New to the field and trying to figure out my options...Please Advise

[SPH]

Hello everyone,

I am new here. I am a 4th year graduating in December. I am new to this field so I don't know much about it. I am just being VERY open to possible career choices not relating much to my majors.

My goals are very diverse: I would like to join the Foreign Service or work in Economic Consulting or even for organizations like the IMF.

I am really thinking about graduate programs such as the International Trade and Investment Policy program at George Washington.

Would you advise me on what I need to do as far as work experience, GRE, etc. are concerned for what I want to do as mentioned above? Please be brutally honest, I don't want to waste my time with this if I am just *dreaming* about the goals I mentioned above.

Undergraduate School: SEC school (US)

Undergraduate GPA: 3.5

Undergraduate Majors: Accounting, Finance, and Business Economics

Graduating: December 2011

GRE: Have not taken yet. What would I need here?

Quantitative Background: (not sure if I was suppose to include this) Calculus, Statistics, Intermediate Microecon, Intermediate Macroecon, Labor Econ, All Accounting/Finance classes, Operations Management,

Work experience: 2 local small-firm finance internships, 1 Fortune 500 internship in Financial Services, Analyst at the student run investment fund, Income Tax Preparer Volunteer services

Extra-curriculars: Beta Alpha Psi, World Affairs Council, Investment Association, Finance Club, Indian club

Languages: Hindi (Beginner), German (Beginner) -(not impressive I know)

IF there is anything else I need to include, please let me know.

Basically I want to know if I still have a chance at grad programs in International Trade/Public Policy/Econ or if I am just wasting my time. I am desperate for answers. If there are any other programs I should be looking at in particular, please let me know too.

Thank you.

Edited May 27, 2011 by SPH

[abogs78]

This is my 2 cents: get some full-time work experience to get a better idea of where you want to be career wise. I went into investment management for 3 years and I was not fulfilled. I then decided to go into the international development field and I have had no regrets, thus the reason why I applied to go for the MPA program this fall. I will suggest you get work experience either in the finance field or international relations/trade arena,and see if you really like it instead of jumping straight into the public policy/Econ arena immediately. The last thing I don't want you to experience if you finally get into a master's program straight from undergrad and then have regrets later because you did not test the waters after college. In addition, work experience is valued highly during the application process especially for top public affairs schools and it is even more important when you graduate from your master's program. In terms of the GRE a lot of schools will tell you there is no cut off because your application is viewed holistically thus while a GPA might be mediocre ( I am not saying yours is by the way), work experience might be the highlight of an applicant's file that gets them into a great program. Of course, I will suggest that you should do well on your GREs however it is important to point out that a 1600 will not necessarily get you into a top school if other components of your application are not the best compared to the competitive applicant pool that applies to schools like WWS, HKS, Goldman, Yale, Michigan, etc. Good luck!

Edited May 27, 2011 by abogs78

[SPH]

This is my 2 cents: get some full-time work experience to get a better idea of where you want to be career wise. I went into investment management for 3 years and I was not fulfilled. I then decided to go into the international development field and I have had no regrets, thus the reason why I applied to go for the MPA program this fall. I will suggest you get work experience either in the finance field or international relations/trade arena,and see if you really like it instead of jumping straight into the public policy/Econ arena immediately. The last thing I don't want you to experience if you finally get into a master's program straight from undergrad and then have regrets later because you did not test the waters after college. In addition, work experience is valued highly during the application process especially for top public affairs schools and it is even more important when you graduate from your master's program. In terms of the GRE a lot of schools will tell you there is no cut off because your application is viewed holistically thus while a GPA might be mediocre ( I am not saying yours is by the way), work experience might be the highlight of an applicant's file that gets them into a great program. Of course, I will suggest that you should do well on your GREs however it is important to point out that a 1600 will not necessarily get you into a top school if other components of your application are not the best compared to the competitive applicant pool that applies to schools like WWS, HKS, Goldman, Yale, Michigan, etc. Good luck!

Thanks for the reply! This is exactly the kind of response I was looking for. I guess I was a bit too eager to get a masters degree early on directly after I completed undergrad. This seems more like MBA programs where work experience matters quite a bit. I really want to keep my career choices open however. I just figured that getting into a grad program directly after undergrad would get me a full time position I would want. I can wait however after I get some experience in Finance/International Trade. I am very interested in these areas and hopefully once I land a position, I'll be able to study for the GRE at the same time. So the idea is to get work experience after I graduate, and then see how I like it and then apply to these grad programs. Sounds good.

How strong does the work experience have to be though?

Would anyone else like to offer their input as well?

Edited May 27, 2011 by SPH