darkroastgopher

Three things really stuck with me on admitted students day. 1. I lived in Minneapolis and my visit to Berkeley was the first time I smelled fresh, green plants in almost six months. 2. The professors. I'm sure every program talks about how committed their faculty are to their students, but it's authentic here. They were extremely welcoming and friendly at admitted students day and only continued to invest in us 100% once school began. 3. Most importantly, current students. On ASD, I had an hour-long, deeply honest conversation with two other students about their experience at GSPP. The dynamics here are complex. Berkeley is not immune to the problematic tendencies that come with being an elite institution and it/GSPP has a long way to go in several respects. What stood out to me is that most of the student body here is committed to keeping the school accountable for its culture and decisions. Since being here, this has ranged from pushing the school to drop a contract with a lecturer funded by a shady partisan org to organizing our grad student union in solidarity with the Santa Cruz strikes. With regards to my post-graduation plans, my partner's family is from the area and we're probably going to stay here for the foreseeable future. There's no shortage of policy jobs here, and we love the beauty of Northern California. However, many MANY of my cohort friends are planning on leaving for D.C./wherever they moved from before GSPP. Due to Berkeley's ranking/name and our scary-good career services team, no one's worried about getting connected after graduation.

Welcome! I haven't forgotten how nerve-wracking and terrible the decision-making process was, so hopefully I can pass along whatever good vibes I can. The thing that I will say about the ASE job hunt process is that it is wildly unstandardized. I happened to absolutely luck out during this process and land a GSI position sometime in June through the Haas School of Business, which is on a different planet academic calendar from everybody else and therefore hired way earlier. Some departments hire super early, like Haas, but many don't get their ASE position requests finalized until weeks before the semester starts and sometimes will even be hiring a month into the semester itself. This is because fluctuating class sizes mean that a class that originally sought 3 GSIs now need to add an extra 2 once enrollment has finalized. Because I secured my position relatively early, I can't really speak to the average experience trying to get a GSI position. But it is absolutely possible. The best practices to securing one is to a) proactively contact department heads and ask about available positions/when they will start looking, b) be able to communicate what your strengths are in a way that demonstrates your capability of teaching material to students, and c) have prior teaching experience (I didn't, though!). Most people who have ASE positions spend their first semesters as Readers, which basically means you're the one grading for a class. Readers offer the same tuition remission benefits, but the stipend is less. Again, I lucked the hell out of my GSI position. I was teaching part-time MBA students and it was only a 10-week course--though I still had the same pay as any other GSI! They both have their pros and cons. For my GSI position, some parts of my job were pretty routine (attending class, grading weekly homework assignments) but a lot of it had to do with exam scheduling. I would have weeks where I was only working 10 hours a week (you get paid for whatever your appointment is, though) and others closer to the midterm where I was being inundated with student emails/meetings or had to grade +140 exams in a 2.5 week timeframe. For my GSR position, the timing is much more predictable. I'm working directly with a professor and can do my research remotely, so it's nice to be able to set my own schedule and workplace. Those who are GSRs at research centers often have to physically be present for certain times of the week. So it varies wildly. I would say I enjoy both positions, but I think I prefer being a GSI. I've never taught before and didn't realize how rewarding it was to work with students and get to see the "mind-blown" moments that happened when you helped them finally grasp a concept. I'm really hoping I can snag the same or similar position for the upcoming fall semester. You're right that it is a big responsibility, and it is definitely a tradeoff. While my students were ironically all older than me for the class I taught, they were still Berkeley students at heart and a lot of my job entailed fielding five-paragraph emails requesting that their participation grade get raised from a 2 to a 3. My colleagues who taught undergrads experienced the same thing, and there's a lot of emotional labor that goes into working with extremely stressed-out, often cash-poor, overwhelmed students in very hard classes. However, Berkeley requires that all first-time GSIs take a pass/fail pedagogy class, and this really helped me navigate my role/resources/boundaries throughout the semester. ?

Hi everyone and congrats for those of you who've been admitted/waitlisted! As I mentioned earlier, I'm currently a first-year GSPP student. I'm circling back to this post because I'm in the middle of contacting new admits and wanted to extend an offer to this forum to answer any questions. Those of you who've already gotten their admission decisions will be hearing from my colleagues shortly, if you haven't already, but the proposition stands nevertheless. I mostly want to let everyone know about my experience with financing my GSPP education. Scholarships from GSPP are very limited. I only know a handful of people in my cohort who are receiving any kind of merit aid, and it's typically only through the first year. I am not one of these recipients. However, the real cost reductions are in the ASE (Academic Student Employee) positions such as TAships, research positions, tutoring, and grading. Not only does this knock off 40-60% of your overall costs, but you're awarded a stipend, as well. These positions are almost all covered by our AMAZING graduate student union and come with free health insurance, assuming you're working at a minimum of 10 hours/week, potentially even less given recent negotiations. I cannot overstate how lucky we are to have such committed union reps and this was a major factor for me in choosing my program. In regards to availability of these positions, I'm not aware of anyone who was looking for one and didn't get an offer. Graduate students at Berkeley are also entitled to receive in-state tuition after their first year, though I believe this only applies to U.S. citizens. I am an out-of-state student myself. All of this being said, I'm going to be coming out of GSPP completely debt-free, which would not have been remotely possible at any of the other programs I had been considering (especially Harris). I was a GSI (Graduate Student Instructor aka what Berkeley calls their TAs) last semester and am a GSR (graduate student researcher) this semester. I am planning on having similar appointments for the remainder of my time here. With the stipends + tuition remission that these positions come with, I am essentially paying nothing to attend this program and the remission/stipends will actually be greater than what I'm paying overall. My colleagues who started out as CA residents are in even more advantageous positions. The main source of your out-of-pocket costs will ultimately be cost of living. The key reason I am not taking out any loans at all is because of the savings I accrued during my gap years and that I'm fortunate enough to live with a partner to split expenses with. The majority of students here ARE taking out loans, and this is mostly to cover housing costs. Rent in East Bay is an absolute nightmare, yes, but zero tuition + cost of living in California was still a much better outlook for me than hella tuition/loans + moderate cost of living anywhere else. Let me know if you have any Qs! The Bay Area is under official quarantine so I can't leave my apartment and have all the time in the world. Feel free to DM and/or reply here. Take care, all!

Hi all! I'm a current Goldman MPP student as well as one of the volunteers to call new admits. We were told we'd be receiving the call lists "the week of March 7th" but haven't as of this time. If you weren't aware already, Berkeley's campus just shut down due to the COVID virus and all classes have been moved to 100% online instruction. I'm almost certain this is causing a bit of backlog with admissions notifications. That being said, I'd be surprised if the notifications weren't coming out this week. Fingers crossed that good news will be coming to you all soon! P.S. No worries if you don't get a call. When I was accepted (right away, not off the waitlist) I only got an email/change to my student portal. Same with other members of my cohort for no clear reason.

Congratulations, @brusselsprouts! With regards to fellowships/stipends, GSPP is notoriously stingy. I myself emailed admissions last week to request if there was any available funding (I didn't receive any and I'm out of state) and I didn't get a response. But I don't think it ever hurts to try and ask anyway! That being said, Berkeley was far and above still the most affordable option for me out of all the schools I applied to even though it was the only one that didn't offer me aid. Having talked to current students at visit day, it sounds like anyone who wants a "reader" position (grader, essentially) is able to get one first semester, and that comes with the tuition remission. Also, after the first year, the cost is cut by like half since you can qualify as in-state (provided your parents don't claim you as a dependent...). I even met a few people who had gotten a GSI position right off the bat, and that's what I'm aiming for for this upcoming semester. It just takes a little bit more networking. Of course, there's still the housing costs to consider, which are unavoidably brutal!

I'll be attending Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy for my MPP. Ended up choosing them over Harris last-minute when I attended Visit Day. Not only is the curriculum a much better fit for me personally (I'm interested in regional housing policy) but the tuition remission just for being a 10-hour/week grader made GSPP way more affordable than Harris, even after a 50% scholarship/cost of living differences. For anyone else attending GSPP: I'd love to start connecting with the cohort! Wondering if there's some sort of Facebook group in the works, as it seems like past years have each had one.

I heard that as well! I'm still wondering what the additional tuition benefit is that would be included on top of that, though.

Hi all! Congrats to all those admitted so far and best of luck for everyone in Round 2! I was wondering if anyone knows anything about how RA/TA-ships are compensated. From conversations with admissions representatives, these positions generally pay a ~3k stipend per quarter (or equivalent hourly wage) AND some sort of tuition remission is included. Does anyone know how much the rate is/whether it's for all positions/any specific details whatsoever? I'm trying to calculate expenses/loans/scholarships/etc but have no idea what to include if assuming a full time (15-20/week) RA gig both years.

Hi @Pj2401. I called Indiana this morning to double check that my application was, in fact, considered for merit aid. It turns out that even though I was previously told by admissions that my materials were received on time, I wasn't actually put on the aid consideration list because one of my rec letters arrived after 2/15. The person I was speaking to was Michele Lersch, the associate direction of admissions. During our conversation, she said that because it was just one rec letter, she would make sure my application would still be reviewed and that I will hear back some time in the next few weeks. I suggest giving them a call if your admission/aid status is still up in the air!

Just got the email! In, but no funding.

Hey! I really don't want to give you incorrect information or falsely get hopes up, but from a recent conversation with admissions staff, those emails are only *supposed* to go out once an applicant has been accepted. If this happened to you, I'd call or email admissions to get an update on your status!

I can't go through another work day like I did last Thursday and Friday or I might physically collapse from stress lmao

They definitely don't receive enough credit for how strong their program is, in my opinion. I've heard great things regarding the quality/rigor of their research and connections with domestic institutions. Their degree program is also super customizeable depending on personal interests, which is great! I applied back in mid-February, but my application wasn't actually "complete" until just last week, so I'm still waiting to hear back (though admissions assured me I was still being considered for funding, which is supposedly coming out this week?) They're one of four schools I applied to. I'd be happy attending, but only if funding makes it considerably more affordable than my other options as I agree with @usernamesmakemeanxious's assessment regarding diversity.

Not me.

Judging from the last few years, decisions were released at 5PM at the earliest and 7:30PM at the latest (pacific time) so I’m not giving up just yet!