palabared

If you keep your grades up and get good scores on the GREs, coupled with a compelling SOP and references, I think you would have a great chance at some good programs. I am going to the Maxwell School at Syracuse next fall, and when I went to the welcome weekend I met a couple people that came straight from undergrad without international experience. Most of them had some sort of at-home experience whether with Habitat for Humanity, soup kitchens etc, but I would say you have a good chance. I don't know if it would interest you, but check out their dual degree program MPA/IR. I am just doing the IR program though. Hope this helps.

Yea I guess it depends on the program. Two of mine explicitly said multiple times any SOPs over the limit won't be considered.

All of mine were either 500 or 800 word requirements. I wrote the 800 one first, then chiseled it down and changed things depending on the school. One didn't declare how many words they wanted, so I just emailed them and asked what was preferred. Just remember the Adcoms have to read hundreds of these things, so be concise and to the point = not too long.

I applied to similar schools as you, 2 MDP programs (denver and florida) and two more traditional programs at UCSD and Maxwell MAIR. *beware* I will be biased in this reply as I recently accepted the offer to Maxwell. I am also thinking about taking up the MPA joint degree after the first semester. The generalist vs specialist debate is one I thought about a lot too. I think reading Jeff Sachs' End of Poverty got me originally thinking about MDP programs, but then getting deeper into the subject and reading other books such as the White Mans Burden by Bill Easterly leveled my thinking a bit (and made me less excited about the MDGs in general). I studied agribusiness in undergrad, and have a bit of field experience which played a small role in where I applied. I'm also from California so UCSD sounded like the perfect school when I started the process. As I researched more about the programs, I felt the UCSD one didn't have a very strong international presence in terms of development work. Yes they have the Baja Project which sounded interesting, but in general I felt their int dev to not be as strong as their trade policy/econ concentrations. And I love to surf! In the end I decided that I couldn't go to a school for its location if I was accepted to a program that better suits my interests somewhere else. Like the Emory program, Florida had a tiny cohort last year (their first) of 11 people, and while I think that would be a great experience getting to know everyone so well. For me the main end goal of grad school is to find a good position in the international dev field. I don't know much about Emory's program in terms of ag courses, but Florida's would have been a great way to "specialize" in development ag due to their well known Tropical Ag Center. I chose not to specialize to that extent. Having a large cohort in the present and past was important to me for the wealth of networking possibilities. You hear everywhere that somewhere around 90% of jobs aren't posted and are found through networking. I'm not sure if you went to the admitted students weekend at Syracuse, but I got a good feeling of community with a somewhat tight knit cohort (for being 100 people, or in your case 200). Once one accepts their offer, they give you a ton of info on alums for networking purposes (contact info, where they work etc) which is useful. Maybe you already talked to him, but Professor McPeak works on research in agriculture. I'm definitely taking a course from him. I also talked with Bertini a bit while at the welcome weekend, and she seemed very level headed and I was excited to take one or two of the four courses shes teaching next year. The student I stayed with was working on a tri-degree of MPA/IR/ECON and he was loving it. He said similar things to what you just said that the MPA program was his favorite and seemed the strongest (he was a big fan of public budgeting). The DC program for the summer or fall looked awesome and was one of the big determinants as to why I chose to accept their offer. Being able to finish in DC as an intern will make it much easier to network and find a position out of school (although this might not affect you so much right out of school). I also really liked the Fall DC seminar/courses being offered on development such as Global Development and Security:Policy & Practice and Sustainability and Environment: A Policy Primer (lead by a lady who was a foreign service officer and with guest practitioners from NGOs and Foundations). Yes the weather scares the crap out of me too. But in a way I think it could be a good thing, in that it makes the cohort that much closer since there really isn't a lot to do when its 6 ft of snow outside. And people aren't working full time jobs on the side. Sorry for the rambling of topics here. Hope this helps a bit with the decision. In the end those are all awesome schools and having to make a choice is far better than none at all!

I had an interview with UCSD for their IR/PS program, and they told me that taking a couple courses ahead of time would have really boosted my application as a whole. My grades were crappy with a 2.7 overall and 3.0 major. They told me the most beneficial courses would be econ/calc/stats courses (for IR programs) and show that you can get good grades now that your more driven or focused.

Just playing around on that amortization calendar is scary! At an average of 7% for 140k paid over 10 years would cost almost 200k with payments at $1,700/mo. at 20 years repayment total cost is 260k and monthly pymnts of $1,100.

Are you sure your not looking at the 10 year government loan forgiveness plan?

Well like others said, you cost postpone school for a year and reapply next year. You have probably done most of the work in terms of SOPs and all, just spiff em up a bit with a year of experience more, and you would have to bug your LORs (which was a huge pain for me getting those from abroad). I mean there's so many good schools out there, you could apply to some other ones that are cheaper where you might also get some funding. I think experience prior to school is as or more important than where you get the degree from the top 10 or 15 schools. It makes one that much more competitive after!

I understand where you're coming from, I'll be taking on debt too, but prob a little less than half of 140k though. I knew I wouldn't get funding due to a shitty GPA, so I applied to schools that wouldn't break the bank. Probably due to the fact that I freaked out about paying hundreds in thousands of $ over some of the best (most able) years of my life. I guess it depends on how important certain schools are to you over others and if you think your career will be that much better off (career placement/advancement) after obtaining your degree from a more expensive school. But to each his own, perhaps I'm a worry wort.

Previous Schools: California State School Previous Degrees GPA's: B.S. Agricultural Business, minor Wine and Viticulture 2.7 (3.0 major) GRE Scores : 460v/720q/4w (not sure what happened on the V, was scoring 600s on all my practice tests) Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): study abroad in Thailand, a year of world travel/work in wine, 3 months volunteering for Habitat, 1 year as a field coordinator with an NGO in Guatemala, 4 months volunteer in Colombia for a coffee ngo Math/Econ Background: Intro to stats, business calc, agricultural econ I and II. Foreign Language Background: Spanish Intended Field of Study in Grad School: International development with an NGO Schools Applied to & Results: Rejected - Korbel MDP (didn't accept an incoming cohort for their MDP program for some reason) Waitlisted - UCSD IR/PS (had an interview in person with them in San Francisco, they were worried about my grades) Accepted - Maxwell MAIR and U of Florida MDP both w/o funding Ultimate Decision & Why: Maxwell. Went to the open house and really liked it. Very close nit cohort which will be great for networking, 16 month program (cheaper). Beautiful facilities and great professors, good internship programs abroad and in DC, and 25,000 alums! (but dreading the weather being from Cali) Afterthoughts? Many other people on this forum have posted their "to tell you the truth I didn't think I would get in anywhere" story (with huge GPAs and GRE scores), but for me this truly was the case. With a terrible GPA and a very low verbal GRE score I was scared shitless. Having known that schools weigh SOP and LORs more heavily (I think they helped me out a lot), I would have applied to more places. While I know there are more people like me that might be intimidated to post their info on this forum, I wanted to post it to let the people out there who didn't get amazing grades or scores know, it can be done.

I was just there for the admitted students welcome weekend at the Maxwell school at Syracuse university. They took us on a bus tour to check out different living complexes and areas. Most the most part, syracuse is just really cheap. Obviously the cheaper housing areas were the ones further away, sometimes not on a bus route (even though many of them supply their own included transport if the bus doesn't go by). But I talked with a bunch of current students that paid from $270-550. I stayed with a current student who lived alone in a 2 bedroom (he converted one to an office/music room) which was the second floor of a house, and he paid $550 which is a great deal 4 blocks from the main campus, and not that far from the norm it seems. Yes everyone there said, if you can, get heating included. hope that helps

the way I understood it when reading through info on subsidized/unsubsidized: the main difference between the two at the grad level is that subsidized loans dont accrue interest during your 2 years at school, meaning they dont cost you as much in the end, even though its the same interest rate. edit: It just sucks that $8500 is the max you get per year.

Yea I'm a little worried about going back to school after 4 years off from it! Are you taking courses that your grad school is requiring you take or just as refreshers in econ or something?

I think beaverish has already applied and is going to grad school in the Fall. I'll be coming back from abroad and am excited to take it easy in California for a couple months. Perhaps earn a little spending money, but nothing too time consuming. I think it just depends, if you need more experience go intern or volunteer somewhere for a few months. That will look better on a resume once you're out of school than a job just to make money. But if your not that worried about more experience then hang out or make some bills.

did you receive funding from any of the other schools you got into?

I don't have much to add in terms of Emory, but I did apply to the U of Florida MDP program and the Korbel MDP program. Columbia was too expensive and I didn't think I would get funding there. Korbel ended up not taking a cohort this year for their MDP program, not sure what happened in the first year of the program that led to that. I was really hoping the Berkeley MDP program would be opened, but wasn't in time for this years (fall 2011) application process so sad! The UC system is struggling at the moment. I decided to go with a more traditional program at Maxwell in the end. One of the huge selling points with a programs like Maxwell over an MDP program is that they have over 25,000 graduates of the program out in the field, great networking opportunities. They also have a larger cohort (around 100) per year in International Relations. And you have the option to study in DC for a semester. What turned me off from Florida is they only had a cohort of 11 last year. Much more difficult to network in that situation, even though they have a great school especially if you want to get into tropical agriculture development. I hope that might help a little bit.

congrats dev! probably end up seeing you there in the fall

Yea I just got that message as well. Funny they tell you your wait listed so late

anyone of you guys heard anything?

Im from california! I met up with them in San francisco when one of their Adcom people came up to do interviews. I was told you were interviewed if you were right on the cusp of admittance or rejection. Whats weird is they have issued both to many people already....makes me kind of want to rule them out due to such poor communication.

Yea same here. I went in for an Interview a little over a month ago and haven't heard anything since!

I just talked with a columbia mpa student who is concentrating on int dev, and has 3 years of experience prior to his education. He's extremely frustrated that he is having so much trouble finding a position, since he said hes competing with people with experience around the 4-6 year range for positions. So it definitely makes you more marketable in an economy like we've had lately. I would recommend some experience not only for better (or a) job(s) after school, but it will allow you to focus in on what you might really be excited about in Int dev (a huge field). And thus you will get more out of your education and be more engaged. Without any experience, or even little, chances are you will have to go volunteer abroad or in DC/NY for some time to rack up some time abroad/experience in a field your interested in. In my opinion, I would rather do that first, than with a large load of debt hanging over my head. But it probably depends on what you want to do, do you want to work abroad for NGOs or bilateral orgs or in a local municipal government for the time being? To tell you the truth, i replied to your post since I'm in a similar position in that I'm not sure that I have enough work experience to find a good job out of grad school and I have 2.5 years of experience working abroad. But I guess it depends on your situation, maybe someone offered you a job upon completion of the degree? Or you might go back to your home country and have connections in government there or something? that I dont know. Just my .02.

I haven't even heard if I got in there yet, had an interview with them about a month ago. wth

Yea i think that Sanford deal is awesome. That would be my choice if given all those great options!