"2 years of experience" question

[ppolicy_hopeful]

I'm sorry for the stupidity of this question, but does anyone know how the years of experience are calculated by grad schools? If a school says that 35% percent of the entering class had 2 years of work experience, does this mean two years at matriculation or at the moment of application? This would kind of make a difference in my case.

[eliotrosewater]

I suspect most schools mean "at matriculation." I know CMU Heinz specifically notes that they mean by matriculation, but I don't recall any other schools specifically stating it. Don't consider this a firm answer though, I'm certainly don't work in admissions anywhere.

Maybe try e-mailing the schools you are curious about and ask them this question?

[scholl43]

I recently asked an admissions person at SAIS about how to calculate the number of years of work experience I had. She said that it didn't matter too much and that it was just for their records. She said they'd really determine that by looking at my resume so how I calculated it wasn't too relevant. Probably not the best answer, but it worked for me since I have 2 years of full time work already (3 when I plan on going) and a few internships.