madbillain

Thanks, much appreciated.

who's going... the caption for the thread should be 'who's going'... sorry, couldn't help it!

So, I'm currently a 0L waiting to start at Columbia in the fall. But I was thinking about possibly also applying to MPP or MPA programs, specifically either WWS or HKS. Columbia has an established dual-degree program with WWS and has made it work with HKS in the past. I'm not sure I'd be qualified to get into those schools though. I had a good-ish undergrad GPA (3.6) from a top school, I have 3 years of work experience, 2 with a nationally known consulting firm and 1 teaching English abroad in China, and I have strong test scores (770 GMAT, 177 LSAT, confident I could crack 700 on the GRE, if that's necessary - i know HKS at least takes the GMAT). My issue is that I don't have a lot of public interest work experience. I did a fair amount of community service in undergrad, but not an exceptional amount. I also led several community service efforts while I was at the consulting firm. Aside from that though, I really have zilch. Theoretically, I would do a public interest internship during my 1L summer and apply then, so that might help. I guess the best narrative I could put together would be that I've always had an interest in public service but that studying policy to some extent in law as well as seeing the effects of a radically different form of government and policy while in China really ignited a professional interest in public policy. Do the posters here think that dog would hunt?