[Berkeley JSP 2024]

13 minutes ago, m123456 said:

Got it, thanks for clarifying! Just for clarity purposes, who is the chair of the admissions committee? And congrats again!

Chris Tomlins. I am assuming that he made the calls this year based on my experience matching the other acceptance exactly, but I have no actual idea. The acceptance over the weekend was strange too, so maybe just a weird year. 

[Berkeley JSP 2024]

1 minute ago, m123456 said:

congrats! i believe the Associate Dean and the chair are the same person - Dylan Penningroth? 

Thank you! My bad, it was the chair of the admissions committee. I was told I'd receive a communication from Pennigroth later. 

[Berkeley JSP 2024]

I also received an acceptance yesterday around noon. I am assuming from the same person, the department chair. Same exact message as the earlier post. When I hear from the associate dean, I will update!

[Undergrad to MPP]

I'll weigh in because I just graduated, had the same gpa and similar stats, and wanted to go into an MPP straight out of undergrad. I was applying to programs while simultaneously job hunting, which I encourage. I was able to land a competitive government job that pays right around the average of what I'd be making coming out of the masters that will be a great asset in two years when, or if, I do decide to go back to school. I only share this because I was set on going back to school immediately upon graduation because I thought there would be no options for me in the field. I think you'll find that with your GPA, previous work experience, and the reputation of your college (which is much better than mine) you'll be able to find meaningful work experience that will let you familiarize yourself with the field and give you time to truly decide if it is what you want. Also, making real money, and possibly saving, is so good. You may be working in policy for the rest of your life, taking two or three years to put yourself in a good position is a small sacrifice of time for some crucial work experience. 

[MPP out of undergrad]

32 minutes ago, Ella16 said:

The fact that you were planning on going into law and recently changed your mind for policy would not inspire confidence in you truly wanting to dedicate your life to this and being able to finish your degree and go on to become a policy-maker. I would want to see some real commitment to the field and an explanation on why and how you decided this was right for you and which part you're interested in. Do you care about education, health, gender issues, human rights, trade? Make sure to create a narrative that shows that this is truly the right field for you and not just a whim. 

Thank you for the feedback! I probably wouldn't include the recent change of heart in my narrative, but if its any consolation law school was supposed to always be a guide toward politics for me. Once I sat down and thought about how realistic it would be to actually get to work with policy, outside of reading it, I realized my passion for econ and public interest topics is better suited with a degree in policy. As far as interests, I already know I would be going into economic development, more specifically international development with an emphasis on the effects of trade while hopefully also getting to study political economy in some capacity. 

[MPP out of undergrad]

8 hours ago, MD guy said:

Don't think you'll have a problem as long as your SOP is coherent and exudes maturity, as well as strong LORs. Straight through people are expected to have top marks which you obviously do, so the biggest hurdle is done I would say.

Thank you for the info, that makes me feel better going into the app process. For LORs, all three of mine are from professors, I could get one from my boss at my internship but I don't know how great she is at crafting LORs for this program, only really knows law school. Should I diversify or are professors fine? All three know me incredibly well, and are from different disciplines that I think could each highlight a specific aspect of my strengths. 

[MPP out of undergrad]

6 hours ago, Ben414 said:

For those straight out of undergrad, top programs will want great academic credentials (which you seem to have) and work experience deemed relatively excellent for someone coming straight out of undergrad. You say you did some volunteer work; did that include formal internships? If not, I think you would be hard pressed to gain admittance to some top programs. UCLA may not be one of those schools that cares more about work experience, though, so it's also possible you have a great shot there. It would help for you to look at their website and see if you can figure out what percent of their incoming classes tend to be straight out of undergrad.

Thank you for all the help. I've done some management work for student media on campus which put me in a position where I was in charge of over 100 volunteers and advocated for more funding for our volunteer base which tends to be much more diverse than other on-campus publications. This was a formally paid, managerial position amongst students, but I don't know how much that helps. I also have close to 8 months at a legal internship, which did have some research in policy but more drafting than anything. My volunteer work was mostly on my own time, but it is a decent amount of work. I really don't know if any of this is relevant, but I hope its better than nothing. 

[MPP out of undergrad]

I recently decided I would like to pursue an mpp, but since I'm new to the process I'm still pretty clueless on some of the traits that these programs look for. For me, the most concerning thing is the work experience aspect. I have volunteer work during undergrad and full time work during my time as an undergrad, but nothing pertaining to policy. A lot of the work was with campus organizations or in law offices since law school was the original plan. I'm an econ major with a 3.87 GPA, my GRE was 167Q, 168V, and 5W. Do these numbers still make me competitive for programs like UCLA or is the lack of work experience a total killer for my chances?