, probably to 8-12 in total, including my three definite applications.
Major: Politics/Near Eastern Studies
GPA: 3.5 (3.54 departmental, cum laude) (NOTE: Definitely not as high as I would have liked, but my college had grade deflation when I attended, which may or may not have played a role)
GRE: 170 V / 161 Q (unofficial; I just took it yesterday)
Undergrad school: Top-tier Ivy (HYP)
Years since UG: 1 year
Work experience: 1 year (going into 2nd year) doing Teach for America in a rural Southern placement area. I've been teaching high school science in one of the poorest counties in my state; one of the poorest overall in the country. Before I graduated, most of my summer or part-time work revolved around charter schools, education policy, and international studies.
Coursework: Statistics ( B ; Microeconomics (taking this summer)
Language: Intermediate Spanish, Intermediate Mandarin Chinese, Intermediate Arabic (Modern Standard + Egyptian Colloquial), and Intermediate Turkish
SoP: Not drafted yet; will probably revolve around my interest in comparative social policy (particularly racial/ethnic inequality), which merges my academic focus in undergrad (more international bent) with my current work with TFA (more domestic bent).
LoR: Politics professor at my undergrad (advised some of my independent work; gave me an A plus, which my college highly discourages), TFA coach/manager, and I'm still thinking of the third one, but there's several professors who gave me good grades who I am considering
Other: I'm applying to a master's because I'm considering all of my career options (mainly public sector, social sector, and academia). I may want to jump ship from the academic life after two years of an MPP/MPA, but the current soft plan is to get a Ph.D. in either policy or politics, do research, write, publish, and maybe teach at a college or university (I do love teaching, just not necessarily science!). I've talked to a few schools, and they were enthusiastic about the idea of me getting a doctorate after the MPP. If anybody has any insight with policy academia, I'd love to hear your insight!