radastra

Accepted to the MIA with basically 100% of tuition covered. Dream program! Cannot believe this.

I was accepted on Saturday morning (MSFS). I live in Asia, so that's Friday afternoon in the US. I received a scholarship worth 65% of tuition. Scholarship info was kind of hard to find, though. The email said to check my portal to see my admissions decision. At the bottom of the acceptance letter it said the following: The following letters are available for this account: Decision letter March 10, 2023 (Displayed) Merit-based financial aid letter March 10, 2023 I clicked the financial aid letter and that's where my scholarship info was reported. Hope this is helpful!

For those who applied early action, have you heard anything about when admitted student day will take place?

The result does say "Public Administration" rather than "Public Affairs," though. Not sure if that means anything.

Looks like Gradcafe results page just updated with an acceptance from SPIA

Apologies--posting again because I didn't include the quote somehow. Thank you very much for your encouraging post. I appreciate you taking the time to respond! I feel relatively confident about the GRE. I've been out of school for a while, but I've had to keep up consistent study habits and take standardized proficiency tests as an adult for my second language. I feel good about essays too and plan to get input from colleagues/friends who work in academia/editing/PR. Fingers crossed! From my research so far it seems SIPA, SAIS and Georgetown's MASIA program offer a lot of educational opportunities re: Asia as a whole and Japan specifically. I've heard from past students that Fletcher, for example, doesn't have strong Japan expertise. Do you happen to know if there are any other schools that have strength in their area concentrations (particularly Japan)? I've heard great things from an alum of my alma mater who is now in the MASIA program (which is to be expected) and I'm checking in with another alum who just graduated from the Kennedy School to get some more insight, but if you have time I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you again!

Thank you very much for your encouraging post. I appreciate you taking the time to respond! I feel relatively confident about the GRE. I've been out of school for a while, but I've had to keep up consistent study habits and take standardized proficiency tests as an adult for my second language. I feel good about essays too and plan to get input from colleagues/friends who work in academia/editing/PR. Fingers crossed! From my research so far it seems SIPA, SAIS and Georgetown's MASIA program offer a lot of educational opportunities re: Asia as a whole and Japan specifically. I've heard from past students that Fletcher, for example, doesn't have strong Japan expertise. Do you happen to know if there are any other schools that have strength in their area concentrations (particularly Japan)? I've heard great things from an alum of my alma mater who is now in the MASIA program (which is to be expected) and I'm checking in with another alum who just graduated from the Kennedy School to get some more insight, but if you have time I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you again!

Hi everyone. I am a US citizen, but I've been living in Japan for the past 5+ years and hope to apply for fall 2023. I'm not 100% certain what I would like to do after graduate school or which program would be best for me so I would really appreciate some input. I've done a lot of research, but I'm from a fairly working class background (was a Pell Grant student, one parent from an immigrant background but went to college, other is from Appalachian background and went to college while I was in high school) so I'm the first person in my immediate family to go to graduate school and I feel a bit unsure. I speak Japanese, work in private PR/corporate comms consulting now (working with major NPOs, government orgs, businesses, banks, etc., details below), but used to work in the public sector and have a fair bit of volunteer experience. In general I'm interested in Japan's relationship to the US, its role in humanitarian work in Asia, gender/racial/economic equality and indigenous issues in Japan and Asia, and post-colonialism. In an ideal world I'd like to end up working for a Japan-related think tank or a UN organization in Japan or doing some kind of government consulting. Basically any type of job where I can advise on policy issues and bridge the gap between the US/western world and Japan. I don't have a lot of professional experience with quantitative analysis so I would like to improve that, but I don't really want that to be my focus. Considering applying to: Princeton SPIA MPA, Harvard Kennedy MPP, SIPA MIA (particularly interested in joint program with University of Tokyo), SAIS MAIR, Georgetown MASIA, Berkeley Goldman MPP, University of Tokyo GraSPP MPP, possibly Heinz (they offer an automatic scholarship for JET Program participants like myself) Undergrad Institution: Big midwestern state school, ranked 100-125 but R1 research institution Undergrad Major: East Asian Languages and Cultures (Japanese), history minor, pre-law Years out of undergrad: Will be 9 years at time of application GPA: 3.85/4.0 (with distinction, honors program graduate, phi kappa phi) GRE: V: 165, Q: 153 (Took over 5 years ago on a whim, so I have to take it again and will be making a strong effort to raise quant score, can definitely get verbal score up) Quant Background: Calculus I (A), quantitative methods for public administration (A) microeconomics (A), macroeconomics (A), logic and reasoning (probability, etc.: A). Relevant Work Experience: Over 8 years: 3 years at time of application working for a private PR consulting firm in Tokyo: I cannot give exact details in a public forum, but I have experience doing research and advising on government and media trends, political environment surrounding topics like renewable energy, ESGs/investor relations, COVID situation, human rights re: supply chain, gender parity--clients include major international NPOs, major international governmental organizations, major pharmaceutical companies, some of the world's largest financial institutions, major global insurance companies, etc. Some experience doing qualitative policy research for a major pharmaceutical company (related to reproductive rights), invited to speak on panel at University of Tokyo about this project. On a pro bono basis and as a volunteer I have been a part of the leadership for a joint professional/student-run NPO aimed at providing COVID-related humanitarian support to rural India from Japan. NPO was recently selected by the UN OHCRH to coordinate ongoing humanitarian support in India. 3 years as an assistant language teacher in rural Japan (JET Program); my paid role was to teach students, but as a volunteer I worked closely with the US Embassy in Tokyo and an organization they sponsor to create/implement programs to increase number of Japanese students studying in the US, chosen to speak on a Junior Chamber International panel about issues facing foreign workers in Japan (random, but this was together with a really famous comedy duo here in Japan) 3 years working for a public research university (technically an employee of the state) in the admissions department doing outreach to underserved populations/recruitment and communications; concurrently volunteered with an education policy research consortium composed of several local universities for 2 years and helped evaluate college readiness programs (assisted with published research, but as a volunteer so was unfortunately not listed as an author); in my actual paid position I worked primarily with underserved populations, analyzing population/admissions trends utilizing SPSS in order to yield more students and increase diversity, created a report analyzing past admissions trends and forecasting profit for university and used it to successfully lobby dean of admissions to create new position based in an urban area to better recruit local students from underserved populations Lots of volunteering running cultural exchange programs, teacher training programs, and translating for rural non-profit orgs/city governments in Japan, awarded a grant from the US Embassy for a cultural exchange program I started, published article about LGBT issues in rural Japan in JET Program Magazine (not prestigious or academic), chosen as CORO program alternate in Kansas City, volunteered for political campaigns in local elections/state gubernatorial elections Languages: English (native), Japanese (fluent), Spanish (conversational) International experience: 7+ years working in Japan at time of application, semester study abroad in Tokyo with FLAS/Gillman support Extracurriculars: College was a while ago for me so I don't know if it matters, but I wrote an honors thesis about 16th Japanese literature and presented at a symposium at my university, was a student senator, held a leadership role in the Japanese student association, was the vice president of a cooperative housing org on campus and retooled the co-op group's constitution, won a student award for housing administration, in various honors societies Strength of LOR: Expecting strong recommendations from a former professor who was my thesis advisor and mentor (Columbia grad, but in Japanese literature/history), the CEO for the PR firm I work for who I've worked closely with on several projects, and the director of admissions at the university I worked for (who oversaw my outreach to underrepresented students). I'm also considering asking the president of an NPO we are working with on the UN-related project mentioned above, but I haven't worked with her much yet so I'm not sure.