<p>Hey guys, I am sure that this question has been asked before many times, but I was wondering if, based on my results, if I have any reasonable chance of getting into a top graduate program, I am currently looking at either getting an MPA or a Masters in Econ or Finance. </p>
<p>Here is my background, I am currently a 3rd year International student at one of the top 3 schools in Canada (the top 3 being UofT, UBC, and McGill) studying to get a Business degree. My GPA when not including my 4 of my courses that were in Computer Science (I also wanted to minor in CS before I realized that I am terrible at the subject and well essentially giving up on it, have taken 25 courses so far) is 3.8, but including the CS courses it is a 3.4 (failed one of the 4 CS courses). I have been an executive in 5 different clubs/organizations over the past 3 years, dealing with event planning, marketing, and sponsorship (as well as the odd logistical job of a club). I have also interned at 3 different companies in the past 3 years, and by the time I will be applying I will have interned at 4 (hopefully). I have also worked as a TA and have also worked as a Research Assistant (still am). I am also fluent in 3 languages and can kind of understand a 4th (but am not very proficient at it). I am also a member of a fraternity and have done a lot of philanthropy events and have a very strong tolerance to booze :p.</p>
<p>My question is, do I have any reasonable chance of getting into a top school, such as Cornell, Columbia, Yale and etc, given the fact that at the time of my application, I have had very little work experience (around 8 months in terms of internships, and 1.5 years in terms of TAing and Research), on top of that I have failed one course and have not done too well in 3 other computer science electives. What can I do to improve my chances? Do schools sometimes ignore some courses that are not a part of the major? Also, how important is legacy in US schools (Columbia) if the program I want to apply to is the same one as one of my parents attended?</p>
<p>I apologize for the long post, but thank you for your time!</p>
<p>Could anyone please give me some advice on this, do I have a decent shot even though I flunked one course (granted an elective), and what can I do to improve my chances of getting accepted? The main school I want to go to is Columbia SIPA for an MPA, but will apply to multiple schools, and different majors (Masters in Econ, Master in Finance, although what I really want is an MPA).
Thank you!</p>
<p>TAing doesn’t really count in terms of the work experience that MPA programs want. The average student at SIPA is 27 years old, I think, so that means they have on average 5 years of post-undergraduate, full-time work experience. Only 8-10% of students in each class come straight from undergrad. I’m pretty sure this is the case at all programs for public administration, since you’ll benefit more from the classwork if you have work experience of some type.</p>
<p>For graduate school, legacy status doesn’t matter. That would matter for undergrad, and it could possibly matter for law school if your parent was a prominent alumna/us of the school. But in graduate school students are admitted primarily on the basis of their experiences and grades.</p>
<p>And beyond that, no one can comment on your chances. Graduate schools have their own set of requirements and expectations that they use when admitting students. I will say that a single failed class is not going to hold you back, especially not if your GPA is a 3.4. The lack of full-time work experience has a far greater chance of holding you back than that one failed class. A public administration program wouldn’t completely ignore a failed CS class, but they will take it into consideration with the rest of your package.</p>
<p>My recommendation is go ahead and apply, but do know that the school may reject you and tell you to go get some work experience. Also realize that some employers may be wary of a person with an MPA and no work experience, especially in a bad market.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your reply julliet. Yes, I am quite aware that an MPA schools like one to have 3 years of work experience, but I am doing everything I can to make up for that. MPA schools are not my only target, and due to financial reasons, I want to get a Masters degree right after getting my Undergraduate. I am doing everything I can to get my overall GPA to a 3.6 (and my Major GPA (essentially my grade that does not include the 4 CS classes) to around 3.9, but since I am at an 3.8 now this part is very possible), and I am, as of now, set to Graduate with Honors (having an average GPA of 3.7 in 3rd and 4th level commerce courses is the requirement). As for my failed course, if I retook it and did fine on it, will they ignore the failed version and look at the one I retook? (reason I retook it was…well I had to prove to myself that I could do fine in that course, reason I failed was I had too much on my plate at the time with clubs, research, and etc so I essentially ignored that one course to focus on all the extra stuff, anyway it was my fault, but not because I cant do the material, although I am bad at CS courses).</p>
<p>The other thing is, if not an MPA, I am also am considering getting a Masters in Economics, and a Master of Finance. Would my lack of work experience strongly impact my chances of getting into one of these programs? Would club involvement help me at all? Seeing as on many threads and places that I have read, it appears like graduate schools do not care about EC’s at all (which is odd because they cared so much about it for Undergraduate admissions). What could I do to increase my chances, and keep in mind that I cannot get more work experience upon graduation because I have to go to Graduate school right away or it will be too expensive to go later on.</p>
<p>On the grades side, will the admissions committee take into account the difficulty of the University that one graduated from? Reason I ask this is that, for instance, the average GPA in course in my University is 2.8/2.9, but in US schools, from data that I have seen, is around 3.3 (varies quite a bit bu University though).</p>
<p>Thank you again for your time, and I do apologize for the long writing, Ive always had a problem with that aspect of writing.</p>