state_school'12

It's a bad time of the year to get non-admissions big white envelopes. I bet that had your heart rate up.

Looks like we should hear from Ford next week, going off of the results survey from last year.

That's a pretty good list, I think. Thanks for sharing.

Haven't heard anything yet either.

I believe Maxwell reviews applications on a rolling basis. A few folks on the forum already got in (check the results survey, too).

Give it up, adollarnintynine. You're failed to persuade anyone to your way of thinking, your arguments are confused and contradictory, and you appear obsessed with prestige. Now you're just trolling. To the OP, congrats on the excellent admit.

Re the video, that was confusing. There are multiple "Admissions" pages on the website. Since I'm applying to the MSPPM 2-year degree, I used this as my guide: http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/school-of-public-policy-management/public-policy-management-msppm/admissions/application-process/index.aspx No mention of a video essay. But on the general admission page for the school (home/admissions"), there's a paragraph about the "optional but highly recommended" video essay. The MISM "Application Process" page includes language about the video essay. Since the information on the MSPPM Application Process page provided the application information most applicable to me, I used that information, and didn't do a video. But it's a little scary nonetheless.

Yeah, that's my thinking. I'm pretty sure I have no chance at the Dean's Scholarship, so I'm not stressing too much. But I'm glad that Chicago appears to be ahead of the game this year.

Yikes, that's quite a troubling comment. Do your class mates share your assessment? Re the administration, I can only say that my stress level went up a few notches when I got an email that my application was incomplete. Apparently my transcript was missing. I checked with my UG, and they confirmed they sent it. Turns out it was a "clerical error", and my application was complete after all. Ah well. I see that PhD notifications are going out. Last year, MPP notifications went out at the same time (over a period of about a month ), so it's possible a few folks got notifications today.

I had the impression that their politics were fairly conservative, ala the Freshwater School of economic thought (Chicago, Minnesota, etc).

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPA/MPP Schools Applied To: Berkeley GSPP, Chicago Harris, Michigan Ford, Wisconsin-Madison La Follette, Duke Sanford, CMU Heinz, UCLA Luskin, Cornell CIPA (haven't applied yet) Schools Admitted To: Wisconsin-Madison La Follette ($Tuition fellowship) (1/7) Schools Rejected From: (0/7) Still Waiting: (6/7) Undergraduate institution: University of Oregon Undergraduate GPA: 3.79 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): Worse than my overall Undergraduate Major: Economics and Political Science GRE Quantitative Score: 710 (69th percentile) GRE Verbal Score: 640 (90th percentile GRE AW Score: 4.5 (72nd percentile) Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 2 Years of Work Experience: 2 Describe Relevant Work Experience: I've worked at an economic consulting firm for 5+ years. Full-time for the last two. I also did a summer internship with the Department of Commerce while in school. Languages: German (lousy) Arabic (1 year) Quant: Single+Multivarible Calc, Linear Algebra, Analysis, Stats (two courses), Econometrics (3 courses), a bunch of econ classes. Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): It evolved over time. I give myself a B+. I feel passionate about what I want to study and do with my career, but really struggled to form a narrative about myself that showed and explained this. Berkeley's was the worst, since it was the first one that I did. My interests lay in the domestic policy sphere, education/social policy. I talked about combining this interest with some interesting results from economics research. I'm also interested in policy implementation, the political process of it, and understanding why good policies don't get implemented. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): One econ professor from a top ivy, one associate poly sci professor from whom I a got a lot of good grades, one from my internship supervisor who happens to now teach at one of the schools to which I'm applying. Other: My major GPA was high.I've been lurking these forums and scrutinizing profiles like these and those at testmagic's econ phd forum since 2006. I was on a Phd econ track for a while, and I have to say we policy applicants have it pretty good. In Econ, there is no holistic approach, the SOP is virtually meaningless, work experience/volunteering IS meaningless, and you have to compete with all of the math whizzes from Asia, many of whom already have masters degrees in statistics or economics.I'm extremely happy that the MPA/MPP degree exists, since it combines all of the elements of what I seek in a grad degree. Lastly, I haven't yet applied to Cornell CIPA. At this point, it seems like I'd be at a significant disadvantage in terms of funding, even if I did get in. Should I bother applying, or is it a lost cause? Advice for future applicants: Completing the first application was half of the battle. Once that was done, they rest went a lot easier. I could only find two other U Oregon grads in policy schools over the past few years, which was disheartening. If you're coming from a similar situation, don't let a similar statistic rattle you. P.S. those two Ducks were at WWS .

I went through some of MIT's videos for linear algebra. They helped me a lot.

You'd put U Mich Ford in the same category as UW Evans? Third tier? Yet Duke is first tier? Are we talking rankings, or difficulty of admission? Take US News rankings with a grain of salt. Illustration: Maxwell is ranked consistently #1, in front of Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley, etc. I seem to recall that the rankings rely substantially on surveys of policy graduates. I'd guess the fact that Maxwell has been around the longest, and has huge cohorts has a lot to do with it's place at #1. Neither of which are good measures of quality, obviously. For what it's worth, I think about competitiveness in terms of tiers, too. To me, it goes like this: Tier 1: Princeton>Berkeley>Chicago>Harvard>Georgetown>Columbia Tier 2: Michigan>Duke>CMU>UT Austin>NYU Wagner (less sure)>Cornell>GW Tier 3: (Starts to break down in my mind) Maxwell, Wisconsin, UCLA, USC, UMD, Indiana SPEA, American, Tier 4: (Regionals) Minnesota, UGA, SUNY, Portland State, etc. Now that I look over my lists, its interesting how I've correlated competitiveness with quality in my thinking. I don't think I'd shift these lists around much if you asked me to substitute "quality" for "competitiveness." I guess from our prospective, it's easier to estimate competitiveness that to estimate quality. A few things I take into consideration re quality, is the strength of the Econ program (since we take more econ classes than any other single subject), the strength of the university "brand" for producing quality graduate degrees, and the strength of other departments (business, law, public health, enviro, etc). Geography matters to an extent, (American is Tier 3 quality, but Tier 1 if you want a career in federal government. Regarding working for the Feds, I've also looked at the number of PMF finalists that each school produces over the past few years. Princeton, which is #1 in quality in my book, sends 3-8 PMFs per year. American typically sends 25-30. So there are more important things than quality if you have well-defined objectives (make PMF, launch federal career).

I hear you, but I was under the impression it was 20-30% for most top 20 schools

http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/download.aspx?id=2887 Interesting... "On average: 50% of applicants are admitted"

Hi everyone, I just got an acceptance email from La Follette Madison. Woot! I also got the Robert M. La Follette scholarship, which equals half-tution (out of state). It's my first result, and I'll post my stats in a couple days. Good luck everyone!

Reading olds posts and came across this from earlier in this thread: I couldn't believe this floated by the conversation - no one commented! Hilarious!

Which is for you: MPA, MPA/ID, or PhD? by Chris Blattman Students often ask me about the MPA/ID program at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a course I completed about six years ago, before going on to do an economics PhD. (For those who are unfamiliar, the program is similar to a standard Master’s in Public Administration, but with a heavy emphasis on international development–hence the “ID”–and on advanced economic analysis.) The most common question I receive is “should I do the ID program?”– a question that is usually shorthand for: “Is it better than an MPA?”, “Is the math too hard?” and “Is it a substitute for a PhD in economics?” I polled some classmates, and jot down their thoughts (and mine) below. A number of more recent IDs read this blog, and I encourage them to comment as well. The short story: whether an ID-focused program is right for you depends largely on you. The ID is probably ideal if you want to work in a large development institution, but still very good if you plan to work in another field of development. If you don’t get in, or you fear the math, don’t despair; it is a simple thing to create your own ID program at whatever graduate school you land. I have many, many friends who did an MPA at Harvard or elsewhere who are doing incredible work. ...... continued http://chrisblattman...a-mpaid-or-phd/

Does it look bad to simultaneously apply to both a masters program and a PhD program? Obviously, admissions committees (AC) want different qualities from their PhD students than their masters. I don't think applying to the PhD would hurt your chance at acceptance in the masters program, but I think the reverse COULD hurt your chance at a PhD. spot. A few things that come to my mind: Cons: - Applying to both may signal a lack of focus (i.e., If you want to do research, why consider a masters?) - Since you're willing to settle on a masters, AC may be tempted to give you masters admission. You can always apply after a year or two in the masters. If it's between you and a similarly qualified PhD applicant, it makes sense to award PhD admission to the other applicant, since s/he will go elsewhere if turned down, and there's a chance that you'll end up either paying for a masters, or applying again later. Pros: - Some programs (Michigan) indicate that applicants can apply to both programs. The PhD deadline falls a month before the MPP deadline, which may indicate that they won't know of your MPP application until after they've accepted/rejected you from the doctoral program. - It could demonstrate a commitment to the school. AC could perceive that you're committed to studying under a particular faculty, etc. even if that means turning down a PhD elsewhere and taking the masters from this program. I'm sure there are others. What do you think?