zourah

Sorry, not inside enough. I'm not part of the admissions process or student ambassadors...

It will be an email. A few days later, admits do get welcome calls from current students, though.

The only way to know if HKS admissions values TFA experience would be to compare the ratios of TFA:total applicant pool and TFA:total student body. I'll admit I can't do that, so everything else is speculation. That said, a huge number of my classmates are TFA alums. It's clearly a form of work experience the school respects, so even if it doesn't carry any additional weight or value over other professional experiences, it certainly isn't going to hurt you.

Some amusement while you wait... (by an MPP).

I took only macro in undergrad and did micro by correspondence from my state university. I don't know how much of an impact checking the quant box really has in the admissions process, but schools do accept these kinds of credits for the requirement. CU Denver sounds like a plan.

The plan is set up by the federal government, which limits service to local/state/national public service or nonprofits - I don't know why, but I'm guessing it has to do with political considerations.

Essay #3 of HKS starts off with the following prompt: "…Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country.”– John F. Kennedy, Presidential Inaugural Speech, 20 January 1961In the spirit of President Kennedy's famous exhortation, please tell the HKS Admissions Committee what you can do to change your community or world through your leadership and commitment to public service. Specifically, we are interested to knowHow your background has led you to apply to HKS;How you have engaged in public service;How you have demonstrated your capacity as a leader;How the Kennedy School experience would improve your capacity to contribute to the public good. In light of the prompt, how do you think one should structure the essay? Should one focus more on past accomplishments and work experience, and how it leads up to HKS as well as what he/she intends to do at HKS while skimming lightly on career goals? Or should the focus be less on past experience and more on future goals? Or a 50/50 mix of the two? I'm having trouble figuring out whether to emphasize the past or the future... Part of the beauty of the Kennedy School is that no one leaves pursuing precisely the same idea with which they entered. Keeping that in mind, and noting that three of the four sub-questions are set in the past tense, I'd recommend setting up your past as a strong foundation and then sketch future plans atop that - maybe a 70/30 split? Note that the question isn't quite "where are you going," even, but "how can HKS get you there?" I'm not connected to the admissions folks, but I think a natural structure is "I've done A, B and C - the K school offers D research center and E concentration work and once I've gotten two years with Prof F, it's completely natural to imagine me moving on to outcomes Y and Z, isn't it?" Good luck!

Check out the average age statistics on most programs and you'll find it's mid-20s - many actively seek to discourage students (or even reject applicants) straight from undergraduate work, as the learning experience and networking opportunities both improve when the class possesses a mix of real-life experiences. I entered the MPP program at 25 and am probably near the class median - you'd be far from the oldest in our program, at least.

Your applications are considered separately, and you can be accepted to one program and rejected from the other - I know of at least one business school friend who had hoped to do a joint degree but was not accepted to the Kennedy school, for example.

Get back to sleeping normally - your work experience is quality, as it's relevant to the skills you'll need for either an MPP or an IR program. Use the personal statement to fill in any possible holes regarding your devotion to public policy, but people do get in from the private sector - your recent work doesn't by any means disqualify you. Next, look past the degree name. HKS/SAIS/Fletcher/Walsh/etc have more in common than the variety of programs initially suggests, and all are designed as more professional than academic degrees (ask about the percent who go on to PhDs at each if you're curious about the character of the program). You'll probably apply to a mix based on your regional or technical interests, and that should work out fine, too.

I'm perhaps not the best to ask, as I applied to only one MPP program - the others were MA (or the quirky MSFS) programs instead. I knew I wanted to do international affairs, I knew that I wanted to stay on the East Coast, and those two criteria narrowed the list pretty effectively. If I were to do it again, I might have added WWS to the list, but six applications didn't seem to be an overwhelming number, so I saved the actual decision-making for after I got acceptance letters.

First things first, don't panic. This is a wide-ranging list, including both highly-competitive and more-accessible programs. You'll get in somewhere. The question is of figuring out which of them best suit your goals and then taking the time to make them love you. Do retake the GRE, but don't let it become a huge stress burden, either. Instead, read up on these programs. Call up their ROTC coordinators. Visit, if you can. And then start writing personal statements, different for each school, about what you see in their program and what you plan to take from it. And stop back here for commiseration and encouragement if you need it - just don't let the worry start eating away at you this early in the process.

It was somewhere just under 90th percentile - your test scores need to be good enough to indicate ability, but beyond that they aren't really the point. If after looking seriously at all the programs you like you're still not sure about the MPA/ID, apply for MPP. The former is widely respected and has its own niche, but you get absolutely no academic freedom your first year (even the structured MPP gives you a couple of electives), and its participants joke about doing all the work for a PhD in economics without getting the degree. It's possible to do an international and global affairs concentration, take the harder econ track, and focus on development issues within the MPP as well - and if you find you hate the upper-level econ, you still have the chance to refocus your efforts within the degree program. If you really want it, definitely go for the MPA/ID - but be sure it's what you want.

I didn't have quant coursework but got a solid GRE score - but I was applying MPP and not MPA/ID. Still, I'd be more concerned about econ credentials than the math. You don't mention your background there... While most programs prefer if you have at least intro micro- and macro-econ, SAIS and the MPA/ID are the two that really, absolutely will demand it. I had taken only macro; my SAIS acceptance was contingent on my completing micro before the start of classes. If you already have these, then I wouldn't worry as much. If not, that's where you should probably direct your energies.

Seconding the part about other character sets. I've had classroom study of Arabic, and without that, I'm really not sure how readily the RS system would have really allowed me to learn to read/write (I'm doing Farsi).