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MTJ

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    Washington, DC
  • Application Season
    2013 Fall
  • Program
    MPP

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  1. Previous Degrees and GPAs: Economics, 4.0 GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): 170V, 166Q, 6AW Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): 0 full-time professional, but 2 internships (government agency and think tank) and extensive volunteer national leadership experience Math/Econ Background: Econ major; coursework included Public Finance, Development Economics, and other policy-related electives Intended Field of Study in Grad School: MPP Long Term Professional Goals: researcher at a think tank, advocacy organization, or similar NGO Schools Applied to & Results: GPPI (accepted, $20K/year), GW Trachtenberg (accepted, 80% tuition + $16K stipend for first year), American SPA (accepted, $17K/year), CMU Heinz Pittsburgh track (accepted, $28K/year) Ultimate Decision & Why: CMU Heinz. This was a very, very tough decision, but at the end of the day, the decision came down to curriculum. In terms of the hard skills that it teaches, Heinz really is in a category of its own among policy schools. Consequently, it seems reasonable to assume that it will offer me the greatest versatility in terms of employment opportunities, particularly if I decide that the NGO sector isn't for me. Since I'm coming right out of undergrad, a skill-based program was most important to me, and that's Heinz's niche. I do wish that I'd applied to the DC track; I spent my undergrad in DC and, as I've been making my decision, the prospect of leaving the city and all of its associated opportunities is a lot more difficult than I anticipated when I was applying. So, I'll be applying to switch to the DC track, but even if that doesn't work out, the quality of the MSPPM program is worth being away from DC for two years. Advice for Future Applicants: 1) Study for the GRE, particularly the quant. Buy the big ETS book and work through as many practice tests as you can find (preferably online, to replicate the computer-based experience). The quant is fairly easy to learn - I didn't remember much if it when I started studying, since I hadn't touched that type of math since high school - and the essays are worth practicing for since you only have 30 minutes for each. 2) In each SOP, be as specific as possible about how that particular program will help you achieve your professional goals. By "specific," I mean identifying skills you want to develop and matching them to courses associated with the program. 3) This has been said before, but just to reiterate: don't assume that you can't get into top programs straight out of undergrad. If you have above-average stats and know exactly what you want out of grad school and can communicate that in an SOP, it's worth applying.
  2. Haven't made my final decision yet, but just want to give a quick +1 to this sentiment. If you have higher-than-average stats, good recommenders, and (very important) a clear enough idea of what you want from grad school to write a solid SOP, it's absolutely worth applying straight out of undergrad. I was fully expecting to only be accepted to one or two of the programs to which I applied, and to receive little to no funding. Things turned out much more positively than I expected, and my undergrad institution is barely top 100.
  3. I haven't gotten the email, but took a look at the link. Since it's being advertised as a separate "track" (as opposed to a concentration within the normal MSPPM curriculum), do you know whether it's possible for someone who's already been accepted to one of the "normal" tracks (MSPPM-2 years or MSPPM-DC) to switch to it? If it is, then that might be a factor in my decision, but otherwise probably not.
  4. It was very much a back-of-the-envelope calculation: I took the estimated cost of attendance (you can download a per-semester breakdown from http://www.heinz.cmu.edu/financial-aid/masters-programs/public-policy-and-management-msppm/student-expenses/index.aspx), deducted $14K from each semester, and added it all up. That, of course, is before factoring the possibility of working during the semester, so it's probably more accurate to say "$70K unfunded" than "$70K in debt"; I just figured it'd be best to be conservative and not assume that I'd find a job, that my academic load would allow for the possibility of working a good number of hours per week, etc.
  5. Yeah, I was basing the debt calculations off of the official estimated cost of attendance at each school, which I'm assuming is at least somewhat reflective of cost-of-living differences. That's definitely a good point, though. Plus, I hear Pittsburgh is nice!
  6. Yeah, that's definitely the direction in which I was leaning. I, too, tend to be pretty debt-averse, particularly since I'm going for an MPP rather than a JD...I just wasn't sure if the advantages of GPPI/Heinz were enough to make that aversion irrational. It's always good to know that others think the same way
  7. I could use a bit of input on this decision, as I'm not really sure what the overriding consideration should be. I'll be entering straight from undergrad, and have funding offers from GWU's MPP program (a research assistantship with full tuition remission plus a stipend), CMU Heinz's MPSPPM (two-year Pittsburgh track) program ($28K per year), and GPPI's MPP program ($20K per year). Assuming I receive no additional outside funding, this translates into post-graduation debt loads of $35K, $70K, and $90K, respectively. GWU's funding offer is, obviously, pretty hard to turn down, particularly when combined with the experience that I'd gain from the assistantship (I didn't get much research experience in undergrad). But I'm wondering whether any of these considerations might warrant taking on a significantly higher debt load for Heinz or GPPI: Both Heinz and GPPI seem to have a lot more national name recognition, and (based on what I've read on these forums) Heinz in particular seems to have a strong alumni network in a number of cities other than DC. So, they might offer me more flexibility if I decide that I want somewhere other than DC after graduation (I did my undergrad in DC and loved it, so right now I'm planning to work in DC, but obviously things could change in two years). That said, GWU seems to be aggressively working to grow its national profile, it's comparably ranked to GPPI, and it certainly doesn't have a BAD reputation. Heinz has a MUCH stronger quantitative core. While GPPI and GWU both require the standard regression methods and program evaluation courses, CMU seems to be the only policy program that requires MBA-like core courses in "scientific management" (optimization, decision modeling, risk analysis, etc.), which I have to believe would provide a significant leg up in terms of employment versatility. Now, GWU's business school offers similar courses that I could take as electives, so to some extent I could replicate that particular Heinz advantage; but, there's still the fact that a program's reputation (particularly among private-sector employers) is probably determined largely by the quantitative strength of its core curriculum. Georgetown, for its part, does not seem to offer comparable courses, either through GPPI or through the business school. GPPI offers a LOT of electives, far more so than any other MPP program, in my area of interest (financial market regulation), and also offers the option to write a thesis as my capstone, which really appeals to me (again, didn't get a lot of large-scale research experience in undergrad). So, bottom line: should I take GWU's money and not look back, or is there an overriding reason why Heinz and/or GPPI would be worth the extra debt? And, recognizing that the difference between $70K and $90K in debt is a lot smaller than the difference between $35K and $70K, which program (Heinz or GPPI) would be better on the merits? Any feedback, particularly from current students at any of these three programs, would be much appreciated! Thanks! Good luck to everyone in your decision-making.
  8. MPP applicant here - haven't received a formal admissions letter, but I just got an email about funding. Seems like a weird order in which to do things, but I assume it means admissions decisions have been made?
  9. I'm still waiting on a funding notification from GPPI, so this might end up being moot, but at the moment it looks like my decision is going to come down to GPPI vs. Heinz. One factor that I didn't really consider as I was applying, but that I've increasingly been thinking about now that I'm faced with having to make an actual decision, is geographic versatility. While I'm right now fairly certain that I want to work in DC immediately after completing my MPP/MSPPM, I do think that, all other things being equal, it would be good to keep my options open in case I don't feel the same way in two years, or in case I want to move somewhere else after a few years in DC. Based on what I can glean from the schools' websites, GPPI's recruiting, alumni network, and placement seem to be very DC-centric, and while the Georgetown name is certainly well-recognized everywhere, the curriculum seems very federal-focused. By contrast, CMU's graduates seem to be more widely dispersed, and I've seen posts on this forum indicating that their alumni network is very strong in Chicago, Silicon Valley, etc. (without seeing comparable indications about GPPI). In addition, CMU's curriculum, with its focus on skills (particularly really advanced quantitative skills that aren't touched in other MPP programs) rather than topical areas, seems like it would be much more versatile across sectors, which of course is correlated at least to some degree with geographic versatility. In the end, then, my question is this: does anyone have any information or insight, beyond what's available on the site, as to whether a degree from GPPI would limit my options for employment outside DC, at least enough to be a consideration in my decision-making? In other words, is GPPI primarily a pipeline into the DC job market (which means, basically, the federal government and the contractors and nonprofits that deal with federal policy), or would the Georgetown name and the strength of its core curriculum (more quantitative than the other DC schools, but much less so than Heinz) be sufficient to open up similar opportunities in the non-federal sector outside DC? Thanks! Congrats to everyone who's gotten in so far and good luck to those who are still waiting.
  10. Thanks! Didn't apply for the DC track, because I want to have the option of taking higher-level quant courses. I submitted my app on January 5, which, if memory serves, was the deadline.
  11. I logged in today and found an acceptance letter. MSPPM, 2-year track, $14K/semester funding. My stats: 166Q, 170V, 6AW, 4.0 GPA, Economics major, applying straight out of undergrad.
  12. Heard from American in late January and GPPI last week. Accepted to both, still waiting on funding. Stats: 4.0 undergrad GPA, Econ major, 170V 166Q 6AW, applying straight out of undergrad (though with lots of internship experience and multiple national leadership positions in a student human rights advocacy organization).
  13. I recently applied to several MPP programs. After submitting my first, I noticed that I had a typo on my resume: I had accidentally written "2012" instead of "2010" for a previous position, so it made the employment section look strange and out of order. Naturally, I fixed that immediately. However, after submitting two more applications, I noticed ANOTHER error, this one in formatting: in the education section of my resume, the indentation of the bulleted lines was slightly off. The bullets themselves were lined up with those in the rest of the resume, but the text was slightly (but, I would say, noticeably, at least once I actually picked up on it) closer to the bullets than in the rest of the resume, due to some sort of MS Word vagary. As always seems to be the case for some reason, I somehow completely missed both of these during several dozen rounds of pre-submission proofreading. So, I guess my question is: how screwed am I for the schools that received the version with the formatting error, and (especially) for the one that received the version with both errors? For all but one of these schools, I'm past the priority submission deadline, though not the final deadline; does the cost-benefit analysis work in favor of re-submitting the resume via email, or should I just wait it out at this point? For whatever its worth, I have a fairly strong academic profile--4.0 undergrad GPA (economics major), 170V/166Q/6A, recommendations from professors and supervisors with whom I had strong relationships, etc.
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