KyleR

They are not just dual degree candidates. Many of HKS older career reports segregate between the results of dual degree and strictly-MPP grads. A large number of the latter place at MBB each year. Check them out for yourself if you don't believe me. Moreover, you can go on the McKinsey website right now and find scheduled networking events at HKS.
Not to pile on, but I strongly disagree with the sentiment you expressed about consulting and policy degrees. Aiming first and foremost for a public sector career is fine (I sure am), but it is borderline irresponsible to count on one while ruling out private sector options. Particularly since consulting and other private sector jobs often overlap directly with the world of public policy, and utilize many of the same skills. Harvard knows this, which is why they offer it is as one of MANY career options for MPPs.
Have you ever worked in a full-time government role? I have. And I can tell you that there are a long list of unforeseeable variables that can make that job you've always wanted disappear. The work just isn't redundant in the way that private sector jobs are, because in many cases, a single agency has a complete monopoly. Went to grad school to become a diplomat? Oops, we're not hiring for the next 2 years. Want to get a security clearance? Hmm, we're not so sure about that distant uncle of yours in China. Want to serve as a career military officer? Sorry about your unexpected health problems, and good luck with the VA (my personal sob story). Same more or less goes for non-profits and multilaterals, which are inherently reliant on capricious external players for their funding. Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with considering ALL of your options.
 

They are not just dual degree candidates. Many of HKS older career reports segregate between the results of dual degree and strictly-MPP grads. A large number of the latter place at MBB each year. Check them out for yourself if you don't believe me. Moreover, you can go on the McKinsey website right now and find scheduled networking events at HKS.
Not to pile on, but I strongly disagree with the sentiment you expressed about consulting and policy degrees. Aiming first and foremost for a public sector career is fine (I sure am), but it is borderline irresponsible to count on one while ruling out private sector options. Particularly since consulting and other private sector jobs often overlap directly with the world of public policy, and utilize many of the same skills. Harvard knows this, which is why they offer it is as one of MANY career options for MPPs.
Have you ever worked in a full-time government role? I have. And I can tell you that there are a long list of unforeseeable variables that can make that job you've always wanted disappear. The work just isn't redundant in the way that private sector jobs are, because in many cases, a single agency has a complete monopoly. Went to grad school to become a diplomat? Oops, we're not hiring for the next 2 years. Want to get a security clearance? Hmm, we're not so sure about that distant uncle of yours in China. Want to serve as a career military officer? Sorry about your unexpected health problems, and good luck with the VA (my personal sob story). Same more or less goes for non-profits and multilaterals, which are inherently reliant on capricious external players for their funding. Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with considering ALL of your options.
 

They are not just dual degree candidates. Many of HKS older career reports segregate between the results of dual degree and strictly-MPP grads. A large number of the latter place at MBB each year. Check them out for yourself if you don't believe me. Moreover, you can go on the McKinsey website right now and find scheduled networking events at HKS.
Not to pile on, but I strongly disagree with the sentiment you expressed about consulting and policy degrees. Aiming first and foremost for a public sector career is fine (I sure am), but it is borderline irresponsible to count on one while ruling out private sector options. Particularly since consulting and other private sector jobs often overlap directly with the world of public policy, and utilize many of the same skills. Harvard knows this, which is why they offer it is as one of MANY career options for MPPs.
Have you ever worked in a full-time government role? I have. And I can tell you that there are a long list of unforeseeable variables that can make that job you've always wanted disappear. The work just isn't redundant in the way that private sector jobs are, because in many cases, a single agency has a complete monopoly. Went to grad school to become a diplomat? Oops, we're not hiring for the next 2 years. Want to get a security clearance? Hmm, we're not so sure about that distant uncle of yours in China. Want to serve as a career military officer? Sorry about your unexpected health problems, and good luck with the VA (my personal sob story). Same more or less goes for non-profits and multilaterals, which are inherently reliant on capricious external players for their funding. Bottom line, there is nothing wrong with considering ALL of your options.
 

I've got to say, all this speculation is really unhelpful. Computer errors happen, they don't always mean something. Blog posts sometimes go unwritten when staffs are busy. The blog said it would likely be later this week, but it could just as easily be pushed back again. Just relax and go on with your lives.

I've got to say, all this speculation is really unhelpful. Computer errors happen, they don't always mean something. Blog posts sometimes go unwritten when staffs are busy. The blog said it would likely be later this week, but it could just as easily be pushed back again. Just relax and go on with your lives.

I've got to say, all this speculation is really unhelpful. Computer errors happen, they don't always mean something. Blog posts sometimes go unwritten when staffs are busy. The blog said it would likely be later this week, but it could just as easily be pushed back again. Just relax and go on with your lives.

I've got to say, all this speculation is really unhelpful. Computer errors happen, they don't always mean something. Blog posts sometimes go unwritten when staffs are busy. The blog said it would likely be later this week, but it could just as easily be pushed back again. Just relax and go on with your lives.

I've got to say, all this speculation is really unhelpful. Computer errors happen, they don't always mean something. Blog posts sometimes go unwritten when staffs are busy. The blog said it would likely be later this week, but it could just as easily be pushed back again. Just relax and go on with your lives.

I've got to say, all this speculation is really unhelpful. Computer errors happen, they don't always mean something. Blog posts sometimes go unwritten when staffs are busy. The blog said it would likely be later this week, but it could just as easily be pushed back again. Just relax and go on with your lives.

Hi everyone. In the absence of an SSP student or recent grad give perspective, I'll chime in. Of course, their perspective would be much much much better.
I can speak to SSP because I worked with SSP students in Georgetown, been in programming with them, and I know people from my last job who went to SSP. 
The awesome things about SSP:
1. Brand weight: Without a doubt SSP program carries a lot of brand weight between Georgetown and SSP specifically.
2. Caliber of People (for the most part): Most people I know who has done SSP has done either been A: a totally great human being that has done awesome things (scoring high profile Fellowships like Boren, high quality jobs, and and etc.). I have pretty much been impressed by every SSP person I have ever met. I will say that the average MSFS person is more impressive, but I still hold the SSP people in high standing. 
3. Connections: Bottom line, SSP has a lot of connections (like defense consulting firms or research organizations) that offer its students an opportunity to grow their network + build their resume while in grad school.
4. Flexibility to Do DC Internships: SSP is structured to basically make your life super super easy to do internships semester side. So you have no excuse to not get the opportunity to do it.
The interesting things to know about SSP:
1. Its interesting relationship with School of Foreign Service (SFS): I think it is interesting that everyone calls it the best program in the world etc. etc. It is true that the best IR grad program is the Master of Science of Foreign Service (MSFS) in the School of Foreign Service (SFS). Yes SSP is part SFS, but it is not the MSFS. Among the other major grad programs housed by SFS are SSP, Global Human Development (GHS), and all the area studies programs. That being said, nearly all of the classes, lectures, guest visits, and career opportunities are open to all who occupy SFS. HOWEVER - MSFS general has the best dedicated resources and budget. SSP is in relatively good position, but not nearly the prestige and full resources of MSFS. Also, SSP is seen as the little brother of MSFS, and within the SFS cultural environment. 

2. Unique social dynamic of SSP: What I always thought was crazy was that most of my SSP friends never knew each other (some never heard of each other) even though they were in the graduation year. This is because, SSP has lots of flexibility of when and how you take your classes. As consequence, there is not strong community bonds that take place as everyone moves to the best of their own class schedule / research / internship. 
Ultimately, what I'm trying to highlight is that what makes or breaks your SSP experience is the internships you have and the community you grow, which is rather easy in DC + how they schedule the programming. However, from an academic perspective, its good, but nothing to special. 

I applied regular decision. Got my offer (30k / year) with the admissions letter just now. Sorry if that is bad news guys, they did mention assistantship options however. Keep your heads up.

Yeah, Ms. Saam from the HNC admissions office implied as much... but then in that case I'd be concerned that maybe 1 year isn't enough time to do a lot of networking in DC on top of a full time MA program, vs. having two years to find a job with the Georgetown one and the second year being part-time. Also, judging from past posts on this forum, it sounds like the SAIS career office is a little more hands-off than the Walsh one, so students have to hustle more on their own for internships. (It's probably easier at SAIS given proximity to think tank row, but still.)
In any case, I just sent my financial aid reconsideration form, so we'll see what happens.

I applied regular decision. Got my offer (30k / year) with the admissions letter just now. Sorry if that is bad news guys, they did mention assistantship options however. Keep your heads up.

My Financial aid is out for DC!
46K a year...I'm losing it. GW offered me nothing, and I spent last weekend thinking I had dramatically overestimated my chances...

My Financial aid is out for DC!
46K a year...I'm losing it. GW offered me nothing, and I spent last weekend thinking I had dramatically overestimated my chances...

Very impressive. You more than deserve that funding!

My Financial aid is out for DC!
46K a year...I'm losing it. GW offered me nothing, and I spent last weekend thinking I had dramatically overestimated my chances...

I just got my scholarship e-mail too. Got 10k for HNC, 20k for the first year in DC, and 10k for the final semester in DC. Not bad at all... that's really exciting, I might be able to not have crushing debt for the rest of my career haha. Need to make some calculations but looks like I'll probably end up going to SAIS instead of Georgetown probably unless they give me a fellowship over there.

If you go to the "accept your offer" form on the admission letter, you have the option to request a switch to your concentration. The way it is laid out makes it seem likely they will grant your request. They say "I would like to update my concentration to:", not "I would like to request a change to..."
Also, the deadlines to accept are April 20 for Scholarship offers and May 1 for non scholarship.

@KyleR: I called and they asked me to e-mail the financial aid department instead of speaking on the phone. I sent them a bunch of questions annnd... their only response was "The Priscilla Mason Fellowship is not awarded to those going to the HNC. I would recommend connecting with the HNC office in DC to answer the specific questions  you have." heh
Their e-mail address is saisfinaidinfo@jhu.edu if you want to reach out yourself. I think I'm just not going to apply for it. If you only do 2 years or less of federal government work, the PM Fellowship only pays 13% of tuition... so I'd rather take my chances and cross my fingers that I get more than 13% scholarship tuition, lol.
HNC guarantees partial scholarships for all applicants, so hoping that's the right call, at least in my case. Best of luck with getting it if you decide to apply!

Hmm, the Priscilla Mason Fellowship (covers 50% of tuition) deadline is this Friday, but it says it "will replace any financial aid currently being received from SAIS as well as any loans currently being used for tuition."
I'm going to call them tomorrow and ask if it would invalidate full or partial tuition scholarships if those would have been awarded but for the PM Fellowship application. The way they worded that is a little scary.

To all future applicants, I hope this is as helpful to you as previous GradCafe posts were to me!
Program Applied To: (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.)  MPP, MPA, MEM (Masters of Environmental Management)
Schools Applied To:  HKS, SIPA (MPA-ESP), Yale FES,  UC Berkeley GSPP, UW Evans, Georgetown McCourt
Schools Admitted To:   All – HKS (full funding), SIPA ($30k), Yale FES ($12k/yr), UC Berkeley GSPP (no funding), UW Evans (~$15k stipend + in-state tuition rate), Georgetown McCourt ($20k/year)
Schools Rejected From:   None (I’m still in shock but really happy!)
Still Waiting:  N/A
Undergraduate institution:  Top 30 University
Undergraduate GPA:  3.54
Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable):  3.76  (worth calculating if you have not—schools like to see an upward trend. I had some rough intro science classes freshman year)
Undergraduate Major:  Biology, Environmental Studies, & Political Science
GRE Quantitative Score:  161
GRE Verbal Score:  166
GRE AW Score:  5.5
Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable):  4 (3 at the time of applying)
Years of Work Experience:  4 (3 at the time of applying) – this is full time, not including a bunch of part-time relevant internships I held in college
Describe Relevant Work Experience:  analyst in the environmental policy and economics branch of a consulting firm working with federal/state/local government agencies

Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc):  Strong—I have had one policy area of interest since before high school (environmental policy), and almost everything I did throughout college and after was related to the environment. In my SOPs, I told the story of why I needed this degree to take the next step in my environmental career. I stated my goals very explicitly (within the first paragraph, I made sure to include a sentence saying “My goal is to X”). I then gave a brief explanation of what I’ve been up to at work, and then specific examples of career goals (the exact agencies I want to work for the roles I want to hold and WHY). Then I wrapped up each essay with a paragraph or two about the specific offerings at each school (professors, names of courses, final projects, etc.) and named names so that they knew I’d done my research.
I realize this is a fairly unique situation and most people have changing interests or less defined interests—my advice is to still just pick one specific policy area to focus your SOP on, even if you know that you’ll explore other interests in the program. Being as specific as possible will help you tell a convincing story, and will show that you have thought about how this degree is part of your overall story. For example, within the broad category of environmental policy, I focused my essays on how I want to work within state government on emissions trading programs that meet the goals of the Paris Accord.
I think the toughest but most important part of the SOP process is picking this specific problem that you want to solve. Also, I kept a notepad on my phone of ideas for my SOP that popped into my head on the bus, in the grocery store, wherever. That way I had them all in one place when I sat down to write! ?
I highly HIGHLY recommend reading the book Graduate Admissions Essays by Donald Asher. I made sure to already have a draft before I read any of the sample essays so that I wasn’t intimidated by or influenced by other people’s work. That said, the intro sections gave me the extra push I needed to get my essay into shape! I found the book super comforting when I felt stuck or lost.
Also, whether or not you are applying to HKS, you should check out the HKS Admissions Blog. I found a ton of helpful tips there for not only my HKS application, but all of my applications. Go through the posts where they discuss old applications—I read through those after I wrote my first draft and made sure I hit all the “good” points that HKS discussed, and reworked anything they’d said they don’t like to see in an essay.

Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc):  Strong, I had my primary manager at work who has been close with me for ~4 years, my former boss from an undergraduate position who I kept in touch with (also relevant to MPP work), and a professor. After I got accepted, two of my letter writers voluntarily shared their letters with me, and I was so honored at what they had written and the time and effort they spent.
I decided who to ask around the end of June. I invited them each out for coffee once in July to let them know more about my plans. I did not ask at that time, because I wanted to gauge their level of interest and support of my grad school aspirations. I asked them around early-August to give them more than enough time to plan. Once they said yes, I gave them a packet of information that they could use to write the letter. The packet contained a basic cover letter (essentially an early draft of my SOP) explaining why I wanted to go to grad school; my resume/CV; samples of work (from the professor’s class), and a sheet listing my specific goals for each school as well as what each school is looking for. For example, I want to go to HKS because I am looking to work with Professor X and take Course Y and I want to do this specific extracurricular. All of them really loved the sheet because it allowed them to easily personalize each letter for each school.

Other:
Even though I took stats and econ in college, I decided to brush up on both subjects by taking online classes at my local community college. Because these classes counted for credit/had transcripts, I think it helped show the schools that I was still serious about classroom learning and willing to dive into quant work on day one. It was an expense though—if you can’t afford to take a credit class, maybe take a free online course and mention it in your resume.
Some schools (SIPA, HKS) asked for a quantitative resume and I spent a lot of time making sure that I hit most of the skillsets they are looking for. I gave specific examples of projects I’ve done at work.
I got in touch with professors at my top choice schools and asked them about certain classes, etc., and where possible I sat in on their classes. I also tried to visit as many campuses as I could before applying. This was tricky for those that were super far away, but by planning ahead I was able to visit my top choices. I found it helpful to talk with admissions officers and current students, and referenced what I learned from those conversations in my SOP.
You can do this!!! ? It takes a lot of planning and time management, and everyone has a slightly different approach. Do what feels right to you, and don’t compare yourself to anyone else if you can help it. Seriously consider if you would be happy at each school. Consider things like curriculum and job placement and professors’ interests, but also consider city/location and the vibe of the student body and proximity to family/friends if that is important to you. It’s important that you can see yourself being happy everywhere you apply!
Good luck!