LazarusRises

Mine was "What is the most important thing an elementary education can teach?" My answer was about a basic understanding of the scientific method & the ability to assess evidence & admit when you're wrong. Accepted with $60k total funding.

No word, but I think you hit it dead on. I'm not risking an extra semester of deferral unless they give us assurance that our funding will be preserved (which I think is very unlikely to happen). EDIT: I misread your post, I thought you were talking about deferring. You may as well apply, but I agree that it will likely be a more competitive pool than usual.

I was admitted to Columbia SIPA for this fall, but deferred a semester to let things settle. I would probably defer even longer and just keep working, but if I did I would lose the $3k in tuition deposits I've already submitted as well as the financial aid I was awarded. Since I'm certain that Columbia will have less money to hand out for merit-based aid come next fall, I'm not going to risk losing that cushion. If it ends up being fully virtual next semester then so be it, I can deal with a few months of virtual classes. Very much hoping that I can have a traditional grad school experience for at least 2-3 of the 5 semesters. It would really suck to miss out on all that good good networking & friendmaking.

I'm sorry to hear you're frustrated, but honestly, giving the active pursuit of romance a rest might be a good idea. Not only is pandemic dating a terrible situation, but often these things happen when you least expect them--a truism I know, but it has validity. If you're focused on other things, then you won't be disappointed when romance fails to materialize (because you weren't expecting it to), and if you do meet someone it'll be a nice surprise. I know that on the other side of this, a guy who is clearly desperate for love or sex is a huge turn-off. The #1 piece of advice given to guys asking how they get a girlfriend is "Stop trying to get a girlfriend." I don't know how much this applies to women, since as far as I know most guys tend to like forwardness in ladies, but the same principle probably applies. Someone who's unconcerned with their sexual prospects & confident in themselves absent romantic validation is way more attractive than someone obviously craving companionship. Not intending to apply any of the above characterizations to you specifically, by the way. These are just general observations.

I've been admitted to a Masters of Public Administration program for Energy & Environment with a Management concentration. Does that count?

Seems like not much--I've been told repeatedly by both students and faculty that there are J-termers every year, and that the program is well set-up to accommodate both starting points. If anything matriculating in spring 2021 might give us a bigger & more diverse cohort, as it'll give some international folks the time to sort out their visas.

This is an odd survey. First of all, YouTube is not social media, it's a content platform; including it is like including Netflix in your list. Secondly, when you ask "Who do you go to when feeling distressed," there is no "Friends" option (and you misspelled the word "Guardian"). Thirdly, there's nowhere for a respondent to indicate that they don't use social media at all.

Frankly there's not much you can do about the GPA, but your GRE scores are solid and it sounds like you have good professional experience. Especially if you're planning on waiting 4-5 years before applying to grad programs, I wouldn't let your GPA bother you too much; that far out of undergrad it's probably the least important part of your application. Just focus on building valuable skills and making the connections necessary for great references and you should be fine.

That may be true of some extremely competitive programs, but if the admissions page doesn't list a minimum GRE score it's very unlikely that you'll be rejected immediately just for that. Of course, having a low score will never help your application, but if you have great recommendations/professional experience/publications etc. then you definitely stand a chance. Also, more and more schools are waiving the GRE requirement altogether. If your score is really bad, you might consider looking into those programs.

At this point I'm about 90% sure I'll be deferring. Everything I've read & heard from the admissions office suggests that they will be very lenient & flexible with one-semester deferrals. It certainly can't hurt to ask.

For anyone wondering, I got in touch with admissions and learned that the official deadline for COVID-19 deferrals is August 1st, but they'll consider deferral requests up until classes start. Nice to have some flexibility.

I was gung-ho about being on campus in the fall in whatever form I could get, but given the events of the past week I'm going to defer to Spring 2021 and continue working for the remainder of the year. I don't think NYC's going to be a very nice place to live over the next few months. As for next year's admits, I'm sorry to say that I don't think there are happy answers there. Graduate school is often a refuge for those seeking to ride out economic instability; combine that with the financial gut-punch of reduced matriculation this fall, next year's cycle will likely be very competitive and not very well-funded. Good luck with whatever you decide!

All the programs I applied to suggested coming in with at least some background in statistics and micro & macroeconomics. Duke's Masters of Environmental Management required one of each of those courses in order to matriculate; the brief environmental economics course I took in undergrad did not fulfill those requirements (though an intro-level "quantitative methods" class counted for the stats req). Columbia SIPA asked for a quantitative resume listing the relevant skills I've built in academic and professional work; that plus my 160 quant score on the GRE were enough for them, as they didn't ask me to take any additional courses before enrolling. If you're concerned about quant stuff, I recommend taking either an online class in these areas or just finding a good textbook and doing some self-study if that works for you. Many professional programs are geared towards folks who haven't been in school for a while or who are shifting tracks in their careers, so their quant progression is likely to be more gentle than i.e. an econ degree, but it can't hurt to get ahead early

Probably not, if only because a full year deferral would mean I can't bring my funding with me. And speaking of funding--I got an email last night saying they had updated my decision on the portal. Got an extra $10k/year of funding from my appeal, bringing total tuition coverage to ~50%. Still planning on deferring for a semester if fall goes virtual, but either way this is nice to have!

Just strongly hoping it gets lifted by September if on-campus classes have resumed this fall, and by January if they haven't. Grad school without international students sounds awful (especially in international development).