makingtheleap.back

You might have more luck with the top US programs. Every top school is a crapshoot, but the US is more holistic, whereas Oxford cares deeply about your GPA (so while your GREs are great, and your overall applicant profile is strong, you still might have trouble). I mostly just came to see what you meant by penultimate student. I was imagining "the second to last student," and immediately began thinking about a movie trailer..."In a world where all children can have information digitally uploaded into their brains, two students have to learn the old fashioned way. These are their stories."

No, they'll understand your situation. I'm boning up on my math (differential equations, linear algebra) at a local community college before grad school, and it seems like all of the colleges I'm applying to understand it's just supplemental learning.

There's an "Am I competitive" Government affairs sub-thread you may want to consider posting this in. I'd recommend reading the thread and finding similar application profiles (that's what I did, in addition to posting). That said, your GPA is average, and you GRE is somewhere between average and slightly below average. A lot of it will depend on your LORs and SOPs. Could you get in? Yes. Will you? To at least one, probably, to all, probably not. But what do I know, outside of stalking the aforementioned competitive thread and the results feature of this wesbite, I'm in the same boat as you.

Thanks. It feels ridiculous, and I still don't think I'll state anything pre-undergrad. Do you think strategically leaving certain jobs/activities out to ensure everything is credible/relevant (and not to dilute the rest of the presentation) is a valid approach?

In the GSPP admissions blog, they said this about resumes: "Is there a page limit on the Resume/CV? We do not have a page limit, but most tend to be between two to five pages in length. We advise students to be detailed and expansive." They also said, however, the average accepted applicant has around 4 years work experience, and that many have at least 3. So how are people stretching their resumes to 4-5 pages? What do you think they mean by detailed and expansive? In every other world, being concise on a resume is a feature, not a bug. Do you think this is clearly not the case here? Are they including a cover letter in the length? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

1. You send them at the end, and there's a searchance mechanism to help you find the right code. I think you can send as many as you want, but the first 3 or 4 are free. I would consult the ets website for that. 2. Only during breaks. 3. I left my phone in my car. Seemed less stressful that way. 4. Stretch (blood flow). Deep breaths (calming). Clear your mind (transition). Get ready to attack (confidence). 5. You get an email. 6. Yes, and your scores are fixed (unless there are extenuating circumstances, like you were caught cheating or broke the confidentiality agreementioned and somehow ets found out).

I was in the same boat as you (extra time, sub-optimal scores, etc). On RC, here were my steps: 1) Map out the passages on scratch paper, identifying whether it was thesis/evidence, opposing viewpoints, or conventional wisdom vs. nuance. Those are the three main types, and be sure to read closely and make notes on important evidence. You have time, use it. 2) Make sure your answers fall within the scope of the passage. Sometimes an answer could be right, but will be considered OT by ets. Their definition is narrow, so use that rule as a guide after process of elimination. 3) Aggressively mark and return at the end. If you aren't 100% confident, give yourself a chance at seeing it a second time, with fresh eyes. Good luck.

I'd say your acceptance won't likely hinge on the GRE, particularly with thise scores, so if you have limited time in preparing your applications, you might be better of focusing on other areas. Most admissions offices understand non-native speakers will be less competitive on verbal and awa, so given your area of interest I'd say you're probably fine gre-wise. That said, if you want to do it for personal satisfaction/peace of mind, that's another question entirely.

Awesome, and I appreciate your retrieving that exact passage -- on issues like this, the nuance matters. Definitely feel like you should apply regardless though -- who knows what will happen to any of us (HKS is a crapshoot) but you get rejected by every school you don't apply to!

They said in a recent HKS Admissions blog post that because ID is so quantitatively rigorous, the school's "comfort zone" is when applicants have a QR GRE score in the top 15%, which yours just misses. That said, your other qualifications are impeccable and, more importantly, unique. Also, most schools take into consideration non-native speaker status with VR, so I wouldn't worry too much about that. HKS is supposedly holistic in its approach, suggesting your app will not be disregarded because of an arbitrary cutoff, so you should definitely apply. However, if one of the academic LORs could emphasize your Quant skills, that would probably help.

Just an FYI tyladm, this is a Gov't Affairs thread and thus I'm not sure how helpful we'll be at evaluating experimental/social psych programs.

Wanted to add Duke (Sanford) to the list, add that I got a 5 on AWA, and ask beyond the typical am I competitive question (which would be great) if anyone has suggestions on framing my work experience (it's all decent in terms of leadership, but none directly policy related, and there's no specialization on a single sector).

I agree withat everything PoliticalOrder said with maybe one exception: withough any published research, the GRE becomes even more important, and from what I've seen in terms of 25-75 percentiles, your verbal is a tad low for the very best programs. That said, if you don't think you can put in the work of the applications, you probably can't put in the work of actually completing a PhD. In a world where doctoral completion rates mirror the divorce rate, that's definitely something to consider. Why not get a paid research oriented position for a year or two and take it from there? You'll be older, wiser, and probably better for it.

Thanks helping me think through this. At first glance academia can feel a little labarythine, but you and a few folks on this board and irl are helping me internalize the internal logic. Still finalizing the next steps, but either way I'll be making a much more informed decision -- which is all any of us can ask for.

The military service could definitely help if framed correctly, but I completely emphasize with where you're coming from. I'd say just control what you can control, and make your application stand out as best you can in other ways (personal statements and recs being the most important tools).

Yeah, I'm not going to sit here and pretend I have all the answers. That said, it has been helpful for me to say at the beginning of each prep session "Today, I'm going to accomplish x, y, z," and then set my alarm for 2 hours. Whatever gets done is whatever gets done. Might or might not work for you, but it seems to be helping me.

Speechfan, are you applying to Spring 2017 or fall? If it's fall (and the deadlines are similar to mine), I'd suggest limiting the amount of work you do per application. Once I decided to do that, not only did I get more time, but I started becoming more efficient in the application work I was doing. But, as for the original reason I came to this thread...WHY DO WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY WHERE WE ARE EXPECTED TO ALWAYS HAVE OUR PHONE WITH US????

For these mpp/mpa applications they're also often asking for resumes instead of CVs. I would imagine part of the answer lies in how long your resume is currently. For those who are more experienced, I know an mpp resume can go over a page, but would y'all recommend ensuring everything fits on two pages?

A deck has 52 cards, with four suits, with each suit evenly distributed (13 each).

It could definitely be the distractions, but, alternative theory/question: did you do the essays on pp but not manhattan?

Dumb question, but shouldn't you know about how many you got right based on the unofficial score?

Sleepless: I have no idea what the accepted stats are, but you're definitely right to worry about a lack of work experience -- for an mpp program, that's the equivalent of no research experience in a hard science. It's not a death knell, but when the school is as competitive as HKS, they're just looking for reasons not to accept you. Is there a reason you don't want to get a year or two of work under your belt?

Appreciate the feedback! The only other reasons I was considering a master's first were: 1) It has been a few years since I've been in school, and I thought it might help confirm whether I want to spend 5 years of my life working toward a PhD 2) I studied IR in college and wanted to transition to domestic politics (but even then it's not a huge transition). 3) Alot of the polisci phds I know don't have any real experience working with policy/policy evaluation, which feels like a big gap when working to understand the American political system. Side question: Do you know how large the PhD cohorts are at most universities?

Kaplan (2 weeks prior): 156V, 154Q Powerprep I (1 week prior): 162V, 161Q Powerprep II (1 day prior): 168V, 161Q Actual: 169V, 161Q Hours studied: 40ish

Took my GRE at 12:30 as well. As a definite non-morning person (and barely early afternoon), here's what my day looked like (I performed only slightly better the day of (169V/161Q) than my practice exams, so take what you want). 1. Woke up earlier than normal (by getting to sleep earlier, which was only possible because I intentionally got 2 hours less sleep than normal the night before), had a small breakfast, watched sports commentary TV (my vice). 2. Did SAT tutoring. This was the most important step for me. My brain takes a little time to get going, so this helped me enter the testing center feeling alert. 3. Got to the test center about 30 mins early. Ate a banana. Talked with fellow test takers. Made jokes. Owned the area. Welcomed new people, told them how to sign in. It may have made me look ridiculous, but it made me super comfortable. 4. Took a lot of time to make sure I was comfortable in the actual chair. The instructions aren't timed as far as I can tell, so take your time. Deep breaths, stretch out. 5. Realize it's not an intelligence test, or a test of how good you were at college. It's a test of how good you are at taking the GREs. You got this. Good luck.