cornfused

Thanks for the input! I definitely feel better after reading that. Carpecc, do you have any opinion on how good or bad my credentials are in terms of getting into second or third tier schools such as UCLA ( I don't know how exactly the people on this forums would classify UCLA honestly).

I feel like I come from a different background than alot of the people here. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to go to college out of HS and while I did end up getting my act together at the end of my undergrad, I certainly had no intentions of trying to enter high level grad programs afterwards. Now that I'm out of college and have had a little taste of the real world i have given things some though and decided that a MPP track is what I really want to be doing. I feel like I have some things going for me as well as against me and I would like to see where others think I stand in terms of what tier I am eligible for, as well as what I could do over the next years to increase my chances. Here are my basic stats: Intended enrollment : Fall 2013 -2015 still figuring things out UG School: Pitt ( ranked #64 US University so middle of the road) Major: Economics and Anthropology GPA: 3.2 Econ GPA: 3.4 GRE (v/q/aw): 580/740/4 Exp.: Minimal. I volunteer at a needle exchange program right now and I'm trying to get involved in policy advocacy through them. I will be teaching English in Korea next year. LORs: I have a econ professor from undergrad who I could get a good recommendation from and maybe one from my advisor as well. I need to work on building another relationship for an LOR. SOP: I am very passionate about Reforming US Drug law, as well as aspects of our Legal and Penal systems. I am working on getting experience in the field. I hope my passion will be able to shine through in an SOP. I also did terrible in my first two years of undergrad and relatively well ( about 3.5) for my second two years. I'm hoping I can throw in a maturity narrative. Math: Stats/ Calc 1 (got a C though)/ econ background Desired Schools: My # 1 goal right now is UCLA. I would love to do Berkley but I don't see it happening. I would also consider Pitt's GSPIA program although I think I may be capable of better and I want to get out of Pittsburgh after 5 years here. I'd really like to be on the west coast or maybe colorado if possible. So there's where I stand. I feel like it sounds worse than I expected writing it down on paper but I think I have some things going for me with the good GRE ( again for my standards, I never had any intention of going to Harvard or Berkley) and the economics background, and more importantly I have some time to gain experience/ LOR prospects which I want to use as wisely as possible. One last thing I want to note is that I LUCKED OUT on my GRE quant. I was expecting to get about 620v/ 550-600 q. Thats about what my practice tests came out at. I thought I was bombing the quant while I was taking it and my head almost exploded when I saw the score. I took the GRE about a week ago meaning I have my 5 year window to use the scores. Because I can't plausibly see myself doing that well if forced to retake, I have to apply in that time frame so my time to gain experience is limited. So please let me know, what tier of schools if any would I be able to apply to at the moment, how can I compensate for some of the lower points of my applicant package, and what would be the optimal use of my time in terms of gaining experience. Specifically I'm interested in hearing how much the fact that I achieved a grad school worthy GPA for my second half of school will help me compensate for the 3.2 overall.