zourah

Another veteran of taking back the Senate!

Thanks, younglions. I felt that saying it aloud might come off as too bitter, myself. Don, I'm glad for you. I'm just confused as to the financial aid criteria at play (and yes, a little bitter at my all-loans offer).

Do also keep in mind, however, that even perfect scores are not a magic bullet. I'm a good test-taker, but with an unfocused SOP and only a year's work experience, still received rejections from Fletcher, MSFS and HKS. Don't let the GRE become an obstacle for you, because your scores really don't hurt OR help you all that much. Get a decent quant score and then stress about other things.

hooray! (and join the MPP '11 facebook group!)

yup.

so will you be joining us? welcome!

We apply to too many of the same programs. So long as the Georgetown-MSFS thread doesn't get led off into GPPI-land, for example, I'd rather share the worries and joys of waiting for HKS letters with all the other prospective MPPs. I think we co-exist nicely, and I'm comfortable simply ignoring threads for schools I'm not interested in (both IR programs I didn't apply to AND domestic-only policy schools).

I have no idea about this. I'm one of those crazy people who actually use semicolons casually, but I remember trying to keep myself simple (not stupid, just simple), so I have no idea to what degree my personal style helped or hurt.

But it's also about the IR/Security differences. Those rankings are for IR/political programs, which are not strongly related. I wouldn't call them "ghastly" or worthless - just not relevant to the question at hand.

I believe it's looking for the ability to 1) state a thesis (preferably in the first sentence, definitely in the first paragraph) 2) identify two to four supporting points (anecdotes, facts, observations) and give them a short paragraph each 3) conclude by pointing these middle arguments back to the core thesis and 4) do so in coherent English. I remember writing a completely generic argument on something like "change is good," but I used this "5-paragraph outline" format that I'd learned in junior high school and got a 6. This is not an exercise in finding talented future novelists, nor is it really an exercise in good writing - just a test of being able to make a point coherently. Pick an answer to the prompt, no matter how patently simple, and then back it up neatly, and you're good to go. Don't worry about subtlety of analysis - think about making sure the readers understand your point and will feel that you've persuaded them to adopt that same view in some way.

I'm in NYC, so I probably don't use my membership quite often enough to make it really worth the annual fees. Then again, it's enough of a convenience when I do need it that I'm not planning on giving it up, either. I've moved four times in the past year and a half, and being able to just grab a friend and book an SUV makes the process pretty simple. I'd think that in a place with less omnipresent public transit, it would really be a help.

Missouri! Also, check out the Gov't Affairs sub-forum - most of the K schoolers are over there instead.

Or join the network, but adjust your account settings so only friends can see your wall and photos. Facebook privacy settings have gotten more sophisticated over time, and there's no reason to think of network membership as anything more than a convenient way to make yourself more search-friendly for people in the same group. I'll join my grad school network and keep my membership in my current employer and undergrad networks, too - not that anyone I haven't friended can see anything more than my basic resume info and music preferences, anyway.

Much appreciated - it links to a couple how-tos I hadn't found yet. Yeah; I wasn't advising that as a solution for the OP so much as commenting on personal experience. Then again, I think it's not unreasonable to expect that a demographic as comparatively young and educated as gradcafe has any number of people who could pull it off.

Those both sound like incredible options. Best of luck with everything.

I grew up in Columbia (CoMo). I can't offer any advice about the school, but as for the town, be sure to discover Shakespeare's Pizza and Ragtag Cinemacafe early and you should do just fine.

I certainly didn't go into the process thinking of it as such - I considered Elliott to be my back-up plan. My opinion of the academics remains good - I think what you're seeing is that given the choice, many of us have found it to be a less-enticing choice, and yet not necessarily for reasons of course quality. This impression might just be due to their lack of appeal to this year's grad cafe crowd; possibly a sample-size error, really.

To the former, not at all. I'll get to DC (or NY or the field) soon enough. I've been in the middle of a big international bureaucracy for two years - I have a network of sorts already formed and don't feel the need to spend two years building another just yet. As for the latter, I was concerned, but it feels like 1) they'll be able to bring in new, interesting people to fill the holes and 2) the faculty on leave could end up bringing some interesting advantages anyway - no teaching, sure, but connections for internships and employment, dragging speakers up to talk, etc. We'll see, but I think it balances out, more or less.

I'm a devoted Mac user. For all the complaints about pricing, Macs are actually fairly competitive with similarly-spec'd PCs - they just don't offer a down-market model. However, when my MacBookPro got stolen (sadness!), I couldn't afford to replace it right away and ended up purchasing a Lenovo tablet on serious discount. I hate Vista but am researching getting Ubuntu up and running instead, which looks like a manageable project for a quiet weekend sometime soon. Since the OP set an $800 budget, Macs are out (starting at $999, and I don't think student discounts are that steep). For PCs, I'm solidly in the IBM/Lenovo camp. I help maintain and repair the laptop fleet for my department of 150 people and much prefer the ThinkPads to the Dells and Vaios I also have to deal with. They're completely solid, easy to buy parts for and repair when things go wrong, generally loaded with fewer junk utilities you'll curse/uninstall... and unlike macs, periodically end up on sale. If this is going to be your primary or sole computer, I'd definitely endorse them. If your desktop is still up and running, the idea of a netbook for taking notes in class is fine, but not necessarily a great choice for anything requiring heavier processor power.

I personally declined SAIS, Fletcher and SIPA yesterday afternoon. SFS I have a very good opinion of, but as a waitlist candidate was unable to do proper due diligence there. For me, I wanted a different preparation than SAIS's 6 econ courses would offer and found that the HKS research centers and outside-of-class opportunities outweighed the more tempting course catalog and community of Fletcher, though both of those were difficult to rule out. I had laid out a spreadsheet with categories for costs, employment breakdowns, profs with interesting research, drool-worthy course offerings, etc and then talked it through with a handful of close friends/family "advisers." Best of luck! You're going to be fine with any choice so long as you don't second-guess yourself.

I'm voting HKS only because I met you at the visit day (just before the IGA presentation) and think that your experiences and perspective are things I'd love to have in a classmate. Either school is going to be great, though - go with your gut.

Yes, but on the flip side, HKS is not your new bicycle (or magic pony, or whatever) either. The value judgment between those two priorities is entirely personal. That said, see you in the fall, runaround! fes, we'd love to see you too, if you decide it's worth it

This isn't a choice about the programs anymore - once it's a choice this personal the grad cafe-goers are not going to be any help. Find a couple, maybe three people who know you really well and will be willing to spend an hour (each) as sounding boards. Talk about the choices - what you're most likely to regret taking the better financial deal, worrying aloud about the HKS debt - and then decide. Sleep on the decision, and repeat the pattern of conversations if you have strong second doubts. Then decide for good and don't look back.

Previous Schools (Name, type, or tier): Vanderbilt University Previous Degrees and GPA's: BA, French & European Studies, 3.8 GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): 690/750/6 Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): 6 months as a field organizer for a statewide campaign; 1.5 years as a tech geek at UNHQ. Math/Econ Background: Intro Macro in undergrad, Intro Micro done online from a state univ, took Calc in HS Foreign Language Background: French, Spanish, beginner Arabic Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Int'l Affairs - political focus, hopefully as broadly defined as possible Long Term Professional Goals: a return to the UN, entering the Foreign Service, or political/public advocacy for foreign policy all have their appeals. I don't really believe that graduate study requires a laser-focus. Schools Applied to & Results: Georgetown - Walsh (waitlisted) JHU - SAIS (accepted) HKS (accepted) Tufts - Fletcher (accepted, some $) Columbia - SIPA (accepted) GW - Elliott (accepted, $) Ultimate Decision & Why: HKS. -I first ruled out GW on reputation and rank and attended visit days for the others. -SIPA felt too huge and impersonal and was another easy decision to exclude. -SAIS I really liked (their ILO concentration would have been a pretty good fit), but despite accepting their insistence that economics are important in international affairs, I couldn't bring myself to agree that they're 1/3-of-the-curriculum important. I'll be conversational in econ; someone else can be fluent. I want to spend more time on things I really do care about. It really came down to Fletcher, where I'd felt very much at home and which does, in fact, have a deeper catalog of cool coursework. In the end, I know that my own meandering ways would come back to hurt me there, where I can dabble in entirely too many different things with no focus. I'll definitely take advantage of cross-registration, though, and see if I can't make some friends in Medford, anyway - it was really a welcoming community. In the end, there are big conversations happening, and I hope that from HKS, I can be part of them. The Carr Center's research really appeals to me, and I get the feeling I'll be able to contribute. Here's to starting the next big adventure... A lesson for others Two years ago, 6 months out of undergrad, newly unemployed after campaign season, and while planning simultaneously to take off to Morocco as a response to that panic of "I have no idea what I'm doing with my life!" I sent off applications to HKS, Georgetown, Fletcher and GW. Same grades, same GREs, one recommendation in common with this year's round - and got rejected by everyone but GW. I think the lack of focus really showed, and I am (now) very glad to have had those two extra years doing interesting things and narrowing my focus. Anyone who got a work-experience-specific letter from Fletcher or SIPA (does anyone else send them?) - hold out hope, and try again. A few years can change everything.

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