UC Berkeley Goldman MPP 2021

[Mogwai]

Looks like us waitlisters got a long wait ahead of us ?

 

Edited March 12, 2021 by Mogwai

[doublethinkplus]

I was rejected. Feeling pretty crushed.

[bruyeres]

Rejected. Was accepted at McCourt with a nice scholarship so I'm 1 for 2 right now when it comes to the schools I've heard back from. Not overly surprised though - Goldman was the first school I applied to and my essays were very rushed and not as strong as the ones I put together for my other applications.

[lilrhody]

Also rejected. Tbh not very surprised I started the application the night it was due, but still a blow. Luckily I was accepted to other schools!

[anxious_coffee]

Rejected. Applied with a 3.5 GPA (3.75 upper division) and about 2 years of part time experience gained from student government, a congressional internship, and a fellowship at an education advocacy nonprofit. I didn’t take the GRE. Was my first application I submitted overall, so I’m sure it wasn’t nearly as strong as the rest. I’m happy to have been accepted to UCLA and NYU so far, and am still waiting on USC and GWU. Congrats to all who were accepted!

Edited March 12, 2021 by anxious_coffee

[tpip123]

4 hours ago, doublethinkplus said:

I was rejected. Feeling pretty crushed.

I'm so sorry to hear that @doublethinkplus. Their loss. No matter where you end up, you'll do amazing things, I'm sure of it!

 

[lmappers]

Has anyone else not heard back yet?

[JJJ2]

4 minutes ago, lmappers said:

Has anyone else not heard back yet?

Check your spam folder. My rejection was in "promotion," which is funny...

[CCZZ]

Also rejected. Not so surprise as I am international, but there was hope. 

Congrats to all who got in!

[Mogwai]

Based off previous years threads it seems like (unsurprisingly) this year was a lot worse in terms of rejections and waitlisting

[AR89]

Waitlisted too Congrats to all those who got in! 

[g_9525]

Rejected but not surprised! I agree with some of the others in this thread, the early deadline helped me prepare for my other applications but I definitely didn't submit as high-quality of an application in hindsight as I should have. This year definitely seems pretty competitive and you never know exactly how they're making decisions. I have a couple of other good offers and I feel happy with that.

[sd9000]

For those waitlisted, there is still hope! This is a tough time financially for most students, and there will be quite a few (unfortunately) that choose not to go because of anemic financial aid packages. Harvard Kennedy School has also not released their admissions yet so there will be seats that open up! I got admitted to Goldman last night, but my seat will open up if I am lucky enough to get into HKS. Have hope!! 

Congratulations to everyone who made it in! 

[kmats]

Rejected too and it bloowwwssss  Funny because Goldman was the last application I submitted but at that point I felt pretty burnt out. Got accepted to U Chicago, UCLA, and UCSD and still waiting to hear back from Brown. 3.7 GPA, 2 years of WE in finance, 12 econ classes on the backburner, but no GRE (maybe that's why). Congrats to everyone who got accepted (or waitlisted). Truly an amazing accomplishment and I am sure you deserve it  

[Mogwai]

Congrats to the admitted folks! An amazing achievement especially in a tough year like this

Edited March 12, 2021 by Mogwai

[PassionateAbtPolicy]

Waitlisted as well! Did anyone on the waitlist learn any additional information? I wonder if the waitlist is larger/smaller this year because of how competitive the cycle is. The email they sent made it sound like not too many are placed on waitlist, but I suspect they're just trying to be encouraging.

[sir95]

 

On 3/12/2021 at 6:24 AM, roll_onyoubears said:

Hi everyone! Really excited to finally get an answer, I also got in with 15k first year and 5k second year! I was 98% sure I was going to accept my offer to LBJ but this makes it so much harder. I went to Cal for my undergrad so if anyone wants to ask me any questions about Berkeley let me know!

Congratulations! You definitely have a hard decision ahead  . Do you mind sharing your stats? I am trying to understand my chances of successfully negotiating for a scholarship. 

[povertypolicypolly]

Hey y'all, I was accepted to Goldman and Oxford's Blavatnik School both for an MPP, (still waiting on HKS) and am weighing my options between the two. I'm in-state in California, so pricewise, the degrees would be comparable, given that Oxford is a one year program and Berkeley is two years, and barring any additional funding Oxford may offer.  They appear to be of similar caliber and both have professors I would be interested in learning from. Is anyone else deciding between these two? Would love to hear how you are going about this decision! 

My specific interests are in integrating RCT results into policy and practice, and governments contracting with NGOs/nonprofits to pilot new policy.  

[sbibibi]

18 minutes ago, povertypolicypolly said:

Hey y'all, I was accepted to Goldman and Oxford's Blavatnik School both for an MPP, (still waiting on HKS) and am weighing my options between the two. I'm in-state in California, so pricewise, the degrees would be comparable, given that Oxford is a one year program and Berkeley is two years, and barring any additional funding Oxford may offer.  They appear to be of similar caliber and both have professors I would be interested in learning from. Is anyone else deciding between these two? Would love to hear how you are going about this decision! 

My specific interests are in integrating RCT results into policy and practice, and governments contracting with NGOs/nonprofits to pilot new policy.  

Me too! To make things worse (or better, arguably) I also have an offer from JHU SAIS with a very generous $$ package. I have been working in the private sector, so my concern with Blavatnik is whether 1 year is enough to build a solid foundation. 

[roll_onyoubears]

On 3/16/2021 at 1:31 AM, sir95 said:

 

Congratulations! You definitely have a hard decision ahead  . Do you mind sharing your stats? I am trying to understand my chances of successfully negotiating for a scholarship. 

Hey! My gpa was pretty average and I didn't submit GRE scores, but I have 7 years of experience in the area of policy I want to go into and really tailored my SoP to that, so I think that helped the most!

[lmappers]

On 3/12/2021 at 10:43 AM, sd9000 said:

For those waitlisted, there is still hope! This is a tough time financially for most students, and there will be quite a few (unfortunately) that choose not to go because of anemic financial aid packages. Harvard Kennedy School has also not released their admissions yet so there will be seats that open up! I got admitted to Goldman last night, but my seat will open up if I am lucky enough to get into HKS. Have hope!! 

Congratulations to everyone who made it in! 

Did you get in??

[sd9000]

47 minutes ago, lmappers said:

Did you get in??

I did!! Very excited about it. I hope my seat goes to one of you here, and I hope you really enjoy your time at Goldman! Such a great program and environment. 

[hanburger]

Hello! Has anyone attempted to negotiate aid with Berkeley? Would love to hear how you did it and how it went.

[sbibibi]

3 hours ago, hanburger said:

Hello! Has anyone attempted to negotiate aid with Berkeley? Would love to hear how you did it and how it went.

I emailed Annie right after I received the offer and I still haven't heard back. Guess it's probably a no at this point.

[r_policy96]

16 hours ago, sbibibi said:

I emailed Annie right after I received the offer and I still haven't heard back. Guess it's probably a no at this point.

I did the same and haven’t heard anything. Going to speak with Lezley tonight. Curious if anyone has had any luck negotiating in past years too.