Duke (Sanford) acceptances going out tomorrow

[stilesg57]

Well, it appears that I am in, as well. Which certainly made me crack a pretty big smile.

But I do have a few concerns. First, non of the policy centers (http://sanford.duke.edu/centers/) seem to be at all geared toward the MPP students. Many other schools (Wagner, Ford, for example) actively encourage their grad students to get involved in the policy centers. This seemed like a great way to get a little extra-curricular experience, as well as hone in on career interests.

Second, I flicked through a number of the recent articles, and it all appears, well... rather uber-lefty. A recent intern of Ted Kennedy featured, for example (http://sanford.duke....cy_nr012810.php), and an op-ed that made me want yell at the prof for ignorance of the basics of the international job market (http://www.post-gaze...1033820-109.stm).

Anyone have similar feelings?

This is, admittedly, a pretty basic skimming. And there's a lot about the program that I really like about the curriculum, from what I see in the student manual.

I think I can shed a little light here...

Some MPPs do work in the policy centers, but not many, and virtually no first years. The reason is you're taking almost exclusively required courses the first year (perhaps my biggest complaint of the program) and you are UNBELIEVABLY busy. I took one extra class and audited another beyond the standard first-semester five-course load, and I averaged over 100 hours of work a week. No bullshit - I've never worked that hard in my life, and I did the 70 hr/wk consulting thing in Beijing. There's literally not enough time to sleep. I pulled more all-nighters last semester than I did in all of undergrad - by a pretty wide margin. I went 2.5 months without watching a single movie or a tv show, and I LOVE the Daily Show. This semester's better, but it's still a full plate. Sanfordites all joke we want to get jobs so we can finally relax That said, several teams working on their Spring Consulting Projects are doing work through or in conjunction with Duke policy centers, so there's some interaction there if you want it. Some 2nd years are pretty heavily involved with them too in their electives, internships, and master's projects, as are most of the PhDs.

As for the lefty-ism: YES, it is frickin' uber-lefty. I'm left of most of this country and I've worked on two Democratic campaigns, but because I also worked for the NRA I'm perceived as being just to the right of Glenn Beck It's insane and annoying of course, but I guess I'm used to it because my undergrad was in the Pacific Northwest and I'm just used to academia being crazy left. I will say the military/security clique at Sanford makes it a little rightward of my flower-power undergrad, but not by much. Some of it's institutional to the MPP degree itself: everyone in a program like this by definition believes the government can solve problems and there's nothing morally wrong in working for it

About that girl Megan - she's a hoot, it's a bummer she'll graduate before the next class gets here. And she's pretty centrist by eastern Massachusetts standards too. Don't read too much into a featured article - they rotate all the time and the last one was on a recent alum who had been appointed to something by Bush a couple years ago.

As for the op-ed, you don't agree? You'll love Prof. Cory Krupp, a good ol' neoclassical economist and the best prof I've had so far.

When you're perusing through the curriculum, I'd spend a lot of time looking at the required courses. They make up the bulk of the degree, and are the most challenging. It's very important that they're stuff you like.

[wooldogg]

Thanks for sharing so much Stiles. Do you have any idea when Sanford is sending out financial aid info?

[dagger]

Thanks for sharing so much Stiles. Do you have any idea when Sanford is sending out financial aid info?

So I'm sure Stiles will add more to this, but Duke was the only school for me last year to openly encourage students to "petition" for more funding. We had the opportunity to provide our other funding offers in an effort to increase our Duke scholarship amount. That was something I genuinely appreciated.

Moreover, I don't have record of my initial scholarship offer, but I have a correspondence with the financial aid director that took place after my scholarship offer dated March 19th.

Edited February 26, 2010 by dagger

[coaks]

So I'm sure Stiles will ad more to this, but Duke was the only school for me last year to openly encourage students to "petition" for more funding. We had the opportunity to provide our other funding offers in an effort to increase our Duke scholarship amount. That was something I genuinely appreciated.

Hmm, I would like to petition them to release the remainder of their decisions already.

[Bastille]

So I'm sure Stiles will add more to this, but Duke was the only school for me last year to openly encourage students to "petition" for more funding. We had the opportunity to provide our other funding offers in an effort to increase our Duke scholarship amount. That was something I genuinely appreciated.

Moreover, I don't have record of my initial scholarship offer, but I have a correspondence with the financial aid director that took place after my scholarship offer dated March 19th.

Dagger, if I might: why did you ultimately select Ford over Sanford?

Thanks.

[stilesg57]

I don't know anything about financial aid announcements, except that last year I got mine within about a week.

You can petition for more aid; it's a beautiful thing. See what other aid packages you're getting and let Duke know that you'd prefer to go to Sanford if the cost is at least competitive. They're willing to work with you (to a point of course) if you want to be here and recognize that Duke is going to cost more than No Name State University.

[stilesg57]

Dagger, if I might: why did you ultimately select Ford over Sanford?

Thanks.

I committed to Ford first and then changed to Sanford. There are good reasons for each; Ford's a great school. It has several advantages from an academic standpoint in my opinion, whereas Sanford is has a more developed/emphasized management component IMO. Frankly, if I was committed to the "eventually getting a PhD" route I'd have stayed with Ford.

Search Dagger's comments from last year and you'll learn a lot about the decision process (and mine, for that matter )

Edited February 27, 2010 by stilesg57

[hoby]

Hey Stiles,

As the authority in this discussion, and full of information on the program, do you know if its true that if we have not received an email yet that means a rejection? Or is there another round of acceptances, or waitlist, or something else?

Thanks!

[Fanhope01]

Hey Stiles,

As the authority in this discussion, and full of information on the program, do you know if its true that if we have not received an email yet that means a rejection? Or is there another round of acceptances, or waitlist, or something else?

Thanks!

[Fanhope01]

I am surprised to learn that Sanford has finished selecting the graduates students for fall 2010. I applied for MIDP program at Sanford (Duke) and so far I received no notification letter. I want to know if somebody knows about that program and when the students’ selection supposed to be over. Help please.

[coaks]

I am surprised to learn that Sanford has finished selecting the graduates students for fall 2010. I applied for MIDP program at Sanford (Duke) and so far I received no notification letter. I want to know if somebody knows about that program and when the students’ selection supposed to be over. Help please.

Hey, I called the office early last week and they told me at the time that not all accepted students had been notified. Even though it's been almost two full business weeks, I haven't seen any notices hit the results board since then and still haven't seen any waitlisted applicants. I think there's still hope but it's been a horribly stressful process. I would much prefer a later notification if ALL notices went out on the same day and I didn't have to stress until then. Some of the business schools to which I've applied for a joint degree manage the process very well. Obviously the policy schools spend less on office overhead than the business schools (although per app? not sure) but I think they could definitely benefit their applicants by taking a page or two from the MBA adcom playbook.

[stucktomyshoe]

Hey, I called the office early last week and they told me at the time that not all accepted students had been notified. Even though it's been almost two full business weeks, I haven't seen any notices hit the results board since then and still haven't seen any waitlisted applicants. I think there's still hope but it's been a horribly stressful process. I would much prefer a later notification if ALL notices went out on the same day and I didn't have to stress until then. Some of the business schools to which I've applied for a joint degree manage the process very well. Obviously the policy schools spend less on office overhead than the business schools (although per app? not sure) but I think they could definitely benefit their applicants by taking a page or two from the MBA adcom playbook.

I got my acceptance notification on Tuesday, March 1--I would agree that there's still hope.

[coaks]

Haha, how could you hold out on us??? Congrats!

Hmm, that makes me wonder if there any left to go out.

[Paradoxex22]

mcoakley,

I empathize with the stress you are going through. I am a second year MPP student that frequented these boards during my process. The admissions process is frustratingly opaque, often by design. In Duke's case, they are trying to a new system this year, and so the process may be a bit different than normal.

I can say that unless you have received a rejection, than you have not been outright rejected yet. Assuming you are in a waitlist-type situation is probably accurate. Hopefully the program will send out something definitive in the coming week or so, but you can take it as fact that the program is not sitting on any applications without just cause.

I hope this is helpful.

[kabutar]

Just got an email - waitlisted! I wasn't expecting to get into Duke at all so this is certainly better than I thought!

Anybody know what the chances are of getting in off the waitlist? I'm an international student, if that makes any difference.

[stucktomyshoe]

I just got my aid offer--$10k fellowship and $4k assistantship. I was reading through past posts, and it seems that Sanford is pretty good at coming back with better offers if you tell them it's hard to afford. Does anyone have any feedback on how I could proceed with this?