Getting stellar work experience

[kabutar]

Hi again,

I've been reading through some more of the posts here and am in a bit of a bind... I want to apply to a top tier school for MPA/MPP (perhaps MIA at Yale/SIPA) in enviro concentration.

I have an unfortunate GPA (below 3) for various reasons (incredibly tough engineering program and it didn't treat me well heh) but a 3.33 in my senior year, A+ on my thesis (also got a publication) and am taking a bunch of policy courses in which so far I have all As. I also have 800 V/750 Q GRE.

I will be taking econ/stats courses to meet reqs BUT these marks will not go in with the application as the courses won't be taken in time. I have a quantitative background due to being in eng, but my math marks aren't good because the courses were incredibly abstract and I just couldn't get my head around them. (I should probably have transferred out, but I'm stubborn )

Work experience. I have 1 year at a nanotechnology company after my 3rd year of undergrad (obviously totally unrelated to MPP lol but still 'professional') and a short stint in Africa volunteering with a science ed program. Through Oct I'm going to be working with a bunch of activist groups here who are putting together a big event for the International Climate Day of Action and will also be working for an NGO doing enviro policy research.

I feel however like I need some more experience to really be competitive but not just that - I need really good experience, something that stands out. If I don't get in for Fall 2010 I'm going to need to go all out on the courses to beef up that GPA, so disappearing for a year won't really be an option, but perhaps summer 2010 would be possible. Alternatively something that I could do part-time while still home (which is Vancouver) in addition to what I'm doing currently.

Would anybody have any suggestions as to where to start? I would love to get international experience, or experience in a think tank, but how would I go about that? It's a bit of a catch-22 for me since I don't have the background per se. A lot of people seem to have great experience but it goes a bit over my head as to how they actually got it lol. Help?

Thanks (p.s. sorry for multiple posts: my questions keep changing as I read more etc lol)

[Cornell07]

Well, in this economy I'll sum it up as such: "People, who know people, are the luckiest people in the woooooooorld!"

[kabutar]

Well, in this economy I'll sum it up as such: "People, who know people, are the luckiest people in the woooooooorld!"

Bah, I'm doing a career change. I don't have a whole lot of contacts in the field... and building them would mean starting at ground level and slowly working up, which would take FAR too long in terms of how long it'd take me to get anywhere lol.