kcstudent

I'm currently entering my senior year of undergrad and trying to decide if I should even apply for the dual MPP/MBA programs in which I'm interested. I would, of course, prefer to attend a top 20 school, and the options are limited anyways for the dual program. Professional experience is highly preferred from what I've read on school's website and in this forum. What do you think it takes to compensate for professional experience? I do not come from a great school, having spent my first two years at community college and then transferring to a local school that's not all that well-regarded in the liberal arts. I've decided to stay a 5th year in school, since my scholarship extends that far, so I can get some more classes under my belt. Stats Anticipated graduating GPA: 3.7-3.85 Political Science & Economics majors; Business and Communications minors 1.5 years as Deputy Director of a state political party (first intern, then employee) 6 months doing legislative advocacy work for a non-profit (paid intern) hopefully soon to be starting the student career experience program (SCEP) with the federal government, waiting on the background investigation clearance (will be p/t position) Small policy fellowship earlier this summer President of a political college organization Other random service/political awards 1 paper published in my college's research journal GRE scores TBD Should I rack up $1,000 to apply to schools (usually $50-$80 per program per school) or try to gain some professional experience? I'm really hesitant to relocate to get a job right after undergrad, and there are really few jobs in the policy field in the state that I'm in, unless you're working as a legislative assistant to a state rep for $20,000 a year.. which is mostly constituent service anyways. How important are letters of recommendation? Is it better if the professor or person of recommendation attended the school to which you're applying? What makes a good letter of rec? When it comes to SOP, do schools want REALLY specific ambitions, like "I want to work for X organization in X position?" Or, are they looking for a more general idea of the area you want to study and what type of job you may want to have? I would ask these questions to our faculty, but our departments are small and limited and most of them have minor or no knowledge about the MPP professional degree. Ideally I'd like to do whatever it takes to get the most funding for grad school. Funding is very important to me. Any help would be great. Thanks!

This is my first post and I'm in a state of 7-days-till-GRE panic, so please forgive my rambling. I'm entering my senior year at a mediocre local university that doesn't qualify for a general undergrad ranking from U.S. News, and I spent my first two years hopping around at local community colleges. I had great high school credentials and was accepted into great universities but decided to shoot myself in the foot to stay in my home city. I'm majoring in Political Science with minors in Economics and Communications. I'm currently in a whirlwind of decisions. I first planned on not attending graduate school and going straight into the joke of a job market available to BA Pol Sci graduates. I'm facing an uphill battle with the quantitative background needed for those Masters degrees. I've always 'dreamed" about teaching at the college level or working for a research institution, but it's something I thought I would pursue later in life. I'd like to study political communication, public opinion, and have a broad interest in issues surrounding campaigns and elections. I'm also interested in policy, hence the MPP, so a PhD in policy wouldn't be too far off either. I should eventually make up my mind on that. I have 1.5 years experience as Deputy Regional Legislative Director of my state's political party and 6 months experience in the nonprofit field working in legislative advocacy. I've had one pol sci research paper published in my mediocre-school's undergrad honors research journal (no original quantitative research). I'll graduate with 3.7-.3.8 GPA. I'll have 2 good letters of recommendation, but one is from a non-pol sci professor. There is little staff at my university and not much room for possible conference attendance. I'm undergoing the background investigation process for a student career experience program (SCEP) position with the Federal Government, but that's probably just cubicle work. Do these experiences even mean anything in comparison to having more undergraduate publications? Should I quit the jobs, go broke, and focus on research in long shot attempt to boost my research credentials to get into a PhD program? I'm trying to decide whether to stay in my undergrad program an extra year and turn my econ minor to a major and add a business minor - any opinions on that? I'd be able to raise my GPA a little, but I'd also be graduating with 150 credit hours and would get into a little more debt with what's not covered by my scholarship. Do you think that what's learned in the MPP/MBA will be beneficial later in life in pursuing a PhD that concentrates more on political communication/campaigns and elections/public policy (yes, wide range). I'm looking into MPP/MBAs that have some specialization in market research and survey formation because I feel like those could be good assets to the quantitative skills needed in PhD research and some of the media/communication background. How do you know which Phd programs are top 20-40? I know the obvious top 10, but other than that some of the public state school's and small LACs seem to fall into the gray zone. Any suggested websites geared towards PhD rankings? Do most Political Science/Public Policy PhD candidates come directly from undergrad, and if not, what kinds of positions/experience do they shoot for in-between undergrad and grad school? There are essentially no research opportunities in the midwest area that I am from and I'm hesitant to relocate unless it's for school or a job I'm looking to stay in permanently. Do organizations like Kaiser and Brookings hire applicants with Masters or do they go more for PhDs? With the incredibly saturated teaching market, would it be better to wait to pursue the PhD so I could possibly raise my chances of getting accepted to a better university? Do most PhD programs value professional experience, or do they more so want 22 year old high achieving brainiacs? There are 10 pol sci PhD candidates at my school, which befuddles me considering their low chance of being hired as professors. I'm at the point of thinking of applying to both PhD and MPP/MBA programs, wasting like $1000 on applications, and just seeing what happens. Or, I may stay in school. Any thoughts at all would be great and dearly appreciated! I've also thought about graduating on time, being May 2012, and then pursuing another Bachelors at another university. If you made it to the end, congrats, and thank you! I want to continue in school no matter what because I'm dying to go to a university that actually gives a hoot about their students, and hopefully has some great professors as well.