Marrow_Flynn

Figured I'd toss my hat in here to see if people had any thoughts... Applying to: GWU Elliott SPS, Georgetown SSP, Columbia SIPA and Fletcher MALD Undergrad Institution: University of Pittsburgh Undergrad GPA: 3.93/4.00 Undergrad Major: Political Science, B.A., with micro and macro econ + stats and STATA training classes. As in all math related college courses. GRE: weak spot, 157 V, 152 Q, and 4.5 writing Age: 29 Work Experience: 5 years as a U.S. special operator, including training as a Combat SCUBA Diver, HALO jumper, JTAC — things like that. Combat deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq. 3 years as a military affairs/national security journalist for publication in DC. 6 month internship with U.S. Senator from my home state and was my college delegate to the US Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference (included a thesis and round table debate) ... if that counts for anything. 1 year helping teach English at college to foreign students. LORs: Probably will have one from college professor and two from work supervisors. SOP: Spent time working with elite Afghan partner forces and have an essay crafted around that experience. GRE was mediocre. Probably because I've been out of school for so long, but I'm also a crap test taker. Would really prefer not retaking. I also want to stay in journalism, reporting on military/defense/natsec. I'm not sure if that's really what good grad schools in security/mpp fields want, though. Any thoughts on chances? I'm most interested in GWU and GT in order to stay in DC and keep working while attending evening classes.