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DupontCircle

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Everything posted by DupontCircle

  1. I was wondering if any current or former students had suggestions on some prep work before school starts. I'm going to have a good amount of free time over the summer and wondered if there were specific things/skills I could be working on -- brushing up on excel, getting back into the habit of writing regularly etc. I'm trying to think of things beyond the normal language skills and math/econ prep work. Thanks!
  2. Actual courses. I'll take a pre-term in August but the ones in June and July count towards the 16 needed towards graduation. So I only need to make up 2 more courses to get out a semester early. Summer courses also cost 3400 vs 5000 during the fall and spring semesters but obviously the real money is saved by taking 5 course semesters.
  3. I would urge you to consider what I've decided on after talking to some former students. Basically taking 2 courses the summer before you're first term, a 5 course semester and then getting that last course either in the summer (if you were to intern in DC) or in the last semester. This cuts out 10k in tuition and a semester of living expenses, opportunity cost. You certainly lose a little bit but I'd take the savings any day.
  4. I was told via email (my own inquiry) I didn't receive any and then today was told I was on the waitlist with the new policy Ruella detailed afterwards. The communication on their part is a bit disjointed.
  5. I hope thats the case goodcat. The lady via email seemed pretty sure to me but maybe that's just in my case. I guess we will have to wait and see just like everything with MSFS...
  6. I emailed admissions this morning asking about scholarships and they stated it would have been in my acceptance letter. Would you mind also sending me a PM similar to what pyrrhus was asking.
  7. I was also told that if your acceptance letter didn't mention scholarship funding then you did not receive any.
  8. It's at the very bottom of the dashboard, below all the requirements etc. It wasn't there yesterday. When it populates you'll clearly see it.
  9. I logged on using the info they provided in the acceptance. On my Financial Aid page it says not applicable/no aid found. I was curious if others have this and the aid hasn't been uploaded yet or if I did not receive funding personally.
  10. Same, admitted to IDev, no mention of funding. This is the program I want but Fletcher gave me a lot of money so I hope it doesn't come to that.
  11. I received a personalized email from the director of admissions and was wondering if anyone had received a similar correspondance recently?
  12. Yeah I received that email as well. I'm curious regarding the 13 page fellowship list where the majority of options are due March 15th. Are those ones we are automatically considered for as applicants?
  13. Are each of the fellowships marked with a March 15th submission date the ones we are automatically considered for if we filled out the SAIS financial aid form etc.?
  14. Programs: MA/MPP/MPA in International Relations Schools: SAIS, MSFS, Fletcher, WWS, HKS Undergraduate institution: Top 3 Public Undergraduate Major: Econ and History Undergraduate GPA: 3.5 -- bad first year, ~3.7 rest of the way, History is near perfect with Econ lower but an upward trend GRE: Verbal: 161; Quant: 161; AW: 5.5 Years Out of Undergrad: 4 Years of Work Experience: 4+ Describe Relevant Work Experience: - ILO internship (UN) - K Street Think Tank internship - Carter Center internship (Africa) - Peace Corps (Africa) Languages: French (more than enough for these schools) SOP: Africa and development focused. I'm a good writer, but I'd say it's a B+ effort right now LOR: 1 letter Peace Corps, 1 letter from Public Defender supervisor, 1 professor (Two are good, other is okay) Questions: - Main issue are freshman grades and some poor math and mediocre econ marks my first and second year. By the end of college this was all corrected but I worry it will hold me back even though my coursework is generally what they look for. - Verbal GRE is definitely the low end for me personally but I don't think it is worth retaking? - I feel good about SAIS, MSFS, Fletcher but not WWS, HKS due to lower grades and nothing truly spectacular to set me apart. My work is concentrated on a specific region and has come into focus in the past years. It's solid to good but nothing otherworldly. I have language skills and have lived in a ton of countries, but am skeptical that any of this puts me in that top category. Any thoughts?
  15. I asked them last year and they said they review all GRE scores submitted. They were the only one which I contacted that did this.
  16. You will spend a lot of time not doing much. It is not a "formal" job and so if you expect it to be a 40 hour a week skill building exercise then you'll be unhappy. Cultural exchange is a big factor and while not full of demonstrable technical use, I do believe it slowly but surely helps you do your work better. In my experience you have as much freedom as you choose but at the same end you could sit and do nothing for 2 years and no one was going to ride you, or come to you and give you work. The onus is completely on you to make of it as you please. I didn't do a single thing for an entire year, not one thing, and had a really good second year of work which is one of the pillars of all my applications. I view PC as almost a 2 year training for working in development. It's not quite a real job but if you do it well, it orients you and sets you up well to continue to work in the field and how to do it well in theory. It was part of a larger plan on my part, which included a masters afterwards, and so during the long times I felt I was wasting my time, I could power through knowing that it was one step. Finally, I'd say the PC by itself doesn't help you much. There's a lot of RPCVs and so unless you find work directly in your country of service you'll face an uphill struggle to get some plum job in the field. I think you need your service and something else to set you apart. This is of course generalizing and many people get jobs they want because of their service but more do not. View it as a piece of the puzzle if you're actually committed to the full 2 years.
  17. On their blog they said they're ironing out/testing the final details. In the next few days I'd imagine.
  18. Yoda, Anything is of course possible but I don't know if your GPA/GRE are strong enough for straight out of undergrad. With some work experience, you'd be fine but in general only a small percentage go straight form undergrad and from what I've heard we're talking much higher GPAs and and GREs.
  19. A bit of a tangent but I was wondering for you guys who have already gone through the process if you might be able to lend some insight though it's rather specific question. Anyway, I was an Econ/History major. With my econ GPA being 3.4, a strong upward trend, Intermediate Micro/Macro for a B/A respectively. However, I had to repeat calc (I didn't go to many classes my first semester) and still got a B- on the repeat. I got a 161 on the quant, my history GPA is 3.9+, but my overall is 3.5. This isn't the end of the world but how much do you think this would hold my application back and, perhaps more importantly, in terms of chances for funding? Work experience, recs, SoPs etc should all be fine.
  20. I think they all look at GRE quant espcially if there is a lack of such coursework from undergrad. One doesn't need to be an expert but functional. Due to SAIS's economic focus, I'd imagine it matters a bit more to them. But that's my conjecture. 1) Again, conjecture, I'd imagine it'd get pretty difficult below 150. If you're in the low-150's then clearly it's not a strength of your application and will need to be counterbalanced by strengths. These apps are holistic and schools are slotting different demographics, niches, etc. 2) I too have read repeatedly that higher GRE scores matter for funding. This is the only reason I'm contemplating taking it again. 3) Depends on admissions but, again, I'd imagine that if you have done well in Calc 1,2,3 or done advanced stats, differential equations blah blah then they won't care much about your ability in geometry. I'd also add to buy the Manhattan books. Work them regularly for two months and there really isn't anyway you won't get at the very least an average score for these schools. We're only talking 80th percentile to get in the upper-quartile or quintile for most of these schools.
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