Hi all! I looked all around for a forum that addressed this but couldn’t find it. So I’m not in the best of situations (academically). Graduated with a 2.95 cumulative gpa 3.0 major, and 3.23 in the last 60 credits (I really did not take my non major courses seriously my first year or so in school). I have taken about a year off to intern and volunteer abroad, and I have extracurricular, but relevant, leadership roles while in school. I just recently took the GRE test, haven’t gotten cores back, but the unofficial score was 152 verbal and 148 quant (which again seem about average). All things considered, I know I likely don’t have a chance at many tier 1 schools, but what are my chances at getting into grad school overall? I’m coming at this without a ton of experience, but if anyone has heard of any similar situations I’d love to hear from you. Thanks!
What state are you in? Geographically speaking, where do you want to be?
Hi thanks for the reply! I’m currently in NY (hoping to stay in or close to it). Got my GRE scores back and they were 152 verbal, 148 quant and 4.0 AW. Wasnt my personal best since I only studied for 3 weeks while working 2 part time jobs and only had time to review things in cram sessions on weekends. But I don’t want to spend too much time worrying about the scores since I know schools are also looking at other materials as well. Hope that helps
There are a lot of MPP or MPA programs that will take you. You might want to email the admissions offices to see if they have a minimum college GPA requirement of 3.0. Be aware that MPP/MPA programs are money-makers for universities as the majority of students are full-pay. Therefore many of them are not very selective. There is a recent ranking of programs on the U.S News and World Report website. The top programs would not take you but many others would. There are probably a number of small programs in your area. One thing to look for is the availability of internship opportunities.
Finally, most MPA students become public servants or work for nonprofits and do not end up going into well-paying careers. So you wouldn’t want to take on much debt for this degree.