Recommendation Letters and Contacts

I had a great 24 hours. The professor I was working with here referred me to a couple people at the schools I want to apply to. I also mentioned to him that I am planning to apply to the Maryland school so maybe he'll know someone there too.

I downloaded articles from the people he mentioned and put in requests for their books. I hope to contact them in mid-August. I will also contact people I found on my own, since his contacts did not cover everywhere I want to apply.

I also contacted my potential recommenders today which was really awkward as they all have English degrees and I am looking for something entirely different, but I played it as best I could (asking for any help they could give) and one got back to me right away saying he doesn't know much about policy but would gladly write me a recommendation which is fantastic. I could not have hoped for a better or easier response. I was told that teachers know what you want when you contact them like that, but it is nice to have that taken care of. I still am waiting to hear from another professor and I hope I hear soon. I will have to contact a professor who doesn't know me and just beg for a recommendation if this guy doesn't come through. I am not above that though. My first two letters will be good. If I have one "she took my class, got an A" letter, I should still be okay overall.

I really need to get working on my statement of purpose though. It really needs to shine in light of my awful analytical writing score. I plan to have everyone I can find read it before I turn it in.

I am thinking about dropping my safety school off the list. What is the point if I have a shot to get into a better school in the future? I am sad I wasted a free GRE score report on them, but it was a $20 mistake. Better then wasting a bunch of time and money on completing the application.

Updates

I add another mid-Atlantic school to my list, #6 Maryland. I also received my official GRE score report that confirmed my score (I had myself convinced I was wrong about it) and I got my writing score which was really disappointing. I got a 4.5 (or the 58 percentile). My verbal score was in the 96th percentile and my quantitative in the 79th. It doesn't seem right, but hopefully, I can offset it with my statement of purpose.

We'll see. I'm going to start contact professors at the institutions soon.

Contact from Professor

The professor at my current school that went to school #2 emailed me back and was very positive. I emailed him more details and I am excited about him getting back to me. I didn't think it would go this smoothly. I honestly thought it would be very awkward (the only awkward moment was me noticing I used a homophone of a word instead of the correct one, but he overlooked it!).

What I said basically, is:
Dr. His Name

I was looking through the public policy website here and noticed your name. I am planning to apply to [your alma mater] and I was wondering if you could sit down with me to discuss the school.

I saw on the faculty biography page that you are interested in [stuff] and I am too. Have you seen [tv show relating to stuff]? It is excellent.

Worked very well. And he offered to put me in contact with people at every school I am applying to (if he knows someone). So I emailed him back more information, honed in on my interests, and am waiting on another response. All in all, a success!

I also emailed a former supervisor, caught her up on my plans, and asked if she will write me a recommendation letter. I am planning to use her as a 4th letter. All the schools require three, but I will send four in case someone flakes. At some schools, it could hurt me because you need two academic references and neither that I asked so far is academic, but I would at least like to get three letters there, you know? Maybe they won't notice they are not academic since they all work for my university.

Also, I can just see 10 months from now posting that I got in nowhere. VERY POSSIBLE. But if so, I will tell you why so you can avoid my mistakes.

Graduate School

I am in the process of applying for graduate school (specifically a master's in public policy) for the Fall of 2009. I will be using this here blog to keep track of what I have to do, when I have to do it, and how it went. It is July 14 and I am submitting all my applications by the earliest deadline which is December 1. That is 140 days from now.

Stats:
UG GPA: 3.69
Major GPA: 3.91
Upper Division: 3.89
GRE: 690V/730Q, 4.5 AW
Recommenders: No one you've ever heard of.
Resume: Pretty awesome, but also kind of lacking
SOP: It will kick ass
Other: We'll see what comes up.
Costs: INSANE! So far $140 on the GRE.
Schools to which I am applying: I am keeping it a secret but #1 is in California, #2 is in Pennsylvania, #3 is in Wisconsin, #4 is in Oregon, and #5 is in Massachusetts, and #6 is in Maryland.

So far I have identified people I would like to work with at schools #1, #2, and #5. I am planning to rework my resume today (I have been applying for jobs, so it needs to be tailored for schools). I am meeting with one potential recommender for lunch (we're friends). I am contacting a professor at my school who went to school #2 who I hope will be willing to sit down with me and tell me all about policy programs and the school. I have a rough draft of my statement of purpose (SOP). I also work with someone that went to school #2 so I am going to chat her up some.

Applications don't become available until September so I am kind of spinning my wheels, but I am trying to get done what I can.