GradSchoolAlibi

Also in at mich and curious about funding. Is it true that I can count on getting in-state tuition for my second year? If not there's no way it could compete with Duke for me financially. Also would appreciate if someone could speak to its international development offerings

Just logged in and got an admissions status & aid award. Not the improvement from last year I was hoping for, but I'm in with some cash.

Congrats, Jesus. Even Goldman's waitlist is exclusive

There's no "secret formula" for the ordering of admissions responses, although people pop up with them every year, looking at the first letter of your name, the date you applied, etc. Stop pattern-hunting and accept the unknowable -- it's your only choice! Anyone looking for a career in policy analysis should know not to accept the first theory with two data points, and anyone looking to into a career in administration should know how detrimental that theory would be to morale.

I just want to add a thought to relieve anxiety for our audience here, particularly those who aren't commenting. Most of my decisions last year were admits, and they still didn't come until mid-March. Syracuse had let me know super early, and I think Heinz got back to me in the first week of March (because as a DC admit, I was in the first pool of acceptances). Anybody hoping for an MPP from Michigan/Duke/Chicago/UCLA/Berkeley/Heinz etc. shouldn't expect to hear anything for two weeks, at least.

IIRC, they re-started their staff a few years ago. I think Rhonda has been on the job a few years, but Maggie's been there a long time. Obviously Team Harris is new this year. My impression is that they're trying to respond to an acknowledged weakness.

I'm no expert. But you've gotten quality advice. If you can use this year to get quality work experience, all the better. There's a very strong bias against applicants straight out of college, but I bet that even with that bias you could get into some top-notch schools. Throw in more WE and you'll be good.

Carnegie Mellon has a strong faculty, led by A. Blumenstein (famous for the Gun Diffusion Hypothesis)

Hiya, I've had a good time trading essays with some of you folks, and would like to start another round of exchanges. I'm working on the essays for Berkeley at the moment, and would be happy to help some other folks out with theirs, too. There's an interesting split between the statement of purpose and the personal history essay which I'm trying to manage correctly. Please e-mail me at sdavenport87@gmail.com if you're interested. I will make sure to return any drafts by tonight, and I'd appreciate if you could do the same.

It doesn't take much experience with letters of recommendation to know that most of them, inevitably, are written by some sort of friend, if not the applicant himself. They're fluff. I understand that academic references are usually the most valuable, partly because they're most credibly not hagiographies. Where do letters from internships fall on this scale? I interned for an elected official in San Francisco for about 3 months, and am essentially weighing getting a letter from her vs. a professional reference, with whom I've worked for about 1 month. Which is more valuable? Are letters from unpaid internships given any credibility?

Pinkman, Alf: Let's roll. E-mail me. I'm currently working on the KSG essay (first things first) but am also looking for feedback on both Goldman essays.

spark, If i remember correctly Harvard and Princeton require an academic resume of this detail in addition to your regular resume. During my apps last year, I think I submitted an additional, detailed academic resume highlighting my economic and quantitative courses to at least 3 schools. So my advice would be to prepare it but not really offer that unless it is asked for specifically.

Hopefully someone with more experience can answer your questions. But based on my own (after 1 application cycle), I'd say that lack of work experience will filter you out from the very top schools (Berkeley, Harvard) and at the least diminish your funding from the others. But it's not a total dealbreaker. Though I had two years out of college before applying, a minority of it was full-time and super-relevant. I still did alright. My advice to you would be to make the rest of application describe you as maturely as possible. I'd also say that in applying to a combination of schools, pick a few safeties. The fact is, these might be the most attractive options, since they'll offer you a hell of a lot more money than your top picks. And when making your decision, its a good option to weigh.

My instinct would be to go for HKS but not for WWS. The Princeton MPP program is explicitly mid-career, and even its MPA program has a much higher suggested age and duration of work experience than HKS. Especially since WWS also requires a four-page policy memo, I think your effort is better concentrated on the one rushed application.

Hello vaunted gradcafe community, I'm applying to MPPs after a good effort and pretty good results round of acceptances last year. So with some experience under my belt and the feeling that I've been through this one time before, I'm applying again now. If anybody is near completing in their statements and would like to swap essays with mine, I'd encourage it. I've gotten to the point where people sometimes pay me to write/edit, so I hope I can do a good job with yours. I merely ask for the same in return. I've got a draft for Goldman and another for HKS ready to go; I'll be churning the rest out for the remaining schools later. Shoot me an e-mail at sdavenport87@gmail.com.