DarlingHans34

I am currently just a few months removed from undergrad (graduated May 2019) and I have a B.S. in Professional Writing with Honors Distinction (basically, that just means I did a bunch of extra research and wrote a mini thesis). I work in state government as an executive assistant to a state official who is a former representative and has done great work at the public service level his whole life. I quite like the government life, but I know I don't ever want to be a politician. Why am I here? I want a graduate degree. I was the first in my family to get a college degree, and now I want to be the first to get a Master's degree or PhD as well. I love learning and school, and I was a top student in my program, though I went to a not-well-known state school. My major GPA was 3.95, my cumulative just 3.67 thanks to my economics minor which was a major struggle. ? I would like to go to the best possible school I can get into (like UChicago, UPenn, WUSTL, Northwestern, Emory, Harvard, anything that is considered excellent). Aside from academics, I got lots of good work and volunteer experience in college. But, I have no idea what I should study. I was considering MPA or MBA, but those involve too much math and statistics. Political science or public policy could be options, unless those involve lots of statistics as well... Obviously, I could go for something related to English. Right now, that is where I'm leaning towards. Though I studied tech writing, I want to someday be published in The New York Times and I need a program that is going to get me there. Sometimes I wish I had studied journalism or communications, but I can't change that now. I love the written language and I have always been a strong writer, but I want to be an amazing writer. I believe I can get there, but I need to work on my skills and network with the best of the best. Plus, I need to study a completely different writing style since tech writing is very structured and not as open to creativity. Any thoughts on what program might be a good fit for me?