HoboPresident

Definitely felt this. Even though I've been looking a lot at what the current undergraduate application process is like and understand that it's way worse for high school students, I was exasperated by how annoyingly long Columbia's application process was. I guess when you don't have to worry about releasing your acceptance rates, it doesn't matter how many people get turned away from applying. By the time I got to the video response I was basically over the whole thing. Couple this with the fact that I thought I had no chance at SIPA and I was almost considering not applying at all. Glad I did in the end, hah.

Program Applied To: MPA, MPAff, MALD, Schools Applied To: Columbia SIPA, Tufts Fletcher, Texas LBJ DC Program, UW Evans, Cornell CIPA are the ones that I am currently considering Schools Admitted To: All schools I applied to accepted me. LBJ DC (100% funding); Evans (60% funding); Cornell CIPA (30% funding); Fletcher (20% funding); Columbia SIPA (0% funding as of now) Undergraduate institution: The Ohio State University Undergraduate GPA: 3.6 cumulative; 3.8/3.9 majors Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): About as close to 4.0 as you can get Undergraduate Major: Political Science and Linguistics dual major GRE Quantitative Score: 156 (58th percentile) GRE Verbal Score: 164 (94th percentile) GRE AW Score: 5.5 (98th percentile) Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 3 Years of Work Experience: 3 post-undergrad Describe Relevant Work Experience: Municipal and county government work; primarily in rural settings in Utah, though previously in urban settings in NJ Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Pretty strong IMO. Had a lot to draw on from domestic and international experience. Talked about wanting to be a career public servant and eventually an elected official. Really emphasized that I wanted to do international policy work focusing on certain issues. Cited individual professors that I knew about in various programs. Read their publications prior to writing and read several of their books as well. Talked about my time abroad in Denmark working for a retired Danish official. Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): One from an OSU professor in regional IR, one from a professor from when I was abroad, one from my current boss (mayor of a municipality). All claimed that they were going to write very strong letters. I was skeptical, but obviously it worked out. Other: I'm still in the middle of figuring out if it's worth going to Columbia and paying premium or if going to LBJ for free would make up for it, so it still isn't over for me, but oh well. In retrospect, I think my unique profile of working in various places around the country helped. I originally worked for the Governor's Office in NJ, but then moved and worked in rural municipal ad county policy in Utah. That's obviously not a very common background directly after undergrad for some of the people I'm competing with. I think the single most important aspect of my SOP was the inclusion of specific professors from each program. Some of the programs had names that I knew and was very familiar with previously (SIPA's Prof. Sestanovich, LBJ's Prof. Ward), but there were others that I had to read up on. I would look up papers that were relevant to my interests and briefly discuss/mention them in my statement. I think it really helps show that you've done your research and you care about the program. Lastly, I really, really regret not applying to more top tier programs. I kick myself every night for not applying to WWS simply because of the funding opportunities. I also wish I had started earlier so I could have been more competitive for funding. Don't underestimate yourself like I did, kids. I genuinely thought that applying to Columbia was a pipe dream and I actually applied to Fletcher in like late February on a whim.

Coming from: Rural Utah outside Park City. Born and raised East Coast, however. Currently working municipal and county government. Have ~3 years experience in state and municipal level government work. Academic focus was on foreign policy, which is what I want my grad school focus to be as well. My undergrad was a dual degree in Poli Sci and Ling from Ohio State. Deciding Between: - UT LBJ School DC Program MPAff (fully funded with 10k stipend) - UW Evans School MPA (60% funding and possibility of going to HKUST for MPP in year two) - Tufts Fletcher School MALD (~25% funding) - Columbia SIPA MPA (0 funding; could theoretically cut costs if I do my second year in London or Tokyo for a second degree) - Brown Watson MPA (funding TBA but I’m expecting a good deal) - Cornell CIPA MPA (haven’t been accepted yet but I’d assume I will be) Other factors: Money is important-ish for me. I have some contacts in DC that really emphasize getting a top school degree. I also think that I may want to go into a PhD program after my masters. Ideally it would be at a top level institution for foreign policy if possible. For the time being I want to work in DC dealing with IR to an extent. How I’m Leaning: Man it’s kind of a tough decision given how much funding Im getting from UT. But I worry that their program just isnt as IR focused as SIPA and Fletcher, both of which are some of the top programs in the world. I’ve had a long conversation with a professor at UT who was very interested in my municipal work and was quite positive about my questions concerning PhD options after the degree, but again I think the lack of international focus might hurt me. Name recognition is also good but not great. I worry that having two state schools from the Midwest and the South might raise an eyebrow or two. UW is too regional from what I’ve seen, and despite it being a fantastic school, I think I’d rather stay on the East Coast. Money is nice but I think between UW and UT, Texas wins. Between Fletcher and SIPA, I think Fletcher wins in every way except the fact that it doesn’t have that Ivy Name. It also is a slightly lesser location job-wise, but I’d much rather live in Boston than NYC. I’m originally from NJ so I’ve experienced the city scene enough to not really care. So as of now I think I’m between Texas and Columbia/Tufts. I plan on appealing funding at both places once I get my funding offers from Brown and/or Cornell. I’d like to be able to cut down my payments to sub-6 figures. Debt is a worry, but I do have a decent savings so it wouldn’t be disasterous. Thoughts? Someone convince me that Fletcher is just better than SIPA please lol. That Ivy name just stands out - especially if I ever end up going private and/or have a career change at some point. But $150k+ in total payment seems obscene. Also, do any of you think I can leverage that UT offer to get extra funding from Tufts or SIPA. Finally, if I get into Cornell with a full ride, how competitive would that offer be?

Also in. Glad the deadline is May 1st. Hopefully the funding info comes out before April.

Applied really late to Fletcher. In like mid February. Just got an admittance with funding listed as a separate pdf. Only 20k but that’s still better than nothing.

Mostly just the importance of prestige weight. I’ve heard from people in the DC area that it’s far more important than is given credit. Not saying I won’t go, for what it’s worth. Just that I have to consider other options and it’s hard when I have a free ride staring me in the face.

What have you heard that’s so overtly bad about SIPA?

Got into the DC MPAff program with a full ride and extra stipend. It's going to be incredibly hard to turn something like that down, but I still gotta hear out other school at this point. For what it's worth - if anyone is curious about the March 15th - April 15th date confusion, I talked to the fellowship office and they confirmed to me that the April 15th deadline is true no matter what.