StellaHaiti2

Yeah, I wish I had an acceptance under my belt already... I should have applied to another safety school with an early notification date just as an ego-shield. I did that for my undergraduate applications and it kept me pretty calm. I got rejected from the #5 school of 5 I applied to (it was not a safety school), so it stung a little less because of that. I also said to myself, "Now, you don't have to spend $1000 to go visit!" I also thought about my mom being secretly pleased I wasn't moving all the way across from country from her. Then I found this website and started to read everything, telling myself all the while, "I'm being productive in case I have to apply again, right? SOB." I then googled news about the school I was rejected from and gleefully read bad news. My boyfriend had a wonderful interview with their PhD department though and they are drooling over him (they invited him to speak at their school on his work on the very day I was rejected). In any case, he was not there to comfort me because he was at the school. Gaaah. I wish they sent the email one day earlier so I could have asked him to casually mention that he is less interested because I did not get accepted. REVENGEEEEEE. Even though I did my best to avoid picking a favorite school or getting attached to a certain future, I am pretty certain I will cry if I am not accepted at a few that seem within my grasp.

I blind-emailed students even before I was accepted (still waiting, actually) with good results. This school had student profiles, with the suggestion you contact them by looking them up in the school directory. These students do not normally get blind emails, as it turns out. They offered to contact other students for me and all were willing to answer my questions (I am waiting until I am accepted to follow up). Here was my template. Hi X, I am an applicant for the next MPA class, but unfortunately I can only visit your campus during the Spring Break. I would love to meet up with a student specializing in X, would you or anyone in your specialty happen to be in town on X date? In exchange for breakfast or lunch of course. If not, would you be willing and able to answer some questions about your experience at a later date? I currently work in (your former field), at (well known nonprofit), so I am definitely interested in your particular experience and decision-making process. Thank you for your time, StellaHaiti2

Just to compulsively share more: Acting out of optimism, I emailed a bunch of current students in my concentration last month to see if any of them would be willing to meet with me over their Spring Break (when I can visit if accepted). They were all really nice and said they would be totally willing to answer any questions I had. I told them I would deluge them after I find out. Also, just to whet your teeth, I was told this: "When Admissions sends out decisions, there will be a Google group to which you can post questions (since you likely won't be the only one with the same question!), and current MPAs respond with their thoughts."

Aw, thanks, for the little ray of hope! I was a little down because my first news back was rejection from GSPP.

Hmm, I wonder if they pay for flights to the hosting weekend? I am so antsy waiting for the news!

Applied: GSPP, GSPIA, WWS, HKS, Ford School Rejected from GSPP today! Waiting for the rest. tick tock. Wish I could have started with some good news to this application cycle, but oh well. I was ill at the thought of spending $1000 just to fly in to see the place. I graduated summa cum laude from a top 10 private school majoring in ARCHITECTURE. Rare bird there it seems. However did not work in architecture but jumped straight into redevelopment consulting-community engagement-public health and now getting my feet wet doing 6 months of volunteer impact analysis in Haiti. Almost 3 years experience. Want to study policy analysis to get more quant skills to complement my background in qual analysis (interviews, focus groups, town halls, that sort of thing). I hope the rest get back soon, I made plans to visit all the East Coast schools mid March. Would suck to tour the campus, get excited, and then rejected by email!