2018Hopeful

Program Applied To: (MPA, MPP, etc.) : HKS (MPA/ID), WWS (MPA), SIPA (MPA-EPM), Georgetown (MIDP), Wagner (MPA), CIPA (MPA), Sanford (MPP), Heinz (MSPPM), Ford (MPP), LBJ (MPAff), Maxwell (MPA)
Schools Applied To:  HKS, WWS, SIPA, Georgetown, Wagner, CIPA, Sanford, Heinz, Ford, LBJ, Maxwell
Schools Admitted To:  SIPA (?), Maxwell (?), LBJ (?), CIPA (42%), Sanford (46%), Wagner (?), McCourt (49%), Ford (50%), and HKS (100% JJ/WBGSP!)
Schools Rejected From:  WWS
Still Waiting:  Heinz
Undergraduate institution:  Top public university (Argentina)
Undergraduate GPA:  3.5
Undergraduate Major:  Economics
Graduate institution:  Top University (Argentina)
Graduate GPA:  3.8
Graduate Major:  MPP
GRE Quantitative Score:  161
GRE Verbal Score:  163
GRE AW Score: 3.5
TOEFL: 105/120
Scholarship: Fulbright
Describe Relevant Work Experience: 
- 1 year as research economist at a top local economic consultancy
- 4.5 years (ongoing) at the public pension fund of my country. I have experience in the design/implementation of housing and social policies and in infrastructure investment
(Plus some extra part-time/consulting/volunteering before and after graduating)
Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): While every school asks for different focus in their essays, I think that a good advice could be to structure a long Personal Statement and a maybe a Policy essay and then work with them as a draft. As I suppose happen to everyone, my essays got better in every application. So definitely start as early as possible, the editing process never ends.
Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): I decided to submit 3 LORs for every school. As I believe that my work experience was my strength, I submitted 2 professional LORs who have supervised my work in different areas and my graduate thesis director (and professor in my economics degree).
 
 
I hope this helps! 
 

Program Applied To: (MPA, MPP, etc.) : HKS (MPA/ID), WWS (MPA), SIPA (MPA-EPM), Georgetown (MIDP), Wagner (MPA), CIPA (MPA), Sanford (MPP), Heinz (MSPPM), Ford (MPP), LBJ (MPAff), Maxwell (MPA)
Schools Applied To:  HKS, WWS, SIPA, Georgetown, Wagner, CIPA, Sanford, Heinz, Ford, LBJ, Maxwell
Schools Admitted To:  SIPA (?), Maxwell (?), LBJ (?), CIPA (42%), Sanford (46%), Wagner (?), McCourt (49%), Ford (50%), and HKS (100% JJ/WBGSP!)
Schools Rejected From:  WWS
Still Waiting:  Heinz
Undergraduate institution:  Top public university (Argentina)
Undergraduate GPA:  3.5
Undergraduate Major:  Economics
Graduate institution:  Top University (Argentina)
Graduate GPA:  3.8
Graduate Major:  MPP
GRE Quantitative Score:  161
GRE Verbal Score:  163
GRE AW Score: 3.5
TOEFL: 105/120
Scholarship: Fulbright
Describe Relevant Work Experience: 
- 1 year as research economist at a top local economic consultancy
- 4.5 years (ongoing) at the public pension fund of my country. I have experience in the design/implementation of housing and social policies and in infrastructure investment
(Plus some extra part-time/consulting/volunteering before and after graduating)
Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): While every school asks for different focus in their essays, I think that a good advice could be to structure a long Personal Statement and a maybe a Policy essay and then work with them as a draft. As I suppose happen to everyone, my essays got better in every application. So definitely start as early as possible, the editing process never ends.
Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): I decided to submit 3 LORs for every school. As I believe that my work experience was my strength, I submitted 2 professional LORs who have supervised my work in different areas and my graduate thesis director (and professor in my economics degree).
 
 
I hope this helps! 
 

Alright it’s official, I’m going yolo and paying full tuition to HKS. Believe me, I understand the financial implications. Harris still says they’re willing to negotiate further, and I’ll hear them out, but it feels official at this point.
I hope to be the counterpoint to the doom and gloom “think long and hard...” type posts. But feel free to check in on me (email notifications should be turned on) in a couple years to see if I regret it! I’ll be honest.

To all future applicants, I hope this is as helpful to you as previous GradCafe posts were to me!
Program Applied To: (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.)  MPP, MPA, MEM (Masters of Environmental Management)
Schools Applied To:  HKS, SIPA (MPA-ESP), Yale FES,  UC Berkeley GSPP, UW Evans, Georgetown McCourt
Schools Admitted To:   All – HKS (full funding), SIPA ($30k), Yale FES ($12k/yr), UC Berkeley GSPP (no funding), UW Evans (~$15k stipend + in-state tuition rate), Georgetown McCourt ($20k/year)
Schools Rejected From:   None (I’m still in shock but really happy!)
Still Waiting:  N/A
Undergraduate institution:  Top 30 University
Undergraduate GPA:  3.54
Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable):  3.76  (worth calculating if you have not—schools like to see an upward trend. I had some rough intro science classes freshman year)
Undergraduate Major:  Biology, Environmental Studies, & Political Science
GRE Quantitative Score:  161
GRE Verbal Score:  166
GRE AW Score:  5.5
Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable):  4 (3 at the time of applying)
Years of Work Experience:  4 (3 at the time of applying) – this is full time, not including a bunch of part-time relevant internships I held in college
Describe Relevant Work Experience:  analyst in the environmental policy and economics branch of a consulting firm working with federal/state/local government agencies

Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc):  Strong—I have had one policy area of interest since before high school (environmental policy), and almost everything I did throughout college and after was related to the environment. In my SOPs, I told the story of why I needed this degree to take the next step in my environmental career. I stated my goals very explicitly (within the first paragraph, I made sure to include a sentence saying “My goal is to X”). I then gave a brief explanation of what I’ve been up to at work, and then specific examples of career goals (the exact agencies I want to work for the roles I want to hold and WHY). Then I wrapped up each essay with a paragraph or two about the specific offerings at each school (professors, names of courses, final projects, etc.) and named names so that they knew I’d done my research.
I realize this is a fairly unique situation and most people have changing interests or less defined interests—my advice is to still just pick one specific policy area to focus your SOP on, even if you know that you’ll explore other interests in the program. Being as specific as possible will help you tell a convincing story, and will show that you have thought about how this degree is part of your overall story. For example, within the broad category of environmental policy, I focused my essays on how I want to work within state government on emissions trading programs that meet the goals of the Paris Accord.
I think the toughest but most important part of the SOP process is picking this specific problem that you want to solve. Also, I kept a notepad on my phone of ideas for my SOP that popped into my head on the bus, in the grocery store, wherever. That way I had them all in one place when I sat down to write! ?
I highly HIGHLY recommend reading the book Graduate Admissions Essays by Donald Asher. I made sure to already have a draft before I read any of the sample essays so that I wasn’t intimidated by or influenced by other people’s work. That said, the intro sections gave me the extra push I needed to get my essay into shape! I found the book super comforting when I felt stuck or lost.
Also, whether or not you are applying to HKS, you should check out the HKS Admissions Blog. I found a ton of helpful tips there for not only my HKS application, but all of my applications. Go through the posts where they discuss old applications—I read through those after I wrote my first draft and made sure I hit all the “good” points that HKS discussed, and reworked anything they’d said they don’t like to see in an essay.

Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc):  Strong, I had my primary manager at work who has been close with me for ~4 years, my former boss from an undergraduate position who I kept in touch with (also relevant to MPP work), and a professor. After I got accepted, two of my letter writers voluntarily shared their letters with me, and I was so honored at what they had written and the time and effort they spent.
I decided who to ask around the end of June. I invited them each out for coffee once in July to let them know more about my plans. I did not ask at that time, because I wanted to gauge their level of interest and support of my grad school aspirations. I asked them around early-August to give them more than enough time to plan. Once they said yes, I gave them a packet of information that they could use to write the letter. The packet contained a basic cover letter (essentially an early draft of my SOP) explaining why I wanted to go to grad school; my resume/CV; samples of work (from the professor’s class), and a sheet listing my specific goals for each school as well as what each school is looking for. For example, I want to go to HKS because I am looking to work with Professor X and take Course Y and I want to do this specific extracurricular. All of them really loved the sheet because it allowed them to easily personalize each letter for each school.

Other:
Even though I took stats and econ in college, I decided to brush up on both subjects by taking online classes at my local community college. Because these classes counted for credit/had transcripts, I think it helped show the schools that I was still serious about classroom learning and willing to dive into quant work on day one. It was an expense though—if you can’t afford to take a credit class, maybe take a free online course and mention it in your resume.
Some schools (SIPA, HKS) asked for a quantitative resume and I spent a lot of time making sure that I hit most of the skillsets they are looking for. I gave specific examples of projects I’ve done at work.
I got in touch with professors at my top choice schools and asked them about certain classes, etc., and where possible I sat in on their classes. I also tried to visit as many campuses as I could before applying. This was tricky for those that were super far away, but by planning ahead I was able to visit my top choices. I found it helpful to talk with admissions officers and current students, and referenced what I learned from those conversations in my SOP.
You can do this!!! ? It takes a lot of planning and time management, and everyone has a slightly different approach. Do what feels right to you, and don’t compare yourself to anyone else if you can help it. Seriously consider if you would be happy at each school. Consider things like curriculum and job placement and professors’ interests, but also consider city/location and the vibe of the student body and proximity to family/friends if that is important to you. It’s important that you can see yourself being happy everywhere you apply!
Good luck!

This isn’t a salty post at all but I don’t know how they cannot do a rational analysis of the relevance of financial aid to offer acceptance. Someone on the forum earlier said every year HKS loses bright students to WWS because of releasing financial aid late, and they don’t want that. But how does preponing financial aid timeline make a difference if they are not serious about how no funding delegitimises the feeling of admission altogether? Even a simple cognitive perspective on this would reveal the same.
For a school as meticulous as HKS, they really do fall behind on correlating aid with the class quality. If I attend the school, I’m going to raise this (humbly) with the admissions office. 
No funding for me either. Applying for external ones though.
PS: I am browsing through the forum reading news of all those who received fellowships, and frantically liking all your posts because I’m super super happy for you all! Congrats @tropisk_winter @2018Hopeful and others I cant recall of the top of my memory as I type this. Will see you all shining there if I attend this year. ❤️

I got the JJ/WBGSP to the MPA/ID!!! 

Let me say something for those not yet accepted, or waiting on a list, or for future applicants, because I've been on Gradcafe for a while now.
I have talked myself out of applying to Harvard for many years now. I never thought I'd make it there. It took sitting down with someone who is currently attending HKS and their basically cursing me out for not applying to actually muster up the courage to finally do so. 
So when I began applying last year, I approached it with no holds barred. I went from not applying because I was scared, to not only envisioning myself at the school but also having the audacity to try and figure out where to live. I embraced the process fully. I made myself vulnerable. I reached deep within myself and, with the help of many friends, wrote essays that I guess were compelling. I made the process personal. I talked about PEOPLE and had these experiences guide me in crafting my narrative.
I HAD A REALLY BAD GRE SCORE. I can't stress enough how holistic this process is. I've been out of school for a while, but even by that standard I think it was too low. Had a decent GPA. Graduated from a community college and a state school. What undoubtedly helped was my work experience. I've worked with data and quantitative stuff for a while now. I've managed campaigns. I've done heavy quant research. I'm just horrible at standardized tests haha. I think I made a good enough case along those lines. I also have multiple years of international experience. 
I had really good recommendations. You want to ensure you find someone that will fight for you within their recommendations. Essentially, you want folks who would call and curse admissions out for not accepting you.
I owe a lot of my admission to this forum. For that, I'll check in every now and then to look at any PMs or responses. I'd love to be the person that gives you the encouraging word I received from a friend not too long ago to apply. YOU CAN DO THIS! Whether you're in now or will be applying later. BELIEVE THAT! 

They have updated the website from "mid- March" to "March 15". 

Hi fellow applicants!
I believe all of us are in the same boat when it comes to decision making.
While applying to every university, I looked at the pros of their curriculum, but now that I have a few admits, I am unable to weigh them against each other to decide the precedence.
Coming from a non-public affairs/government sector/humanities background, I have a basic idea of my field of study during Masters, but no prior experience to help me determine where I ultimately want to end up working. Hell, I am not even convinced I do not want a career in academics - a small research experience in the field over the last few years has me convinced that I might want to pursue a doctorate for all I know.
One thing I know for sure is that I intend to return to my country, and so the regular DC career vs. other careers in the US that we regularly see on this forum do not really apply to me.
The factors I am weighing in as of now are:
How well the education can be extrapolated in the context of my native. The sort of research at the university in my area of interest (technology ethics) Flexibility of curriculum, that may allow me to explore the wide domain of my choice and establish a niche over the next few years Obviously, the financial aid I receive! How are you guys planning to make this very important decision ultimately?

Submitted my application on Jan. 15th, submitted my video response on Jan. 22nd making my application complete. @2018Hopeful

I applied back in November. I was invited to the Open House on 3/16 and I was told that they were in the process of determining fellowships and admitted applicants will be notified of the fellowship information on or before 3/1.

It is time to say byebye to HKS------ a money sucker!

Invitations for CPL interviews for finalist appear to have gone out. A friend of mine who is a 10th level super sayan 1st edition holographic typa badass got an invite through email. Just a heads up.