Ben414

What I meant was how did you pick your top picks?

How did you pick the ones in blue versus the ones in yellow?

If you also don't mind answering a few questions: 1) How much of your research was quantitative versus qualitative? Did you regularly use SPSS/Stata/R/etc.? 2) How helpful was Fletcher's career service and/or alumni in helping you get this job? 3) Why did you leave that first job, and do you perform similar work in your current job?

If you don't mind answering a few questions: 1) How many hours per week do you work on average? How often do you have to work nights or weekends? 2) What was the process like for getting your job, and what other positions were you looking at? How helpful did you find Maxwell's career services?

Inspired by several 'What's Your Typical Day' threads on other forums, I thought I'd start one for jobs in government affairs. There are a lot of sources that provide a general outline of what different jobs look like (Chicago's Skills and Employment Guide and HKS' Professional Areas of Interest come to mind), but they don't do a good job of showing what the jobs are really like on a personal, day-to-day basis. I'm not sure how many MPP/MPA/IR/etc. graduates are active on this forum, but ideally I'd imagine this thread would consist of people in various fields explaining what a typical day for their job looks like and, if willing, they would answer questions about their employment. The explanations can be as short as a couple of paragraphs or as long as a dozen paragraphs. Admins, if this thread takes off can you pin it? I'm sure many current and prospective students would find it very useful.

I would definitely reword it... though I wouldn't put research assistant for that. It would depend on your exact role in the research, and how your resume was specifically formatted. At the minimum, I would take off "autonomous." I'm still unclear if you're saying you were the first author in the article. If you were, I would indicate that. If you led the research and are the fourth author, I would leave it as "Published..." While it's great that you have strong research experience, this won't matter as much for an MPP/MPA program as it would for a PhD program. Internships are nice, but full-time, professional work experience is invaluable for admission into top programs. You still have a chance to make it into a strong program with funding, but--as I stated in the first post--getting some real world work experience is the best thing you can do. Another factor that will strongly affect your admission chances is your quantitative background. What economics/statistics/mathematics courses have you taken, and how much of your research involved quantitative analysis?

The single best way you can make yourself more competitive is to work those few years that you were planning for. Also,what do you mean by "autonomous published research?" That sounds like you're trying to inflate the scope of what you did, when I think research assistant or published article in undergraduate research journal sounds more professional. There's a fine line between selling yourself and coming across as pompous, and I think that crosses the line unless you were the lead author of a research article in a legitimate, non-undergraduate-level research journal. I'm not saying you are pompous; I'm just saying your wording comes across that way. Same deal with your "autonomous funded research on sex trafficking victims."

A filter is the best way to view GPA and GRE's. Your numbers are above the filter line for every psych program in the country, so I would recommend not worrying about it. Just focus on gaining as much relevant research experience as you can and refining your SOP. There are some good books on Amazon on writing a strong SOP, and I'd recommend buying one if you can afford it. The book will help you understand exactly what a PhD program is looking for in prospective students, and you can tailor your SOP and prepared interview talking points around that.

You're either a troll or woefully uninformed. A 3.71 GPA will not keep you out of any school when paired with those GRE's. However, they will not guarantee you admission to anywhere and your amount/quality of research experience and research fit will matter a lot more in the admissions process.

Your calculation in total repayment is probably low given that federal interest rates will likely increase in the upcoming years. Plus, I'm not sure what % you gave to subsidized versus unsubsidized, but the vast majority will likely be the latter. Regardless of the exact number, I completely agree with your conclusion. There aren't many situations where even HKS is worth that money, even with public loan repayment plans which are too constrictive for my preferences.

Assuming your work experience includes 2-3 years in a full-time, post-graduation position as opposed to only a few years doing internships, I'd say your chances are decent-good. MPP programs are more holistic than law school, so it's not like the LSAT where a few points make the difference between a near lock for admission and a near lock for rejection.

What comprises your "solid" resume? What econ/math courses have you taken? What is your SOP/reason for wanting to get an MPP? If I were you, I'd carefully consider what the dual degree gets you that you can't get with only one or the other. If you can't come up with something concrete, I wouldn't recommend getting both. (Assuming you're thinking of a joint degree at Harvard) HLS only gives out need-based aid, so you're already agreeing to take on a lot of debt. HKS is stingy with scholarships as well.

Assuming you have a solid SOP and essay(s), you're in with $$$ at SIPA, SAIS, Harris. I don't have any empirical evidence to back it up, but it seems like HKS loves econ backgrounds so I'd say you have a strong shot there. No idea about Stanford since their MPP is only available to Stanford graduates, and I didn't look at their other programs. Not sure about Yale, either; they seem more academic-oriented than the vast majority of other IR schools, so I'm not sure how they'll weigh your professional experience. I would say you have at least a decent chance at Yale, but I wouldn't try to be more specific than that.

HKS is stingy with scholarship money, and I would not recommend getting six figures in debt for a degree that does not directly affect your career unless you are independently wealthy. WWS has tons of funding, and you may be able to get some full scholarships at lower-ranked schools. You might want to consider IR programs as well.

Don't waste your time retaking the GRE; you didn't even need to retake once. Unlike top PhD programs that may care about the difference between a 164 and a 167, you're are at a level that SIPA won't care if you improve a couple of points. As StyLed said, SIPA isn't particularly difficult to get into. Aggregate data on admission chances are hard to come by, but I would guess you have a better than 50/50 shot at getting in. Focus on acing your SOP and other essays.

Doing well on your policy memo and statement of purpose would show them you have the skills that are tested by the verbal section of the GRE, and your quantitative score would obviously be a strong point. We'll see what other people say, but I wouldn't think it would hurt your application.

Thanks for that link AAAAAAAA. For pedantic number people like me, I'd also state that median numbers are probably more relevant than average numbers for what OP is looking for (i.e. what the 50th percentile accepted applicant looks like). It only makes a minor difference, but I estimate it would take a point off WWS' quantitative score to arrive at 164 V and 162 Q.

It's clear that a high GRE cannot guarantee you admission into a top program like HKS and WWS. For an applicant with 164 V/162 Q versus an applicant with a 167 V/165 Q, their differences in work experience and essay responses will be much more important than their differences in GRE's. Although this happens when comparing applicants with median GRE's versus above median GRE's, does this also happen when comparing applicants with below median GRE's versus median GRE's? I received a 161 V/162 Q on the GRE. This is low for WWS: based on the ranges for accepted MPA students given by WWS, I would guess my V would be around their 25th percentile and my Q would be around their 50th percentile. How much of a hindrance would my GRE be? I've heard of people reference 1400 on the old GRE as the score to shoot for when trying to get into top MPP/MPA programs. Unlike at every other MPP/MPA program this is below median for HKS and WWS, so does this rule still apply?

Goldman has a 162 V, 159 Q average. HKS doesn't publish their numbers, and WWS only gives ranges with how much % is in each range. Based off Berkeley's numbers, I'd guess HKS and WWS are around 163-164 V, 160-162 Q.

I'm not going to argue semantics with you. "Competitive" to me means not just any chance, but a chance that has a high enough probability as to not be unexpected. Maybe 33% or higher if I was forced to come up with a hard cutoff. I don't think he's reached that plateau with his current profile, and I still think your wording would be commonly interpreted as saying as much. But, as I said, I'm not going to argue semantics with you, so we can just agree to disagree about how the wording would be normally interpreted. The important thing for the OP is that we agree he should be aiming higher.

I think there are a number of advantages to getting work first. One, it increases your chances of being accepted. What you stated about it grounding your SOP fits in here. Two, some of the positions you may want to apply for out of grad school by require years of work experience in that area. The MPP/MPA is not required in the same way as a JD or MD, so having that prior work experience can help you land a better job out of the gate. Three, it can help you narrow in on your areas of interest/what kind of job you would want from the degree. This can help you take full advantage of your two years, and it can prevent you from focusing on a area/job that you won't like in the real world. I'm not an expert on what constitutes excellent answers to those two questions, but your answers seem like they might be good enough. Maybe another member with more knowledge in this area can step in to give you more advice. Because you have a unique profile, I can't really estimate what your chances are of being accepted at WWS. WWS does accept a small amount of people without full-time work experience, so I think you have a chance. If it were me and I felt very confident that I knew what I wanted to do, I would apply now. Worst-case scenario, you get some work experience and then reapply next year.

I think you undersold it when you said: You explicitly stated he can make it into any IR program he wants. We do not know enough about his profile to say that conclusively, and (based on the info he gave us) I doubt that his current profile is good enough for HKS or WWS or Yale Jackson. I like that you are telling him he should aim higher, but it's not helpful to say he can get into any IR program because he knows Mandarin and French. For reference, here's the profile of someone who got rejected by HKS last year: 3.5 GPA in Political Economy from Berkeley, 167 V/163 Q/5.5 AW, 1.5 yr of consulting and 2 yr at a think-tank, he had taken stats, calculus, intermediate micro and macroeconomics, he knows Mandarin and basic Spanish. I think it's most helpful to acknowledge that MPP/MPA/IR programs aren't as difficult as some other degrees and he should aim higher, but we shouldn't be telling an applicant with a low GPA, no GRE to use as reference, and non-great work experience that he can pick whichever program he wants. The best way for OP to estimate his chances is to look through here: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/topic/53232-government-affairs-2014-wrap-up-final-decisions/ That link provides links to prior years as well so he can look at a larger sample size.

You have a unique enough profile that it's going to be hard to give an accurate evaluation. Your age and lack of full-time professional work experience will definitely be a negative, but your internships/writing experience sound like they might be impressive. What role did you play in the Boko Haram research? By your writing, what do you mean by "they've engaged scholars?" Even more important than those reasons, though: what do you hope to get out of grad school, and why is now the best time for you to go? Princeton will have no problem rejecting you if you can't produce a strong answer for these two questions.

It seems to me that MPP/MPA programs are more difficult to get into in general (although Yale's Jackson looks to be an exception), so IR might be the best choice both in terms of job outcomes and admission chances. I think went_away is underselling MPP/MPA admissions in terms of the relevant work experience of the average matriculant, but you can look at the admissions results posts to see how people with similar profiles fared. A lot of people with good profiles have been turned down at WWS, HKS, and Yale. I don't know as much about what IR schools are looking for, but it doesn't seem that SAIS, SIPA, Fletcher, Georgetown are nearly as tough to get into as Princeton, Harvard, and Yale. Even though money isn't important to you, I would consider the results of taking out a six-figure debt if you don't receive funding. It may prevent you from being able to take a low-paying job you like, and you should look into what loan repayment assistance plans are available.

I doubt it's possible with that profile at a good program, and I wouldn't recommend going to a program that would offer a full ride with that profile.