heyitsme

This is a dilemma many of us are facing, and I think I'll wait some time to gather my thoughts or to listen to others. But here's an initial input: as an American who's been to Chicago before and who has friends living in different parts of the city, I would not consider safety to be a concern at or near the U Chicago campus - you should be fine on that front!

Of course, the non-rational part of me is likewise freaking out, so this is something that I'm telling myself as much as anybody else!

Guys - it's 5:29 AM on the east coast of the US right now. I say this with kindness, but - relax! Earlier in this thread, it was confirmed that the decisions would be all out by the end of this week. We'll know when we know, and I'm afraid that's all we can expect! As much as I'd like to satisfy my own curiosity, I think we have to abide by the reality of the admissions process, which is that not everything comes out at once, and not everything runs exactly according to whatever schedule we think they might have.

Very strange. So they're basing their lawsuit on: The institute not appointing a director, and then circumventing the issue by simply changing the title of an existing staff member; The institute leaving 1 out of 4 promised professorships vacant; A disapproval of the hiring of Christ Blattman and Oeindrila Dube, who they say have backgrounds that are beneath the university (could this be a political thing? Ideological disagreement? Not sure how to interpret this); Use of funds for operating expenses for Harris as a whole, rather than for the institute specifically; and The institute failing to develop what they would consider an adequate curriculum (again, what are their criteria for this, I wonder?). Right now the lawsuit hasn't been settled either way, so who's to say what would happen. Previous lawsuits involving the Pearson foundation disputing the use of its donations to universities were dismissed, however. Wondering if any current students at Harris have opinions on this, or have a better idea of how the institute is working from the inside.

Travelling right now and switched out my sim card, so no phone call for me either way! Those of us in Europe will have a long night!

@ExponentialDecay That's one thing that I'm not too sure about. The reality is that right now I don't have the mathematical background to jump into a PhD in economics, and I'm unsure if I even have the mathematical background to jump into a masters. There are two non-American masters in economics that I'm applying to right now - McGill (which has a qualifying year in math) and LSE, so I will be trying your idea out to some extent. As for why MPP's and MPA's in the first place - the naive answer is that I am interested in the types of thought exercises and decision making processes that go into designing specific projects and interventions, and the public policy realm seemed like a good entry point to explore that. One idea I had was to look for a flexible MPA or MPP program within which I could take statistics and math courses as electives - I think that might be possible at U Michigan, for example. I guess it will depend on what the feedback in my applications will be, as well as whether or not I can secure funding.

Well, why not... Program: MPP and MPA's Schools Applying To: Princeton WWS, Columbia SIPA, Georgetown McCourt, U Chicago Harris, McGill (this one's an MA Econ), U Michigan Ford, NYU Wagner, LSE MPA Interests: international development - specifically rural development and political economy in rural parts of the developing world Undergrad Institution: Bachelor of Arts from Tufts University Bachelor of Music from New England Conservatory (dual degree program between both schools) Undergraduate GPA: 3.56 from Tufts, 3.88 from the conservatory Undergraduate Major: Double major in economics and international relations at Tufts. Major in jazz performance at the conservatory Graduate GPA: N/A GRE: 168 Verbal (98%), 164 Quant (87%), 5.0 Writing (93%?) Quantitative Courses: calculus I, statistics, microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics, applied econometrics seminar, financial economics, accounting, a few other assorted economics electives. Age: 25 Languages: English, proficient in Spanish, could work back to fluency if I practiced it more. Basic Italian from living situation. Work Experience: 3 internships in undergrad in nonprofit organizations - a rural dev org in the US, a rural agricultural project implementer in Latin America, and a social entrepreneurship startup in the US. All three were part of a series of public service fellowships at the university that provided funding and other forms of support. After graduating, have been working for 2.5 years as a consultant/program assistant under an economist at a UN agency headquartered in Europe, which finances larges scale rural development projects. Currently working under him in a regional division focused on Asia. Have contributed to some analytical reports, done basic project evaluation, have been able to travel and organize meetings with government officials in a specific country. LORs: Three. One from my academic adviser at Tufts, one from my supervisor (an agricultural economist), another from a development economist I worked with on some projects at my current job - retired professor with visiting fellowships to a bunch of schools in the US. All three people know me fairly well I think. SOPs: Want to learn more about designing/measuring the impact of rural development projects - have a deep-seated interest in finding out how and why different project approaches (technology transfers, credit groups, cash transfers, community governance models, training programs) work in different contexts. Enjoy putting together different sources of information - household surveys, stakeholder interviews etc. - and using them to understand how a project component works. Would therefore like to take more classes in quantitative methods in public policy, focusing on survey design, impact evaluation, perhaps some additional courses in economic and financial analysis. Publications and Honors: Forthcoming analytical report from the institution in which I work. Have contributed to a few strategy papers and lending agreements w/ different governments. Concerns: My GPA is not as high as I'd want it to be...had a rough time balancing things in undergrad. I have a lot of B's in those economics courses and it was really just dumb luck that I managed to get an internship and later job after graduation. I'm trying to see if I'd want to aim for a PhD in economics later on down the road, but I'd really like to start that decision making process with a more applied degree.