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Well, I think that most schools don't care once you've passed the first cut (partially based on GRE)... I mean professors who examine your app don't even know what score you've got (unless you mention it in your CV).

Oh I see, thanks for clarifying! Sorry for not specifying it earlier but I was in fact talking about PhD admissions results ^^' !

Hi @VeryCheesey! You're welcome! Sure – I'm responding to your questions below. Hmm... I'm not sure the policy lab thing would compensate for the lack of quantitative content in the courses, but I may well be wrong given that they've restructured many programs and created new "departments/schools" within the university after I graduated. I guess the answer to the question about whether it is "wise to pick Sciences Po over" an "average" US university depends on 1) what are you professional goals, 2) how much you value enjoying the course content vs the signal your degree/school will provide you, and 3) how heavy the financial burden would be for you if you wanted to go to a US university without funding. I would personally think it is important to be happy in the program you are choosing. Plus, if it is substantially cheaper (we're talking about differences in several thousands of dollars!) and it has anyway a strong signal on the job market, it is a very good option. One important question then is whether you think there's a high probability that you would want to pursue a PhD program with substantial quantitative contents (e.g., Public Policy) afterwards. If so, that's a very important factor and I wouldn't go for the MPP at Sciences Po (unless you're fine with a low-ranked PhD program). But I am still unclear about what is your current "ultimate career goal" (?) – if you could specify that (assuming you have an idea), that would help. As for the question from the Sciences-Po advisor you talked to, did he make any comments when you said you'd like to do a PhD afterwards? So you said "yes" but what field(s) are you considering? Because as far as I know, Sciences Po doesn't offer any PhD program in Public Policy! It only has PhD programs in Economics, Sociology, History, Law, and Political Science, and I *think* these programs only admit students with the relevant training (i.e., they usually did a research masters before entering the program, because as you may or may not know, in France, the PhD program is only 3 years and it basically corresponds to the last 3 years of a typical PhD program in the US). That said, you could also do a research masters (2 years) after an MPP at Sciences Po and then apply for a PhD program in France (3 years). That would basically be equivalent to directly applying to a PhD program in the US (5 years). But here again, whether to choose a French (or more broadly a European) program over a US one depends partly on your career objectives and location preferences. Anyway, I *think* there is no such thing as a PhD program in Public Policy in any French university... so you would need to find another field if you'd like to pursue your doctoral studies in France. I'd also like to chime in regarding @L'Enfant's comments about 1) "Sciences Pipo", 2) the fact that Sciences Po is not very well-known in the US, and 3) the thing about "formatting the political élite" : 1) It is true that a lot of people say that about Sciences Po. The reason is that Sciences Po has been criticized for providing its students with a too broad set of knowledge, with no specific strengths in a given field. So, basically, Sciences-Po students can (pretend they can) talk about almost everything, but when it comes to getting to details, they lack knowledge. So, it's too general. I, however, do not completely agree with that. First, I'd say that it depends on which masters you end up choosing (a few do prepare well its students very well for the job market in the sectors they're supposed to prepare them for – e.g., the Master in Finance & Strategy has strong placements). Second, I tend to think that it's mostly people from outside the school who say that (because they have a complex of inferiority or what)... 2) I guess it depends... For schools that have a partnership with Sciences Po, I was surprised to see that some students (especially those majoring in a social science field) do know about it. For example, I have myself been surprised that a graduate from Harvard and a current student at UChicago knew about it. However, these are both international students. I think the average American student doesn't know, but (although I didn't want to talk about that...) honestly, what does the average American know about other countries' schools, even the most prestigious ones (apart from Oxford and Cambridge maybe)? lol... Moreover, as VeryCheesey said, whether or not Sciences Po is well-known in the US is relevant only if you plan to work in a US firm/organization or something. 3) Finally, a last point about "formatting the political élite": people should stop with that... It's false that the majority of Sciences Po students end up in politics or public administration – as a matter of fact, more than 3/4 of Sciences Po's Master's graduates go to work in the private sector...!!! Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info! That sounds a bit late >.< ...

Does anyone have any info on when they will release the admission results...?

Apparently someone checked the website and learned s/he has been rejected... Edit: I have been rejected too, huh...

Where? His last post on apps dates back to a couple of weeks ago or something?

OMG... I'm all of a sudden feeling stressed out... T_T Maybe we'll get the results for HKS tomorrow... huh... Good luck!!

You're welcome! And, again, I don't think that the MPP at Sciences Po would prepare would well for a PhD, regardless of its field. If you plan to pursue a PhD, you should rather think about doing one of the MRes there. For a PhD in Public Policy, the Master's in Economics is definitely a stronger signal and a better preparation, but it is quite quantitative and the program is similar to the ones taught in the first two years of a typical PhD program in Economics in the US/UK (with the three graduate sequences of Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Econometrics), so be aware of that.

Hi all, I'm a Sciences-Po alumna, so I will do my best to answer your questions. Regarding its administration, I would say that in general, the French administration sucks... They're slow, not very polite, inefficient... However, I would say that it also depends on the person you end up interacting with. I have myself recently made a request to the Sciences-Po administration (for my grad school applications) and I was positively surprised because they responded quite quickly and delivered what I had requested on time. So, it's hard to generalize and it also depends on your reference point (e.g., if you compare to the US administration, they're definitely much lower ranked, lol... but I don't know about the Indian administration in general...). As for Sciences Po's reputation, needless to say that it's a top school in France, and probably n°1 in social sciences. It is also quite well-known abroad, thanks to its 400+ partner universities around the world, usually including the most prestigious ones in each of the countries where they have a partnership (e.g., most of the Ivy League schools, MIT, UC Berkeley, UChicago, etc. in the US / LSE, Oxford, Cambridge in the UK / Bocconi in Italy / Seoul National University and Yonsei University in S Korea / Peking University and Tsinghua University in China / etc.). I was myself surprised to see that a lot of foreigners here in the US know Sciences Po (many Americans don't though... I won't comment on the reasons why :p). It is mostly famous in political science and international relations, but it has strengths in other social sciences fields too (e.g., economics, history, sociology, etc.). If I am not mistaken, the Master's program you've got admitted into is quite recent though. So, there are (almost?) no alumni, which makes it harder to see how well they place. That said, I think it is safe to assume that you could find something good upon graduation (or even before). I guess it depends on what type of career you're aiming at, although it's probably quite open. If you have specific questions on the Master's program, you should probably try to contact the academic coordinator of the program – you can find his contact details here – and ask him your questions. Bear in mind though that this Master's program is probably much less quantitative than an MPP at, say, Chicago Harris; so, if you're considering pursuing a PhD in Public Policy, it may not be the best choice (the Master's in Economics is certainly better for such track). Finally, regarding the language barrier, I wouldn't be so strict about your "obligation" to learn French. It is true that the average French guy barely speaks English, but the environment at Sciences Po is very international (about 50% of the student body is international), so that shouldn't be a big problem. Plus, I've met several international students there, including a few who didn't speak French or were beginners, and they managed to live there without too much trouble. I guess though the best would be to get feedback from international students there – why don't you try to reach them out (e.g., search on a Facebook group or LinkedIn)? Hope this helps. I'm happy to answer more specific questions if you have any.

Got it, thanks for your thoughts on this! Right, one of my recommenders told me (a few days before the application deadline, lol) that the HKS PhD program usually admits its own (MPP) students... Well, I'll cross my fingers and wait for the admission results then...!

Oh and I forgot to post my profile. Here it is: Undergrad/Grad Institution (Public, Private, Ivy, etc..): top French school ("Grande Ecole") in social sciences, for both my undergrad and masters GPA: N/A (because I studied in France and my school doesn't provide any averages, but I had honors in my undergrad and was Summa Cum Laude in my Masters program in Economics & Public Policy) Work Experience: a 3-month summer internship at the OECD when I was a Masters student Research Experience: 1 Masters thesis & 2.5 years of RAship for professors of economics (including 1.5+ years with a professor of economics at a US top school) GRE Score: V 154 (65%), Q 167 (92%), AW 5.5 (98%) [I only studied for the quantitative section... I know my verbal score is low but I’m a foreigner [French], so I'm counting on the committee to be clement here .] TOEFL Score: 110/120 (Writing 30/30, Reading 27/30, Speaking 27/30, Listening 26/30) LoR's: 2 from professors I RA'ed for (with one of them, I also took an undergrad-level econ course), 1 from my Master's thesis supervisor (I also took two of his grad-level econ courses and RA'ed for him but it was only data collection stuff), and 1 from one of my grad econometrics professors (he's the only senior prof among my recommenders). I believe the 3 professors I RA'ed for wrote me very strong letters (none of them are tenured, but they all obtained their PhD in Economics from top US schools); not quite sure about the content of the senior prof's letter though... SoP: My SoP was quite standard, I guess (?): I talked about my academic background and my research experiences, why I wanted to pursue a PhD program in Public Policy, what questions I'd like to address and briefly how I plan to tackle these, and which professors I'd be interested in working with. Interests: Education, labor, social mobility, segregation Schools: HKS, Chicago Harris, and UMichigan (joint PhD program in Public Policy & Economics). I also applied to several PhD programs in Economics.

Also posted on the HKS thread: I have just quickly gone through [the HKS 2018] thread and found out about the HKS admissions blog. They mentioned that the financial aid application is completely independent of the application process and that we need to have applied by Feb 9 if we want to be considered for fellowships at HKS... Given that I've obviously missed the deadline, does that mean that even if I am miraculously admitted, I will not be funded in any case? ... Edit: Never mind, I've just found that webpage where they mentioned that PhD applicants are automatically considered for fellowships when their applications are reviewed. Phew...!! I was quite panicked, lol... I guess the financial aid application is for Masters programs (?).

Anyone's applied to the PhD program? I have just quickly gone through this thread and found out about the HKS admissions blog. They mentioned that the financial aid application is completely independent of the application process and that we need to have applied by Feb 9 if we want to be considered for fellowships at HKS... Given that I've obviously missed the deadline, does that mean that even if I am miraculously admitted, I will not be funded in any case? Edit: Never mind, I've just found that webpage where they mentioned that PhD applicants are automatically considered for fellowships when their applications are reviewed. Phew...!! I was quite panicked, lol... I guess the financial aid application is for Masters programs (?).

That's my assumption, too...