pizzatime

Hello and congratulations on getting in! I was admitted to the Nicholas School last year. I decided to go to Tufts, but I would suggest appealing your aid letter. Search my old posts because I posted on this last year. It worked for me with Duke and they modestly increased my package, but I ultimately decided to go to Tufts.

Grades do matter. If you receive any type of merit financial aid you most likely have to keep a certain GPA. Also every program I applied to required grad students to maintain a ~3.0 GPA overall.

Honestly, If you have your act together enough to get into school and can't pass econ 101 you are going to have big problems in grad school, I'm sorry. To be kinder, the programs I was admitted to that required econ said it had to be completed before matriculation, or taken first semester for no credit, taking away from a class that you would actually want to take.

First, there is another thread on environmental policy that might help you out. Secondly this website might give you a broad idea of what to look for: http://www.enviroeducation.com/articles/best/ Third, personally I applied to some top env policy schools along with some "unranked" ones as well, because they specifically fit with my research interests. I would suggest that you look for programs that are a good fit with your interests, rather than their arbitrary ranking. For instance, I applied to the University of Rhode Island for their marine affairs program. Its not ranked anywhere, and URI is not a top university, but it would have been a good fit for me I had chosen to go there. You might look into the Bren School at UC Santa Barbara, they are quite strong in the combination of econ and environmental policy.

What about getting an internship or a relevant job this summer, or next fall? I held a 10 hour a week internship at my local Fish and Wildlife Service office during the semester. Yes an internship would help either semester because it's another thing you can point to for funding or wait list decisions. As for grades, grad school is a totally different game than undergrad admissions grades matter, even more for you. I think schools need your first semester grades if you are fresh out. The schools I was admitted to needed my final transcript if I had not graduated yet. Not to mention your grades are really important when it comes to funding. I successfully appealed my funding offer at one school by pointing out, among other things that I had excelled at a couple of grad level courses.

Good attitude, especially in this economy. Be sure to apply to at least one safety. I'm sure it can be done. I know all the programs I applied to said that "while there are a few of recent graduates admitted, most have 2-5 years experience" so that means they do take a few recent grads. Also since I'm guessing you are a college junior applying for fall 2010, this summer and the next 2 semesters gives you good opportunities to take advantage of internships to compensate for lack of professional experience.

THIS IS WHERE I'M GOING TO ATTEND: Tufts UEP (Urban & Environmental Policy) OTHER SCHOOLS I CONSIDERED: Duke Nicholas School, U Michigan School of Natural Resources, U Washington, U Rhode Island Marine Affairs WHY I CHOSE MY NEW SCHOOL: 1. Not interested in Fletcher because I'm not an IR person, I'm into domestic environmental policy. UEP coursework is exactly what I'm looking for, coursework will be exactly the same as Duke 2. It came down to Tufts or Duke but I want to work in New England so being around Boston is pretty important to me, as well as cost since I don't have illusions of raking in $200,000 anytime soon as some people do in these threads 3. Faculty in my interest areas, and opportunity to do interdisciplinary work in science and engineering (Tufts is big on that.) 4. They came through with really good funding and after I accepted I found out that they have a new loan repayment program that helps out alumni working in public service.

Regarding the Boston College area, see my post on the area a few pages back. I would be happy to answer any other questions.

I second FES's suggestion of looking into IU SPEA and Syracuse. SPEA has a huge faculty and looked like a good program. FES, if I might ask, why are you pursuing another master's?

I got into Michigan School of Natural Resources and Duke Nicholas School and didn't apply to the other schools on your list. Kind of kicking myself that I didn't apply to Yale but oh well. If you look at some of my previous posts you'll find that I have generally similar stats as you: GRE scores, 2 years work experience, relevant internships, etc. I applied to SNRE over Ford and Nicholas over Sanford because those programs were more science-based rather than policy based, just my personal preference. I don't think you will have trouble getting into the same schools I did, but remember that this is a anonymous internet website and I would think that GSPP, WWS, and HKS would be a bit more challenging to get into because those programs garner more interest from prospective students.

Your GREs and GPA don't look bad at all. From everyone I've talked to the SOP and recommendations matter as much as test scores and GPA, so make sure your recommenders are really willing and have the capacity to write a good letter. On the SOP, I think its function is to help you create a fit between yourself and a prospective school. Also do you have any work experience in the real world or through internships? A lot of programs find that to be very valuable. I don't know anything about your interests, but were the schools you applied to really a good fit with your interests and background, or did you apply based on their US News ranking and location? (sorry to be blunt) Finally, applying to grad school isn't a fly by night process and it takes awhile to get your act together with necessary prerequisites, recommendations, SOP; and I can't tell one way or the other if you threw your app together or have been planning it for awhile. Also, your ug school doesn't really matter. I went to a good, not great state school and got into 3 of the 5 top programs in my field with stats similar to yours. Good luck!

I was going to do macro online through the University of Massachusetts, they have a pretty extensive offering of courses and the fee didn't seem outrageous. Disclaimer: I'm from Massachusetts so obviously I'm comfortable with the school. If you are not, you might try your local state university, they are generally cheaper than private schools. I know that UMass online doesn't have a residency advantage, so the cost was the same for in state and out of state.

As far as I know cost of attendence is the whole package, including rent, books, transportation, etc; therefore you should be able to borrow grad PLUS loans covering that whole amount.

Well in that case a rescinded offer would make the decision making process easier.

I posted in the Duke MPP forum on this subject. They gave me a modest increase. Like I said before, the worst they can say is no.