Berkeley GSPP MPP 2020

[noodlesoup]

 In with 10k scholarship for year 1, quite unexpected! Congratulations to the others here

Edited March 11, 2020 by noodlesoup
typo

[WhoaThereWombat]

Admitted, but no funding. I got a full tuition scholarship from USC Price, so I think that'll be hard to beat. I'll need to think about if I want to even try negotiating, especially since I'm an LA native and would like to be in LA long term. 

Edited March 11, 2020 by WhoaThereWombat

[pacet]

2 hours ago, WhoaThereWombat said:

Admitted, but no funding. I got a full tuition scholarship from USC Price, so I think that'll be hard to beat. I'll need to think about if I want to even try negotiating, especially since I'm an LA native and would like to be in LA long term. 

I'm in the exact same position, with Goldman being my first choice initially. I'd love to hear your thoughts on deciding between the two. Does anybody know of someone successfully negotiation more money from Goldman? 

[Mcdreamy]

How do we negotiate ? I am an international student . No funding ? Any ideas please ?

 

[WhoaThereWombat]

4 hours ago, Mcdreamy said:

How do we negotiate ? I am an international student . No funding ? Any ideas please ?

 

You can try negotiating or asking for aid reconsideration, but you'll likely need a scholarship offer from another school or two to give you the most leverage. That's my understanding from reading. You might want to search for Gradcafe posts about negotiating. Here's a thread from a few years ago:

 

[Mcdreamy]

18 minutes ago, WhoaThereWombat said:

You can try negotiating or asking for aid reconsideration, but you'll likely need a scholarship offer from another school or two to give you the most leverage. That's my understanding from reading. You might want to search for Gradcafe posts about negotiating. Here's a thread from a few years ago:

 

Thank you so much . I will look into these right away.

[Anathema]

I'm in as well. Don't know anything about funding etc. because I received the news through my local Fulbright agency.

[darkroastgopher]

Hi everyone and congrats for those of you who've been admitted/waitlisted! As I mentioned earlier, I'm currently a first-year GSPP student. I'm circling back to this post because I'm in the middle of contacting new admits and wanted to extend an offer to this forum to answer any questions. Those of you who've already gotten their admission decisions will be hearing from my colleagues shortly, if you haven't already, but the proposition stands nevertheless.

I mostly want to let everyone know about my experience with financing my GSPP education. Scholarships from GSPP are very limited. I only know a handful of people in my cohort who are receiving any kind of merit aid, and it's typically only through the first year. I am not one of these recipients. However, the real cost reductions are in the ASE (Academic Student Employee) positions such as TAships, research positions, tutoring, and grading. Not only does this knock off 40-60% of your overall costs, but you're awarded a stipend, as well. These positions are almost all covered by our AMAZING graduate student union and come with free health insurance, assuming you're working at a minimum of 10 hours/week, potentially even less given recent negotiations. I cannot overstate how lucky we are to have such committed union reps and this was a major factor for me in choosing my program. In regards to availability of these positions, I'm not aware of anyone who was looking for one and didn't get an offer.

Graduate students at Berkeley are also entitled to receive in-state tuition after their first year, though I believe this only applies to U.S. citizens. I am an out-of-state student myself.

All of this being said, I'm going to be coming out of GSPP completely debt-free, which would not have been remotely possible at any of the other programs I had been considering (especially Harris). I was a GSI (Graduate Student Instructor aka what Berkeley calls their TAs) last semester and am a GSR (graduate student researcher) this semester. I am planning on having similar appointments for the remainder of my time here. With the stipends + tuition remission that these positions come with, I am essentially paying nothing to attend this program and the remission/stipends will actually be greater than what I'm paying overall. My colleagues who started out as CA residents are in even more advantageous positions. 

The main source of your out-of-pocket costs will ultimately be cost of living. The key reason I am not taking out any loans at all is because of the savings I accrued during my gap years and that I'm fortunate enough to live with a partner to split expenses with. The majority of students here ARE taking out loans, and this is mostly to cover housing costs. Rent in East Bay is an absolute nightmare, yes, but zero tuition + cost of living in California was still a much better outlook for me than hella tuition/loans + moderate cost of living anywhere else. 

Let me know if you have any Qs! The Bay Area is under official quarantine so I can't leave my apartment and have all the time in the world. Feel free to DM and/or reply here. Take care, all!

[WhoaThereWombat]

12 minutes ago, darkroastgopher said:

Hi everyone and congrats for those of you who've been admitted/waitlisted! As I mentioned earlier, I'm currently a first-year GSPP student. I'm circling back to this post because I'm in the middle of contacting new admits and wanted to extend an offer to this forum to answer any questions. Those of you who've already gotten their admission decisions will be hearing from my colleagues shortly, if you haven't already, but the proposition stands nevertheless.

I mostly want to let everyone know about my experience with financing my GSPP education. Scholarships from GSPP are very limited. I only know a handful of people in my cohort who are receiving any kind of merit aid, and it's typically only through the first year. I am not one of these recipients. However, the real cost reductions are in the ASE (Academic Student Employee) positions such as TAships, research positions, tutoring, and grading. Not only does this knock off 40-60% of your overall costs, but you're awarded a stipend, as well. These positions are almost all covered by our AMAZING graduate student union and come with free health insurance, assuming you're working at a minimum of 10 hours/week, potentially even less given recent negotiations. I cannot overstate how lucky we are to have such committed union reps and this was a major factor for me in choosing my program. In regards to availability of these positions, I'm not aware of anyone who was looking for one and didn't get an offer.

Graduate students at Berkeley are also entitled to receive in-state tuition after their first year, though I believe this only applies to U.S. citizens. I am an out-of-state student myself.

All of this being said, I'm going to be coming out of GSPP completely debt-free, which would not have been remotely possible at any of the other programs I had been considering (especially Harris). I was a GSI (Graduate Student Instructor aka what Berkeley calls their TAs) last semester and am a GSR (graduate student researcher) this semester. I am planning on having similar appointments for the remainder of my time here. With the stipends + tuition remission that these positions come with, I am essentially paying nothing to attend this program and the remission/stipends will actually be greater than what I'm paying overall. My colleagues who started out as CA residents are in even more advantageous positions. 

The main source of your out-of-pocket costs will ultimately be cost of living. The key reason I am not taking out any loans at all is because of the savings I accrued during my gap years and that I'm fortunate enough to live with a partner to split expenses with. The majority of students here ARE taking out loans, and this is mostly to cover housing costs. Rent in East Bay is an absolute nightmare, yes, but zero tuition + cost of living in California was still a much better outlook for me than hella tuition/loans + moderate cost of living anywhere else. 

Let me know if you have any Qs! The Bay Area is under official quarantine so I can't leave my apartment and have all the time in the world. Feel free to DM and/or reply here. Take care, all!

Really appreciate your availability and willingness to answer questions! Thank you for sharing your experience.

I have a few follow-up questions, if you wouldn't mind illuminating a bit.

- How difficult was it for you to obtain the TAship for your first semester?
- In your experience, do you prefer being a GSR or GSI? Is one relatively more accessible than the other? (I'm hesitant to assume that I would be a good TA... teaching undergrads seems like a big responsibility!)
- What was one big takeaway that you got from the on-campus admitted student event last year, that you'd want to communicate to this year's prospective class?

12 minutes ago, darkroastgopher said:

Rent in East Bay is an absolute nightmare, yes, but zero tuition + cost of living in California was still a much better outlook for me than hella tuition/loans + moderate cost of living anywhere else. 

Sounds like you're already embracing the Bay Area life and lingo.  

Edited March 17, 2020 by WhoaThereWombat

[darkroastgopher]

1 minute ago, WhoaThereWombat said:

Really appreciate your availability and willingness to answer questions! Thank you for sharing your experience.

I have a couple of follow-up questions, if you wouldn't mind illuminating a bit.

- How difficult was it for you to obtain the TAship for your first semester?

Welcome! I haven't forgotten how nerve-wracking and terrible the decision-making process was, so hopefully I can pass along whatever good vibes I can. 

The thing that I will say about the ASE job hunt process is that it is wildly unstandardized. I happened to absolutely luck out during this process and land a GSI position sometime in June through the Haas School of Business, which is on a different planet academic calendar from everybody else and therefore hired way earlier. Some departments hire super early, like Haas, but many don't get their ASE position requests finalized until weeks before the semester starts and sometimes will even be hiring a month into the semester itself. This is because fluctuating class sizes mean that a class that originally sought 3 GSIs now need to add an extra 2 once enrollment has finalized. 

Because I secured my position relatively early, I can't really speak to the average experience trying to get a GSI position. But it is absolutely possible. The best practices to securing one is to a) proactively contact department heads and ask about available positions/when they will start looking, b) be able to communicate what your strengths are in a way that demonstrates your capability of teaching material to students, and c) have prior teaching experience (I didn't, though!). Most people who have ASE positions spend their first semesters as Readers, which basically means you're the one grading for a class. Readers offer the same tuition remission benefits, but the stipend is less.

1 minute ago, WhoaThereWombat said:

- In your experience, do you prefer being a GSR or GSI? Is one relatively more accessible than the other? (I'm hesitant to assume that I would be a good TA... teaching undergrads seems like a big responsibility!)

Again, I lucked the hell out of my GSI position. I was teaching part-time MBA students and it was only a 10-week course--though I still had the same pay as any other GSI! They both have their pros and cons. For my GSI position, some parts of my job were pretty routine (attending class, grading weekly homework assignments) but a lot of it had to do with exam scheduling. I would have weeks where I was only working 10 hours a week (you get paid for whatever your appointment is, though) and others closer to the midterm where I was being inundated with student emails/meetings or had to grade +140 exams in a 2.5 week timeframe. For my GSR position, the timing is much more predictable. I'm working directly with a professor and can do my research remotely, so it's nice to be able to set my own schedule and workplace. Those who are GSRs at research centers often have to physically be present for certain times of the week. So it varies wildly. 

I would say I enjoy both positions, but I think I prefer being a GSI. I've never taught before and didn't realize how rewarding it was to work with students and get to see the "mind-blown" moments that happened when you helped them finally grasp a concept. I'm really hoping I can snag the same or similar position for the upcoming fall semester. You're right that it is a big responsibility, and it is definitely a tradeoff. While my students were ironically all older than me for the class I taught, they were still Berkeley students at heart and a lot of my job entailed fielding five-paragraph emails requesting that their participation grade get raised from a 2 to a 3. My colleagues who taught undergrads experienced the same thing, and there's a lot of emotional labor that goes into working with extremely stressed-out, often cash-poor, overwhelmed students in very hard classes. However, Berkeley requires that all first-time GSIs take a pass/fail pedagogy class, and this really helped me navigate my role/resources/boundaries throughout the semester.

1 minute ago, WhoaThereWombat said:

Sounds like you're already embracing the Bay Area life and lingo.  

?

 

[WhoaThereWombat]

Thanks for your detailed answers, @darkroastgopher! Knowing that the ASE job hunt is a bit of a wild west helps set my expectations. Guess everyone needs to cast a wide net and hope that they get lucky. And I didn't know about the pedagogy class, so that helps me feel like I wouldn't be thrown to the wolves right off the bat. 

I tried to ninja-edit a third question before you started responding, but I think you were too fast  What was one big takeaway that you got from the on-campus admitted student event last year, that you'd want to communicate to this year's prospective class? And maybe one more question, if you'll indulge me... are you planning to stay in California/the Bay Area after graduating? I can see from the employment data that a solid majority stay in CA, and a majority of those people stay in the Bay Area specifically. Just wondering what your plans are, or maybe if they've changed since starting at GSPP. 

[darkroastgopher]

8 minutes ago, WhoaThereWombat said:

Thanks for your detailed answers, @darkroastgopher! Knowing that the ASE job hunt is a bit of a wild west helps set my expectations. Guess everyone needs to cast a wide net and hope that they get lucky. And I didn't know about the pedagogy class, so that helps me feel like I wouldn't be thrown to the wolves right off the bat. 

I tried to ninja-edit a third question before you started responding, but I think you were too fast  What was one big takeaway that you got from the on-campus admitted student event last year, that you'd want to communicate to this year's prospective class? And maybe one more question, if you'll indulge me... are you planning to stay in California/the Bay Area after graduating? I can see from the employment data that a solid majority stay in CA, and a majority of those people stay in the Bay Area specifically. Just wondering what your plans are, or maybe if they've changed since starting at GSPP. 

Three things really stuck with me on admitted students day.

1. I lived in Minneapolis and my visit to Berkeley was the first time I smelled fresh, green plants in almost six months. 

2. The professors. I'm sure every program talks about how committed their faculty are to their students, but it's authentic here. They were extremely welcoming and friendly at admitted students day and only continued to invest in us 100% once school began. 

3. Most importantly, current students. On ASD, I had an hour-long, deeply honest conversation with two other students about their experience at GSPP. The dynamics here are complex. Berkeley is not immune to the problematic tendencies that come with being an elite institution and it/GSPP has a long way to go in several respects. What stood out to me is that most of the student body here is committed to keeping the school accountable for its culture and decisions. Since being here, this has ranged from pushing the school to drop a contract with a lecturer funded by a shady partisan org to organizing our grad student union in solidarity with the Santa Cruz strikes. 

With regards to my post-graduation plans, my partner's family is from the area and we're probably going to stay here for the foreseeable future. There's no shortage of policy jobs here, and we love the beauty of Northern California. However, many MANY of my cohort friends are planning on leaving for D.C./wherever they moved from before GSPP. Due to Berkeley's ranking/name and our scary-good career services team, no one's worried about getting connected after graduation. 

[Jerold]

Thanks for the all helpful info @darkroastgopher! As a prospective international student with a strong fear of compound interest, I'm really anxious about taking on two years of out-of-state tuition and the Bay Area cost of living. I'm currently trying to negotiate for at least some funding (I'd be happy even if they threw $5k at me) but I'm not holding my breath. How's the availability of GSI / 25% GSR / 50% GSR appointments? I feel like the 50% GSR appointments would be few and far between, and highly competitive due to the full fee remission.

One other question, too -- is your cohort balanced in terms of educational/professional background? I'm coming into policy from a science background so I hope it's not just 79 poli sci/econ people and then me!

[WhoaThereWombat]

I'll chime in and say that I was really impressed by the online Admitted Student Event -- lots of content, and lots of questions answered/bases covered.

Did it change or influence anyone's thinking so far?

[SketchesOfSpain]

On 4/3/2020 at 7:23 PM, WhoaThereWombat said:

I'll chime in and say that I was really impressed by the online Admitted Student Event -- lots of content, and lots of questions answered/bases covered.

Did it change or influence anyone's thinking so far?

My big takeaway is that everyone seems to make the money work. You'll have to get a job, and yes, it is only people the school has made available.

But for an expensive school, that doesn't give much scholarship, in one of the most expensive areas in the country, students don't seem to be sweating finances

[WhoaThereWombat]

59 minutes ago, SketchesOfSpain said:

My big takeaway is that everyone seems to make the money work. You'll have to get a job, and yes, it is only people the school has made available.

But for an expensive school, that doesn't give much scholarship, in one of the most expensive areas in the country, students don't seem to be sweating finances

My impression when speaking with GSPP students/alumni is that they're all open to connecting you with other people. So you're not only limited to who the school has made available. But sure, they have a vested interest in giving a platform to those with positive things to say. 

I'm a CA resident, so relative to getting an MPP at a private university with no scholarships on the table, Goldman would be an easy choice. The only problem is that private schools are (generally) more generous with aid, so I don't think that many people choose between a no-scholarship-Goldman option and a no-scholarship-private option. 

I'll echo your surprise that it seemed like no one was very stressed about their loans/finances, though. I guess I'm interested to hear if your average Goldman student feels like the degree is worth 30-50k more in loans compared to a fully-scholarshipped private program (like Duke or USC), but it seems like everyone is pretty satisfied with their education and would still pick Goldman. Hard to know unless someone's done the degree at both places, lol. 

[LostKindaKid]

On 3/11/2020 at 6:49 AM, darkroastgopher said:

Hi all!

I'm a current Goldman MPP student as well as one of the volunteers to call new admits. We were told we'd be receiving the call lists "the week of March 7th" but haven't as of this time. If you weren't aware already, Berkeley's campus just shut down due to the COVID virus and all classes have been moved to 100% online instruction. I'm almost certain this is causing a bit of backlog with admissions notifications. That being said, I'd be surprised if the notifications weren't coming out this week. 

Fingers crossed that good news will be coming to you all soon! 

P.S. No worries if you don't get a call. When I was accepted (right away, not off the waitlist) I only got an email/change to my student portal. Same with other members of my cohort for no clear reason. 

Hi! 

 

Thanks for the information. I got my acceptance from Goldman School mid-March itself. It was a confirmation from GSPP only and it mentioned that I will receive an official confirmation of acceptance from Graduate School by end of March. However, I haven't received it yet and upon enquiring I got to know that because of my three years bachelors degree, it is under scrutiny by the Graduate Office as they only consider a four years bachelors program to admit students. This means that my offer is conditional and I was not even aware of this until today. I have already accepted my offer and in the process of applying for GSI positions, and exploring funding options to study in GSPP. Should I be worried that Graduate Office might not extend me an offer? This is because I have other options in hand which I have rejected but still have a chance to reverse that decision till 15th April. 

Please help, if you have any information regarding such matters. 

 

[RealG]

Does the 3 year degree actually create problem?

[WhoaThereWombat]

19 hours ago, RealG said:

Does the 3 year degree actually create problem?

What exactly are you referring to...?