PrincetonOrBust

"I regret to inform you that your application is not among those recommended for further consideration." Dang. Really got my hopes up this time.

According to the State Department, this is perfectly appropriate: http://eca.state.gov/fulbright/facts-and-common-questions: Q: "Is it appropriate for Fulbright Student Program participants to refer to themselves as "Fulbright scholars"? Do you have preferred terminology when referring to Fulbright participants?" A: "Because the Fulbright Program is a scholarship program, any participant may refer to himself or herself as a "Fulbright scholar," even if that participant did not receive a Fulbright Scholar Program grant. "Fulbrighter," or a more specific grant category (e.g., "Fulbright U.S. Student," "Fulbright Visiting Scholar," "Fulbright U.S. teacher," etc.), is the preferred terminology. Fulbright Program participants may also be referred to as "Fulbright grantees" or "Fulbright fellows" regardless of program affiliation. - See more at: http://eca.state.gov/fulbright/facts-and-common-questions#sthash.kGzopSlV.dpuf"

I got recommendations from 2 judges that I clerked for and from a law school professor that I did research for. And Heck no i didn't tell my firm about this. My thought is why cause such problems based on the slight chance that this works out. Even if I do get it, i won't tell them until the summer, when essentially I will say "I'm taking a fulbright, I would like to be able to come back next year and work here, but if not, I understand."

I applied to Norway. I've never even been out of the country, so I am very anxious about this whole thing. Spain would be awesome... if you get it, you'll have to stay to June to Run with the Bulls!

Yeah, kind of. Its more an intersection of Law and Sociology. You?

You don't want to do it anyway. It is a terribly boring life. I'm one of the lucky ones having had clerkships and a job that my classmates would love to have had. And, yeah, sure, I've got a great view out of my 20th floor windows, my secretary will bring me lunch if I ask her, and I make quite a bit of money, but I have a feeling that if you're on this page/applying for a fulbright, there is some bit of artist or philosopher in you. Law will certainly kill that. I hope you get the fulbright.

Same here.

Just saw on CNN that there is a federal government shutdown in DC and elsewhere on the East Coast due to weather. Really hoping this doesn't impact notifications. I don't even know where the people making these decisions are though; I just assume DC.

Of course, i see the survey and immediately go to GradCafe. When I saw what it was, my first thought was that it is sent only to those who don't make it ... seems like it'd be much easier to get feedback from people who were accepted somewhere further along in the process. Hopefully i'm being over pessimistic.

Congrats to the admits! For the second time, Bust. See you again next year GradCafe.

I don't think its as "dumb" as you claim. Though it is impossible for me to find out which schools' administrators responded to the survey, it makes sense that schools like Kansas and Rutgers would be more likely to respond because they clearly have more to gain by gaming the ranking system. It really doesn't matter if Harvard responds or not because people know the name and the reputation, and Harvard is going to get 2000 apps every year, no matter what. On the other hand, if Indiana weren't ranked #2 in this survey (not to say that its not a good school) it would get considerably less applications, and thereby have a smaller qualified applicant pool. My point is that the better a school's reputation actually is, the less incentive it has to play the rankings game. So, when only 39% of schools are repsonding, it makes sense that the vast majority of these schools are going to be those with something to gain from their involvement in creating the rankings -- this is not going to be GPPI, HKS, WWS, and a few select others. These select schools may have actually participated in the survey, i don't know, but it stands to reason that they have less of an incentive to do so.

From the USN&WR website regarding methodology: The public affairs program rankings are based solely on the results of a peer assessment survey. Our rankings, completed in 2012 and based on surveys conducted in fall 2011, are based entirely on responses of deans, directors, and department chairs representing 266 master's of public affairs and administration programs, two per school. Respondents were asked to rate the academic quality of master's programs on a scale of 1 (marginal) to 5 (outstanding). Scores for each school were totaled and divided by the number of respondents who rated that school. The response rate was 39 percent. Perhaps the 61% of school administrators that didn't respond were the ones that were busy actually making policy, dealing with 1000's of applications, and working hard to get their students jobs -- leaving no time to fill out US News's survey. Perhaps some of these schools' administrators just had nothign better to do.

I can tell you that out of those programs, not only are you getting the best deal at UT, but in my opinion, its probably the best program of the four. Also, Austin is a fantastic city. I think you would be making a mistake to go anywhere else. Congrats on the acceptances!

I think its still a legitimate question. I applied to WWS in 2009 (rejected) and they did the same thing, but then e-mails came out a couple days early. Plus, this is a leap year, shouldn't that mean everything in March comes out a day early? Hopefully better news on this, my second try.

I did this in the past when I was first accepted to law school, and later when I was hired for clerkships. My thought is that if they know they have helped you and you are grateful, they'll likely stay on your side if you need recommendations for something else down the line. I kept it simple, even with the recommenders that I knew really, really well: Prof. X, I hope everything is going well. I just wanted to thank you again for taking the time to write a letter of recommendation for me last fall. You might be happy to know that, with your help, I was accepted to X, Y, and Z and I've decided to attend Z beginning this coming fall to study A. I owe you one! - Your former student.

The Princeton Woodrow Wilson School has an MPP for mid career professionals that is only one year long (+6 weeks in the summer) and is probably near the top as far rankings are concerned. They require at least 7 years of post B.A. experience (or a PhD, MD, or JD), but the average experience of admitted students is ~15 years. Take a look at their website to see the faculty and curriculum -- its pretty dang impressive. Also, the website lists bios of admitted students which is helpful in seeing what the school is looking for. The program is actually a bit LESS competitive than Princeton's regular MPA program, with admission rates closer to 25% for the MPP vs. about 11-12% for the MPA (of course, this is likely due to a lot of self-screening). Clearly, I'm bias, but I'm of the opinion that this is the best such program anywhere in the world. Good luck!

To be honest, it is likely that most decisions have been made at this point, at least preliminarily. If you self reported your scores, my guess is that they would consider those while waiting for the official scores to come in. In that case, you may still be ok if you can get official scores to them in a hurry. However, there are definitely some schools that just flat out won't begin to consider an incomplete application. I don't know if your schools are in that lot, but if so, I think you're boned, as I said, because most decisions are probably already made by now. The schools will probably give you more guidance, but I'm not sure there is much you can do besides get scores in asap. Good Luck.

People with a lot worse scores than that get into a lot of great schools. When the GRE reports scores to the schools, I'm pretty sure they report both scores and percentiles, so regardless of what you self-reported, the schools should have that info. If those scores are the weakest part of your application, I imagine you'll be just fine.

1. Princeton WWS (or bust) If I was willing to leave my job to go anywhere else though, it'd probably be: 2. HKS 3. Georgetown 3. Texas - LBJ