bless_yourheart

whelp. If any CIPA fellows are lurking, y'all will be receiving an invitation to the official Facebook group next week. If you haven't received the email from the program, PM me and I'll forward it to you.

Has anyone found a CIPA facebook group? I'll make one today or tomorrow if there isn't one.

@iowaguy, I'm sure I could walk to Cornell from IC, but the real question is whether or not I would want to especially in the wintertime. If upstate NY is anything like Minnesota, my answer is going to be a resounding "no." And seeing as the area is called "South Hill," I'm definitely not going to want to walk it during the wintertime (or even during the rain, sleet, whatever). I don't really care about sharing a bathroom- I'm obsessively clean anyway so I'll just end up cleaning it no matter who I live with. I've found a house that has three bedrooms and two (full) bathrooms and seeing as I've lived in developing countries with far less amenities than that, I consider myself relatively spoiled. Plus having two largeish dogs (Bernese Mountain/Golden mix and a lab/beagle mix) generally means that I can't be too picky about having a bathroom to myself if it means that the place is pet-friendly.

thanks for the help! I finally found a house on craigslist- fenced in backyard, all of the utilities (plus a washer and dryer) included except internet, but it's on South Hill. It claims to be on the bus route, but would South Hill/Ithaca College be too far away from Cornell? I don't mind a half hour bus ride.

I am having the world's hardest time looking for pet-friendly places in Ithaca. Can anyone recommend a good landlord or place to look? I've tried craigslist, padmapper, and hotpads already and I've found a couple but not many people have responded to my emails.

I'm in the exact same situation as your friend, and I decided to take the money. I've gotten accepted to BU, SIS, CIPA, and others, and CIPA's offered me the most. SIS offered me 6 credits of tuition remission, but since I'd be doing a dual degree program, I'd have to add another year of tuition plus the costs of the other program. CIPA, on the other hand, offered me 30k/year and a potential job during the school year (which is really rare). I also have loans left over from my undergrad, so trying to minimize gradschool debt is really important to me.

Go with whoever offers you the most scholarship money. MPA/MPPs don't make a lot (no matter what the field) and accumulating debt should be avoided.

This thread has read my mind. I JUST got off the phone with my family and they've gone insane. I try talking to them about legitimate concerns with programs and not only do they *not* listen to me, they say things like "Oh just go to (insert Ivy program here)," when I try and talk about my issues. The worst? "Don't go to a seminary, all they'll do is proselytize you! Seminaries are just religious institutions, they aren't real schools!"

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one still waiting. Out of curiosity, how is everyone being alerted/told? I know in past years, people had to wait for snail mail and it seems like this year, it's all through email.

First rejection and it came from Fletcher.

Totally unrelated but ValarDohaeris, I raise you with a "Valar Morghulis" and a nod to your ASOIAF knowledge.

I'm a dual degree candidate (MTS/IPCR).... I've already got my acceptance to Wesley, but they're holding out *all* funding opportunities/scholarships until SIS makes their choice. Stupid bloody Oxford took so damn long with my Econ transcripts that my SIS application was a little late, and I'm freaking out that it may have affected my application.

Am I the only person on this thread who didn't get anything from SIS? This is *killing* me.

I don't want to contribute to it..... but I called them today. The answer I got was, "Decisions should be out by the end of March/beginning of April." So not much help there

I hope so! I'm going crazy waiting.

I'm in the same situation as sherpa07, though I really like the Capstone option and a lot of the more "hands-on" classes offered through Cornell's business school. I'm planning to attend right now, but it depends on funding (or lack thereof) from other schools.

Sure but keep in mind, this is just an updated profile from what I had posted in the "Am I competitive" thread. My numbers aren't competitive at all and compared to a lot of people in this forum, my work experience and study abroad isn't that phenomenal or interesting (have you seen how many Fulbrighters are on this thread? Dang). My SOP and my letters of recommendation were probably what helped me out the most in terms of an acceptance and scholarship money. Undergraduate GPA: 3.3 Study Abroad: work/study year in Egypt, two research projects in China and Japan GRE Quantitative Score: 590 (after retake) GRE Verbal Score: 690 (after retake) GRE AW Score: 5.0 Relevant Work Experience: Undergrad: One year teaching ESL to refugees in Egypt [NGO], internship with IOM [unpaid], Arabic tutor and Economics Research Assistant Postgrad: Americorps, One year as a legal assistant with JAG (military law), 6 months with Red Cross (now 10 months), and currently volunteering with a refugee agency during the weekends Languages: Tagalog [native speaker], Ilocano [native speaker], Arabic [intermediate-advanced], Japanese [intermediate], Farsi [beginner], Pashto [beginner] Quant: Intro Stats ©, Intermediate Stats (A-), Quantitative Research Methods (A-), Macro (A), Micro (A)

I can confirm that as well. I got my acceptance letter and fellowship money today, and my application went in January 4.

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MPA, MIA, MALD, whatever they're calling it Schools Applying To: GWU Elliott, American SIS, Cornell CIPA, and I don’t know where else. Recommend some schools please. Undergraduate institution: Top 50 liberal arts college, but no one’s heard of it. Undergraduate GPA: 3.3 (It's bad but there is a compelling reason for it) Undergraduate Majors: Sociology, Religion, Middle-Eastern Studies Study Abroad: work/study year in Egypt, two research projects in China and Japan GRE Quantitative Score: 580, retaking in October GRE Verbal Score: 680 GRE AW Score: don't know yet... Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 2 Years of Work Experience: Counting undergrad, I’ve got about 6 years of relevant work experience. Out of undergrad, I’ve got about 2ish. Describe Relevant Work Experience: Undergrad: One year teaching ESL to refugees in Egypt [NGO], internship with IOM [unpaid], Arabic tutor and Economics Research Assistant Postgrad: Americorps- City Year (had to leave early because of an emergency), One year as a legal assistant with JAG, 6 months with Red Cross Languages: Tagalog [native speaker], Ilocano [native speaker], Arabic [intermediate-advanced], Japanese [intermediate], Farsi [beginner], Pashto [beginner] Quant: Intro Stats ©, Intermediate Stats (A-), Quantitative Research Methods (A-), Macro (A), Micro (in process) Strength of SOP: We’ll see. I’ve had 12 different people look at it and critique it, so hopefully that helps. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): Two profs should be very strong. Americorps should be decent but not as strong in comparison (my Americorps supervisor liked me a lot but didn’t get to know me as well as the professors did). Other: I was a diplobrat (or TCK, if you want to be polite about it) growing up, and I’m still a little unsure if I should mention that. I’ve got one quantitative research paper that’s been published and one ethnographic research paper that may be published soon. Aside from that, I’ve got a lot of volunteer work pre and post undergrad (some domestic, most international).

rheadlee, I'm relatively new to the forum, but I think you might want to look into HKS and Fletcher. Five years prior military service (pre-undergrad), one year in Americorps, two years in the Peace Corps, a decent GPA/quant background, and good LORs.... I would imagine that ALL of that combined would weigh very positively on your application. I could be wrong, but if you're up for applying to more schools, it's worth a thought.

It's based on the British system. Not entirely sure how grading works at the end (I'm only midway through), but I can tell you that I've gotten the written "okay" from adcomms at Fletcher, SAIS, American, and Georgetown (haven't emailed Korbel yet). You're also given transcripts at the end of the class that explain how it's graded/points are accumulated. And I am a resident of Virginia. It's about even with NVCC (and my mom was a prof there too ).... At NVCC, Fall Tuition per credit hour is about $145 and Macro is three credit hours. Also, NVCC has super weird ways of noting who is a Virginia resident: I'm registered to vote there, my permanent address is there, my car is registered there, I pay VA taxes, and because the Army sent my husband to Kentucky..... NVCC doesn't consider me a "VA resident." Kinda ridiculous to be honest.... /endrant

I wouldn't really know about the 210 GBP bit. I have dual citizenship but I'm American and Filipino, so I can't help too much. Depending on how they define being an EU national, it'd still be about $460-$465 for an American citizen. And yeah, it's legit. I'm taking the Macroeconomics class right now and I'll be taking the Microecon and the Globalization class in the fall.

@jc99, I don't know if this helps at all (or what your financial situation is), but if you haven't taken quantitative classes yet, you might want to look here. http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/courses/results.php?Category=100#rightcontent Please let me know if the link doesn't work!

Hi everyone, I'm new here and I'm wondering if anyone has a clear idea how "work experience" is defined by schools. Is it consistent experience (i.e. worked/served a # of years without a gap), and if it isn't, how much does that hurt your application overall? If my best bet is to just call individual schools and ask, please let me know! I worked throughout undergrad as an Arabic tutor (plus a yearlong study abroad where I worked and volunteered in Cairo), but after graduation, I've only got about 2 years of "professional experience." It's all public service/sector work (a civilian position at JAG, Americorps, and the Red Cross), but I'm worried that it won't be international enough or consistent enough (there's a three month gap between JAG and the Red Cross because I took economics classes then). I'd like to go back into int'l development. I presented a research project about the work I was doing in Cairo and I'd like to follow through with it, post-revolution. Thanks ahead of time! (If need be, I can write out my profile but I'm more worried about the gaps in my work experience than I am about my GPA or GRE.)