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lost_0101

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Everything posted by lost_0101

  1. Crucial metric you are missing for this thread: years of work experience.
  2. HomeGrown, I am right there with you - I only applied to two schools (HKS/GSPP) and got rejected. But take heart, I'm two years older and feeling the despair just as hard! (3.8 GPA, top undergrad, 5+ years of experience, 162 Verbal 155 Quant [Which isn't great but I probably can't do much better - wasted months studying for the GRE and never broke out of that range])
  3. Hey Paul - Mind if I ask you, where are a lot of the Price grads going after graduation? Staying in the s. cal area or ? thanks!
  4. Regarding the area, yes - it's a boring community, and only appealing if you want to raise kids. *however UCI is on the border of Irvine, and somewhat close to affordable housing in Costa Mesa, or a (small!) room in an old house on the Newport peninsula, or Huntington Beach and farther south to San Clemente - if you want to commute - which are some of the best places to live on the planet. (Santa Ana and Anaheim are among the worst)
  5. Got it - last name starts @ the end of the alphabet so we'll see. I'm not concerned w/ admissions so much as funding.
  6. Just to chime in - I submitted my application on the 15th but have not yet heard back. However in their system it says my application was completed on the January 18 - perhaps it took a long time to process my transcripts? Hope that doesn't put me in the 'non-priority' box.
  7. First off, your experience is absolutely relevant to put you into the top tier of programs. Public Policy programs value relevant work experience, but do not have the same level of scrutiny into "did they do sufficient ladder-climbing at X job" like a 10 MBA admissions program might. Ensure your application will read like this: 1. High GRE score 2. Two Years Hill Experience focusing on X 3. Solid SOP that ties in very well with Hill work experience, good understanding of future goals 4. Fine GPA / Great School 5. Solid LOR's Don't focus on the 'administrative responsibilities' aspect of your work in your resume/SOP. Focus on how the work you did impacted a mission/goal/law and why it's interesting to you. Secondly: Avoid the whole rankings thing. Also, none of the part-time DC policy programs are particularly difficult to gain acceptance to. (funding however, will probably not exist for the part time programs. From the perspective of the very expensive DC-area schools, they'll be more than happy to take your $$$) Third: Be able to draw a clear picture of how a part-time MPP will be able to help you further your career (with a clear picture of what that career will be), and run this idea by some people on the Hill a little further along then you...I think you'll be surprised by their input. Final point: Don't sell yourself short. People (admissions, recruiters, future employers) only believe what you tell them, and if you start off with 'well I only did administrative work' your perspective-alone would be discouraging. I'm in DC as well, and the vast majority of the people here are completely full of sh*t with their resumes and pompous with how they present themselves - while I don't advise this, aim for the middle ground.
  8. You obviously don't have to have it all figured out yet, but do you have any remote ideas or considerations on the type of work you would be most interested in? Lot of people on this forum can provide good guidance if you have anything specific. Also, somewhat off-topic, but here is an HKS blog writing on somewhat who did Law School after starting their MPP. http://hksadmissionblog.tumblr.com/post/37619620996/mpa-jd-alumni-interview-matias-a-sueldo
  9. Somewhat confused, you want to do these top professional programs (without significant work experience) before Law School? If you want to go to law school, go to law school. Your time would be *much* better served gaining work experience and perfecting your LSAT rather than gaining tons of debt for a top IR program. If you consider your actual career outcomes, you're doing it in reverse. Law school first (even without work experience), then work for a year while before you transition to a top program.
  10. I should have refined that to stay that was specific of the 'consulting' gigs. If your finance interests are in emerging markets, or IMF/WB/MCC then SAIS or HKS MPA-ID would be great alternatives to an MBA.
  11. I'll let you know in a few months - I waited until the last minute thinking I would be fine with the GRE and bombed in truly epic fashion. *didn't apply for SIPA though
  12. This. Government contracting is the vast, vast majority - probably 90% of "private sector" jobs that MPA/MPP students move into. For SAIS or anywhere in DC area - reporting alumni jobs as moving into the private sector is a misnomer.
  13. Would greatly appreciate some input on what I am attempting to do: I am currently @ one of the 'Big Four' consulting firms, and plan to stay within the management consulting 'industry', but I would like to pivot my skillset and my type of work into some of our work that has an international/economic development focus. (I've been in this line of work for five years). Doing an MBA for two years doesn't sound appealing, especially since the only type of specialty or area I am looking to pivot into is more economics focused. I am from the U.S. but willing/looking to go international for a good program and because most of our masters degrees are two-years. Graduated from a top 20 (US) school - but my degree was in political science, and I took no econ work. The program I was looking ideally @ was LSE's Economics & Management, however this program - along with many other UK programs, seem focused on students with an undergrad degree in Econ as well - not to mention it looks like a sub 10% admissions rate (?) http://www2.lse.ac.u...ement/home.aspx Any input appreciated, thanks!
  14. One way to check: Anyone who has *received* funding from X program care to provide your stats? Anyone with 'average' GRE scores receive funding?
  15. I would agree with this sentiment - becoming a staffer on the hill is generally the only straightforward way of doing it....however attaching yourself to a rising star politician @ the state, local level is by far the most effective route if you play the long game. On the hill, having a JD that does give you more job options. Quick reality check however: is $80k+ debt worth those extra options? (It's not, especially since a fresh face with a JD will make no money on the hill). An MBA with no directly useful work experience = nonsensical. (However an MBA focused on Marketing could provide a good skillset) I would argue a communications degree would provide the most ideal skillset, but the degree itself won't be worth it. A policy degree for politics = ill advised *Best piece of advice I could provide anyone looking to get into "politics" as a staffer: go Republican. There will be infinitely more opportunities for a young, intelligent republican staffer on the hill than a democratic counterpart. (Fewer people, lower caliber = less competition)
  16. So those are the policy programs you are interested in, what are the MBA programs you are interested in? With your background + MBA, it doesn't sound like the policy degree is going to do a whole lot for you. Your background + MBA would already be a very impressive prospect for the World Bank, for example. HKS's employment statistics would disagree that they are not good for the private sector (has one of the highest % of grads who move into the private sector). If you look @ their first year curriculums, you would be correct that HKS is more quant/econ focused. *There has been a fair amount of negative publicity on this forum about SIPA, but the criticisms of SIPA (too large, cash-cow program) are equally levied against two other programs - HKS and SAIS. For your interests however (NY-FED) SIPA would be ideal because of proximity alone.
  17. depends entirely on what you want to do with your career. If your future goals involve Turkey and fluency in Turkish, or your interests are on political issues in that geographical area, then absolutely it's a good idea.
  18. Hey guys, I'm chugging along on my GRE studies - and I've done 3 of the Kaplan tests now. I seem to have wasted my time writing a response to their practice writing sections - as there does not appear to be a mechanism to get these graded. Two basic questions: 1) I'm thinking of switching to Manhattan, do they have a way to get the Writing tests graded? (pay extra or ?) 2) Does Kaplan have a method for this? Thanks!
  19. you could not script better experience / background. Finance + quant is the main focus of these programs - draft into your SOP that you want to build on this background to do micro finance (or build on whatever you are currently doing) in S. India/Bangladesh/S.E. Asia for such and such reasons, get a good GRE score and you'll be as competitive as anyone.
  20. I have absolutely nothing to contribute to this thread - I just want to pump it to the top, hoping more people contribute. My first criteria for an MPA or MPP degree is to come out of of it debt-free, so any and all insight appreciated!
  21. consider CEU in Budapest - apparently good w. the funding
  22. It's only 'hard' to get into a security related field because of your location - if you move to the DC area getting a gig with a government consulting firm, a DoD contractor or a security focused think tank is perfectly plausible. (But there are also lots of DoD contractor positions in CA, if you live in a major city) However realize that there isn't really a "security" specialty once you actually get into that realm - and that the current career path you are on will actually be *better* to stick with / align to your interests. So USE your background in security as your specialty / statement of purpose into Georgetown - renewable energy is all the rage for the Department of Defense, and analysts who focus on energy industry/supply chain/economics-of will always be welcome at the 3-letter agencies.
  23. I would have to second Georgetown, JHU or Elliot - simply because they are in the DC area. Ideally your first summer you would get an internship (and months before that, get your clearance processed) so by the time you're a graduate you would have 1) work experience 2) contacts and 3) clearance. Side note however, you would benefit considerably if you worked in the areas you described before your grad degree. You could easily move to the DC area, work in those sector(s), and then figure out how the degree will help you. It is a considerably broad sector so do not, by any means, feel you need to focus on 'security studies' to open doors in those sectors.
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