[edit: reposting yet again to include the final everything]
I'm hoping this will help future applicants as well. This is my first time posting, but I found these forums indispensable...for driving myself crazy
This, I think, will most help those who are coming from a very different academic background (humanities) and are looking for a career change.
Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPP, IR
Schools Applied To: Harvard Kennedy MPP, Georgetown MSFS, UCSD IRPS MPIA, Columbia SIPA MIA
Schools Admitted To: UCSD (full tuition scholarship plus modest living stipend per academic month), Columbia (first year scholarship of half tuition, International Fellows Program modest fellowship), Pickering Fellowship
Schools Rejected From: Harvard, Georgetown, Rangel Fellowship
Still Waiting: None
Undergraduate institution: Ivy League
Undergraduate GPA: 3.7 overall; 3.9 major
Undergraduate Major: English
Last 60 hours of undergraduate GPA:
Study abroad: Ireland (one quarter); China (one summer)
GRE Quantitative Score: 720/156 (74%)
GRE Verbal Score: 720/168 (98%)
GRE AW Score: 5.5 (96%)
Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 4.5
Years of Work Experience: 3-ish
Describe Relevant Work Experience: High school teacher to international students in the US (see below)
Languages: English (native), Mandarin (native), Spanish (fluent), French (beginning)
Quant: Literally none (see below)
Strength of SOP:The narrative/literary qualities of the piece I think were solid: a former undergraduate admissions officer friend praised it for its compelling anecdotes. An MBA friend helped me focus on self-promotion and quantifying achievements and effects/impact. Various other trusted friends pushed me to tweak the language a thousand times and hit word-limits while economizing language for pithiness. I toned down jokes, self-effacement, narrative arcs, and style for demonstrated interest in and ability for international relations. The schools I got into, interestingly enough, were the ones that had essay questions that actually required analysis of a current event or policy, not the ones that just had space for a personal statement.
Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc):1 professor, 1 director supervisor (in my case, the chair of my department), 1 school dean; all solid and personalized. I thought the combination was fairly balanced and showed that I do have work experience.
Other: I think I'm an anomaly on these forums. By looking at me on paper, there's definitely evidence for interest in something vaguely international and ability for theoretical analysis, but there is nowhere near the amount of evidence that I'm committed to the field. The typical applicant is a government/political science/economics/public policy major with a few years of experience in the public/nonprofit sector and some abroad work. I am none of those things. I was in a PhD program in literature (theory) for two years studying Marxism and pyschoanalysis and then became a teacher. I have solid knowledge of current events and have study abroad experience, but I know my profile is weak in comparison to most applicants. I supplemented this weakness by tailoring all my schooling and experience into narratives about how they relate to and prepare for international relations. I also said specifically that I want to apply for the Foreign Service and showed how I would fit there.
One other major weakness of my application was a lack of quantitative training. I somehow took not a single economics, math, government, or policy course in college, but I tried to smooth over that with an average GRE quant score and focusing on my verbal/written strengths.
I think the moral of my story is not to be discouraged if one doesn't fit the mold. The written statement portions of the application just need to be even more mulled over, massaged, reworked to make a specific case for oneself and tie up loose threads and lingering questions in ad-com's minds.
And a last bit of advice is to avoid these forums like the plague! They are anxiety-producing vortexes that intensify individual existential crises during the application/admission process and turn them into collective existential disasters! Just kidding. But they do turn normal people into page-refreshing zombies: better to just wait for an email from the schools and live life without the feeling that the next F5 determines your self-worth. It's demoralizing and humiliating.