Twesiime

Title. Considering applying to grad school next year for further studies and I am looking for some guidance on what programs to consider. My geographical focus is Africa, if that would be helpful. Thank you for any advice!

A follow-up note: I reached out to one of the MGA admissions staff regarding my relatively small financial aid package (around 30% tuition/ about $19k) to see if they have any further resources available. Basically the staff person said that the Keough school did not have any additional funds to give me, and told me to connect with the financial aid office regarding other opportunities. Additionally, the staff person also mentioned that I could reapply next year and see what happens. So, that is where it is at. I have another offer for an MGA type program that looks like it will have more available funding, so this other offer is looking to be the better option than ND's MGA currently. Though I would have loved to go to ND... Finally, the staff person also told me that over 600 people applied this year for the MGA program - so the competition was fierce. Best wishes to all of you!

Yeah, maybe they are financially struggling.. I do not know. Yes, the Peace Studies accepted students get full tuition funding. Apparently not all Sustainable Dev and MGA+Specialization get substantial funding meaning 75%+

No, I only received 30% tuition funding. No money was given to me for living stipend, housing, insurance, etc.

Hello all, I got my financial details from my recent formal admissions letter, so here is a short summary of my recent application. 1. What was the specialization you applied for? MGA+Specialization 2. Were you interviewed? If so, when? I was not contacted nor interviewed between my submission of my application on December 15th 2021 and the day I received notification of my acceptance on March 5th 2021 3. Did you submit GRE scores? No, I did not submit GRE scores due to the fact that GRE scores were waived for the cycle. 4.. Are you a Peace Corps alumnus? (so many Peace Corps people seem to be accepted/get funding) No, I am not a Peace Corps alumnus. 5. Have you applied to the MGA before? If so, how many times? Yes, I applied last year and I was rejected. 6. Basic details about your application, i.e. GPA, GRE scores (if applicable), if you have another postgraduate degree, years of international experience, etc.: I am 33 years old. I have a bachelors of arts degree and another master’s degree both with a GPA of 3.6. I have about 9 years of international development and research experience. I speak 2 languages and have basic ability in another language. I have a great deal of methodological experience in applied research as well as some policy experience. 7. If you were accepted, what financial aid package was offered, if any? I received my financial aid/formal admission letter a week later, March 11th, after receiving an email noting that I was accepted on March 5th. I received a 30% tuition scholarship or about $20k of the approximately $60k for tuition per year. ---- I have also added a short summary in the GradCafe Results Database – please add your data to the database as well! As of now, I am not sure if I am going to accept their offer. I would need a better financial aid package to pursue the program based on my current financial situation. Still thinking about the best path forward.

Thank you! But I think the main part of my application that helped me getting admittance was having as strong of a Statement of Purpose as possible. I worked with a consultant named the Red Head Academic/Accepted Consulting to have an experienced reader of my SOP. I can share more details about my profile once I see what happens with finances!

I did! I speak one of my native languages, have basic skills in my other native language, and I have conversational proficiency in another language with about 16 million speakers on another continent than the continent where I was born. I mentioned all three in my application. I was admitted to MGA+Specialization.

Could anyone else who was accepted in the past few days share what sort of financial aid package you received, if any? I might have missed something but Krea96 was the only person I remember who knew her financial aid status as of now. Is there anyone else who knows your financial aid status? Be well all!

Yes, I did. I was rejected last year. But I reapplied and was accepted. I think the main change was that I spent a great deal of time improving my Statement of Purpose. A stronger statement of purpose was the main difference between my applications. However, let me see if my overall application package was strong enough to get funding! That is the real question at hand currently, for me...

A request for any of you who were accepted+know your financial aid status, or rejected, or waitlisted - please submit your results on the Gradcafe Results page. The ND MGA does not have many results posted so the more information we submit the greater the amount of information that will be available to future applicants to the program. Some items to include if you submit results: 1. What was the specialization you applied for? 2. Were you interviewed? If so, when? 3. Did you submit GRE scores? 4.. Are you a Peace Corps alumnus? (so many Peace Corps people seem to be accepted/get funding) 5. Have you applied to the MGA before? If so, how many times? 6. Basic details about your application, i.e. GPA, GRE scores (if applicable), if you have another postgraduate degree, years of international experience, etc. 7. If you were accepted, what financial aid package was offered, if any? --- I will submit my results once I know about my financial aid package in the next few days. Thank you all!

Yeah, I received no word about if I had received a scholarships or stipend other than the message I received above. Not sure what this means - I will have find our more details in the letter. Could you share where you read that all accepted students get scholarships?

Sorry for not including it: MGA + Specialization. I have edited my original message above to include this information.

Thanks! I am eager to see if I receive a funding package... if I do not get a high enough level of funding, I doubt that I would be able to pursue this program. Oh, funding... sigh.

I just got an email saying that I had been recommended for admission for the MGA + Specialization program; and that "In the coming days, you will receive an official letter of acceptance from the University of Notre Dame Graduate School with detailed information about the cost of tuition, the cost of living, and your financial aid package. Contingent on remaining in good standing in the program, this financial aid package will continue through your second year." I was not asked to interview or provide any further information after submitting my application. The email noted that "The competition for admission was particularly rigorous this year" but this was not explained. Best wishes to all of you! *edits to include further necessary details

Does anyone have any further news about the University of Michigan PhD in Sociocultural? I saw in the results that they had sent out at least some interviews, and I am wondering if they have selected everyone they intend to interview at this point.

Another note for future applicants - I emailed the admissions coordinator to see if I could get any feedback on my rejected application. I received this reply: "Unfortunately, we are unable to provide feedback on specific applications. Every year we receive numerous qualified applications such that we are unable to offer admission to all of them. Just this year we received more than 400 applications for 35-40 seats. Due to the large number of applications received from highly qualified people, and given the limits of our financial resources and space in the program, we are forced to turn away many excellent students every year. " A fairly boilerplate response, but it shows that they do not provide feedback on specific applications as of now. Also, their acceptance rate seems to be something like 7-9% if they have approximately 425 applications for 35-40 seats. It is not clear what percentage of the accepted people get any funding, let alone full funding.

Hello all - sorry this took me some time to get here to share my results. I am sad to say that I received my rejection letter for the MGA + Specialization degree on Saturday, 21st March. I was hopeful to get into this program, but I guess it was just not my year. Below are my basic stats for anyone considering applying: * Undergrad at a high ranked US liberal arts college - majors Anthropology, Theology, Philosophy, GPA 3.5 * Masters degree from US state university in Monitoring and Evaluation emphasizing international development M&E, GPA 3.5 * GRE: 168 V, 150 Q, 5 AWA * I work in M&E consulting and program management in the education sector; I have worked abut 8 years internationally * Speak three languages Generally, I think that I had good "fit" with the program, so I am a bit confused as to why I was not accepted. But here is my speculation about their decision: 1. I think my SoP was not as strong as it should have been. 2. Maybe they are not interested in accepting people who already have a master's degree? 3. Maybe my GPA and GRE Quant scores were not up to the level they wanted? 4. Maybe the specialization I was interested in was not fitting for the current course offering/faculty? 5. Maybe they had a very large applicant pool for the MGA+ concentration and I just did not make the cut? Anyway, the above are only my guesswork. I am considering applying again, and I plan to email the admissions staff today/soon to ask if they have any advice for me on how to improve my application for the next cycle. I will share any advice I get here. For future applicants - based on what I can tell from the few data points we have over the past three years, it looks like ND typically releases acceptances early March (1st to 10th or so), and then rejections after in mid-March (10th - 22nd or so). We do not have much information about waitlisting at the moment, but someone in the '19/'20 cycle said they were waitlisted on 18th March. So, congrats to all who were admitted! And to all of you, thank you all for sharing this journey - blessings and prayers for your next steps.

Nothing here as well. When I emailed the Admissions Counselor on March 5th, she mentioned that we should hear something in the next "two or three weeks" - three weeks after March 5th is March 26th, so if we have heard nothing by that point I will email her again to inquire about where they are in the process. I would also guess that the coronavirus pandemic is also a, possibly major, factor for the delay. But let us see what happens in the next few days/this week.

Just to let all readers of this thread know - there is a new Acceptance for the ND MGA noted in the submitted results as of March 9th/10th. The accepted candidate wrote this: "Offered the Paul D. Coverdell Fellowship, full-tuition and living stipend for two years! I was surprised that I even got into Notre Dame let alone got the scholarship so I'm probably going to end up accepting. 3.29 undergraduate GPA, okay GRE scores (152 Quant, 160 Verbal, 4.5 Writing), internship experience, 2 years of Peace Corps in the Philippines. 7a/0r/0w/0" This person did not share their concentration, but this shows that people are still be accepted as of yesterday/today. Also, this shows the basic profile of a fully funded, accepted candidate. I assume that this candidate's Peace Corps experience was a strong factor in their acceptance to the program, and likely the key factor in their funding as the Paul D. Coverdell Fellowship is noted as a fellowship for returned Peace Corp people. I am still waiting to hear anything... Continued best wishes to all of you!

If peonyinluv applied to GA+Specialization and was just accepted via email last week, and we know that they generally review by specialization, then I am feeling much more nervous about my chances.... Let me hope that I get a similar email on Monday or Tuesday this week. Per the results forum, the very few entries for Notre Dame Global Affair seem to show that acceptances were early March (6th) and then rejections and waitlists were mid-March (15th and 18th). Let us see if the same pattern holds. Peonyinluv's acceptance seem to fit with this. For all of us contributing to this thread, I would request that please submit your results and/or share your stats here after final decisions are made, so that future applicants can have a better idea of what sort of applicant profiles are getting acceptances & funding and when. There is a lack of information about the MGA program here on gradcafe because it is a rather new program and seems to not be as sought after as the Ivies, Public Ivies, etc. Best wishes to all of you!

I applied to the Global Affairs+ Specialization Concentration and I have yet to hear anything. Today I emailed the Admissions Coordinator and she told me this: "We are in the final states of decisions. We expect to communicate decisions in the next two or three weeks." I assume they are releasing decisions in rolling manner if people are getting accepted? Or maybe Global Affairs+Specialization concentration decisions are coming later, but Sustainable Development and Peace Studies concentration are available now? I was just rejected from Yale's MGA degree, so I am hoping that ND's MGA could work out. Hope the Keough School lets us know decisions before too long...