IndominusTaco

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPP, MPA Schools Applied To: UC San Diego GPS, UW Evans, CU Denver, University of Illinois Chicago Schools Admitted To: UC San Diego GPS (no funding), UW Evans ($15k funding + tuition reduction to in-state), CU Denver (no funding), University of Illinois Chicago (no funding) Undergraduate Institution: Governors State University (small state school) Undergraduate GPA: 3.468/4 Undergraduate Major: Business Administration - Marketing concentration, Econ minor GRE Quantitative/Verbal/AW Scores: N/A Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 4 Years of (Relevant) Work Experience: 0 Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Decent, emphasized volunteer/personal experiences to cover the weak areas of having no GRE and no work experience. Focused on translating passion for the environment into a policy career, and personal growth journey during/post COVID. Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): bad. 2 letters from employer and 1 from undergrad club advisor, no letters from professors. Other: Took econ and stats courses during undergrad. Went back to community college after undergrad to retake Calc 1 in preparation for grad school applications

Thank you! Yeah it's the nomination for admission email, looking back at past years threads I see that funding isn't announced til later. Is that the case with prep classes as well? Seems like a lot of students are accepted with the condition that they have to enroll in the summer prep courses.

Hey, just wanted to follow up and ask a quick question. I got the unofficial acceptance email and am waiting for an official communication from their Graduate Division. When you were accepted, did your funding/fellowship notification come later or was it included in that initial email? My other acceptance email from UW Evans also included $15k funding, but GPS didn't mention anything about funding yet. Not sure if I didn't get anything or if it's coming with the official email soon.

I applied but I'm waiting to comment on this thread until I have all my decisions from schools because you can't edit a post after 1 hour lol

Yeah all the programs I’m applying to do say that a significant portion of their students come in with zero work experience which is comforting. The other 3 schools (in order of preference) are University of Washington, CU Denver, and University of Illinois Chicago. Thank you!

Thanks for the detailed response! I also applied for the Harris MPP program last admission cycle and was waitlisted. I loved everything about it though, it easily would've been my top choice if not for the heavy price tag. I decided not to apply for Harris this time around as my applications would be pretty much the same and I know I'm not in the top tier of the applicant pool. Hope you enjoy your time at Harris and in Chicago, it's a beautiful world-class city. Besides the LoR's, I don't come from a policy or research background, no relevant work experience, no GRE, and my undergrad was in business. The only silver lining is that I was an Economics minor so there's some overlap there, and went back to take Calc I to prepare for an MPP curriculum. We'll see where the dice fall, if not UCSD then there's 3 other applications I sent out. Thanks again for the insight!

What program did you end up going with? Was there any specific reason or reasons that you decided against GPS? And do you feel like you had a strong application or do you feel like you were surprised to get admitted? Just trying to gauge how competitive it is since the website says they only admit 50-75 students every fall and like I said I do not feel confident about the strength of my application.

Hey folks, As the January 15th deadline just passed for many schools, just wanted to kinda reach out to see if anyone else is nervous like me. I’m mostly on edge for UC San Diego as it’s my top choice program and I don’t think it’s a very strong application due to my LOR’s. Anyone else applying to GPS and want to share their application experiences?

Not 100% sure what you're asking for since environmental policy is a subset of public policy. Most programs I've seen are either an MPP or MPA with some sort of concentration in environmental policy, which is what I'm applying for for fall 2024. Notable programs that I'm applying to that seem to be well-known for environmental policy are UC San Diego GPS, UW Evans, and CU Denver. US News lists Duke, Indiana, UC Berkeley, Harvard, and UMichigan Ford all in the top 5 as well. Indiana has a Master of Environmental Sustainability which might be along the lines of what you're looking for; I haven't looked at the courses but I'd imagine there's still a lot of public policy overlap since it's all within their school of policy/government affairs. I don't know why Ford ranks that high in environmental policy specifically since they don't even offer it as a policy concentration for MPP's.

This pertains to state schools (obviously) but I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience or knowledge on gaining/proving residency in order to qualify for in-state tuition in their second year of study (for out-of-state students)? For example, some of the schools I'm looking at are UC-San Diego and CU Denver. UCSD strongly encourages students to establish California residency to get in-state tuition their second year, while CU Denver seems to "hide" the residency eligibility/requirements on their website. Both schools (and I'm assuming most others) state that your status will be called into question if it appears you're only there for educational purposes. How strict or how easy is it to successfully gain residency? I know each school and each state is different, I was just wondering how generally hard the process is and/or how likely it is to successfully qualify for in-state tuition. Reading all the documentation and evidence you have to provide kinda seems like it's a little arbitrary on whether or not the school will accept or deny/question your status. Edit: and I get the whole "they want you to permanently live & work in the state" but honestly how many students go to school out of state, gain residency to get $10k knocked off their tuition, and then move back home or move somewhere else in the country? I feel like it's a lot more students than those who actually permanently stay in that state after graduation.

I know my weaknesses, I spent this past year trying to strengthen my app but now I'm worried it might not be enough. I don't have a big quant background so I went back to take Calc 1, and I don't have relevant work experience so I started volunteering more in the area that I want to study. In the waitlist webinar they said that students might be waitlisted because of the GRE/GRE waiver, transcripts, or language requirements for international students. The only applicable reason I can think of for me would be the GRE waiver since I didn't take the GRE but took and passed Calc 1; but they also said they'll reach out and ask for more information if they need it (they might ask for a syllabus of the qualifying course). Apparently they also admit students off the waitlist from now all the way through August, but I'm not going to put all my eggs in one basket holding out hope for one school (I expect to decide on a school by late March or early April at the latest). Did you take the GRE after submitting your Harris application? If so, did you choose to take the GRE to boost your chances on your own or did they ask you to?

Hey, I'm also looking to study environmental policy. I started preparing back in February but I'm still nervous about the strength of my overall profile. I applied to UChicago Harris, UCSD GPS, Denver Korbel, and University of lIllinois-Chicago (all MPP programs). I just got waitlisted from Harris which I think kills my chances of attending there since it basically guarantees no funding if I even get accepted, so that hurts since it was my dream school. Since getting that decision I think I'm going to throw out more applications, as I'm getting increasingly worried of more waitlist/rejection decisions. I'm looking at Georgia State, Texas A&M Bush, and CU Denver now that you mention it. Any schools I apply to have to have some sort of environmental policy concentration and no GRE requirement.

Maybe you already checked your email, but they just sent out an email earlier today saying that decisions will be released tonight at 7 PM Central time. I definitely wasn't prepared for that; judging from previous year threads, this is earlier than normal and (unless anyone else can correct me) no one got phone calls this year. As of posting this, in 30 minutes we'll know our fates! Edit: waitlisted. I don't have a good feeling about it but we'll see I guess.

(just bumping this thread to get above the sea of spam until a mod deletes them)

Thanks for talking about your Harris experience. I'm apply for the MPP program so my questions are about Harris in general. I'm assuming you must have graduated by now, correct? Did you end up landing a good job post graduation? How did Harris help in the job search, did you utilize their network at all? And at what point during your time at Harris did you begin thinking about/preparing for your post-graduation career?