MPP Admission Advice w/ STATs

[tbonetrain]

Hi all,

I graduated from the top (sometimes the second best) public university in America. Did three years of teaching with Teach for America and am currently working abroad as an English teacher with a fairly prominent Guatemalan NGO. I would like to apply to: HKS, SAIS, Wagner, SIPA and GPPI. My undergraduate GPA was a 3.66 (3.90 in distinguished history major, 3.67 in foreign affairs) and my GRE math was 690, while my GRE verbal was 630. AWA was 6.0.

Do you think my (relatively) speaking low GRE score would make any of these schools just ridiculous to apply to? Also, I would characterize Wagner as a safety, GPPI as a solid and SIPA/SAIS/HKS as reaches. Agree? Disagree?

Thanks!

A

[greendiplomat]

Hi all,

I graduated from the top (sometimes the second best) public university in America. Did three years of teaching with Teach for America and am currently working abroad as an English teacher with a fairly prominent Guatemalan NGO. I would like to apply to: HKS, SAIS, Wagner, SIPA and GPPI. My undergraduate GPA was a 3.66 (3.90 in distinguished history major, 3.67 in foreign affairs) and my GRE math was 690, while my GRE verbal was 630. AWA was 6.0.

Do you think my (relatively) speaking low GRE score would make any of these schools just ridiculous to apply to? Also, I would characterize Wagner as a safety, GPPI as a solid and SIPA/SAIS/HKS as reaches. Agree? Disagree?

Thanks!

A

I'm coming directly from undergrad, so GRE scores are, relatively speaking, important. Given that you will have had (I'm assuming) at least 4 years of WE upon matriculation, I wouldn't worry too much about your GRE scores being slightly below the median for some of these schools (besides, most of these schools have medians around the 700 mark, so I think you'll be fine). The only school where you *might* have trouble would be HKS.

This said, I get that you've taught for the past few years, but I think that the main thing you should be concerned about is how focused your career goals will come across. My only reason for pointing this out is that you're applying to a very wide range of programs. On the spectrum of programs covered by this forum ("Governmental Affairs"), I feel like Wagner and SAIS are on opposite ends, the former being a very standard Public Admin degree, while the latter is a "pure" International Affairs degree. That is, unless, you're interested in International Public Management or International Development (the fields covered by Wagner's "International" track).

What field are you interested in, and what are your long-term career goals?