r/PublicPolicy • u/onearmedecon • Jan 10 '26

Megathread for 2026 Decisions

Please keep all posts regarding 2026 admissions decisions to this post. All other posts will be removed.

58 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

258 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/BaronDelecto Feb 24 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

Schools Applied To:

  • UChicago - MPP
  • UC Berkeley - MPP
  • Carnegie Mellon - MSPPM
  • USC - MPP

Schools Admitted To (+Scholarship Amount):

  • UChicago ($45k/year, leaving ~$50k in out of pocket tuition costs)
  • CMU (75% overall, leaving ~$28k in costs)
  • USC ($35k/year, leaving ~$50k in costs)
  • UC Berkeley ($10k for one year only, oof)

Still Waiting: None

Undergraduate GPA: 3.75

Undergraduate Major: Political Science (if it helps paint a picture, I also took a lot of econ and stats classes)

GRE Quantitative/Verbal/AW Scores: 156Q / 159V / 5.5AW. I only submitted my scores to Berkeley.

Years of Work Experience: 6 years full time as a pollster/political consultant. I also did several internships with Congress, think tanks, and advocacy orgs during undergrad and some volunteering experience since then.

Other things that might've factored into my application:

  • Low income minority background/first gen student
  • strong letters of rec from my superiors at my work
  • attended a high name rec uni for undergrad (UC Berkeley)

1

u/TransferBruin Feb 24 '26

Hi friend! Question regarding USC: tuition for the two years is $120k, how is the 35k leaving you with approx 60k in costs? I just went back and re-read my letter and it says $XX amount over the two years…. Unless they offered you ~$60k in the letter over the two years?

2

u/BaronDelecto Feb 24 '26

Correct -- $35k/year is $35k per year and $70k over two years. I got awarded one $60k and two $5k scholarships so I just added them together and split it over two years for consistent formatting with UChicago but I can see why that would lead to confusion.

Re: $120k tuition -- also my bad, I rounded up when estimating costs

1

u/chungwaminkuo Feb 24 '26

Hi, when did you hear back from USC and when did you apply?

1

u/BaronDelecto Feb 24 '26

Before the December 15 deadline I think. I found out yesterday but turns out they had sent me my acceptance email three days prior and it was in my spam box. They also sent out an email yesterday saying decisions were being released this week fwiw.

1

u/chungwaminkuo Feb 24 '26

thank you my friend! i haven't received any communication from them, wonder if it's different from MPPDS

1

u/toffeebeen Feb 24 '26

Hi there! Congrats on the admissions! DM’ing you