northxnorthwest

I have a confession: I went to an average undergraduate university. Not bad, not terribly recognizable either. We didn't have a lot of money for my college so rather than accumulate over 100k in loan debt, I opted for the school that offerred to pay my way. I did very well, graduating at the top of my class with Honors and am now looking to apply to some prestigious grad programs in the UK (already sent in application to Oxford, now looking at Cambridge). I'm not sure how many of you have experience with UK universities but does it matter if I went to a ho-hum state college, even if I did very well and have good career experience to supplement it with?

Program Applied To: Development-esc Schools Applied To: G.W. Elliot, Tufts Fletcher, SIPA, American SIS, Brandeis, King's College, UCL, Oxford, University of Washington, NYU, University of Denver Schools Admitted To: n/a Schools Rejected From: n/a Still Waiting: all Undergraduate institution: Small liberal arts university (public) Undergraduate GPA: 3.75 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): 3.85 Undergraduate Major: Environmental Policy and Planning (Cum Laude) (Honors College) GRE Quantitative Score: Will take in two weeks GRE Verbal Score: GRE AW Score: Years Out of Undergrad: 1-2 Years of Work Experience: 1-2 Describe Relevant Work Experience: Model United Nations at the regional, national and international level (multiple award-winning). Internship at UN organization in Iraq, 1 year working for international technology firm in Jordan (current). Languages: English (native), Arabic (intermediate), French (basic) Quant: Macro, Micro, Stats, Energy economics, pre-calc Strength of SOP: Still working on it, though it mostly focuses on the role of foreign, small-business enterprise in sustainable development Strength of LOR: 1) Professor who nominated me as our department's outstanding graduate and spoke at the award ceremony on my behalf 2) Head of my university's honors department. Have known for five years and nominated me for the Truman Fellowship 3) Founder/CEO of a company I currently work for. We BBQ I would appreciate if I could get some feedback from you guys such as: 1) what are my weak spots; 2) am I missing any other relevant programs; 3) do I have a shot at any of these schools I am currently applying to? Cheers

Thanks everyone for your help. And yes, I do participate in some volunteering on the weekends (youth employment, protesting government land acquisition etc). But besides that I have a pretty full plate. My boss, who is an ex-NGO professional, believes that he can do more in the development field by starting a business overseas and employing locals than any other development related activity. With that in mind, a large portion of my job has to do with expanding internet opportunities to the Middle Eastern market (ie posting web tutorials in Arabic for aspiring developers to learn programming techniques) and using social media to brand our company image. That can be "spun" towards development-related activity right? Again, thanks you guys that commented. It has definitely given me a push.

So like many of those on this forum, I'm having a crisis as to when and if I should apply to graduate school. I would really appreciated some advice with this since I am currently abroad and have limited access to those in that might be able to help me. A little bit about my background: I'm 23 years old with a BA in Environmental Policy (3.75 GPA, cum laude, Departmental Honors). I came to Jordan in Fall 2010 for an internship with a UN office in their science division. Once that ended I decided to stay in Amman to learn Arabic and get some serious international experience. Currently, I am half-way fluent in Arabic and working as Marketing Director for an offshore technology company. Though this may not be directly relevant to my undergraduate degree, I've come to realize that is nearly impossible to get a paid position abroad (especially in the development field) without a masters. My question for all of you is, should I wait a few more years before applying for my Masters? I'm looking at schools like Georgetown, SIPA and WashU. It seems like such a catch-22 since all the jobs that would give me relevant international experience require a Masters and I can't get a Masters without said international experience. What's a girl to do? Any advice from those already in some of these schools (or on a similar career track) would be very very much appreciated. Thank you thank you