The right kind of work experience for an MPP?

[Tealeaf guy]

Hi guys,

 

So I have decided to do an MPP in one of those big policy schools in the US.Now from what I have learnt prior work experience is given a great deal of importance during admission and I want to know the kind of work that would help increase my chances of admission. I am planning to work for a year or two and right now have two job offers in hand.  

 

1. Campaigner at Amnesty international (Great recognition as an international organisation)

2. Researcher/Coordinator at a local NGO (Primarily to do with research in the social sciences and is therefore relevant to policy studies from a scholarly point of view).

 

I an equally interested in both the job offers and so my decision will be based solely on which of these jobs will add more value to my resume and help get me into a good school. Any advice?

 

 

P.S - My under graduation degree is in a totally unrelated field (engineering) and my GPA is very average, so work experience is crucial in my application

[chocolatecheesecake]

Congrats on the job offers! What would help is if you went into more detail about the area that you will be working in, and really see whether that is aligned with why you want to go to public policy school and what jobs you hope to get after you're done with policy school. Number 2 strikes me as being most directly relevant to the work you would do at school, but the most important factor is really why you want to come to grad school -- which one of these jobs helps you tell the story of why you want to go to grad school? There's a lot of jobs out there that can be helpful for an MPP, but they are different for each person because you need to articulate your own story and how these job experiences helped direct you to an MPP in your SOP and materials. 

[Tealeaf guy]

Thanks alot. That was very insightful. Did you get into any schools you applied to?

[chocolatecheesecake]

Yes, I'm rather happy to report. I got into two of the four schools I applied to and was offered a great amount of aid. I think that my work experience was definitely instrumental in that. Here's my post in the if you'd like to take a look, and I think all the posts there are of great use. You can see how in many cases, work experience directly leads into the decision to get an MPP and also shapes your career goals. Enjoy!