EmPeePee

I feel like applying to policy school is more about telling a narrative that it is about being impressive. You should talk about the family business if it fits into your broader narrative of why you want to go into public service. Are you passionate about government/business relations? Making regulations more efficient? Advocating for worker's rights? If you can make a connection between the family business and public service, use it. If not, I don't know.

I went to new admit day trying not to like it, but I was very impressed. A few thoughts from a prospective MPP student: I'm new to the Harvard world, and expected there to be some arrogant elitism. I saw none of that. I met dozens and dozens of smart, committed, passionate people who were as approachable as they were impressive. I really had the feeling that the people in the room were tomorrow's leaders. They gave us a lot of time to interact with each other, which I really appreciated. I was really excited by the range of professional experience people are bringing. I expected to meet a bunch of certain types (a bunch of TFAs, a bunch of consultants, etc.) but everybody had a different and interesting story. I didn't meet a single person who was coming straight out of undergraduate. The HKS folks centered much of their pitch around the word "Access." Access to famous folks, access to thought-leaders, access to other stuff. I don't know if I loved how much they talked about all the amazing people who come through HKS. I would have liked more focus on the academic curriculum and what they are teaching me, not just what they are giving me access to. Most of the admitted students were very much on the fence regarding enrolling. I had many, many conversations about the high cost of attendance. More people seemed to be deciding between HKS and not going anywhere. There were fewer people choosing between HKS and another policy school. It seems like if you are impressive enough to get into HKS, you're impressive enough to not need the degree to do what you want to do... It's not a racially or socioeconomically diverse community (especially w/r/t US POC). People are aware of that, however, and talk about it as something needing to change. Students seem to spend most of their time at HKS. Like, they don't go home after classes, preferring to work, meet, and socialize on campus well into the evening. People seemed happy. Happier than some of the other policy schools I visited So my main takeaway was that the offerings of HKS were pretty great and that the students are amazing. I'm as attracted to HKS for the stuff that I would learn from my peers as for the things I'll learn from professors. Happy to answer any other specific questions, either on this blog or privately!