Am I good enough for Harvard / Princeton? (From across the pond)
Hey monkeys.
Looking to get your opinion on whether I should apply this year or next year for the MPP programmes at Harvard / Princeton / Columbia.
I've been working in a top BB IB (think GS/MS/JPM) in London in the Nat Res / Sovereign Advisory team for the past two years. Prior to that I was at Cambridge and graduated top of my year. I did the GRE recently but didn't too well (V - 161, M - 157, W - 6) as my hours aren't very conducive to being able to revise too much. I have quite a few internships with MPs, a development internship in SA Asia, and have also done voluntary work in the ME and CE.
I'm just worried my GRE score will hold me down but my hours are very difficult for me to retake / give too much time. Let me know what y'all think - very keen to here from monkeys who are at Harv/Princeton or doing MPP programmes.
Why do you want a MPP? Unless you are dead set on legit policy work or a shot at defense consulting, I would go the mba route instead.
You have a pretty good shot at H and C but Princeton is a glutton for extensive work experience.
I'd like to work for in policy making for the IMF / WB - feel that an MPP would suit my goals better. In terms of GRE score do you think it's worth a shot at joint MBA / MPP or even an MPP? My key concern is my GRE score
...and thanks for the reply!
Apply and find out, the thing with school applications are, at the end of the day so many factors pop in to what you need, experience, previous school, extra curricular, the right perfect timing (college application reviewer getting a BJ before picking up your application), that at the end of the day all you can do is nail every category possible,and hope for the best. I'm too sleep deprived to write more, your stats look great!!
Princeton has a great MPA program. It's probably also one of the chillest grad programs on campus.
If you want a role at the World Bank, you may also want to keep a Master in Finance at Princeton in mind, as well as maybe Yale's Economic Policy program. It looks like you're aiming for top brand name schools, but you may also want to put Georgetown SAIS on the list. Georgetown might be ~20 in the overall US News rankings, but for public policy/political science, it's probably in the top three, ok maybe top five (for obvious reasons).
IIRC, Princeton's Woodrow Wilson program is fully funded. You pay $0, and you get a stipend that covers most of your living expenses. It's a pretty sweet deal for a master's degree. The tradeoff, of course, is that you're expected to go into either government work or non-profit work.
If you're thinking about applying to a full-fledged Finance or math/stats-oriented Econ program, I'd try to get the Math up. Your verbals are great for finance, but you probably need to retake the exam and get a >165Q. I'm not sure what the value of that option is to you; there are many routes into the IMF/World Bank.
Princeton will also want you to carefully explain why you want to go into public policy- it's a fully funded program. They're going to look at your background and note that you haven't worked on any political campaigns, haven't advised any politicians, don't have a classic public service background. How does Princeton know it can trust you to go off to the IMF with this degree rather than going back to the Munis desk at Goldman? Anything you can do to demonstrate "I want to work at the IMF and here's what I've done prior to my application to prove it" would be helpful for a funded master's degree.
I suspect you'll get interviews at a lot of good programs, but there will be some skepticism about your desire to work in the public sector, especially if you're getting funding from the school. I'd also note that working for the Feds/ GOs is a great early career move and a great late career move, but it's a horrible mid-career move. So if you've risen beyond the rank of a 1st or 2nd year associate, I'd be a little more careful.
My background/bias is that I'm an MS Finance student at Princeton who knows some of the Woodrow Wilson folks but not that well. Prior to grad school I worked as a desk developer/ desk strat in Equity Options at a BB. Our program has placed a few people into Fed/SEC/Treasury/IMF roles over the years; I'm not a huge proponent of it for your case, but it's something you should keep in mind. (If the theme of your Woodrow Wilson application is "I want to work for the IMF", you can probably also submit an application to Bendheim. But I'd take a free Woody Wu master's over an $80K Bendheim MS)
Hi IlliniProgrammer,
I am an undergraduate student considering going into Master in Finance. You mentioned that some of your MFin friends were placed into Fed and IMF, and I am wondering what their roles are because I am aware that Fed and IMF usually only take Ph. D's in Economics.
Thank you!
happyivey
I know that the IMF recruits here and I think we have alumns of the program there. My sample set is a bit small because I only know in detail about 15-20 people who graduated last year and where they were placed. Wendell Collins would probably know people at the Fed a bit better.
I also know in general that the Fed has hired undergrads.
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