Choosing Appropriate Schools to Which I Should Apply

[NorCalMike]

Hi all,

Preparing to take the GREs in a couple months, cold pretest score was 154-quantitative / 156-verbal (67th & 72nd percentile respectively).

I have a fair amount of time to dedicate to preparation, so I'm hoping to end up with a score 5-10% better or more, but I want to prepare for the worst.

I graduated from the University of Arizona (#124 overall national undergrad university) with a Dual Degree in Political Science & Judaic Studies, with a 3.72 GPA (4.0 Political Science GPA), 3.937 in my last 2 years.

I've had two semester long internships, one of which was for a Congressperson (who I also spent a summer canvassing for) and the other was related to my Judaic Studies major. I worked throughout my time in school, mostly at one one company (where I worked for more than two years). Currently I'm working in a field unrelated to my major, where I have been promoted a couple times after initially taking an entry-level position.

I'm currently looking at MPA/MPP programs, ideally those highly ranked in Nonprofit Management and/or Environmental Policy & Management.

Currently I've got Indiana, Syracuse, University of Washington, UC Berkeley, NYU & University of Texas - Austin as my 'reaches'. I'm struggling to settle on 'matches' - University of Arizona, Arizona State, University of Colorado Denver all interest me (ties to Arizona). My backups are San Diego State and San Francisco State.

Any thoughts on what my chances are at getting into the listed schools would be appreciated, as would any input on other schools it might be in my best interest to consider.

Thanks!