yoh_rrg

@Ellen123 & @Policy.Planner.NYC I'm so happy for y'all!! But also now am freaking out Obviously they can't call everyone but still...

HEY so now that my materials are all in I just want to take a second to give a huge THANK YOU to @yellina122 because while I read a many of the recent WWS blogs, I did NOT go all the way back to 2014 and I really appreciated the info about what they want in a resume. It convinced me to change some things around so I had a section on public service that I didn't have before and seems really important in this case. I guess it's really up to the gods now, but I feel a lot better knowing I did everything I could and I definitely wouldn't have updated my resume had you not pointed out that old blog post. You're the bomb!

Should be-- I'm also in a very different time zone and on one of my other applications a recommender waited until 4 a.m. my time (i.e. before midnight EST) and it still went through. Since it specifically says "Eastern Standard Time" on the website I would take that at it's word.

So I'm no expert but I'll let you know what I'm doing if it just makes you feel better about your first question. I honestly don't know what to make of the others because I think their resume format is really odd. Regarding question one, I've read posts from people who did it both ways, but ultimately I decided to provide footnotes. Regardless of if it's necessary (I doubt they'll check), I think it's a way of showing that my data isn't totally out of thin air and frankly I see being able to cite sources as a writing skill that they want to know we have. I am not providing a works cited page, however, in order to keep with the page limits. For "Department" I wrote "Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs." The application site is not WWS-specific so I imagine if they accidentally assigned an essay to a reader from a different department they want it to be easy for them to quickly identify the problem and send it back to the right person. This is just my guess on having read applications for other organizations in the past-- sometimes things end up going to the wrong place and you don't want to get through half their statement before you realize they think they're applying to a completely different program than the one you're reading for.

I only applied to schools where I was provided fee waivers. Not that this limited me-- almost every school has a long list of programs or affiliations they like to see for which they will provide fee waivers (for example, if you were a Truman scholar, Fulbright, AmeriCorps, etc.). I actually think it's rather common, so maybe it's something you should pursue if you still have other upcoming applications to submit! Schools seem to love having as many applicants as they can get to boost their numbers, so I think they're pretty eager to make it as easy to apply as possible.

Excited to see people talking about this! I had my application completed a couple of weeks ago but one of my recommenders waited until 10 p.m. on the due date to submit and I nearly had a conniption...

Hi sorry I don't have any advice on your post, but I am also looking to take a stats class online and was wondering which one you were thinking of taking and whether you knew how good it was? When I asked a couple of the schools I am wanting to apply to if they had any recommendations for good distance-learning schools, they said "oh just take it through your community college"... well my community college is more vocational in nature (no stats being offered this fall) and I have a friend who took a stats class through the state university this summer and she said it was the easiest course she ever took (she earned a 100%). Not that I wouldn't love to earn a 100%, but I also really don't know statistics very well and want a rigorous class! So if you have ideas about what might be a good one I'd be interested to hear what you were thinking! The one I'm currently leaning towards is through UCLA, but I really have no knowledge of its rigor level and I'm not so stoked about the $600 additional cost compared to my state school...

By "haven't heard anything" do you mean no grant documents or anything? I did get an email with a request to return the grant document and other forms within two weeks and then only after I had submitted anything I began getting emails from my host country with info and suggestions about how I could be preparing. If you haven't even received any documents I would reach out and just ask what to expect-- it would certainly be better to make sure you didn't miss some sort of welcome correspondence from your school there!

Program: public policy + analysis Schools Applying To: Chicago Harris (MSCAPP) and Carnegie Mellon Heinz (MSPPM, data analytics track) Interests: education policy & issues in economic development, particularly in rural areas Undergrad Institution: top public state university (also completed an MS in ed at a top program) Undergraduate GPA: 3.76 (master's GPA was 3.94) Undergraduate Major: History GRE: 163V (92%), 168Q (95%) Quantitative Courses: Microeconomics my freshman year of college (B-) -- this is a big worry of mine since the only quant course I took was also the lowest grade I earned in college.... Years of Work Experience: 4 Age: 26 Languages: English, French (intermediate) Work Experience: AmeriCorps, Teach For America, and Fulbright ETA; taught math and computer science (so, even though I was totally unqualified to teach any of this, I now have a LOT of quant experience) LORs: one from my former manager at TFA, one from my thesis advisor from my master's degree SOPs: Wanting to discuss how I got interested in CS and how I want to actually study it so I can use it to study/influence policy changes; I've always been interested in public policy, but after self-studying and teaching CS I really want to incorporate it into a policy program Concerns: I'm definitely worried about not having a lot of undergrad quant experience but I feel like having taught math/CS since then kind of makes up for it; I also recognize that education is not the most valued or respected field, but I'm really ready to move out of the classroom. I don't want these schools to see me as "just a teacher" since I don't have any real policy experience I have a number of concerns about my competitiveness. I'd really appreciate feedback about whether a former teacher has the right qualifications for these two particular programs (as well as any others you'd recommend)!! If I ought to go back and take a stats or another economics course, I'd definitely do that too!

I read through this post last week while studying for my exam and decided to take the Manhattan practice test over the weekend as my last one (I'd already done the Magoosh and PowerPrep exams), and earned a score actually 1 point lower than the sort of diagnostic test I took several months ago when I began studying (161V/159Q). I completely ran out of time on both quant sections and felt the verbal didn't resemble the passages I'd been practicing on Magoosh. Probably not the best way to go into test day, but I ended up taking the approach that I really just needed to be really diligent about timing and I sped through the quant on the real thing even leaving myself 5 minutes to go back and review a couple of questions I marked. According to the unofficial results it gave, I scored 163V/168Q. Just wanting to share this anecdote because everyone keeps saying Manhattan is the best predictor of scores but that might not be true of everyone so don't get too nervous if you score lower on this version. In fact, my actual score is higher than anything I've taken in practice, so I'm thinking all of these companies just try to get in your head and psych you out Just wanted to share my (slightly against the norm) experience!

I wonder this a lot of ETA-- I do feel like it was random in a lot of ways but once I committed to the Netherlands I found reason after reason why it felt like the right choice. And when it comes to the personal statement, you can't really just say "Netherlands and Bulgaria both checked all of my boxes, so I just went with my advisor's suggestion," so you have to really find what about that program in that country makes it the best fit. The fact that I've already been teaching for four years made me more intentional in finding a place where I felt like I could grow and develop or it wouldn't be as worthwhile. For me, the presence of effective high school tracking with emphasis on vocational programs was a huge draw and something I'd like to see implemented more intentionally where I currently work, so of course now it feels like a couldn't have picked anywhere else but I definitely see what you're getting at. Interested to read other people's justifications.

They haven't provided the location yet, but I plan to email next week since the interviewer said the schools themselves would be the ones selecting us. Where are you going to be stationed?

Netherlands ETA just announced!!!! Happy I am home from work because I really wasn't ready for that and the weird shriek I emitted that may have alarmed other people. Also SOOO glad that waiting game is over.

I am also a Kentucky teacher who spent the morning refreshing my email-- definitely not a healthy habit! Good luck and hope you hear back soon

Netherlands did the same thing! And if the excel document is all correct, several other countries have as well. They're just getting our hopes up!

I hope this means Netherlands ETA will also announce soon. Hoping you are promoted!

Since I was the one who posted that I should definitely note that I applied for ETA so don't lose hope yet!! I think they just interviewed us this time around because this is the first year they are accepting ETAs, but I understand the research program has been in the Netherlands for a while so maybe they don't feel the need to interview. Sorry to have caused any unnecessary grieving, but ETAs and research grants are definitely not approached the same way and I'm sure you're both awesome candidates so you wouldn't need an interview!!

@CoffeeTime I am! During my interview she said they would submit the names to the U.S. the first of march and they should release the names mid-march soooooooo we have to be getting pretty close!!

@beamurray I certainly hope so. I have the day off today for snow so I'm even more anxious than if I could at least go in to work!

I think it depends heavily on country. For example I am a semi-finalist for the Netherlands where ETAs are being selected by the schools themselves because the schools are actually the ones paying the fee (as opposed to the education department putting up the funding where schools are less involved). So if accepted, I would be able to almost immediately find out what school (and therefore what area) I would be in. From my conversations with former ETAs in Thailand and Poland (or was it Poland? I can't remember with certainty), that was not the case for them because they were not specifically selected by a particular school so they had to wait a while to learn exactly what school they would be placed in. I imagine that once you are accepted you can ask the country what their process or timeline is.

What a horrible time for this to happen. If only for your sanity!

I was just scouring the internet in hopes of finding out an exact date when the Netherlands would announce (or if anyone really had announced) only to stumble on this thread and see so many other anxious people waiting too! It definitely gives me a little relief, but not much

@coasts Thanks for your reply-- I guess I just assumed they would be more challenging and worthwhile but I definitely don't want to pay $800 just to say I took something if it means nothing. I'll just have to do more research.

Hello! I have been wanting to go for an MPP program for a while now but keep putting it off because I feel I won't be competitive enough without any significant quant coursework when I was in undergraduate. This spring I want to change that by taking an online course or two in stats/economics so I can finally apply next fall! I looked through posts to get an idea how people were taking these courses and it looks like some were going through UCLA's extension program, but it looks like those courses were in the $800+ range which seems really steep, especially when I could take courses at my community college for $160 each. I guess I am just thinking that if I am really wanting to make myself more competitive, the local classes might not have that effect and maybe I ought to just fork over the big bucks for a course through the more well-known and respected school. I also worry that the courses at my community college aren't that rigorous, and I could probably get just as much out of an edX or coursera online course. But if I ought to do it through one of the big extension programs, are there any others besides UCLA's that I should consider? Any advice would be much appreciated!