Safety Schools?

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I want to start a public administration program in the fall but I am not sure based on my stats what would be good safety schools, although I've picked out schools I really want to go to, don't want to be left with nothing if i don't get into them. Im not entirely sure what level to be aiming for as I can't seem to find much information regarding current students.</p>

<p>Stats are:
25/F from England
Undergrad 3.5 GPA from top English University in Psychology and quite a bit of charity work etc while there.
GRE: Q159 (old scoring 750) - 82nd percentile, V165 (old scoring 690) - 96th percentile)
6 months travelling in central america, 6 months at a language school in Austria (studying German)
1 year working in events
2 years working in retail for Englands most well known department store chain (1 year in management in one of the department stores, 1 year in buying for the companies website), then left to start studying.
Right now am taking online classes in calculus and statistics and volunteering at an elderly persons home, from January enrolling in community college to take classes in micro/macro economics, finance and maybe some poli sci as didn't take any of these things as part of my undergrad and think I will find the MPA too difficult with no prior knowledge of those topics.</p>

<p>I would like to apply to USC, NYU and Columbia but was wondering if based on my stats I have any chances of getting in and what other schools I should consider as safer options but obviously still as good as possible.</p>

<p>Looking forward to getting your opinions/suggestions! Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Don’t apply anywhere you wouldn’t want to go to if you were accepted. That’s all I have to say.</p>

3

<p>Here here for denizen’s advice. Apply only to schools you would gladly attend and do everything possible to get admitted to each one.</p>

4

<p>Of course, would be an incredible waste of time and money for me and a bummer for someone if I got a space that I wasn’t going to take… I was more wondering what schools my application might be competitive for and then seeing if I would be interested to go to any of them. Simply because through my research I am having a hard time finding class profiles for any MPA programs and I can’t quite figure out what level of school to aim for and thought people on here may have experiences/advice with public administration programs.</p>