Left My Heart in SF...

[Kawa'a]

I'm still in the early stages of researching programs, but preliminarily I'm interested in U of Michigan (MPA), Harvard (MPA), Princeton (MPP), Brown (MPA), Rutgers (MPAP), Syracuse (MPA), Carengie Mellon (MPM), and Georgetown (MPM). Given my stats (listed below), am I most likely aiming too high? If so, where should I be aiming? Also, I'm interested in returning home to San Francisco after I graduate preferably to work in city government there. I am also most interested in a one-year program. Thank you for your insights.

• Overall GPA: 3.5 Major GPA: 4.0
  The first 48 units were taken in my junior and senior years of high school, which did negatively impact my GPA (each year improved, with a 4.0 my last year).
• 2001: BA in Social Science with minor in English Literature and Sociology
• Multiple academic honors including: Deans List, presidential citation, summa cum laude, etc.
• Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Gamma Sigma Member
• Extensive volunteer work from 1995-present with various non-profits and public government including founding and directing a reading program for Pre-K and K kids and interning with a county commission on disabilities. Many service awards including congressional award medal presented to me by Congressman Farr.
• Nine years of professional experience mostly in administrative management largely with public universities/colleges and a non-profit.
• Currently I am a Program Administrator and Principal Investigator for a state university, where I manage 3-5 staff, federal, state, and private grants, and collect/analyze data on the population our project serves.
• I have not yet taken the GRE.

[narius]

I'm still in the early stages of researching programs, but preliminarily I'm interested in U of Michigan (MPA), Harvard (MPA), Princeton (MPP), Brown (MPA), Rutgers (MPAP), Syracuse (MPA), Carengie Mellon (MPM), and Georgetown (MPM). Given my stats (listed below), am I most likely aiming too high? If so, where should I be aiming? Also, I'm interested in returning home to San Francisco after I graduate preferably to work in city government there. I am also most interested in a one-year program. Thank you for your insights.

• Overall GPA: 3.5 Major GPA: 4.0
  The first 48 units were taken in my junior and senior years of high school, which did negatively impact my GPA (each year improved, with a 4.0 my last year).
• 2001: BA in Social Science with minor in English Literature and Sociology
• Multiple academic honors including: Deans List, presidential citation, summa cum laude, etc.
• Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Gamma Sigma Member
• Extensive volunteer work from 1995-present with various non-profits and public government including founding and directing a reading program for Pre-K and K kids and interning with a county commission on disabilities. Many service awards including congressional award medal presented to me by Congressman Farr.
• Nine years of professional experience mostly in administrative management largely with public universities/colleges and a non-profit.
• Currently I am a Program Administrator and Principal Investigator for a state university, where I manage 3-5 staff, federal, state, and private grants, and collect/analyze data on the population our project serves.
• I have not yet taken the GRE.

Very impressive background. Assuming you perform competitively on the GRE, I think you have a shot at any of those programs, though to varying degrees (one can never know exactly what's on the admission boards' mind). You're a shoe-in for Brown and Rutgers and a strong applicant for the rest. Good selection of schools - all great programs. If you're interested in local stuff, Taubman, Rutgers, and Syracuse may be more your speed.

Good luck!

[Kawa'a]

Very impressive background. Assuming you perform competitively on the GRE, I think you have a shot at any of those programs, though to varying degrees (one can never know exactly what's on the admission boards' mind). You're a shoe-in for Brown and Rutgers and a strong applicant for the rest. Good selection of schools - all great programs. If you're interested in local stuff, Taubman, Rutgers, and Syracuse may be more your speed.

Good luck!

Thanks so much, narius, for your insights and encouragement. I'm not sure that I can believe I'm a shoe-in for Brown or Rutgers (guess I'm too much of a pessimist ), but I really appreciate your point-of-view, especially given that I'm still in the early stages of finding the right programs to apply to.

[wooldogg]

Why not apply to the Goldman school at UC Berkeley? If you want to be in SF, that would be a good place to start.

With strong GREs, good letters of reference, and a good SOP you should be competitive at all those places. Good luck!

[narius]

Why not apply to the Goldman school at UC Berkeley? If you want to be in SF, that would be a good place to start.

With strong GREs, good letters of reference, and a good SOP you should be competitive at all those places. Good luck!

Wooldog raises an excellent point. Berkeley's program is top notch and is strong enough to carry you anywhere in the country. As a backup in the area, you may also want to think about Stanford's new MPP program (brand new as in they are only doing submatriculation right now, but that's supposed to change soon). Can't say how good it will be, but Stanford has a decent track record of putting together high quality, boutique programs, and their departments in allied fields (pol sci, econ, sociology) are all very strong. Anyway, something to explore.

And don't be such a pessimist! I think many people would envy your position!

[Kawa'a]

Why not apply to the Goldman school at UC Berkeley? If you want to be in SF, that would be a good place to start.

With strong GREs, good letters of reference, and a good SOP you should be competitive at all those places. Good luck!

wooldogg, thank you very much for your suggestion. I didn't consider it initially because it is a two year program. However, if I can be near where I plan on ending up anyhow, it wouldn't really signify either way. Just from a brief glance at the program, it looks excellent and really interesting.

My letters of reference will come from two university professors (both with the Psych. dep't.) with whom I've worked on several federal grants over the past five years. The last letter will come from my current manager who is a public high school teacher (she has an M.Ed. and runs an alternative learning center for alienated and predominantly minority youth) and an Executive Project Director of a university program. I don't know exactly what they will say, but I know they will be supportive. I hope this will be enough.

Wooldog raises an excellent point. Berkeley's program is top notch and is strong enough to carry you anywhere in the country. As a backup in the area, you may also want to think about Stanford's new MPP program (brand new as in they are only doing submatriculation right now, but that's supposed to change soon). Can't say how good it will be, but Stanford has a decent track record of putting together high quality, boutique programs, and their departments in allied fields (pol sci, econ, sociology) are all very strong. Anyway, something to explore.

And don't be such a pessimist! I think many people would envy your position!

narius, thanks so much for the heads-up on Stanford. I will definitely look into it. You are right, I shouldn't be such a pessimist! I will work on it, but as of now I still feel a bit inadequate. There are some things I would like to do soon to make myself a stronger candidate. Fortunately I have time to do that before I apply.

Thanks so much for the direction and encouragement!!

[compulsionlife]

Stanford's MPP is just now in the midst of their three-year review and I doubt they'll open it to external candidates for at least a year (although I'd guess it's significantly longer than that considering they acknowledged in their recent committee hearing that their alignment with the MA program in international policy studies is still necessary, both in terms of topic overlap and student numbers). I certainly could be wrong, however. In terms of quality it's a very strong program and most of their current students are from the School of Law or GSB, both of which are top 10 programs nationally. The MPP-MA IPS combined practicum yielded impressive results for the project that analyzed the California pension program; the practicum student group's research was quite valuable and led to them holding a press conference, being interviewed on NPR, and having their data as the central point of news articles in something like 40 newspapers nationally. It's a solid program that's multidisciplinary, small in student numbers, and connected to all of the schools at Stanford.

Anyway...for what it's worth

[carpecc]

Kawa, can you speak a foreign language proficiently? If so then you have good chances. If not, then this might be an area you want to develop further leading up to the application.

[Kawa'a]

Kawa, can you speak a foreign language proficiently? If so then you have good chances. If not, then this might be an area you want to develop further leading up to the application.

I speak French pretty well, but I am not fluent. I'm at the point where I need to live a French-speaking country for a while to become fluent.

I didn't realize that a foreign language could help you out for a domestic program. That's really interesting. I would assume that some languages are more valuable than others. For example, I speak some Hawaiian as well, but how would this be helpful even in Hawai'i? In the Sf area there are a lot of people who speak Asian languages, but there is also a French population. Actually I hear French quite a bit when I'm out and about, but maybe that's because my ear is tuned to it.

[Jae B.]

I speak French pretty well, but I am not fluent. I'm at the point where I need to live a French-speaking country for a while to become fluent.

I didn't realize that a foreign language could help you out for a domestic program. That's really interesting. I would assume that some languages are more valuable than others. For example, I speak some Hawaiian as well, but how would this be helpful even in Hawai'i? In the Sf area there are a lot of people who speak Asian languages, but there is also a French population. Actually I hear French quite a bit when I'm out and about, but maybe that's because my ear is tuned to it.

Don't forget Spanish -- it would be a very valuable language for you to pick up some proficiency in, for the SF area. Probably the most valuable. Having experience with French, this might not be so difficult for you. Chinese may be more difficult, but that could be quite valuable, as well.