TypeA

I don't know that an MBA would be really beneficial unless you want a position involving management in the future. Based on your interest in micro/immuno, maybe an MPH with a concentration in toxicology or epidemiology? The school may or may not offer that (in my understanding, epi is common, toxicology less so). Don't take courses just because you can; take courses that you find interesting.

I'm having the same problem--though I may be prematurely anxious--I emailed two of my recommenders Monday morning with my SOP and information about my programs and neither of them has acknowledged my email yet. I don't want to register them with my applications until they do, lest I appear presumptuous. I keep reassuring myself of two things. They already agreed to write my letters. I asked one in mid-August; the other I asked last winter, but I spoke with him in the spring and again in July. Not about the recommendation specifically, but since he asked my input about a potential change in the syllabus, I'm confident about his perception of me as a student. Call me optimisitic, but I don't think profs commonly renege on recommendation offers. It's still the first month of class, and their inboxes probably reflect that. Students trying to get off waitlists, switch sections, etc, plus everyone else who has probably requested recommendations. If I don't hear from them by next Monday, I'm planning to send a friendly email (hitting reply on my original email, so they can see that text) along the lines of "Hi! I just wanted to touch base to make sure that you received my email last week [describe contents]. I didn't want to register you on my applications until I had double-checked that you're still able to write a recommendation for me. If you have any questions or need me to resend any information, let me know." Et cetera. You might want to consider sending an email like that before you pop into office hours--it's quite possible, given the time of year, that it just got lost in her inbox.

I am (professional master's), but the reason hinges on my job and in- vs. out-of-state/private tuition. I have a full time job, so if I get rejected, I won't be without a plan. And I'm only applying to the in-state program that I'm interested in this year; if I decided to go out of state or private, I would want to work an extra year anyways to afford tuition, as funding is hardly a sure thing.

Hmm. In resumes/CVs to give to recommenders, did/would you include a list of classes pertinent to the programs you're applying to? This may be a moot point for PhD students who are continuing in the field they majored in, but I'm applying to professional programs that are a bit of a leap from my major.

Hello! Fellow (relatively) quant-deficient applicant here. There are two things I would do to address this. First, definitely spend part of your SOP (concisely) describing how you taught yourself statistics and econ when the situation warranted. I can't speak to Tufts, but I know that Ford doesn't actually require either, even if they are recommended. ETA: Have you taken the GRE yet? Scoring well on the quantitative (720+ in the old format is about 75th percentile, which is what Ford claims is their norm) might allay concerns. Second, make your knowledge of French and linguistics work for you by describing how those kinds of classes uniquely prepared you to pursue policy. Maybe it's the ease with which you pick up languages, maybe it's the quirky outside-the-box kind of analysis that linguistics requires (I'm making these up, though I did room with a linguistics major for two years). Concentrating in linguistics likely uncommon among applicants. Embrace that, and figure out a way to make it into an asset. Instead of what you're lacking, make the conversation about what you'll bring to the program that other applicants can't or won't. As to your barista job, I would suggest leaving it on your CV/resume, but not mentioning it in your SOP. It doesn't bring anything to the table, but your service work definitely does, paid or unpaid, so discuss that when you're talking about where you're at now. The economy is affecting everyone, especially educational institutions... and I don't know if you're from the state, but especially in Michigan. There's only one way I see the situation seriously working against you, and that's if the admissions committee gets the impression that you're only applying to graduate school because you don't know what else to do in the current climate. This is where your SOP comes in again; as long as you can clearly convey what you would like to do in the future and why a MPP is part of that plan, I think you'll be okay. For the TL;DR crowd: Write a killer SOP and I think you'd be an incredibly strong candidate for both programs.

You might want to list some programs you're targeting; your competitiveness will vary by school.

For what it's worth, I also had the experience of "they don't care what you put in the locker, as long as it doesn't go in the room." I'm pretty sure I saw people fiddling on their cell phones in the waiting room, prior to the test (but left them in the lockers). I would be surprised if they fussed over a glucose meter. The only thing that surprised me was the sweater policy--if you want to bring a sweater/sweatshirt/extra layer (like every single prep book advises), you have to wear it into the test room and leave it on; if you want to take it off, you have to put it in your locker (potentially wasting time, if you aren't on a break). Why don't you just give the center a call to ease your mind? They probably won't ask for any identifying information, and you can also ask if there's any way to expedite the approval process. The worst they can do is say no.

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPP Schools Applied To: U of Michigan Ford School (Top choice, only applying here this round. I realize this is a gamble, but have my reasons.) Schools Admitted To: Ford, also Michigan's School of Public Health (pursuing MPH/MPP dual degree) Schools Rejected From: N/A Undergraduate institution: U of Michigan (I haven’t decided whether or not this is going to hurt me yet) Undergraduate GPA: 3.35 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): Not sure. A bit higher, I think. Undergraduate Major: Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Science. Minors in Political Science and History (American) GRE Quantitative Score: 710 (72nd) GRE Verbal Score: 720 (98th) GRE AW Score: 6.0 (99th) Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 0.5? I graduated last April. Years of Work Experience: Worked part-time in a biomedical lab for two years, worked full-time for two summers and part-time for two semesters in an autism clinic, and am currently working full-time. However you choose to quantify that. Describe Relevant Work Experience: Although the autism clinic work itself was mostly administrative in nature, it did give me a firsthand knowledge of how pediatric mental health coverage works (or—more to the point—doesn’t work). The clinic served two very disparate populations: those covered by Medicaid, and those who could afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars per year out-of-pocket for therapy. Mental health/substance abuse policy is one of my areas of interest. Currently, I'm working as a regulatory coordinator in clinical research, which means I'm responsible for ensuring that the studies I oversee comply with human investigation policy. Languages: Enough French to graduate (four semester proficiency). Quant: Calc 1 (A-), Intro Stats (B+). No econ, but I’m planning to take micro (and possibly also macro) during the winter term at a state university; my job offers tuition assistance. Strength of SOP: I’m feeling fairly confident about my SOP. It's done and I've sending it around to as many people as possible for revision; I've gotten both positive and critical feedback, but overall I'm pretty satisfied. I haven't started the "personal statement" yet, so we'll see how that goes. Strength of LOR: I'm most worried about these. Due to the nature of my program (glutted with pre-meds), I can count the number of classes I had with less than 50 people on one hand, and I've never had more than one class with a professor. Two of my LORs are coming from poli sci profs from my senior year, and the third is coming from my current supervisor (a well-known PhD in neuropharmacology), who is also the director of the autism clinic.

Hello! I just finished my first SOP draft (MPP programs). I'm looking for some feedback, especially (but not necessarily exclusively) from other people applying to the field—these seem to be something a different beast than PhD SOPs. If you're interested, post here or send a PM. I'd be happy to review your essay(s) now or in the future. No seriously, I really like editing.

Let me preface with saying that this is not a thread about deciding whether or not to retake the GRE. It's an exercise in genuine curiosity. There's a multitude of threads on here about people getting lower scores on the analytical writing section than they anticipated, or scores that seem incongruent with their verbal scores. The general consensus seems to be that anything over a 3.5/4/4.5 (depending on your field) is acceptable, and adcomms easily dismiss the AW score, because it's a crapshoot and the SoP serves as a writing sample (or the application may actually call for a writing sample). So in your opinion, does this mean that there really isn't any benefit to scoring a 5.5 or 6.0? Discuss.

I haven't written my personal statement yet, so I certainly can't label it "compelling." I do have a plan, though: I'm using that essay to discuss the "when, why, and how" of my decision to pursue health policy instead of medicine. This will tie in my undergrad academics (there's a serious trend in the last year away from the natural sciences into the social sciences), service/activities, and former/current employment. My (nearly finished) SoP, by contrast, will have a paragraph about my current employment as it relates to policy, and the rest is pretty evenly divided between policy topics of interest/what I would like to do with my degree and why I chose a particular program.

I'd also be happy to help.

At my undergrad, we had Graduate Student Instructors. That's precisely what we called them ("GSIs"). There's no distinction between Master's and PhD candidates, but I would assume that's a title where you can be certain you aren't misrepresenting yourself in any way. I'm friends on Facebook with a few of my former GSIs, and that's the term they use in their "employment" section.

This is perhaps a bit premature to be worrying about, but here's what's recently developed in my application process: I have signed up for a visitation day at my top choice. The earliest visitation day (for which I've secured a slot) is during the third week of November. I should probably clarify that this is for a professional master's (MPP) program. Naturally I don't intend to put off writing my SoP, as I want to provide a copy to my recommenders. However, do you think I hold off on submitting my application until after I have visited, so that I can use the experience of my visit in my statement? The program doesn't have rolling admissions (verbatim from the site: We do not have rolling admissions. All applications should be completed by January 15; we notify applicants of their admission status by the end of March.) Thoughts? Do you think there might be an advantage to early submission (which precludes mentioning my visit in my SoP), even without rolling admissions? As always, thanks for you help.

This forum has proven incredibly useful—daunting at times, but useful—but I've noticed that nearly everyone posting is interested in IR. I've learned loads of things about HKS/SIPA/etc, and while it's all fascinating to me (I have a masochistic love for the application process ) it's not particularly relevant to the kind of MPP I'm hoping to pursue. I'll be applying for social policy programs, with the intention of pursuing a career in health/healthcare policy. Michigan's Ford School is my holy grail of grad programs (in-state tuition, among its many other merits). Also, across the board it seems like most forum members tend to be extremely qualified/competitive applicants for their respective fields. Out of curiosity, does admission into IR programs tend to be more competitive than other realms of policy, or is it pure happenstance that most people on this particular board are interested in IR?

That's spectacularly helpful. Thanks!

I'd also be happy to review it.

I'm not sure how relevant you'll find this, but I took the GRE with the mentality that I had to get it over with in one go. This was because I took it at the end of July, right before the new format, and I didn't want to have to completely start over with studying (particularly for the quantitative section). I did pretty well, well enough that I don't want to take it a second time, and I was personally motivated (both when studying and actually taking the exam) by the idea that I only had one shot at the old version of the test... that's just me, though. If it helps you mentally to know that you have a second chance, that's great, but I agree with the above comment to use practice tests as practice. They cost a lot less.

Thanks! That was really helpful for the second part of my question. Let me see if I can clarify what I mean in the first part: I know that this forum is hugely populated by PhD applicants/candidates, and in the SoPs for those programs, it is critical to have a specific research interest. What are the expectations, when applying to a professional master's program, of defining topics of interest? There are several topics I could see myself working with in the future, and while they all fall under the umbrella of health policy, they're otherwise a bit disjointed. Should I commit to one of these interests for my SoP, and flesh it out as thoroughly as possible? Can I use the paper to examine two or three, and explain that I'd love to use grad school to explore them in more depth?

Hello! I really need to get in gear in the next couple weeks and write up SoPs and personal statements for the MPP and MPH programs I want to apply for. Here are some sample prompts: For professional master’s program SoPs, how thoroughly should I develop my areas of interest? I have several, all within the purview of health/health policy, but otherwise relatively unrelated (e.g., the separation of physical and mental health vs. intelligent regulation of emerging technologies that have a direct impact on public health, along with a few others, though most aspects of health policy interest me on some level). My interests are largely motivated by work I did in classes during my senior year. I worked part-time in college in various positions, only one of which was particularly relevant to my choice in graduate studies (and then, only loosely, as I was an administrative assistant). I can discuss how one of the other jobs dissuaded me from pursuing medicine, though. I graduated in May and currently have a full-time position that is... shall we say adjacent to health policy, but I’ll only have been working for ~3 months when I write these essays. Is it improper to rely heavily on educational experiences (classes I really enjoyed that left me wanting to learn more) in my SoP when the prompt for the personal statement specifically asks for educartional opportunities?

It's been a few months, but if you're still looking--but just to share my story: I had Comcast last year. We managed to get a deal through a local authorized Comcast dealer (located on Industrial, I believe) where we got Basic Cable with HD, DVR, HBO/Showtime and high-speed internet for $89.99 for 9 months. That's their usual bundled cable/internet deal, but we got the HD/DVR/premium channels for free. I'm not sure if they're offering that again this year, but it's worth calling to find out if you're interested (granted, I only would be interested in a situation where I had a roommate to split the costs). A word of caution though--they don't notify you when those 9 months are up. We got nailed with a ~$200 bill the month that they transitioned back to normal payments. That said, they let us switch back to the basic package for the remaining 3 months of my lease without any fuss.

I tend to retain the "gist" of what I read pretty well, and I'll take notes if it's something I may need to know more thoroughly for an exam, as I find that rewriting ideas vastly improves my memory of them. However, when the situation is more that I'll want to refer back to an article/book/whatever for a written assignment, I like to go color-crazy. I have an assortment of highlighters and pens, that I use, but it's mostly my handy-dandy yellow and orange highlighters. I highlight text I consider "important" in yellow. To make it easier to skim through that, I highlight over keywords in orange. I'll note in the margins the overarching themes of an article--usually in purple, but that's just because I like my purple pen. If dates and names are particularly important, I'll highlight/underline/circle them in green (names) and blue (dates). This way, I can skim the non-yellow bits when I need to go back to the text, and usually can find what I'm looking for in no more than a few minutes. Mind you, I'm just now applying to grad school. I don't know if this is somehow "bettter" for undergrad--though I did have a professor ask me about it once, and he said he might start doing the same. But I think it vastly improved my performance in my political science/psychology/history classes after I made it part of my study regimen.