skz

Anybody get an e-mail from USC SPPD about their MPP Lab? I'm curious because I turned down their offer but still got one, and now I'm worried that somehow or other I may have checked "accept" instead of "reject"...

Fantastic, no need to use more envelopes and stamps! Thanks!

Quick question: If I decline a school's offer of admission, should I still inform them that I will be rejecting their financial aid offer?

Really? I had to ride in from College Park on the other end of the Green Line and I didn't mind the ride. Maybe if I do it more it'll bother me though.

I can dispel one of those concerns - Georgetown is extremely accessible by Metro. If you want to get to the Car Barn (which is where GPPI is), all you need to do is take the metro to the Rosslyn station, which is just across the Key Bridge in Virginia. There's a shuttle that Georgetown runs which is quite literally one street from the Metro station, and it takes you from the station to campus, passing right by the Car Barn.

Just curious - did anyone who visited send thank you letters/e-mails to anyone at JHU? Also would like to hear if more people went!

I think the context of the tuition raise was per credit hour. It was something around $1460 last year and is now $1531. 24 credits puts it at $36,744. Regarding the scholarship: I'm quite sure I heard that $20k was their maximum scholarship, at least for this year. I don't know why, but it sure seems as if they're stingy with money given the amount that people are paying. Perhaps they've been hit hard by the economy this year? Maybe someone received a full tuition, but we just don't know about it P.S. They said it's likely that things will cost more next year!

Sure seems so, and I really like that. Following up on my previous post, I just posted my experience from the GPPI Open House in the "Georgetown Strengths/Weaknesses" thread.

So, here are my impressions from the GPPI Open House: PROS: * Faculty is really top-notch, with plenty of real-world experience * Strong quantitative curriculum * Lots of study abroad opportunities * You have to write a thesis, which is good for employment * You have the opportunity to do real work for clients, which has led to employment in the past CONS: * EXPENSIVE - according to them, if you have no financial aid, it'll be circa $60k per year (including housing, books, personal expenses and travel...and this is for nine months, not 12) * Each year has about 150 students (last year was 140), so it's not a small cohort * Maximum merit scholarship is $20k, and they will NOT match other offers...also, evening program attendees will not receive merit scholarships * I didn't get the impression that faculty would be very accessible (I may be wrong on this, so please correct me if I'm wrong) * It doesn't seem like research assistantships are widely available...some are offered them, others have to go seek them out Overall...I'm not that impressed. I think it'll be a fantastic place for learning, but there's the huge caveat of "if you can afford it." I also didn't come away with the feeling that students will be able to interact a lot with faculty. The cohort being big also made me feel like I'd pretty much just be another student. By the way, they're still figuring out some funding packages. None of the need-based aid has been decided (if I remember correctly). They also gave me a pen that didn't work All these are my impressions of course, someone else may feel completely different!

No problem East_of_Eden. Glad you found it useful! I don't know if JHU has more research opportunities than Cornell since I don't know anything about Cornell, but it seems like it would be really, really, really easy to get one at JHU. I'm really leaning towards JHU right now. I almost certainly ruling out UCLA because I'm not getting funding, and probably ruling out USC because even with the funding they're offering they're going to be very expensive. Maryland didn't impress me as I thought it would last night (bear in mind, I'm a current undergraduate there, so I may have had heightened expectations...). It doesn't appear like I'm getting funding from American, but regardless I'm not too keen on going there for some reason...I'm going to try and visit them soon, but may cancel my visit if I make my mind up before that. I'm visiting GPPI today for their Open House, but it doesn't look like they're giving me funding either (and I still haven't gotten my admissions letter!). I'll post my thoughts after I get back.

I guess that's because we're more "social" people! Hahaha... ba dun dush. Yeah, I was very impressed with the career services.

I have no work experience - my acceptances and rejections are in my signature. GRE total was 1280, had a GPA of about 3.7 (3.8 in my majors). I have worked on a couple research projects during my time as an undergrad however.

That's a very good point, plate or platter. Dang, I don't know specifically about the development concentration, but I will tell you there is a lot of freedom to take whatever courses you want. You can also take courses across concentrations and make up your own if you wish. That's not much help, so hopefully someone else can come along with more information for you!

That's what I thought, but I can't find her on the faculty page anymore. They have William Galston, but he's gone off to Brookings, and they have Mark Lopez who is a visiting professor listed, but sitting in the social policy "break-out" group I was quite sure there was something that struck me that made me perceive a lack of faculty in education. Oh, I have to mention, as a current undergrad at Maryland...I am NOT impressed by the bureaucracy at the university (not specifically the School of Public Policy). You'll probably find out why if you have to deal with administrative issues. Taryn Faulkner was extremely helpful though when it came to dealing with these issues. EDIT: Never mind, just found her on the social policy page. Either way, I still have a perception that they lack faculty who are in education policy for some reason...

Congrats on your offer! Warning! LONG post ahead! Warning! LONG post ahead! Warning! LONG post ahead! Let's see...I did have a good time, that's for sure. Regarding your questions: I can't give you a full answer about other incoming students because I did have to leave before the reception, but in the time I did manage to spend with some of them they certainly seem to be quite bright and genuinely interested in the field. The faculty seems to be of quite a high caliber - the professor (Dr. Nightingale) who taught the sample class we sat in on clearly knew her material, and seemed like she was quite open to questions from students. The faculty seem very involved in research (one of them, Dr. Barnow, works on so many projects he had to make a list before he presented them to us!). Based on what current students told me, the faculty are very invested in the success of their students and are also very accessible. For example, a current student had some model or paper he was working on for middle schools, and when he went to talk to one of the professors about it even though she wasn't well versed in education policy, she read material about it on her own just so she could help him with the his work. Apparently you're also able to just walk in to professors' offices just to talk about things. I think this has to do with the class size - I think the number is something around 70 including both years, so it's something like 35 for each year. Ah, also, you can take classes at other departments at JHU, so you can take advantage of their excellent Economics and Public Health departments (just to name a couple). Current students are extremely friendly. We broke off into groups to have lunch with them, and they were more than willing to answer questions and just talk with us about things. They seem very intelligent, and like the incoming group they seem genuinely interested in the field. There's a decent age range (early 20's to mid 30's) as well as experience range (some straight from undergrad, others having worked a while in different fields). They seem to be quite a close knit community of people, but that's also probably because of the small class size. Other things I took away from my time there: IPS seems to be affiliated with a lot of research centers. There's plenty of opportunities for a Research Assistantship ($15/hour, I think) - apparently you can just walk in to a faculty member's office and tell them you want to work on something, and they'll probably find you something. They're also quite nice about doing the actual work...if you can't show up to do work some week, they're apparently quite okay with it (though you'll have to make it up later). As for the curriculum...it seems like they're focused not just on teaching you the tools of policy analysis, but they're also focused on getting you to use them (if you look at http://ips.jhu.edu/pub/Curriculum, I think the first semester class called "Policy Analysis for the Real World" has you do real work...I can't really remember exactly which one, tons of info in my head right now). They do quantitative stuff like statistics and econometrics, though I think some of those are in the form of electives aside from the core requirements. They also mentioned a class about writing: it was an eight-week course, and amazingly they had a student published every week in some form of mass media. One student's piece was blogged on by Anderson Cooper and made it to CNN! Anyway, I think one of the really good things about the program is that it's not only focused on the theory but they put you out there to do what you've learned. Big plus for me there. I didn't get to see much of the campus (I left before the tour), but from what I saw it would be gorgeous on a sunny day (it was raining today, bah). Since there are probably concerns about crime in Baltimore, I'd have to say that the immediate surrounding area seems good. I'm not sure about what it's like as you go further away because I didn't have the chance to do so. Finding housing I think will require some legwork - because it's Baltimore, it's quite possible that if you find two places with the same rent, one could be amazing and the other could be terrible. They have a listing of realty online (https://housing6.res.jhu.edu/classifieds/Default.asp), but current students also mentioned looking on Craigslist as well as actually going there and calling numbers. If you live close to campus, I think you could get by without a car, but I don't know about that for sure (I don't know how far grocery stores are, for example). I don't know what the chances are of graduating second-year students passing on apartments to incoming first-year students, but one current student I talked to definitely mentioned that as a possibility. One final thing...their job placement seems to be quite good - they've got people all around the country, though there are pockets in the DC area, down South and out West. Some in Europe and Africa, possibly Latin America (can't remember). I don't recall a mention of Asia though. I can't really remember much about this but I think my general impression is that they do just fine in this area. If I recall more later I'll post again, but you know, you're getting a degree from Johns Hopkins, so it's got name recognition at least. Overall, I was really quite impressed. Like you, I wasn't really thinking about them because I don't think they're truly one of the most reputable programs (versus HKS, GPPI, etc.), but I'm very seriously considering JHU now. Wow, that was like an essay. Sorry for the long post and lack of order from one point to the next!

Anyone visit JHU today? I did, just wondering what people's thoughts are (and also slightly curious as to who I may have met...)!

I just got back from UMD's Open House about 30 minutes ago. Here are my general feelings (but remember, these are only my feelings and others who visited may feel otherwise): PROS: * They have excellent career services and what appears to be a pretty good alumni network * They're pretty responsive to students' desires for classes (if there's enough demand for a class, they'll try to get one going) * They have faculty who have been at in the upper echelons of their fields * Their faculty is generally full time, and you can have any number of them as advisors * You can take classes at other schools in at the university * You can take classes at other DC schools (American, Georgetown, and GWU) because they're part of the DC consortium CONS: * There isn't a strong focus on applying skills you've learned (it seems more like a voluntary thing - you take a class which has you do a project, rather than a class like that being part of your core curriculum) * They recommend NOT doing 20 hours of work per week (in other words, not a full assistantship), which makes it substantially less affordable OTHERS: * Their class size is about 300 (I think that's the number...) * They do NOT have a faculty member that specializes in education policy (I could be wrong, but it really doesn't seem so - looking at the class list, it's unknown whether they'll have one on education policy Also, having visited JHU today, I didn't feel like the current students were as accessible as JHU's students (which is probably due to JHU's smaller class size). I also didn't get the impression that their faculty was as accessible or as invested in the students as JHU's faculty are...but then again not much was asked about this. I will say there is a lot more freedom in developing your specialization, as far as I can tell. That's just a quick set of thoughts I have immediately after it. Remember, this is what I feel and not what others do!

Haha, yeah, what's $40 more? I won't complain that much though! Hope it's a big one for you!

I just got mine today in the mail. I'm being given $24,960 for the first year, which they say is one of their "highest tuition scholarships." They also said that assistantships are available to work on research projects. Those typically pay about $15 per hour, and will be about 10-20 hours a week.

Thanks chellie99 - I'm waiting for any possible funding from GPPI before I really consider whether it'll be worth it, since it's really quite expensive! I'll be talking to some of my professors soon (hopefully) about the schools, so when I find out more information about the schools from them I'll try to post it here.

Hey guys, So I've finally heard back from all my schools, and have the choice of the following (in no particular order): American, GPPI, JHU (IPS), Maryland, USC, and UCLA. Discounting any funding, how would you rank those schools in terms of their social and education policy programs? Any input would be greatly appreciated!

Apparently, but I'm not hopeful of getting anything now anyway. I'm not sure if what they could offer would be enough to make it worth it anyway...

Rejected Ah well, didn't expect to get in anyway. Congrats to all who did!

Hm, I was never asked to send in an award essay for GPPI...I assume that means I'm not getting a scholarship?

Nope, still waiting for it to come in the mail. I can't imagine it'll take long for me...they're in Baltimore and I'm just a drive down the I-95 in College Park. Then again, I said it can't take Georgetown long to send me my admissions package from DC, but it's been more than two weeks and I haven't seen a thing...