tinpants12
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Posts posted by tinpants12
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Hi everybody! I was in your position just last year, and can remember the excitement and anxiety you might be feeling. Now, I'm a first-year MPP candidate at Harris. I'm happy to give an insider's perspective the UChicago experience (or, at least, my UChicago experience). I have no association with the admissions department or anything like that, and will try to be completely honest.
Reach out (either on this public forum or in a DM) if you have question for me!
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On 4/6/2017 at 2:04 PM, yoh_rrg said:
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: HistoryGRE: 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 had very similar concerns as you- I'm actually a 2012 TFA corpsmember who has spent the last five years in the classroom with only one summer of work in education policy. This year, I was accepted to HKS, Harris (with pretty good funding), and GSPP.
I don't think you need to worry about quant. They aren't really interested in how much math you already know. They just need to feel confident that you will be able to learn the skills and do the coursework. Your GRE score shows that you'll be able to handle it.
I have the impression that policy schools are interested in building a portfolio of new admits- they want some people with experience in every policy realm, including education. I really don't think that your experience in education will hurt you- it didn't hurt me!
Certainly, I'm no expert, but I have to think that you are an attractive application to pretty much any public policy program
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Where do you want to live after graduate school? Do you want to work for the Department of Education in DC? Do you want to live in California? Sometimes, I think we get very caught up in a school's reputation (which might not be as important as we think) and a school's cost (which is totally important) and forget that perhaps the greatest asset that we will have after two years is a network. If you want to live in CA, prioritize GSPP. If you want to live in Chicago, the Harris School is probably going to set you up better than anybody else. Etc.
I'm in a similar boat - ed policy at GSPP, HKS, or Harris. Or the University of Nebraska-Omaha, because I might end up back in my hometown. It's very possible that UNO is the best call. I feel like I'm taking crazy pills when I consider UNO over HKS, but that network!
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No funding here, from CA
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Double majored in Physics & Religious Ethics, lol
I don't think it really matters all that much as long as you can show some basic quantitive chops. I have the impression that work experience seems much more important than the name of your major. I'm sure it helps, though, if you can weave your undergrad experience into a narrative about service and public policy!
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What is the case for paying full tuition to the Kennedy School?
I applied to four or five fellowships to HKS, but I'm not really expecting to get one. Obviously, there are approximately $150,000 reasons not to take out a huge amount of debt for an MPP. I'm not independently wealthy. I don't want to go into consulting, and I don't want to work in the private sector. If Public Service Loan Forgiveness goes away (which is certainly possible, if not likely), that debt load would be overwhelming.
There are people out here who *do* take out $100,000+ in loans to go to HKS. What is the justification for paying full tuition? I ask without judgement; I almost want you to convince me that it is reasonable!
Thanks, y'all. I like this community.
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On 2/24/2017 at 3:02 PM, thex11factor said:
what does everyone think of how they've communicated with admits so far?
I've been frustrated with their communication. Other schools have provided more information to admitted students (HKS has a admitted students website with tons of information and GSPP sent out a long document that answered many of my questions). Also, other schools have been more responsive. For example, I emailed HKS with questions yesterday and received a response in 20 minutes. By contrast, I wrote an email to Harris with a number of questions two and a half weeks ago and am still waiting for an answer.
I'm sure they are busy with 2nd round applications, but still... I mean, I'm trying to decide whether to give them tens of thousands of dollars! Has anybody had substantive communication with Harris staff? If so, whom did you communicate with? What's the trick?
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I'm in a similar boat- Harris ($$), Goldman, and HKS.... Seems like we all have some thinking to do!
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7 minutes ago, Optimus007 said:
It did not seem there was strong correlation to decisions
Mine has changed back and forth now three times. First my portal had contact info, then it went away a few weeks ago. Then the contact info was back (this morning), now it's gone again. Who knows. If it means anything, I don't think we are going to figure it out!
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1 minute ago, Obecalp said:
Do you suppose that the admissions committee is reading this forum and giggling?
I wonder if admissions committees feel how we feel now on April 15th when we give them enrollment decisions!
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15 minutes ago, Obecalp said:
Seconding this. What were everyone's thoughts? I'm not able to make it out there until early April, but will be attending an open house then.
Same here- missed Admit day, but planning to visit in early April. I must have missed the info on the open house - can you share the details?
And, yes, I too would love to hear other folks' thoughts on Admit Day!
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4 minutes ago, Palolem said:
Have you gotten emails or the application portal status changed? Or both?
I haven't received anything yet.I received an email a little over an hour ago. No change to application portal. Hang in there!
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Accepted! But no fellowship.
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19 hours ago, parkjun888 said:
So basically, how does a normal human being finance an out-of-state, 2 years master's program, full time with/without a job that doesn't pay enough, cover rent, and pay for living expenses? And how would one do it by simply taking on a loan $20,000-$50,000?
I mean, you can't do it, right? At least not at elite/prestigious/brand-name/hella expensive schools like Kennedy, Harris, Wagner, Sanford, etc. I applied to a few of theses programs with no intention of enrolling if I wasn't given significant funding. And I'm not nuts; I knew it was pretty unlikely that a program like HKS would give me enough financial aid to put me under $50,000 in debt. But who knows!
I think it's harder to justify taking out huge loans for a policy degree than other degrees. You need a JD to practice law. You don't need an MPP to work in policy. I'm interested in advocacy work, and I look at the people who have the jobs that I want to have in 10 or 20 years. Some have impressive degrees from impressive schools, and I'm sure the degree helped them. But many other folks don't have a brand-name MPP. Makes huge debt even more unappealing.
I'd love to hear more people's philosophies around debt! If you think I'm way off, let me know
- undergoat88 and Student007
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I'm pretty committed to working in the public sector and making relatively moderate income, so taking out anything more than $50,000 is off the table for me, except when I think about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
(If you don't know, if you make payments of 10% of income while working at a 501c(3) or government agency for 120 months, the remaining balance is forgiven. So, if you take out $150,000 at HKS and then make $50,000/year after graduating, you'll won't come close to even paying half of it back before you earn forgiveness.)
Of course, Donald Trump is President with a Republican congress, and certain lawmakers have signaled that PSLF could be on the chopping block. Obviously, who knows what will actually happen.
This puts us all in a pickle. I would feel comfortable taking out more debt under a Clinton administration because she wasn't about to cut PSLF. But we live in this universe. I think I have to play it safe and assume that I'm going to have to pay back any debt I take out :/. Any of you also thinking about this?
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6 hours ago, aimz said:
Accepted with $20K. Still trying to decide if I will attempt to go to Admitted Student's Day. Originally, the RSVP page offered the $300 travel voucher only if you responded by February 17. Anyone know if they are still offering the money?
I spoke with an admissions rep yesterday, and he said it was still available!
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2 hours ago, d4r56 said:
I'm assuming the fellowships are extremely competitive and I'm not sure that I want to spend the next couple of days writing an essay for something I likely won't get -- not to mention I'm not even sure if I'll get into the school itself! Does anyone know how competitive these fellowships are? Of course, I'm sure it varies depending on which fellowship you're talking about (I'm thinking about the "Center for Public Leadership" fellowships in particular.)
I think most of the merit-based aid that is awarded comes from a different pool of money(?)
The Center for Public Leadership fellowships look very competitive. You can see profiles of current fellows here. I literally laughed out loud when I read one incredible biography after another, thinking, "yeah, they'll give me a fellowship when hell freezes over."
But think of it this way: You're spending 2 hours on something that is potentially worth $160,000. Give yourself a tiny chance of getting it - let's say .05% probability of success. The wage (80,000dollars/hour) multiplied by the probability of success (.0005) is $40/hr. And this tiny probability of success (.05%) represents 1 in 2000 applicants being awarded a fellowship, which is certainly too low.
...Also, if this math doesn't make sense, than I really need this fellowship so I can learn how to do this...
Go for it! Or not. Less competition for me.
Harris 2018
in Government Affairs Forum
Posted · Edited by tinpants12
I'm a domestic 1st year student, so I can't give you as good of an answer as I would like. I know that a good number of international students have sponsorship (either by their government or an employer) to study here for a couple years and then return to the same job. Even if they aren't sponsored, it seems that most international students plan to return to their countries of origin. The Career Development Office has identified that they need to do a better job supporting these students as they look for jobs once they move back home. It's much easier for CDO to cultivate relationships with employers in specific places (Chicago/DC in particular), and harder to do so across the world.
In terms of career field, it's all over the place, just like for domestic students. I've had fascinating conversations with classmates from all over the world who are interested in politics, finance, urban planning, economic policy, crime policy... you name it! Many hope to work for the federal governments of their home countries, some want to go into consulting, and some are more interested in private sector work (i.e. economic analysis for a bank).
I chose between GSPP, HKS, and Harris. I chose Harris for three main reasons:
1. Geography. I am from the midwest, and I knew I wanted to end up closer to home. I was worried about HKS's and (especially) GSPP's portability to the midwest. I knew that Harris would have the strongest network here.
2. Skills. With regards to curriculum, I have the impression that Harris and GSPP are more similar. They are more quantitative, more geared towards applied economics and statistics. HKS might be more oriented towards management, leadership.
I visited all the schools last year. It was very interesting to compare conversations with students at HKS and Harris. Everybody at both schools was really busy, but they were busy for different reasons. At HKS, folks were like, "I'm so busy. I have to go to class and then go a talk by [insert amazing person] and then this club that I founded has a meeting and then I have another talk by [insert another amazing person] and then I have to meet with my social venture start-up and then I have to go to a third talk by [name any head of state]." At Harris, I heard more people say, "I'm so busy. I have to go to class and then work on statistics homework for a few hours before I meet with my study group where we will compare STATA code and then I'm going to go to a talk by [amazing person] and then I'm going to do my Analytical Politics problem set before meeting up with a friend to talk about the Microeconomics memo that is due next week.
My experiences at Harris have aligned to those conversations I had as a prospective student. It's hard. Very quantitative. People spend a lot of time on problem sets. Because of the tough problem sets, I've learned a ton about programming, statistics, economics. However, I haven't learned soft-skills here, at least not yet. I think HKS might do a better job helping you build those skills.
Of course, Harris offers management/leadership courses to help us develop those skills, and you can definitely learn advanced econometrics at a school like HKS. It's just not at the core of what each school does.
3. Price. Harris ended up being the lowest cost.