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I was waitlisted as well, and HKS was my first choice. I was down a little yesterday, but now I'm really excited about my other options. If it works out great, if not, no biggie. Best of luck to all HKS applicants, whether admitted, waitlisted, or not admitted!

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lol,i think the point is would u be courageous and brave enough to wait till the May 15th while turning down many other offers~~~ the chances of getting in off the waiting list is simply too small. People would rather go to Kennedy even by selling their house or probably their parents' house~~~~~lol Obviously, they are not offer much scholarship as wws does, and the trend is many other policy schools are much more generous and less expensive than Kennedy, that's why they also offer many waitinglist each year.

I was waitlisted as well, and HKS was my first choice. I was down a little yesterday, but now I'm really excited about my other options. If it works out great, if not, no biggie. Best of luck to all HKS applicants, whether admitted, waitlisted, or not admitted!

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I have no idea how the process works, but if it's any help to you guys, I will be declining my HKS offer if I have to borrow, let's say, more than 30K/yr in order to go there. I expect that at least a few people will be let in off the waitlist after April 1st rolls around and accepted students begin to weigh whether they can foot the bill.

Good luck, I'm sure we'll all end up going to great places. :)

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I'm an MPA-ID waitlist. Do we have any idea how many of us are in the same position? I'd guess only 10 or so since the program is so small.

I'm not quite sure exactly what the numbers are for the MPA-ID, but I'd assume its roughly what you've estimated especially since it's a smaller program than the MPP. I wonder, how many MPP applicants were waitlisted this year? Obviously we won't find out until the stats come out, but what's a rough idea of the number of waitlisted apps?

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Well, let's just keep each other posted on any MPA-ID WL developments. I'm not terribly hopeful either, but Kennedy does usually take a few people from the WL since their fellowship funding isn't quite on par with WWS/SAIS/LSE etc. Best of luck to all of you.

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I have no idea how the process works, but if it's any help to you guys, I will be declining my HKS offer if I have to borrow, let's say, more than 30K/yr in order to go there. I expect that at least a few people will be let in off the waitlist after April 1st rolls around and accepted students begin to weigh whether they can foot the bill.

Good luck, I'm sure we'll all end up going to great places. :)

I'm in the same boat as LadyinWaiting. Barring a very generous financial aid offer, I will most likely decline my HKS MPP admission. Hopefully that's good news for you wait list folks!

Edited by IKB
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  • 3 years later...

I was waitlisted as well, and HKS was my first choice. I was down a little yesterday, but now I'm really excited about my other options. If it works out great, if not, no biggie. Best of luck to all HKS applicants, whether admitted, waitlisted, or not admitted!

Hey SportsFan -- you have some great options! You heard back from MSFS and SAIS already? Did you apply early?

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Hi All,

 

You might find Matt's blog post on this helpful: http://hksadmissionblog.tumblr.com/post/112726954733/2015-reading-and-decision-process-post-7

 

I'll only repeat what I said in another stream yesterday: a waitlist is an insurance policy against poor estimates for the "yield" and "melt" rates.  Everyone on the waitlist is clearly "above the bar" and admissible, but spaces only open up when the yield is lower than projected or melt is higher than anticipated. And we won't know that until people find out about financial aid - or until they decide not to send in a deposit.  I'll also underscore that there's really nothing that an applicant can do to get off the waitlist or to boost their chances - everything depends on whether more applicants (than anticipated) decline to come.  I have no idea - yet - whether we'll go to the waitlists.  Our yields vary year by year and program by program.  I THINK that the MPA/ID and MPP programs went to the waitlists last year, perhaps because our financial aid packages aren't nearly what we want them to be. I don't think we went to the Mason or MCMPA waitlists last year - but I'm not sure.  As Matt wrote in his blog post last year, if you have an offer somewhere else, it's *risky* to see whether you'll come off of an HKS waitlist.  

 

Some universities have rank-ordered waitlists, and they'll even tell applicants where they are on the list.  That's absolutely NOT how we treat our waitlists.  Everyone on a waitlist is equally terrific and could easily do the work here.  As positions open up in the class (meaning admitted students have said "no thanks,") we will pay attention to what role the applicant had in our anticipated class.  Let's imagine that a terrific human rights lawyer from a developing country turns us down for a Mason Fellow slot during the next month.  We'd probably look at the waitlist to see whether someone is similar and could bring a similar perspective into the classroom discussions. There's just no way for you, on the waitlist, to anticipate who'll turn HKS down - and there's really nothing we can do on our end to anticipate that, either. 

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Thanks David for your insight.

 

Is it possible to be listed off the waitlist before April 15th? 

What about funding? Is there a chance to receive funding if you eventually get admitted in May?

 

thanks

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On 3/13/2015 at 7:54 AM, Cristianvb said:

Thanks David for your insight.

 

Is it possible to be listed off the waitlist before April 15th? 

What about funding? Is there a chance to receive funding if you eventually get admitted in May?

 

thanks

 

Hi Christian,

 

HKS operates like most other institutions in that financial aid tends to be given out before anyone comes off of the waitlist.  Indeed - like most other institutions - we go to the waitlist after students decide that they aren't going to come here *because* the aid packages aren't enough.  And that doesn't (usually) shake out until May. It's unlikely that we (or similar schools) will go to the waitlists before deposits are due. That doesn't mean it's not possible... but it's unlikely.

 

Feel free to email me and I can walk you through your file.  (For others here, though: I have nothing to do with MPP and MPA/ID admissions, so I can't provide insights into your files. But if you applied to the MPA2 or the MCMPA programs, just email me.

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Hi Christian,

 

HKS operates like most other institutions in that financial aid tends to be given out before anyone comes off of the waitlist.  Indeed - like most other institutions - we go to the waitlist after students decide that they aren't going to come here *because* the aid packages aren't enough.  And that doesn't (usually) shake out until May. It's unlikely that we (or similar schools) will go to the waitlists before deposits are due. That doesn't mean it's not possible... but it's unlikely.

 

Feel free to email me and I can walk you through your file.  (For others here, though: I have nothing to do with MPP and MPA/ID admissions, so I can't provide insights into your files. But if you applied to the MPA2 or the MCMPA programs, just email me - david_king@harvard.edu

 

Dear David:  Thank you so much for your helpful comments.  Who would you advise we speak to on MPP admissions?  It would be really helpful to get some feedback.  Many thanks!

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