Kinsey Brown : Levett Career Center : Hanover College

Kinsey Brown

Kinsey Brown '17
earning MA in Political Communication
American University

Return to Advice Page

Kinsey's Advice

Personally, I knew I wanted to go to graduate school for something very specific. I knew as a Communication major at Hanover that I was well-prepared for a Masters in Communication, but I wanted my next level of education to be specific and career based. Knowing that I want to go into politics, I started researching D.C. schools and found the M.A. in Political Communication from American University, a hybrid program operating out of both the School of Communication and the School of Public Affairs - I immediately knew it was perfect for me. Luckily, weeks before I completed my application I was told by the program director that they were not requiring a GRE score for the program, so I did not have to take any testing.

When I was solidifying my résumé to apply, I reached out to both the director and current students (contact info given to me by the director as well) to ask what they were looking for in a student. I took off things that didn't apply (things like high school jobs) and focused on academic achievements at the top. When I wrote my essay, I knew I wanted to be creative to stand out, so I talked about Harry Potter! I also had at least 6 people (parents, siblings, peers and professors) read through it and send me corrections- you can NEVER have enough people go over your work. To pay for grad school, I completed my FAFSA and will be taking out loans, but I also received a merit award of tuition remission and a graduate assistantship due to the hard work I put in at HC! Every day I search for and apply to any scholarship I can find. My biggest piece of advice would be to reach out to anyone you can and apply to everything you can! You never know which contacts will be the most beneficial. (I even got both my application fee AND student deposit waived just because I reached out to the financial aid office.)