MaxwellAlum

I've just started the program and unfortunately can't give much insight, since I'm only about a week in. Don't know anything about admissions statistics, though I will say most students in my class have a few years of relevant professional experience and are generally pretty amazing people (there are a couple I've met so far straight out of undergrad). So far I'm really happy I came here. What I'd recommend is both calling the admissions office and asking them for info as well as e-mailing previous years' students. Their contact details can be found on the Maxwell School website, under "MPA Community"

You could try phoning up the schools and asking, or just e-mailing them. I got a 4.5 on the analytical writing section; I asked someone at a top 5 IR school whether it would be a problem and they said no, since there was plenty of other evidence that I'm a good writer (majored in literature, won award for my thesis). Given that you're an international student and you did fine on the TOEFL there's a chance they won't care about the verbal GRE score (I really doubt they will care at all about the analytical writing score), but it's a good idea to ask them.