Do you see me in a top-notch MPP program?

[BinaryRelation]

I'm interested in Chicago, Princeton, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and George Washington.

GPA: 3.9 (4.0 last 60 credit hours),

Major: Finance

Econ Coursework: Intermediate Micro and Macro (As)

Quant Coursework: 4 Stat Classes, 1 econometrics (As), Calc I-III (As)

Research background and experience: 1 year at a think tank, assistant on two published papers, lots of internal research, published essay (not research paper!) in a European policy journal

Work experience: 1 year in a private-sector job related to tax and public works

LORs: two from think tank, one from a Department head, possibly also from intermediate micro professor widely recognized in the policy field I am interested in

I have pretty specific interests and I think my personal statement will reflect that. I am also very deliberately looking for the rigor of an MPP program and will make sure I show that.

Concerns: (1) no research publications of my own, (2) Finance major (although I am interested precisely in public finance-related sub-field), (3) not enough policy experience, especially for Princeton and Harvard.

What do you figure my chances are? Haven't taken the GRE yet, but based on practice scores, expecting 163/164 on both sections.

Also, how does the Finance major look? One of my finance classes were actually almost econometrics- we ran regressions, ANOVA, did model selection, etc. on economic data almost daily even though it was a finance class.

[BinaryRelation]

MIstake: I meant U Texas - Austin instead of Johns Hopkins!

[ZacharyObama]

You should check out the Government Affairs sub-forum: http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/11-government-affairs/

Without having any expertise on these programs, I would just be sure to emphasize how your experiences in at the think-tank and in private sector employment relate to your interest in studying public policy. Numbers are cool, but government/public policy is about people.

Aloha.