madamsirleaf

Also forgot to mention I spent my first 10 years in China, so I speak Mandarin (but not Chinese).

Hi. My first time using this thing, so hopefully someone can help me out. Applying to: Programs focused on international development: Fordham IPED, GWU Elliott School, Institute of Int'l & Dev Studies of Geneva, American University MS Development Management, Brandeis Heller School Undergrad: BA in Political Science received from top (#1) Public University (and on the top 20 list of all national universities) GPA: 3.55 from this university. (But I transferred from another low-level school with a 3.9 GPA) Grad school: Took graduate coursework on the side (receiving 33 of 36 units required for a degree) at mediocre program- 3.94 GPA Quant: Not much other than statistics and biostatistics-type classes. GRE: V- 162, Q- 155 (worried about this- should I be?) Writing- 4.5 Language: Proficient in French Work Experience: 2 years in irrelevant government position; 3 years in US Peace Corps service; minor projects in other countries. A lot of volunteer experience in do-good kinds of programs (social services, community health projects, etc) LOR: I hope they will be good- 2 academic and 1 work supervisor. Really don't know how good they will be, but at least 2 of them should be pretty good/great. SOP: Concerned- I mostly talked about how my past experience leads me here. Maybe too fluffy with "dreams of doing good" blabla. It was all genuine but now looking at them make me feel like maybe I overdid it. Thoughts: Not sure if my GRE scores are good enough. Especially Quant. I'm really hoping for fellowships/scholarships because I can't afford these programs on my own. Some programs don't require GRE- should I just not include them then? Or will they help? Any input? Thanks in advance