stilesg57

Phew, there must be a ton of international students at other schools then. Maybe if you compare to the business school where like 40% are international students. My class has 12 international students for 49 people - is that unusually small? I don't know, I didn't really take that into account when I was looking at schools so I don't remember any comparative numbers. Also, Sanford has the MIDP program, which is about the same size as the MPP but the numbers are reversed. It's virtually all international students save for a dozen or so Americans. On top of that, we have 30 Chinese gov't officials visiting for classes every year. It feels pretty international as a program.

I was also abroad last year working in China and couldn't make any open houses. Luckily several people posted their impressions on here and were available for questions. I thank those people - they were a great help. Also, as we get more and more wired in the world I have to believe that more and more programs will be webcasting their open houses. I know we at Sanford are; I'm in charge of tracking down equipment in the next three weeks For comparison, Sanford only posted choice after-the-fact videos last year of a couple panels, and they didn't even run very well. This year much of it will be televised live on Ustream.

I know SAIS generally is. I know several people from that program and all are extremely successful. Don't know any SIPA grads, though I'm troubled by rumors I hear about the program being a bit of a cash cow for Columbia You would get to take classes from my favorite living economist at SIPA though - I have a man-crush on Stiglitz

I believe they will loan you up to the COA (cost of attendance) at student loan rates - that's what I got. It's typically about $16-20k more than tuition depending on the school's location.

Luckily I do have a bit of info on this Applicants are up significantly from last year, which was itself a record year. We got somewhere north of 500 applications (I'm not sure of the exact number) and have 159 acceptances and waitlisted admits. About a 30% acceptance rate, which isn't prohibitive by any means if you ask me. We are increasing the target size of the cohort to reflect a strong applicant pool and the growth of Sanford from an Institute to a School. The target for my year was 50-55 and we got 49; the target this year is 55-60 and they're planning to use the waitlist (new this year) to ensure we get that much. Just think, if you get in and decide to come here you can be exactly where I am a year from now: in a study room in Rubenstein Hall at midnight with several hours more work to go and a full day of classes starting at 8:30am tomorrow

Just found the letter online - March 18th.

I don't remember for sure - 3rd or 4th week in March I think.

I didn't hear back from them till REALLY late last year - only UT-Austin came later.

I have no idea - sorry!

I just met with Admissions and they said they've got all the decisions made but they're sending them out tomorrow. I dunno - maybe they'll send them out today. Try to relax I guess I can't say because I haven't seen your application, but there was a definite effort to get exclusively experienced students. My class has just three or four direct-from-undergrad students, whereas the 2nd year class is nearly half straight from college. That is definitely the direction the program is going, and with so many more applicants they can do it. 6 government internships is really legit though, so don't count yourself out! Best of luck!

Yes. Decisions are finished and admission, conditional admission, and waitlisted letters will be available online tomorrow by the afternoon. Financial aid info and a welcome letter will follow in the next couple days. Rejections will come out later It's a tough field, but good luck!

A little bird told me... Decisions have been made and they go out tomorrow. Open House for admitted students is on Friday, March 26th. Good luck everybody!

I also thought GWU was one of the easier places to get in (weren't the acceptance rates in the 50% range?), but everywhere is harder to get in this year. We had something like a 40% increase in applications here at Sanford, and they're admitting fewer people since they expect a higher offer-acceptance rate. Candidates with no work experience are basically out; two years ago, almost half the incoming class had one year of experience or less. The economy is changing everything for grad school admissions, plus MPPs in particular are getting more well-known and everyone knows that the government is going to be THE major hiring force for the next decade or so.

I walked into grad school with $8k in credit card debt and no more undergrad debt (yay!). I'm living entirely off loans this year for living expenses, but I've almost paid the credit card off (8.5% on my student loans is better than BOA's new 27% rate on my credit card!) and I'll make enough this summer to live off of all next year. So yeah, loans the first year and internship money the second.

Funny enough, the option to dual with the MEM was one of the biggest reasons I chose Sanford, but I've since decided against it. It's a very science-y program, more so than I've decided I'm interested in. It also kills the number of electives you can take unfortunately, and there's some business and law classes I feel I need to take in addition to policy and enviro courses. I have applied to the business school to do the dual MBA/MPP 3 yr. degree though - we'll see if I get in. If not, I'll bounce with just an MPP and be pretty happy

No need to apologize! It's not that employers/the Gov are paying for PhDs - those are covered by the school. As stated by some other posters, its more that the employer sponsors your returning to school with a guarantee of employment when you graduate and/or some salary while you're in school, things like that. The exact packages are all over the board, but there's almost always something. As for Sanford, looking over our alumni list I'm seeing that we've got about 70 alums in academia either working or in further (PhD) study. That's out of about 800 grads. So it isn't common (though the current Dean and one of my profs last semester were both Sanford MPPs before getting PhDs). The schools they go to are all over the map of course: every major public policy program is represented. From HKS to Ford to Wagner to Goldman to smaller programs like George Mason, there are Sanfordites all over academia. It's just not terribly common compared to, say, how many are at the OMB.

Don't know about the other programs, but Duke's is March 25th-26th. I don't know if any others are also scheduled for that weekend.

U Pittsburgh's GSPIA is the only one I applied to that I didn't see on the list. Good list BTW.

This distribution approximates a left-skewed normal curve. I've been doing too much stats homework today

Duke's expensive, no way around it. The MPP program is about $7k more than Nicholas. I was very concerned about money and debt going in, but now not so much. People come out of here and make plenty of money doing the jobs they want to do, even in this economy. It's damn impressive. I've been burned in the employment market before and I was very gun-shy coming into this program about my likely mountain of debt; now just 7 months in I'm already deep into several job prospects and they all pay very well. From what I see (and from the MEM/MPP dual degrees who I'm friends with and work with almost every day) the Nick kids are in a similar position, and those focused on the engineering side of things are doing even better than us policy peeps. I got a little financial aid but it was mostly token - I'll still have about $80k in loans when I graduate. I got more elsewhere (Michigan and UCLA), but knowing what I know now I'd still pick Duke and would do so more confidently. It's not a perfect situation for sure, but it is a damn good one.

I got in last year with 2.5 years. No financial aid.

I can't speak for the Georgia or Florida programs, but here's some insight into George Mason: Looking back over that post, I stand by everything I wrote and I would consider it still accurate.

From what I'm reading between the lines, I think you'd be better off with an MPP from a quality institution (with a quality career center) like those you mentioned earlier. Yes, you will likely ultimately need a PhD to reach the highest levels of government and think tanks. But here's the rub: an MPP from a top program will get you on the fast track to said position, and at a certain point your employer will basically send you to get your PhD if you show promise and proven ability. At that point, you'll be going to whatever PhD program you want, and "getting in" anywhere won't be an issue. If you go with a no-name PhD though, you may not be able to get onto the kind of career track with the organization/agency you want. Not saying that WILL be the case, just that it very well may depending on that university's career center and alumni connections. Good luck with your decision and hearing back from your other applications!

Good luck! I love the Nick School and that crowd - they're great. I wouldn't be surprised if they take a little bit to get back to everyone. The sheer number increase in apps this year across every dept. is amazing, and last year was a record. Nicholas in particular got nailed b/c they had a much higher-than-expected enrollment rate last year and the school is struggling a bit to fit everyone, so I'm sure they're taking their time and paring down acceptances a bit. Good luck again!

We have two former PhD seekers in my MPP class at Duke, plus a good friend of mine from undergrad dropped out of a PhD program at UC-Irvine and is now in the science/tech policy master program at CMU Heinz. Based on what I've seen, I'd say it may not be common but certainly isn't unheard of. I'd emphasize how well you did in the parts of your program that apply to a professional program's curriculum (non-research, which is where some other people mentioned above weren't successful).