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Congratulations to all of you! I'm excited to have many of you as class mates next year. The Public Policy school follows a semester schedule. I believe the business school follows quarters. It may be useful to double check that. I have this same understanding. For those of you interested in checking out Fall 2011 courses: http://fordschool.umich.edu/courses/index.php Its also useful to look at other years/semesters to get a sense of what courses there are. Many are annually offered. I'll do my best to answer any questions you may have overall. Again, congratulations!

Thursday - 3.18.10.

My condolences for the misinformation. I'm trying to think back to last year and when notifications came in relation to the student call night but I can't recall. I hope you can still find a good reason to drink this evening/weekend.

Hi Mulberry, Great question! I had similar struggles last year. I think a discussion of other schools would hijack this thread. However, I do think you'll find the following topics from last year useful for your decision. You can find my own, as well as many other applicants opinions on differing schools. In fact, these threads probably deserve a bump - it would probably be useful for 2010 applicants. There's also threads on many other popular schools, but I had trouble locating each.

I can speak for experience that it applies to Sanford. Essentially, you're provided an opportunity to detail the funding packages you received from other schools. Then, the Financial Advisor looks at similar tiered schools and compares funding packages. I received a lucrative offer from Syracuse that justified an increase at Duke. However, the Financial Advisor felt a few packages I received were from lower tiered schools and they subsequently did not factor into his decision. Stiles or Paradoxex, did you all go through this as well?

I've been very pleased with my education thus far at the Ford School. However, regardless of the school I chose, I'm sure I would have similar sentiment. I'm not familiar with the language courses. Can you provide a little more insight? A little more about what you asked: There's no shortage of quantitative courses to take. Calculus and Statistics are required. (Sidenote: those are the only quantitative courses required, and many individuals do not go beyond those two. You can make it as quantitative as you want.) Additionally, I am in the process of taking Program Evaluation and a Data Practicum using STATA. A two course track of econometrics is also offered. There's a phd level Causal Inference class, but you can get into that in Econometrics and Program Evaluation. Courses in other departments/schools are really easy to take as well. In fact, you're required to take a few outside of Ford. I've tended to focus on education policy and there are other domestic policy courses to choose from - health, welfare, etc. I can't speak to international, security, etc. courses, as it is not my focus. I do know they exist. I suggest you peruse the offered coursework to see if there are courses that fit your interests. Personally, that was one of my biggest draws to the Ford School - coursework that aligned to my career goals and the ability to take 8 electives. I'm in the process of applying for a GSI position (same as TA/RA). They mentioned today that they expect about 300 applications for about 17 Fall positions. A portion of the 300 applicants will be from outside of the Ford School and probably not strongly considered. There are also opportunities within research centers. I was able to secure a position midway through the first semester. I didn't know they existed prior to my arrival, so I would suggest being aware of deadlines, etc. They're early, but on most of the center sites to find. I get the sense that many folks are on scholarship here. It's not generally openly discussed though, so its hard to give percentages, and amounts. I hope that's helpful. Feel free to ask other questions. I try to be as non-biased as I can.

Last year they were sent out via e-mail. Current students received an e-mail with the following text: "Well, that time is here again as the Ford School is sending out decision letters this week." The text was located within an e-mail notifying us that we can sign up to call accepted students next week. I may be calling some of you.

For those of you eagerly waiting.... Decisions will be sent out this week. However, not certain on which day. At least I narrowed it down somewhat right?

Anyone admitted into the masters program at the University of Michigan floating around?

So I'm sure Stiles will add more to this, but Duke was the only school for me last year to openly encourage students to "petition" for more funding. We had the opportunity to provide our other funding offers in an effort to increase our Duke scholarship amount. That was something I genuinely appreciated. Moreover, I don't have record of my initial scholarship offer, but I have a correspondence with the financial aid director that took place after my scholarship offer dated March 19th.

Hi, I think the first step is to look through the results page and identify from previous years when results can be expected. Also, you should be able to see the communication method (mail, e-mail, phone, etc). From my experience, schools generally e-mail you when a decision is made. However, this never stopped me from checking the website excessively. Best of luck!

First of, congratulations! Where do you want to work long term? My only potential concern is that their graduates may be limited geographically. I ran into this when I looked at Minnesota and Wisconsin. I just looked at the Indiana website very quickly, but I was not able to find any statistics about the placement of their graduates (sector, location, sample of jobs, etc) so it may be worthwhile to call and ask those type of questions. IMO, the rankings are not that particularly influential to employers. However, it may be useful to gauge that yourself. You can always set up informational interviews with employers in your desired field and talk to them about it. In my experience, they have been very helpful and candid.

You could mention this research center: http://cas.uchicago.edu/workshops/pipes/ I was able to get a research assistant position at one of the research centers here so its definitely something worth considering.

I would strongly agree with the above sentiment. I essentially framed the majority of my SOPs in this fashion: 1. A narrative of experiences that led to the decision to attend policy school 2. A short term and long term career goal I intend to pursue after policy school 3. Specific reasons why I want to attend that specific schools: professors, research centers, etc Feel free to message if you'd like to chat more.

I would agree with the above poster. To find the right school or program, I'd first begin looking at the core courses each school requires you to take. You may find MPPs with few quantitative requirements or MPAs with several. Beyond those requires courses, you can make an MPP or MPP essentially whatever you wish. Also, look for schools that offer specific focuses on non-profit management. I offer the link below only as an example of how some schools specifically show they provide focuses in non profit management. Also, check to see if there are any business courses at prospective schools that you could take that would interest you. Best of luck. http://fordschool.umich.edu/curriculum/mpp.php#public

I tackled many of the same issues you are thinking about, especially in regards to what type of degree to pursue. Ultimately, I ended up pursing a policy degree as opposed to one in law or business. My interests lie in the domestic policy realm and I'd love to offer any assistance or guidance if you need.

I too applied to 10 policy schools and used the same three individuals to write recommendations. The process was somewhat cumbersome. However, many schools now have a system where recommendations are completed entirely online. Individuals upload letters of recommendation and generally have to fill out some sort of survey ranking your skills on some ordinal scale. I made sure to touch base with them several months in advance and provide them due time to complete the process. They loved hearing what schools I was getting into and I felt they didn't view it as a terrible burden.

I had very similar scores with regards to the verbal and quantitative section as you and I feel that I was successful during the admissions process. Additionally, I feel that with LORs and a great personal statement, you'll be successful in your application process as well. However, I'd worry about being admitted to the four schools you mentioned as a result of your verbal and writing scores. Granted, admissions committees do look at a wide variety of factors in the admissions process. I just feel that you can make your scores more competitive - especially for the caliber of schools you've listed. If you do intend to retake the GRE, here's my personal advice on scoring well in the writing section (others may have very differing viewpoints) I wouldn't consider myself the best writer at all, but I was able to put a few useful tips to good use when I took the GRE and pulled out a 5.5 on the writing section. I thought I'd pass them along: 1. Write as much as you can. I pretty much found a way to include the majority of the prompt in my introduction. 2. Have distinct paragraphs and tab the first sentence. You'll have to use five spaces to tab. 3. Include a paragraph that analyzes the opposing viewpoint to the one that you've suggested (this works for both prompts) (i.e. One could say...(insert opposing view) but they fail to ..........(insert some sort of fallacy or flaw in the opposing argument) 4. Use transition words very frequently 5. Have a clear introduction and conclusion paragraph and include 2-3 paragraphs of support and 1 paragraph (as mentioned above) critiquing the counterpoint (5-6 paragraphs total) I think I was lucky with the prompts I received. However, because your writing is graded by a human and a computer, there are ways to beat them both. If they are within 1 point of each other, they'll take the average of the two scores. I think the above tips help to beat the computer scoring. Additionally, the human grader spends a very short amount of time actually looking over your essay. As a result, I think the above steps can really improve your score. Best of luck!

Did you happen to do TFA?

I feel like your extras make you much more competitive than your test score does. And yes, more so than with many other degrees, the whole package is considered for policy degrees. However, there's no reason not to make your application stand out even further. For that reason, I would second the notion above on considering taking the test again. I took mine in November and had plenty of time to prepare my applications.

Thank you. Sorry for the false hope. I'm just not financially able to attend. Love the school though. There's a possibility I'll be working in DC this summer so maybe we'll cross paths

I feel left out. I think I would've gone with a 10k offer.

Confirmed mine as well.

Depending on where you live, the Sam's is about 15 minutes away (Ypsilanti) while Costco is closer to 25 (Brighton).

I've decided that I will be attending the Ford School. I agree with all the merits of the Sanford School and it was ultimately a very difficult choice. I loved the atmosphere at Duke, the professors, and the small cohort size. I really got the sense they take care of their students. In addition, their capstone provides a great opportunity to do real life work. However, one of the deciding factors for me was the ability to really shape my courses at Michigan. I will be able to take 9 electives at the Ford School as opposed to just 3 or 4 at Sanford. While I like to think that I have a clear career goal, I like the ability to take a wide variety of courses to better determine what I'd like to do. In addition, I think the alumni network will be incredibly useful, but I do think that Duke's is just as passionate about helping each other, despite their number limitations. One limitation I found at the Ford School was the lack of a capstone course. I think their curriculum may be more theoretical/academic as opposed to practical like at Duke. However, the Ford School offers two to three practicum courses per semester. While I was discouraged by the lack of a practical capstone, I found their practicum courses align well to what I'm looking to do as a career (education, local policy, etc). It may not be as good of a fit for others. Just my thoughts and I hope that the decision making process is going well for you all too.