Econ Major considering Grad School

<p>Hi All-</p>

<p>I'm an Economics and Political Science major with minors in History and French at a Tier 2 public school. I'm interested in pursuing a Graduate Degree in Public Policy or a related field. I'm a second semester sophomore, and will more than likely be graduating a year early. Any general advice about getting in to a Tier-2 school, whether or not its worth it, or where I should proceed from here would be helpful, target scores for GRE; etc.</p>

<ul>
<li>3.25 GPA (Done in 3 years with 2 majors and 2 minors)</li>
<li>Two and a half years of paid research experience, excellent reference from respected scholar in the field</li>
<li>Year long internship for Congressman (field office)</li>
<li>Leadership role in College Democrats award winning chapter</li>
<li>President of Debate Club, among top 100 debaters in the country (USA)</li>
<li>Extensive campaign experience, especially field work </li>
<li>(And to whatever degree it may matter) Fluent in Spanish, French, and Russian</li>
</ul>

<p>Really any general/ career advice would be helpful. My ultimate career goal is to work developing foreign or economic policy, doing field work abroad (especially with Foreign Service, but their selection process seems fickle at best), or to work as a legislative aide.</p>

<p>My advice (public policy is not my field but I am in a related professional field):</p>

<p>-Get 2-3 years of work experience before getting your MPP. There are several reasons for this, but the two primary ones are that 1) you’ll be more employable after the MPP and 2) you can decide whether you actually need an MPP, or some other degree, to do what you want to do. Another good reason is that you can establish residency in a state whose public university has a good MPP or related program and try to go there.</p>

<p>-Consider costs. A lot of graduate hopefuls do not do this, but professional master’s are almost entirely financed by loans, so you must consider your potential income against the debt you will take on. Generally speaking a public service worker shouldn’t be taking on $100K+ in debt because you won’t be able to repay it. (Consider that the Obama administration is currently considering limiting public service loan forgiveness to $57,000.) There are a few competitive scholarships at some institutions. For example, Princeton’s Wilson school funds 90% of their students…but most of their admitted applicants have fairly extensive work experience. So consider applying to public institutions at which you might be an in-state student and/or programs/institutions at which you know or are reasonably sure that there are scholarship funds. For reference, when I applied to an MPH program I was offered a half-tuition scholarship at Emory with a 3.4 GPA straight from undergrad (I had 2.5 years of paid research experience as well, but the rest of my resume was less impressive than yours).</p>

<p>-If you get a chance, study abroad. SIT has excellent semester study abroad programs; one that you may be particularly interested in is the Switzerland: Global Health and Development Policy program. You didn’t cite health as an interest, but it’s mostly because the program is headquartered in Geneva and you have the opportunity to intern at an international NGO. Plus you can practice your French. (<a href=“http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/ssa_szh.cfm?cp=2014SFA”>http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/ssa_szh.cfm?cp=2014SFA&lt;/a&gt;). But there are lots of study abroad programs; try to find one that will give you the opportunity to intern and work in one of your foreign languages.</p>

<p>-The foreign service is competitive, but take the exam anyway. You should always try! You may also be interested in applying for the Fulbright to do a research project or serve as an ETA abroad - since you know Spanish you will be eligible to go to Latin America as well as Asia and parts of Europe. For funding for the master’s, look up the Pickering fellowship especially since you want to work for the government.</p>