Previous grad school attempt. Do I have a chance?

[jhn832]

I am applying for the Master of Public Policy program this year and I would like some advice from people who have faced similar issues,

I have always been interested in the field and have the relevant undergraduate degree and work experience. From the most recent GRE, my scores in all sections (verbal, quant, writing) are average or above average for the schools I am applying to. I am trying to get into one of the better programs.

Here is the problem. I came to the US over 10 years ago as a college student. At the time, my English was lacking and my grades suffered mostly due to poor writing skills. However, I was an enthusiastic student and even taught a class as a TA because ny professor thought highly of me. Still, my UGPA is only 2.8. The bigger problem is that I decided to pursue a MPA degree a year after college. I had my reasons to go back to school at the time but it was a mistake. I was not ready for the MPA degree and the program was not a good fit for me. I felt I did not belong there and had nothing to contribute. My English was better but still not sufficiently good and my GPA fell below 3.0 and I was expelled from the program.

5 years have passed since and I have gained a lot of real life perspectives and relevant work experience. Now I know exactly what I want to study and what I want to do with my education. I have good recommendation letters from work and from where I volunteer.

I want to know if it is just a waste of time and effort to apply to the top public policy programs? I am not sure how to explain my history of academic failure in my SOP without sounding downright depressing or if the schools will be convinced that I can handle the academic load this time.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[ANDS!]

It's not a waste of time if you have the money; the question you need to ask yourself is if time has managed to take care of the issues that were causing you to perform below graduate standards. I would say you probably need to temper your expectations insofar as getting into a "top" school is concerned, though "top" is relative.

If you feel your lack of progress was due to lack of fit or simply no synergy with your chosen major, then you simply need to say that in your SOP. Whether they accept that is a whole nother story (though if you are pursuing a Masters your chances are probably much better since you are funding it yourself).