Are my extracurricular activities relevant enough to be mentioned in my personal statement (MPA)?

[hochen]

Hi all,

As a somewhat recent college graduate, I feel that my level of work experience isn't quite up to par with other MPA candidates. I know people mentioned that extracurriculars/leadership activities can be considered relevant enough for a SOP, but I wasn't sure if mine were. Could somebody let me know if these experiences are worthwhile enough to mention? BTW the prompt is 1: Why do you want to pursue an MPA? and 2: How could an MPA advance your career goals and aspirations? And I am applying because I want to manage a non-profit someday (just for some background).

1. I was a staffer for the incoming freshman program at my university. Our duties involved the usual touring, but we did diversity training, career/academic planning, and general counseling as well. The entire program is entirely volunteer and all staffers are volunteering their time while students at other universities would be paid for their duties. Yet the program is still extremely competitive and only accepts about a quarter of all applicants (80 of 300 applicants) . On one hand, its not a "non-profit" per se. On the other, I was hoping that it would demonstrate leadership, organizational abilities, and devotion to helping others.

2. Sergeant of Arms for my fraternity. While it was a social fraternity and not a professional fraternity, my cabinet position was NOT comprised of boozing it up day in and out. On the contrary, I was responsible for the regulation of behaviors during meetings and social functions (collecting keys, driving people home that were drunk, restoring order if meetings were disrupted, etc.). In addition, I was responsible for the collection of member dues and coordinated certain activities during our annual charity event.

So what do you think, relevant enough to be included? Both? None? One with some tweaks?

Thanks guys

Edited April 6, 2011 by hochen

[LadyinWaiting]

I would think that any leadership/organizational skills would be helpful on your SoP, provided you can clearly link them to your career goals and/or if these experiences influenced your decision to pursue an MPA in the first place. If you graduated less than one year ago, you could probably stress them heavily; if you have over one year of relevant work experience, probably not as much. Just my 0.02--hope it helps!

[pushpin]

Not saying this to discourage you from applying but have you thought of applying next application season rather than now? The benefit would be that you'd considered for funding (USC is pretty expensive but also pretty generous with funding), you'd have another year of work experience under your belt. Just wanted to throw that out there and you can apply to number of programs.

To answer your question, I think it's all in how you phrase things. As long as you can tie in your training and leadership work to how you think it will benefit you in your grad program as well as your future career, it wouldn't hurt your SOP, I think

Hi all,

As a somewhat recent college graduate, I feel that my level of work experience isn't quite up to par with other MPA candidates. I know people mentioned that extracurriculars/leadership activities can be considered relevant enough for a SOP, but I wasn't sure if mine were. Could somebody let me know if these experiences are worthwhile enough to mention? BTW the prompt is 1: Why do you want to pursue an MPA? and 2: How could an MPA advance your career goals and aspirations? And I am applying because I want to manage a non-profit someday (just for some background).

1. I was a staffer for the incoming freshman program at my university. Our duties involved the usual touring, but we did diversity training, career/academic planning, and general counseling as well. The entire program is entirely volunteer and all staffers are volunteering their time while students at other universities would be paid for their duties. Yet the program is still extremely competitive and only accepts about a quarter of all applicants (80 of 300 applicants) . On one hand, its not a "non-profit" per se. On the other, I was hoping that it would demonstrate leadership, organizational abilities, and devotion to helping others.

2. Sergeant of Arms for my fraternity. While it was a social fraternity and not a professional fraternity, my cabinet position was NOT comprised of boozing it up day in and out. On the contrary, I was responsible for the regulation of behaviors during meetings and social functions (collecting keys, driving people home that were drunk, restoring order if meetings were disrupted, etc.). In addition, I was responsible for the collection of member dues and coordinated certain activities during our annual charity event.

So what do you think, relevant enough to be included? Both? None? One with some tweaks?

Thanks guys