Career Advice Needed - In my mid 20s trying to advance my career

First off, I know this is long and I greatly appreciate anyone who takes the time to read this.

I’m in my mid-20s and trying to figure out what the best to advance in my career is. I went to a good undergraduate school (UVA/Georgetown/Notre Dame level) and graduated with a low GPA (2.7 GPA). I majored in Political Science but my school had lots of core requirements and I struggled with my science and foreign language classes in particular. In terms of math, I did well in statistics but was average in economics and calculus. Despite these grades, I have always had a strong interest in business (one of my favorite classes was constructing a business plan and working with a team).

I graduated in 2008 and the economy was shaky. However, I realized for every twenty jobs I applied to that I would receive one interview. The more interviews I went on, the more confident I got and eventually started getting offers. Most of them were small financial service or real estate companies, however due to the unstable economy – I took a government job because it felt safer.

The job deals with budgeting and doing financial forecasting for large infrastructure projects. I started as an assistant analyst which earned only $40k/year. I lived at home for a year to make more aggressive payments on some of my student loans (I still have approximately $15k in student loan debt). However, I matured a lot by having a full-time job and worked hard. I was promoted twice and now I am a senior analyst making $60k/year (although now I’m paying rent, etc.)

I would like to go to graduate school – I feel it would give me a blank slate to prove I can obtain a high GPA and it may advance my career prospects. However, I am worried whether the cost of graduate school is worth the debt. However, I feel far more mature and driven that I used to be – if I enrolled I would treat grad-school as if it were a full-time job.

The second issue is what graduate school will take a chance on me with such a low GPA. I’m a decent test taker on my SATs I was around 670M and 650V. I could work incredibly hard at the standardized tests on GRE and GMAT and try to get to the 75% percentile and hope that my scores and work experience might compensate for the low GPA.

I feel an MBA is the most versatile degree but I probably don’t have the credentials for a top program. (I have four years work experience and an internship in private wealth management at an investment bank that I did during undergrad). There are programs like MA in Management at Wake Forest and although I need to learn how to do financial modeling – I don’t know if this is worth the debt or exit opportunities. A third option would be to pursue a MPP/MPA, there are several people high in my organization who teach at NYU or Columbia. I’m thinking a letter of recommendation would definitely help (and I feel MPA tends to be a less competitive pool than MBA). But even if accepted, there is still the issue of whether the debt is worth it. My current job mostly hires mostly graduate students with MPA/MPP from NYU and Columbia – it seems odd to pursue this degree if I already have this job.

Most people at my job transition to other city agencies like Department of Finance or some go to Washington DC and work for Congressional Budget Office. The ones who move to private sector tend to go to ratings agencies like Moody’s or S&P.

Since I have experience in the public sector, I think my dream job would be to work for a private bank in a public policy division. I would also be happy working for any well-known company in the private sector (IBM, etc.)

If anyone has any advice on the best ways to transition to the private sector (and whether I should attend graduate school or not), I’d greatly appreciate it.