Paul Chung

It seems like Price grads go all over the place. I think a lot depends on where you want to go. I don't think the degree restricts you to working in California, it's just that more than half of the students are from California and prefer to stay here. Students outside of California stay here and find good jobs in LA or the Bay because they fall in love with LA or CA weather. I have met other grads through networking and current second year students who wanted to go into consulting and got jobs with BCG, Bain and others. There are some too who get federal jobs so they either go to DC or some field office. I think it depends on what you want to do and on how you network and market yourself.

To SolGrad91, I hope this helps. I am a first year MPP student focusing on education policy at USC. First of all congratulations on getting the Dean's Merit Scholarship. It definitely helps in making your graduate education more affordable. I had the situation last year where I got into some "bigger" names in the East coast, but I too was from southern California and received the scholarship. Besides the scholarship, there are some advantages that the Price School can offer you. Since USC has a large and diverse group of graduate programs, you can take classes in other great programs. I will be taking some classes at the Rossier School of Education to get some education governance classes. In addition, if costs are a factor, the Rossier School likes to hire MPP research assistants since we have a stronger quantitative background than M.ED students. There are also numerous other policy related opportunities in which renowned education experts have participated in round table discussions and in policy forums. If you plan to work in California, you will indeed get access to the "Trojan Network" that will be beneficial in finding jobs in the West coast. I know you have some tough decisions to make. University of Chicago is an outstanding school, and if you want an extremely quant heavy program, that's a great option to have. I advise to come out to the Dean Merit's Event and meet your potential cohort. It's what sold me on coming here. Good luck!! Paul

I have a very strong match with my adviser. It was one of the encouraging aspects of this recruitment process. It was reinforcement that they actually read my SOP and found a "mentor" who is passionate about the same interests as myself. I would like to get assistance in finding a good internship as well.

I think you need to contact your advisor because the stats class you need to take is only two units. You'll be taking ten units the first semester instead of twelve and the university will need to adjust the amount awarded. http://www.usc.edu/schools/price/programs/masters/mpp/curriculum/course_sequencing.html

Well congrats to those who made the program. I didn't get in, but I have no gripes. There are a lot more qualified applicants than myself who didn't get in. To those people, I send my condolences. At least the silver lining is I'm not checking my email every five minutes. I can sort of go back to my life and start preparing for the move in five months. I'm grateful they at least sent us rejection emails the same day so we're not out in limbo waiting in the lobby of graduate school purgatory. I may want to earn a Ph.D in Policy so I have one more chance at GSPP in two years. Good luck to everyone.

I have received most of my relevant acceptance/rejection letters. I have decided on attending USC for my MPP starting August 2012. Since I know many readers here will eventually be attending USC SOL PRICE for their MPA/MPP/MPL, I wanted to start a little community of future Trojans. My name is Paul and I live in San Diego. I will be attending the Dean Merit Scholarship Event on March 23. Who else is planning to attend?

Congrats... many of us are very jealous of you right now.

Can someone claim the acceptance? I just saw on the results survey the first email confirmation of acceptance to GSPP.

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.) :MPP, Ph.D Public Policy Schools Applied To: GSPP (UC Berkeley), George Washington, Univ. of Minnesota, USC, UCI (Ph.D in Planning, Policy, Design) Schools Admitted To: GWU, UMN, USC Schools Rejected From: UCI Still Waiting: UC Berkeley Undergraduate institution: TOP 10 Public School Undergraduate GPA: 3.1 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate: 3.84 GPA (if applicable): Undergraduate Major: Urban Planning/Economics GRE Quantitative Score: 158 GRE Verbal Score: 157 GRE AW Score: 4 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable):0 Years of Work Experience: 8 years in private sector including a 3 year run as an entrepreneur. Describe Relevant Work Experience: The only policy related work experiences I've had are my internships during undergrad at the San Diego Housing Commission and research work. My private sector experience is mostly business related. Languages: Korean, Spanish (I hope to be fluent by the end of Masters program) Quant: Econ degree from a very quant demanding University. Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): It was hastily written as if I was running into a deadline. However it's been conceptually written in my head for years. I've always known I wanted to get into policy work but I dropped out of college years back when I found lucrative private sector opportunities. To be frank, it's very difficult to go back to college when you make more money than mid-career graduate degree holding people make. On my SOP, I wrote about the personal experiences where I saw good (urban planning policies in Denver) and bad public policy (Access to Healthcare) in shaping my commitment to go back to college, complete my undergrad, turn my grades around, etc. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): I hope my professors were not as haste in writing the LOR. However I had personal relationships with all of them. I consistently engaged in thoughtful discussion. I sought out any presentation opportunity since I knew that public speaking would be something I had a leg up on my cohorts. I'm pretty sure if LOR's are a critical decision making factor in my acceptance, I'll be in solid footing. Other:

I'm on the same page with you. Like most posters here, I got a Dean Merit Scholarship at USC, so I'm not super stressin. I'm excited for it and would consider pursuing a dual master's in Planning and MPP if they would allow me to do it. However, I'm a California liberal so Berkeley is sorta the dream school. I think it's the only school I would be heartbroken over not getting into. It's only now when I read all the gpa's and gre scores of all the ppl applying to GSPP in this site do I regret not really studying in college. Perhaps I should have opened up my GRE book? It's a lil too late now. So here's to tomorrow!! Hopefully the decisions come tomorrow and we can start making our plans for next year!!!

So should I assume another day has passed and we're no closer to figuring out where we're going next year? How many of you guys are waiting for GSPP to make a final decision about which program to attend? I have a sketchy academic past so I don't know if I'll get admitted but I really really want to go there.

I know there's no point to check my email this late at night, but I've been doing it so much this past week that I feel lost if I haven't checked within 30 minutes. Help me.