HKS 2016

[PeterQuince]

2 hours ago, NekoAtsume said:

I had attended Goldman's admit day on Monday where race/social justice/and inequality came up right away and continued to be important points of discussion throughout the entire day. I was really thrown off by the lack of it at Harvard and the apparent apathy from the students I interacted with. 

That said, I am sure there are people at the Kennedy school who care about these issues, of course 6 students on a panel cannot be assumed to be representative of the entire program. I am sure that if you do go the HKS you will find a community of people that align with your values. Kennedy is a tremendous network and, if you can afford the debt or got funding, I can understand the appeal.

I'm selectively quoting, but I wanted to give Goldman props for the focus on race/social justice/and inequality at the admitted students day you describe. That's great and we need more policy schools to be talking this. There are a lot of phenomenal people at HKS who care about these issues, but not enough. I think that if you care about these issues we would be enriched by your attendance at HKS, but at the expense of your own experience if HKS isn't ultimately the right school for you.

Best of luck to everyone making decisions and congratulations again.

[kbui]

One question: Did folks also apply for the internal and external scholarships and fellowships on the HKS website? If so, have you heard back yet?

It is a large financial burden to take out loans, though there are so many resources out there for students of color and for marginalized folks, and for passionate people who want to serve our nation and the world. If HKS is something you want to do, I highly recommend applying for scholarships with the same spirit as you place into your application. It will shine through and it would be a great way to fund an education and to help an organization work towards its mission.

[dandylion]

On 4/13/2016 at 5:43 PM, NekoAtsume said:

There were actually two different questions around the idea of race and social justice. The first question asked was about the diversity of faculty to which one student replied the professors there were "technocratic," which I first looked up the definition of and then thought it a very unhelpful and irrelevant response to an important question. 

Then there was a second question brought up that noted social justice/race/inequality issue hadn't seemed to come up that day. That was when 2 or 3 of the students on the panel commented that "it wasn't a big thing" at the school.

Ah! I realized I stepped out of the student panel early to make another meeting, and I totally missed that second question! Concerning indeed. To add to what was said above, for me, addressing diversity/race/inequality at a school isn't just about welcoming diverse individuals into a community - it's about how a school, particularly a policy school, approaches understanding the larger world that its graduates intend to shape. The fact that students feel they don't "need" to discuss these issues is even more concerning to me. How are we supposed to be leaders who write and create policy without understanding the dynamics of the society we are writing policy for? 

This being said, I have decided to accept my offer of admission to HKS. Even with all my concerns, HKS has the best curriculum and faculty for what I want to study. I also spoke with an alumnus friend from HKS who said she found like-minded people who were concerned about issues of social inequality, and I know that there has been movement in the past to make diversity and privilege a more integral part of the campus conversation (http://hksspeakout.tumblr.com/). I wanted to make this post before the end of decision day to try and convince others (and myself) that we can reignite these conversations. I have faith that people do care about these issues, but they often feel ill-equipped to tackle them and that paralysis turns into apathy. SO! I look forward to seeing you all at HKS and having these conversations inside and outside of the classroom!