hochen

Hey all, I'm going to be starting my first year of my MPA program this Fall and I'd like a little bit of advice regarding what future employers will be looking for. The first semester's classes have already been chosen- general intro classes for the most part. There are a number of different specializations that you can choose from after that and I'm not too sure what to explore. These include financial management, healthcare management, community/economic development, land use etc. I have no particular calling for a specific "field" per se, but as an Americorps VISTA I found that I really enjoyed project management and systems analysis. While that provides me some direction, I feel like I could do that in almost all of the specialization fields. I suppose I'm mostly wondering: Are there hard skills that I can acquire through the specializations that would make me a more attractive candidate for analyst or project coordinator positions in these fields? I'm worried about the fact that I don't have much work experience as well, with only a year and a half of full time experience before I applied for the program. Think that will hurt me as an applicant post graduation? Thanks for the help!

Hey all, The person I was counting on to give my personal statement a final proofreading opinion bailed on me. This is the only thing I have left before I can submit my application (time is of concern), and I don't know anyone else that is familiar with applying to an MPA program or non-profits. If there is anyone here that'd be willing to look at my essay and give me feedback, I'd be eternally grateful.

I'm in the middle of applying to the USC graduate school of SPPD for their MPA program and I have a question about the portion of the application that asks for past/future research and faculty that you want to work with. In my personal statement, I've discussed one professor that I would like to work with because he has done significant research in my field of interest (non-profit management/economics) and I was able to locate/read one of his papers online. However, there is a section of the online application it specifically asks for me to discuss faculty and past/future research I've conducted with an extensive word limit (about 1000 I believe). Unfortunately, I wasn't too involved with research during my undergraduate studies, I've never met/have been able to locate much of the research published by the faculty, and it's been a year since I've graduated so I don't have too much to write about in these sections. I was just wondering if it would hurt my application if I wrote a few sentences discussing topics I hope to research and professors I hope to work with based on their general fields of study rather than going into specific details that I don't have ATM. Thanks for your help

Hi all, As a somewhat recent college graduate, I feel that my level of work experience isn't quite up to par with other MPA candidates. I know people mentioned that extracurriculars/leadership activities can be considered relevant enough for a SOP, but I wasn't sure if mine were. Could somebody let me know if these experiences are worthwhile enough to mention? BTW the prompt is 1: Why do you want to pursue an MPA? and 2: How could an MPA advance your career goals and aspirations? And I am applying because I want to manage a non-profit someday (just for some background). 1. I was a staffer for the incoming freshman program at my university. Our duties involved the usual touring, but we did diversity training, career/academic planning, and general counseling as well. The entire program is entirely volunteer and all staffers are volunteering their time while students at other universities would be paid for their duties. Yet the program is still extremely competitive and only accepts about a quarter of all applicants (80 of 300 applicants) . On one hand, its not a "non-profit" per se. On the other, I was hoping that it would demonstrate leadership, organizational abilities, and devotion to helping others. 2. Sergeant of Arms for my fraternity. While it was a social fraternity and not a professional fraternity, my cabinet position was NOT comprised of boozing it up day in and out. On the contrary, I was responsible for the regulation of behaviors during meetings and social functions (collecting keys, driving people home that were drunk, restoring order if meetings were disrupted, etc.). In addition, I was responsible for the collection of member dues and coordinated certain activities during our annual charity event. So what do you think, relevant enough to be included? Both? None? One with some tweaks? Thanks guys

Hi, I was wondering if there was anybody that would be willing to take a look at my personal statement and give me some feedback? I'm currently applying for my Masters in Public Administration and the essay itself about 800 words. Unfortunately I made the decision to apply late in the admissions calendar because I had no idea such a program existed until I spoke a few months ago with a mentor. I actually wanted to go into law until I started actually working at a law firm, and lets just say that its not for me. Luckily I found a school that is still taking applications till July, so I'm going to just give it my best shot of going to school in the fall. Anyways, I'm a little bit confused about the whole process and what is typically expected from a personal statement for an MPA program. It'd help me out a lot if a few people could take a quick look at my paper and tell me if theres any huge amounts of information missing, irrelevant info, things that might not be appropriate to talk about, etc. If you'd be willing, please let me know and we can work it out over PM. Thanks!