<p>Hey,</p>
<p>I'm applying to harvard's kennedy school of government for their mpp program. Just looking for your guys' opinion about my chances.*</p>
<p>Undergrad:*
uc berkeley 09'
b.s. environmental policy*</p>
<p>Grad School:*
george washington university '11 (candidate status) **
masters in political management</p>
<p>undergrad gpa: 3.9
grad gpa: 3.8</p>
<p>lsat: 160 (because I'm applying for the joint mpp/jd program they're allowing me to submit the LSAT in place of the GRE).</p>
<p>Work experience:</p>
<p>Field Manager / Campaign and Lobby Coordinator - Fund for Public Interest Research (1 year). Ran various nonprofit environmental campaigns.*</p>
<p>Public Outreach Consultant for a nonprofit environmental group dealing with environmental justice issues (a few months)</p>
<p>Legislative Intern - Senator Feinstein's office in DC (about 5 months full time). Split my time between working with with the senate drug caucus on international narcotics control and energy/environmetal issues.*</p>
<p>Policy Analyst / Speechwriter - for a san jose city councilmember (full time, it'll be over a year when i apply). My legislative portfolio puts me in charge of the following issue areas: budget, education, housing, labor, environment, economic development, public transit, drugs, and airport issues. *Along with policy, I attend community meetings on the councilmember's behalf to speak to constiuents directly and write speeches for her as well. *</p>
<p>Race: Indian-American.*
Recs: should be pretty solid.*</p>
<p>Anyways, what do you guys think?*</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>from what i read on CC, seems like any of the masters at HKS have around ~30% acceptance, which is much higher than the ~5-10% acceptance of the HKS PhD programs.</p>
<p>given that it is a master’s program (read that as a cash cow for Kennedy school), the higher acceptance rates makes sense.</p>
<p>i would like to give you a slight warning; i know of someone who finished either a MPP or MPA last year, not sure which one, but could not find a job in government after graduating . i do not know firsthand the significance or weight a master’s degree carries (even if it’s from Kennedy school) in this area, but seems the job market is hard if you’re headed into gov</p>
<p>all in all, make sure why you need a master’s and not just go in cause you’re getting it from harvard (even i understand that brand recognition is a huge thing). like many master’s degrees, even in the hard sciences, don’t carry much weight unless it’s a MPH (public health) or MBA. and even those degrees don’t carry much weight unless it’s from a top program, but a MPP or MPA may be ultimately worthless unless you’re getting great connections (which is all i see for it’s worth)</p>
<p>I found that 30% figure too but what they told us at admitted students day was 1 in 6.</p>
<p>From my own research your chances of getting into the Kennedy School are extremely high considering their average GPA is a 3.6 in undergrad. Considering you already have a Masters and a fair amount of work experience, I don’t think you have much to worry about.</p>
<p>Why the need for a second masters? I’m not saying it isn’t worthwhile, I’m just wondering what your reasons are. </p>
<p>Your WE seems very good and your GPA is above average for HKS as well.</p>
<p>With both of the graduate degrees, an idea presented that they are somehow useless or lead to roadblocks within academia or prominent positions in leadership positions in government is more than false or misguided by the person posting these comments. I do not know the Universities that graduates have developed degrees from to advocate this belief, but is on the other spectrum from my personal experience and statistical information to bear out my facts. I attended Appalachian State University, which many people on this message board would likely not heard of. Our MPA program, which I chose over University of North Carolina Institute of Government and Wake Forest University provides practicing professionals with invaluable expertise in city, town, and municipal government management positions with placement and city and town manager positions usually within 1-4 years. Not finding a town manager position upon graduation from students at our program would be an exception to the rule. I am trying to get advice on which schools to pursue for my doctorate with a primary focus on state and local government management. I have looked at Univ of North Carolina, Univ of Georgia, Duke, and possibly moving outside of North Carolina government at Ann Arbor, UVA, Harvard, and Princeton. I would appreciate graduates of these programs or those with personal knowledge of them to give me pros and cons about their personal experience from attending or employing graduates.</p>