Hi all,
Been lurking for a few months, here's my first post. I do recognize that this may be an odd time for this kind of post. Nonetheless, I'd appreciate your feedback!
After several months of consideration, including discussions with a few local planners and smart growth advocates, I've decided I'm going to pursue an M.U.P. I'm now in the process of sorting through the different programs, finding which ones match my interests, reading the abstracts for faculty publications, etc.
My background:
B.A. (2009) and M.A. in English literature (2011) from two large state universities. 3.7ish GPA in both programs. I was a graduate instructor on stipend for the M.A., so I have some teaching experience for whatever that's worth. I took the A.P. statistics exam way back when but I'll retake it before starting school nevertheless. I recently took and did well in intro micro and macro economics at a community college as well.
My GRE scores (from memory) 700 verbal, ~600 math, 5 writing.
Two internships:
After I decided on the M.U.P. I came back from teaching abroad and interned this summer at a consumer finance reform advocacy group that worked on urban issues tangentially related to planning (wrongful foreclosures by the big-banks, predatory lenders that prey on the urban poor, etc).
Now that I'm done with that, I'm starting another internship at a D.C. based Smart Growth advocacy group.
Letters:
Probably my weak point. Two will come from the bosses at my internships and will be good. Haven't decided on the third yet. Maybe an undergraduate film professor I have kept in touch with. The M.A. program I ended up in was not a great fit (my own fault for not researching enough like I am now) and I didn't really click with any of the faculty. Certainly could get a letter from someone there, but not too enthusiastic about doing that.
My basic questions for you all is:
Do I have what it takes to get into a good program, and if not, what should I be doing to change that? My aim is to get into a very good but not necessarily elite social-science/policy oriented program (that is to say, not based in an arch or engineering dept.) that will allow me to focus on international development and/or mass transit/BRT. Based on the little research I've done so far, University of Illinois at Chicago seems to be a good choice for both of those subfields and has a pretty good reputation as well, so I'm setting that as my very tentative goal. I'm also looking into U Washington, University of MN, and UCLA. I don't even plan on applying to the true top tiers i.e. MIT, Berkeley.
I would be equally happy working as a planner in the U.S. or abroad, but definitely want to put myself in a position to have a shot at working abroad if I choose to. Currently studying Turkish and would love to work there some day! Working in advocacy is also an option.
Thanks again for any all/feedback. Much appreciated!
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