Damis

Congratulations!!!

Oh my goodness these are hilarious. Hopefully we're all laughing later at ourselves right now later on!

They did, but that's also because they've been able to leverage the experience...it won't take them long to pay everything off.

What a position to be in! Congrats on that big amount! I understand your situation well! It's hard to envision myself there right now, let alone to think about whether or not I'd have to invest so much money in order to get the education. At this point in my career, I would be more than fine without the name, but I know how much more impactful I would be with the institution's name behind me. Best of luuuuuck!

I have a friend who went into astronomical debt...and I have another friend who had a full ride and hefty stipend. On average, it's somewhere in between haha. HKS doesn't come close to matching WWS in regards to scholarships, someone from the school actually said that on these forums a while back actually, but I do know they make a concerted effort to get as much merit aid out the door as possible. It will be interesting to see what the change in FA processing will do in regards to institutional aid offered. I've never heard of anyone negotiating with Harvard around FA before, but that may now be a possibility haha.

If I remember correctly, doesn't HKS try to beat Princeton to the punch in releasing decisions? I was chatting with a friend of mine who is at Harvard a while back about this entire process and he relayed to me that part of the reason HKS wants to try and release the financial aid info earlier is because they keep losing high quality students to WWS. Essentially, students are accepted to both schools and because they didn't know what Harvard was going to offer in aid until it was too late, they decide to head to Princeton. Glad I'm not the only one freaking out after the CPL interview. It wasn't my best interview I've ever done and it's been killing me ever since haha. I had a dream that I received that email notification to check my application page...and that it said accepted and what not. The night prior I had a slight panic attack...so ready for this all to be DONE! Haha. I'm hoping it's tomorrow!

Taken care of. Thanks for calling, @Edpol93.

Waitlist post tomorrow...acceptance post Friday!?

I had my interview yesterday and wasn't told anything in regards to when things may be completed on the admissions side. I still think this week may be too tight a turn around given that HKS has changed the FA timeline. I received notification that I was a finalist last week. I don't know where CPL is in regards to the other fellowships, but there were members of my panel who would probably be present on the panels of every interviewee. Finally, I haven't checked my FA portal today, but last I did there was no counselor assigned. Obviously if I luck into admission AND receive a fellowship, my FA situation would be much different than someone who received no aid, for instance. So what I would say is there are a bunch of factors behind why someone may not be "assigned" a counselor. I also know that Matt and his team really value the integrity of this process. I HIGHLY doubt he would let something like this slip up on his end, which could obviously point one way or another to admission.

Yes, according to my friends at the school a short list is always generated. Supposedly, the CPL committees only receive essays from those who were admitted. Logically, it makes sense. I still won't believe I'm in until I receive official notification though. ? What if I bomb the interview, for instance, and CPL tells HKS that they probably shouldn't admit me!? ? Good luck!

Wasn't gonna share which one because #paranoid haha. I, along with several others, will interview tomorrow. Supposedly this particular fellowship will have individuals find out their admission status mid-week and they'll then find out whether they received the fellowship at the end of the week. That was before the change in the financial aid reporting at HKS, however, so I don't know if that will be the case this time.

I was also invited to interview for one of the Fellowships. I think the process is a little bit further along than things may seem. Best of luck to you all!

On the Financial Aid page, it says this: "Important note on official documents: If you are admitted and choose to accept our offer, official copies of your transcripts sent directly from the issuing institution are required for matriculation. It may be in your best interest to submit official documents during the application process." So I actually believe you can. No idea how nor where, however. Good luck!

I almost feel as if you can't put in as strong of an application if you don't let the idea of being there subsume you. Every word I typed had great expectations behind it. I'm going to go absolutely crazy if I'm accepted and will be totally bummed if I'm not let in or, even worse, waitlisted (would never pay sticker). The process was far too involved to merely let it roll off my shoulders if it doesn't work out. I'm, thankfully, in a position to get over it and apply next year even stronger, however. I guess I'm positioned for either reality. I haven't told many that I've applied neither, other than my closer friends/mentors and, of course, the employer who wrote one of my letters (that was awkward haha). Wo kommste her? Ich war vor einen Jahr in Bonn/Berlin als Forscher unterwegs. Ich will zuruck!

I've been lurking here off and on for years. A while back, one of the admission Chairs for the MPA program actually posted a few messages on the Board. I bet his PM mailbox was full after that! Haha. So to answer your question, I think they do glance every now and then, but likely nothing substantive can be gleaned from us folk.

I will say this. "Policy" is a multifaceted concept whose definition ebbs and flows as one moves within different spheres - local vs. federal, business vs. public, education vs. workforce development. I have yet to come across a policy program that looks for a cookie cutter set of experiences. How you interact with policy is going to be different from the next person. My experiences are totally different from yours, but I would count you as a policy expert. There is no checkbox. Where you have worked or interned is, imho, inconsequential if you didn't do a damn thing. Folks pad their resumes and CVs with empty, nonsensical, "jobs/internships" all the time. I've seen it. Instead, these programs look for folks who are impassioned by something. The more "elite" institutions seem to want a bit of demonstrated experience within said area, but I wouldn't even say that it, in and of itself, is a requirement nor does it have to be direct. You could be an education advocate, for instance, who has waged war with State Legislators over the past few years. There's no direct job title nor salary attached to that, but you have to be motivated by something fierce to willingly fight that fight. You're definitely best served by having a reason for wanting to study policy in-depth, such as wanting to help folks or to improve a system. I think a lot of times, however, folks look at the CV of another person and think, "Well, I don't have X experience." when the end all be all should center around what in the heck a person did/accomplished. I regularly interact with folks from "big" jobs and institutions, and while many of them are smart and good people...many often aren't doing a damn thing to help a damn soul. They're a bureaucrat/paper pusher. They're trying to keep their job. Maybe they went to school at an "elite" school, but I'm certainly not seeing the purported dynamism of those institutions in my work. Not trying to disparage anyone. The system is a beast. I understand. I wrote all of that to say this, I think you not only have direct policy experience, but I think your background translates in a much more profound way than many of the folks interning on Capitol Hill or even working abroad would ever be able to touch upon. The key will be in articulating how important your work is. I encourage you to effectively demonstrate that you belong in the spaces you want to be within and how you'll make a difference. Figure out how to straddle the fence between speaking on the granular, individual components of your work, and the overarching goals you'd want to manifest were you given the reigns. Show the person who will eventually read your essays that you not only belong within policy, but that policy needs your presence. Present a compelling profile and you'll go quite far, regardless of your background. Hope that helps! Go for it!

Hi Revolutionary, In the worst of all possible outcomes, if you weren't able to find something in a Western country and had to return to your home country before you were ready, could you return to said MNC? Obviously they think a lot of you. Would there be space for you to return in another capacity within the same company? I'm assuming they have a policy division if they are an MNC. Further, could you find work within policy and development within your native country? I ask those questions only to gauge what some of the unspoken prospects for you are. I say go for the scholarship and stipend. I'm going to assume you are not married nor have children, because they play a factor here as well. Let your passion take off. I myself don't come from all that much, neither, but the one thing I have luckily always had is a sense of wanting more. It's driven me to do some crazy stuff, but my risks were always calculated. I always felt that I didn't have the luxury to mess up, you know? I've found that if you're actually passionate about something, opportunity will usually create itself. Now, there is the element of being GOOD at what you do too, which I'm always working toward achieving at a high level, but I have come to find that folks appreciate people who give a damn and mean well. If you do decide to attend, know that there are some folks who don't think all too highly of CIPA (only because it's newer - friends there rave about it). They decided to potentially invest a lot into you because they just know you are going to be a dynamite student that will help in setting their program apart, both now and as an alum in the future. A lot will be expected of you. What are you going to do while you're there to shine? How are you going to dominate? That's going to have to be the foremost question as you move through the program, because that's how you set yourself up for future success. In either case, good luck! Options are always good, until it comes time to make a decision. I do not envy your situation!

Be strategic about your recommendation choices. You have to ask yourself not only who can write you recommendation letters, but also whether or not they can assess you on your potential. I know from one of my recommenders, for instance, that HKS requires them to fill out some sort of matrix that assesses a bunch of factors. First off, ask yourself whether or not the CEO would be able to write you a compelling recommendation. If not, then you know it's a no. If the CEO could write a compelling recommendation, ask yourself how much work she would have to do in order to effectively bifurcate her letter from that of the VP. I would think one letter that speaks on your ability to handle both roles would be much stronger than two letters, in which the message your recommenders are trying to convey may become diluted. Ask yourself the hard question of what an AdCom would think in reading two letters from the same place. I don't know your background nor experience, but I'm assuming you'd also need an academic reference as well? Ask yourself whether or not you could possibly get a strong, sincere letter from another source. If it's a no, then feel comfortable in moving forward with the CEO. Just know you're going to have to coach them up a bit so that they can massage the overarching themes of your recommendations well. Good luck!

Just a lag. Did you receive an email from them saying your application was incomplete? Remember that they're currently off for semester break plus finals before that.

I'm sorry if I confused! I'll be applying to Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy.

Been a long time coming, but I finally submitted an application. I doubt I get in this time, but the experience of applying alone was worth it. I'll be submitting to WWS, SIPA, and Sanford as well. We'll see how it goes! Best of luck to everyone!

I will be pursuing a joint MBA/MPA degree. I need skill sets from both areas to be more effective moving forward in my career, so the joint option therefore makes the most sense to me. Interestingly, I have a lot of folks who received IR or Policy degrees, and work in a variety of fields, who are very interested in going back to school to pursue a MBA of some sort. I figure I might as well try and get both out of the way now.

Just in case you needed more perspective. This is probably the worst nightmare one could imagine.

Thanks so much! Look forward to working with you in the near future.

Thank you Kaneisha! One question. How did you fulfill the graduate coursework requirement? Did you simply take grad level coursework after the fact or did you fulfill it during your undergrad?