Azrou

$30k means they have a new cap for merit aid, because the highest offers used to be $20k. They mentioned wanting to increase the scholarship pool and I am pleasantly surprised that it's really happened. Most of the $100MM donation is highly structured (it's $10MM per year for 10 years, and much of it is earmarked to support certain initiatives). One of those initiatives is offering some admits a McCourt Fellowship each year, which covers full tuition and includes a living stipend, and is the first time that MSPP/GPPI has offered that kind of full ride. But I'm pleased to see that people receiving regular merit aid are also benefiting.

The Ivory Tower rankings are certainly an improvement over the USNWR ones, but since they are rankings of IR programs some don't offer MPA/MPP degrees (SAIS, Tufts) and in many cases have different schools in the same university that actually do (SFS - GPPI/McCourt, Elliott - Trachtenberg, American SIS - SPA). The answer to the OP is that it depends on your functional and/or geographic focus. Most programs have their strengths and you need to look at their faculty's specializations and course listings to get a sense of where their priorities lie. A lot of the state schools (think Goldman, Luskin, Evans, La Follette, Ford, etc) are good to outstanding regionally and offer much cheaper tuition if you are a resident, but some would argue don't have as strong of a national/international reputation and alumni network. For people to give you any kind of meaningful recommendations you will need to provide more info on your background and career goals.

For most federal jobs they don't care where you get your degree. If the requirement is a masters and you have one, they'll just check that off the list of requirements.

How sub-3.0 are we talking about? There is a big difference between a 2.9 and a 2.7. And your junior/senior/major GPA matters more than anything else. The general consensus is that most programs are willing to be flexible even if they have stated cutoffs if the rest of your application is strong enough to make up for a weak GPA, GRE, etc. However, the only way to actually know your chances is to email or call their admissions office, as their opinion is the only one that matters.

In my experience, MPA programs and employers really like Peace Corps and it counts for quite a bit on your resume. I can tell you that I get a lot of respect when people find out I'm an RPCV, even in DC where tons of people have done cool things and RPCVs are a dime a dozen. You should be set with an engineering degree as well, you will probably be busy planning your next Friday night out while the Philosophy and French majors are sweating out their problem sets. There are people from all kinds of backgrounds applying for and getting into top MPA programs. One of the keys is demonstrating your interest in the "Public" part of MPA, which is why Peace Corps is so beneficial.

If you think i am trying to insult you or put you down, that was never my intent, although maybe you should take a look at your own insecurities and not be so easily offended. Seems like you have an axe to grind for whatever reason. You made a post - I gave my perspective - if that isn't acceptable to you, then maybe you should avoid visiting a public forum. Admissions and academics do not operate in a vacuum. You're basically saying that the admissions office arbitrarily sets their own standards without regard to what the academic side of the program actually wants. A graduate school like Price doesn't operate like that - the academic side makes determinations like prereqs. What doesn't make much sense is that you think Price would distribute something that the program administrator disagreed with at an event that she herself was almost certainly attending.

They would not hand out something at an open house for admitted students (it doesn't get more official than that), which outlines what courses are acceptable, if they were in fact not acceptable. You said that you want to take the intro course to save money and because other people are doing it, so do it. You acknowledged that the program administrator recommended that you take a certain course, which is exactly my point - she thinks you could use the prep. I'm not sure what the ulterior motive would be.

I'm basing that off the sheet which USC hands out that someone posted up there, which says that lower-level and community college courses are fine. If someone from the admissions office said you should take a certain course, they probably had a reason.

They might base that off your GRE Q score. Either way I highly doubt they will stop you from enrolling if you just take an intro course, they probably just think you could use a little more prep for whatever reason.

For anyone coming to the GPPI open house on Friday, I'll be on the student panel and at the reception

I just want to clarify that you don't necessarily need to take grad-level courses or get a certificate. In fact, many times those have an application process of their own, so you need to consider whether it is a good use of your time, energy, and money. When I say "take a microecon course" I mean look at the undergraduate classes offered through continuing ed at your local public/state school. They are simple to enroll in, reasonably priced, the topic material is accessible and relevant, and a strong LOR from that professor is just as valuable. I'm trying to think of how to phrase this, but are you certain you could ace grad-level courses right now if you went into them cold turkey? Anything less than an A- showing up on your transcripts at this point is going to be a kiss of death and the step up in difficulty is substantial.

Work on your references...obviously the sub-3.0 GPA put you in a bad spot, but I think it was the LORs that really sunk you. GPA is really the only thing that is outside of your control at this point - work experience and volunteering, GRE scores, your SOP, and LORs can all be improved up until the minute you hit the submit button on an application. You didn't speak to the strength of the references, but just having an academic advisor writing one indicates you didn't make a positive impression on many of your professors. What's more, adcoms were probably raising an eyebrow at the fact that you have 3 years of work experience but did not get professional reference from one of your bosses. I don't know the reasons behind that but if I were looking at your application I would probably think that you are still haven't combined a sense of purpose and motivation with the natural intelligence that got you through high school, into an Ivy League, and good test scores. Here's what you need to do. 1. Rethink your choice of references. Do you know if the prof wrote a good letter or did he seem reluctant at all? Dredge through your transcript for classes where you got an A or A-, preferably upper-level courses in econ, political science, math, etc. Reach out to those profs even if you know they won't remember you, tell them what you have been up to and your future plans and see if you they will write LORs. Contact your previous supervisors as well. 2. Sit down and figure out what you actually want to do. Is it working on environmental policy? At-risk youth? It's cool to say you want to work in "government, the nonprofit sector, or in elected office" but those are the type of broad goals that high school graduates have, not people with several years of work experience trying to get into a masters program. I would guess that your SOP was quite vague and unfocused as a result. 3. Once you figure out what to do, find local orgs involved in that field and start sending out emails. Contact the HR departments of these orgs and think tanks and see if they'll take on an unpaid volunteer/intern. Look up alums from your undergrad institution and set up informational interviews. You're not going to get a paid position with no relevant experience and zero connections. You have to be willing to work for free. 4. Enroll in a summer or night course, preferably in microeconomics or something similar. Show up to every class, ace every test, and get to know the professor. Then ask the professor to write you a LOR. 5. Retake the GRE. Q and AW scores are decent but not great. Q is critical and due to the quantitative aspect of many policy schools, adcoms will look at that first. The importance of AW is debatable, but a better score can't hurt, and if you are as smart as you say you are then a 5.0 should be easily attainable. You want to give adcoms as many reasons as possible to think "his undergrad was a bit spotty but maybe he's got the maturity now to cut it here." A 4.0 AW is just another excuse to throw your application in the trash bin. 7. Scratch your SOP and write a brand new one. If you've done everything above then you have a much better understanding of your goals and what you have done and are willing to do to accomplish them. Rutgers won't blow people away, but it is a good school, and as mentioned above, state schools usually have a good reputation and network locally since that is where most grads end up working. George Mason and UMD College Park also have solid programs in the DC area if that's what you are set on. Finally, I think you can get into GWU and Wagner if you put the effort in, but just be aware that your GPA will probably mean that funding is out of the question no matter how good the rest of your application is...so be prepared to fork over sticker price if it comes to that.

I think 20 hours/week is quite feasible. Many people work at least that much without the luxury of telecommuting, i.e. add 1+ hour each day they need to go between work and home/campus. If you just need to worry about getting to class and back home it eliminates a lot of hassle. GPPI and many other programs don't have class on Fridays so you are guaranteed to be able to put in at least one full 8 hour day. Also keep in mind that evening program students work 40 hours while taking 2 classes, so taking 4 classes and working 20 hours seems easy in comparison.

If GPPI is your top choice, then you have nothing to lose by asking for additional funding. At the least I would advise waiting 3-4 weeks before making a decision because you might get an increase without even doing anything.

You can get the supplement for next year here: http://finaid.georgetown.edu/apply-now/graduate/ I wouldn't worry about it now though, you only need to submit it if you decide to attend. The exact instructions will be in the admissions packet they mail out. If I remember right you should look on the financial award sheet that shows your scholarship $.

Yeah I am sure they have your full application packet in front of them while they are reviewing the scholarship statements. You are probably going to rehash some of what you said already, but this is also a chance to bring back all the stuff you had to cut out because it didn't fit, or because it wasn't relevant to the SOP. For example I said that I had several friends and colleagues already at Georgetown/GPPI and so it wasn't just the standard info from brochures and the website that made me apply, I had affirmation from people I trusted that it was a quality program and a good fit for me. There are a lot of directions you could go in.

I did a little less than 1 page, with 1.5 line spacing. It was just titled "Scholarship Statement" and not address to anyone in particular, like my SOP.

This is entirely program dependent...most places don't state a cutoff, not because of PR, but because if they set it at e.g. 155 it would automatically discourage an excellent candidate with a 154 from applying. But some do enforce a cutoff just to reduce the amount of applications to a more manageable level. The only way to be sure is to contact admissions officers at the places you are interested in and see what they say. Just by showing continued interest you might actually sway them to take a second look at your app, if it had gotten binned.

I definitely would, after all your that is where your career goals are. Out of the core faculty David Konisky is most heavily involved in environmental policy so you could do a little research and mention him in your SOP as well.

You don't actually have to pick a concentration, they are optional. If you send an email to gppiadmissions@georgetown.edu you can ask for the current list of concentration courses. It's not posted online anymore because the actual offerings change each semester.

Why not apply to dual degree programs? Will save time/money. One year's work experience is a bit on the thin side but certainly doable, especially if you ace the GRE and if you have solid experience/references from undergrad.

You didn't list GPPI but I'll throw this out there in case you end up considering it. Each cohort has around 100-120 full time MPPs depending on the year, and about 20 evening program/part time MPPs. The class of 2014 was closer to 120 full time and the largest entering class so far. Core courses have 20-25 students and electives are 10-20. I have gotten to know several professors quite well even though I am just finishing my first semester. I only have my undergrad experience as a reference, so it's not really a fair comparison, but I'm pleased with my professors and can tell they enjoy teaching. If you are interested in social policy, you can look up Bill Gormley, Harry Holzer, Donna Morrison, and Mark Rom. There are quite a few students with RA/GA/TAships. I don't know exactly how many are available, but a majority of people work/intern so the competition for them isn't as cutthroat as you would think. I have a GA position through the end of the year but will be looking to get some more diverse experience over the summer and going into next year. However, I feel like if I needed something more low key I could land another assistantship here without much difficulty. Also I just noticed the OP was well over a month ago, but I already typed this out so I'm going to post it anyway in case it helps someone.

I don't really think there is any point to this pissing match, but if you are referring to the TRIP rankings (http://irtheoryandpractice.wm.edu/projects/trip/TRIP%202011%20RESULTS%20US%20RESPONDENTS.pdf) then AU is indeed #8 and GWU is #7. However GWU is pretty clearly in the "second tier" and very close with Columbia, Tufts, and Princeton. Georgetown, JHU, and Harvard make up the top tier. AU is a great school and in these rankings is far ahead of others like DU, Yale, etc, but the gap between 20% and 38% is notable.

I wouldn't think so, but I would suggest calling/emailing the admissions office to see. I accepted my offer a few days ago and will be at GPPI this fall, hope to see some of you there. Does anyone know if there is a Facebook group up yet?

I can speak from personal experience and say that I had a very bad semester early in undergrad with two F's and a D-. Even better, two of those courses were in my major. I retook them under my school's course forgiveness program and got much better grades, but they do still show up on my transcript, it just indicates that I repeated them and the original grades have been excluded from my GPA. I didn't address it at all in my SOP, and I was admitted to every school I applied to, including GPPI, Ford, SAIS, etc. So to answer your first question, your chances are very good. As for your second question, none of the schools I applied to asked for an explanation of a failing grade. However, there is a section on some school's applications where it asks "Have you ever been the subject of disciplinary or academic action at any college or university? If yes, what were the circumstances?" Obviously you are going to want to be 100% truthful. I believe you can be confident that your information would be kept confidential. Admissions Directors just don't have time to share dirt on 1000+ applicants with all their peers, and that's besides the professionalism/integrity issues. Whether your history will have a big impact on your chances, I can't predict. I will say that your specific case seems to be comparatively minor - it is not on the same level as sneaking answers into an exam room, plagiarizing other work, or paying someone else to write your papers. If I were in your shoes I would apply to all the programs you are interested in without hesitation. The cost of grad school is > $100k, do you really want to wonder years down the road if you could have gone to your dream school but didn't even try because you didn't want to spend $80 on the application fee?