Applicants Fall 2021 Applicants

[gamingtoomuch]

Just wanted to reach out and say hello to everyone applying this upcoming cycle! It sure is an interesting time to apply with everything going on, but I'm glad to see this forum exists for us to share our thoughts, inquiries, or just rant. Ive personally read through almost all of the yearly admissions posts on here, which has been a huge help in crafting my application (and source of a lot of stress lol). With applications opening up soon just want to wish everyone good luck.

Shout out to those already in the planning field willing to help answer questions from prospective students!

 

[glutton]

Good luck!!

 

[jberg93]

Good luck to all! Where's everyone applying to?

 

[gamingtoomuch]

Good luck to all! Where's everyone applying to?

SoCal guy here and planning on staying to work in state... so UCB, UCLA, CPP, and UC Irvine.

 

[jberg93]

Funny, I'm a norcal and doing exactly the same but swapping UCI for SJSU. Looked into UCI for a bit and an interesting program but ultimately, I'd rather be in LA or the Bay Area than OC.

 

[austin1100]

Good luck to everybody! Applying as well.

• Cornell
• NYU
• Rutgers
• UCLA
• CalPolySLO
• UT Austin

 

[giuseppe]

Hey all,

A little anxious about the competitiveness of the application cycle this year given COVID.
I'm LA based with about 6-7 years experience in renewable energy and I'll be applying to just UCLA and USC.
Slightly worried about my gpa but hoping those concerns will be offset by my overall solid profile + work exp.

Good luck everyone!

 

[jberg93]

Hey all,

A little anxious about the competitiveness of the application cycle this year given COVID.
I'm LA based with about 6-7 years experience in renewable energy and I'll be applying to just UCLA and USC.
Slightly worried about my gpa but hoping those concerns will be offset by my overall solid profile + work exp.

Good luck everyone!

If it makes you feel any better I spoke to the Grad Advisor at both UCLA and UC Berkeley and both confirmed that this year's cohort let in will be the same size as previous years. (Never spoke to USC).

There are so many competing factors - more people deferring from lats year, less people potentially applying, perhaps more serious/qualified candidates who want to apply no matter what, perhaps more people deferring to 2022 if they get in for 2021. It's so up in the air! Good luck!

 

[cityplace_uptown]

Posted on Gradcafe but will copy here:

Almost done with my first round of apps! Current undergraduate looking for Masters programs next fall.

Age/Gender/Citizenship
21/M/US
Undergraduate degree/School/Year graduated
B.S. Urban and Regional Planning – Expected May 2021
Minor in Geographic Information Science & Technology
GPA - GRE - TOEFL (for Int'l students)
4.0 GPA, 161V - 158Q - 5.0AWA
Work Experience:
Volunteer event experience and APA student involvement.
I had a local internship planned for last summer but then the coronavirus happened. 🙁
Research Experience:
3 semesters undergraduate RA experience in hazards planning. Looking to pivot to transportation.
Letter of recommendations: (from whom)
PI and former professor, former studio professor, academic advisor.
Schools applied to:
Rutgers MCRP, NYU Wagner MUP, Columbia MSUP, CUNY Hunter MUP, UT Austin MSCRP
Will likely add more schools next month.

Definitely feeling uncertain about my lack of experience...

 

[glutton]

Definitely feeling uncertain about my lack of experience...

Very few people have a planning undergrad degree so what you lack in experience you can make up for with your undergraduate foundation in planning. Like you, I also went to planning for undergrad and went to grad school soon after after a gap year doing internships. I was one of the younger ones in my grad cohort (except for most of the international students), which was a little weird. But it worked out since I came in with knowledge of planning already. I would say just make a strong case why you want to continue doing planning for a masters (for example, you mentioned wanting to concentrate more in transportation).

And you can mention in your essay or application somewhere that your internship was cancelled due to Covid.

also I would look into Portland state, university of Washington, and Georgia Tech for transportation if you are open to any location!

 

[cityplace_uptown]

Thanks, that's a reassuring response! I tried to make my SOP as pointed as possible to emphasize transportation goals and I did briefly mention COVID impacts.

As for location, I'm in Texas (hence UT as an in-state option) but would like to work in the Northeast so that's where I'm focusing. Nothing against the programs you mentioned though, I know they have strong planning schools!

 

[planningfor2021]

Copy-pasted from Grad Cafe (chance me because I'm super nervous about admissions this cycle)
Good afternoon all!

Super nervous because I can only apply to two schools and have a non-traditional background (high UG GPA/low Law School GPA). My GPA suffered as I balanced law school, holding a family together, and parenting an infant daughter. For personal reasons after law school, I opted to be a stay-at-home dad to an infant daughter. Since then, I want to think I've grown up and learned from that experience, which I conveyed in the diversity statement.

Age/Gender/Citizenship: 32/M/US (first-generation Chicano student)

Undergraduate degree/School/Year graduated

UG: Best public in CA/BA History/2009
Law School: Ivy league/JD 2014

GPA - GRE - TOEFL

No GRE (worried that might ding application)

UG: 3.8 (Latin honors and graduated from honors college); Law School: >3.0

Work Experience:
after college: Full-time senior research assistant at UG institution for 2 years; Ran federally funded summer program for migrant students

Post Law school: ran a home-based business that allowed me to focus on raising my daughter.

Recently (since daughter entered primary school): Policy & marketing research Intern w/ PBID since mid-2019 (created policy guidebooks, Pro-forma, affordable housing work); Early-member/national strategist for advocacy movement featured regularly in Washington Post /NYT/ Bloomberg/etc) that Achieved licensure reform through state-wide and national legislation & petitioning state supreme courts (

Letter of recommendations: (from whom)

- PBID President (almost certainly will be a very strong letter); highly-cited Supervising Professor (law school letter said one of 10 top students in a 50-year career); Financial Economist at SEC who I am Collaborating with on forthcoming Urban Economics paper (very strong letter describing our research)

- SOP and PS read strong, but I hope ad. com agrees (I found 2 typos tho)

Applying: USC/UCLA (can only apply to two schools)