With just over a month to go before our December 15th deadline, we know that many of you may be working hard on your applications but also wondering, how can I best showcase my dedication to public service?
At Princeton SPIA, we are committed to public service. It is the ethos by which we define ourselves- through our academic training in public and international affairs, our domestic and international service opportunities, and our generous funding, we are dedicated to serving the world.
We seek students who share in this ethos.
Showcasing Public Service through Work Experience
Some students have worked within organizations that are inherently public-serving. On a domestic and international scale, students have worked within governmental sectors, NGOs, on political campaigns, within education and social service organizations, through organizations like Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach For America, Fulbright, military and law enforcement, and through a litany of other public sector capacities. Some have also worked within private industries, but with a focus and impact in the public sector. These positions have helped improve access to healthcare, provide education to the disenfranchised, offer mentorship and guidance, amplify constituent voices and concerns, and collectively help improve countless lives.
This is the essence of public service: doing your part to help improve the lives of those around you. Tell us how you are doing this through your professional work experience.
Showcasing Public service through Volunteerism
Many applicants will showcase their commitment to public service through volunteerism throughout their communities. This can take many forms. We have had applicants arrange immunization information workshops, offer translation services, provide assistance during tax season, host community clean-ups and voter registration drives, serve as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, volunteer as EMTs and firefighters, teach tech classes, launch waste and recycling initiatives, offer tutoring support, and spearhead or participate in other initiatives to help improve their communities.
There really isn’t one preferred medium of volunteerism over another; we just want to see how you have invested your time towards making your community a better place.
Some students will showcase their service only in their resume/CV, while others will weave service through their statement of purpose, supplemental essay, and resume/CV. As an applicant, there is no one specific way or place to show evidence of your commitment. But this ethos should shine forth through your application.
Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to serve your community. Just remember that at Princeton SPIA, we are an institution committed towards serving the public good.
Are you committed to public service? Join us!
The December 15 deadline to submit MPA, MPP and Ph.D. applications for Fall 2026 is quickly approaching. Here at the Graduate Admissions Office, we often receive questions about letters of recommendation. This post should provide helpful tips for securing the most impactful letters.
Letters of Recommendation
By virtue of the small class sizes of the MPA, MPP, and Ph.D. cohorts, admission to each program is competitive. Outstanding letters of recommendation are often the key to success as they can provide perspective breadth and depth into the character, qualification, and fit of an applicant.
Three letters of recommendation are required for each of the degree programs.
For applicants to the MPA program, we ask for one academic reference, one professional reference and a third reference who can speak to your commitment to public service.
Don’t chase references with lofty titles because you think their position is impressive to us. We want to see sincere letters from faculty, administrators, and professionals with whom you’ve worked and who know you well.
Educate your references on the desired graduate program at SPIA; let them know why you are applying here specifically and your plans post-graduation. Also, show them your résumé and/or personal statement, as this will allow them to write well-informed letters.
The same advice applies to MPP applicants. However, we recommend two professional letters and one academic letter. The “academic” letter should come from a professor or even a professional who can attest to your ability to contribute to an academically rigorous quantitative program.
For our Ph.D. applicants, you will want to select faculty who can comment on your research skills and academic strengths and abilities, as well as your inclination to contribute to new research in meaningful ways in the future. If you have work experience, professional references can be useful in evaluating accomplishments and milestones made with organizations and in research.
We strongly encourage you to identify recommenders who can speak honestly and intimately about you, your character, ability, leadership, impact, and commitment to public service. These recommenders offer helpful evaluations that may prove critical during the admissions process.
Best of luck to you!
The policy memo is a required component of the MPA and MPP application. What makes a good policy memo? In fundamental terms, a good memo will provide details on how you would identify challenges, assess solutions, and implement them into practice.
To explore this question in more detail, we consulted with members of our admissions committee for some helpful tips on how you can write the best policy memo for your application.
Pick a topic that matters to you.
When writing on a topic you are passionate about, your personality and voice are more likely to shine. When you are interested in the topic, you will write with more conviction, clarity and expertise and this effort is what we hope to see in your memo.
Although it may be tempting to discuss a hot button issue, do not feel the need to discuss these if that is not where your interests and expertise reside. Write about the issues you care about most.
Be direct, and give us your bottom line up front.
State your policy issue and recommendations clearly and directly. We should not have to hunt through your memo to understand what you are writing about and which side of the issue you favor.
Recommended actions should be clear.
Recommend a specific solution to the problem or issue your memo seeks to tackle. Connect the background with your evidence and proposed action.
Write how you would speak.
There is no need to try to impress our committee with complex verbiage and platitudes. Write clearly and concisely, in such a way that your language and recommendations are accessible. Write in an active voice and keep your sentences to the point.
Structure your memo.
Your memo’s format should flow and enhance readability. It should not read as one long essay. Divide it into sections and use headings. Do not bury major themes in the middle of a paragraph – instead, make them clear and upfront.
Additionally, format your memo in a style that suits you. Some will use MPA, while others will choose APA. Feel free to use whatever format fits your style of writing and tells your story. We have no preference, as long as your memo is structured and clear.
In summary, please consider this sample outline:
- Description and significance of an issue or problem
- Evidence and scope of the issue or problem
- Factors contributing to the issue or problem
- Recommendations or conclusions to the issue or problem
- Counter-arguments against the issue or problem (as well as a rebuttal to these counter-arguments)
- Implementation issues for any recommendations (i.e. political, economic, environmental, technical)
Finally, we recommend you pay attention to details while writing. Ensure your policy memo is logical, free of spelling and grammatical errors, and original. Your ideas and voice should read clear throughout the memo, so try avoiding recycled papers or copying from the work of others.
Keep in mind that the policy memo serves as one portion of your application, something that will be factored into our holistic application review process. Speak with confidence and discuss a policy issue that resonates with you!
Essays for graduate study cover a myriad of topics. Here at SPIA, we hope our essays help reflect and speak to our culture, our community, and our values—the stuff we care about. We require a variety of essays and short answer written responses, and each serves a slightly different purpose toward helping us to understand the academic and professional trajectory of each person as well as the motivation for graduate study at Princeton. No one thing is determinative in our process or application; we read each file individually and holistically, and admissions decisions are based on the totality of information in the file.
The statement of purpose should answer the prompt and include an explanation of one’s commitment to a career in public service. We are interested in a clear description of the policy areas of interest to you and why you care about them as well as how your previous academic, personal, and professional experiences have shaped your career goals. The statement should also include how SPIA can help you accomplish your goals. In other words, your Statement of Purpose is your opportunity to tell us who you are, how you hope to establish your legacy, and how SPIA can help you get there. We want to know why you want to enroll at SPIA, what you hope to gain from our program, as well as your career plans in terms of policy issues and agencies or organizations you wish to work with and why. We are looking to understand Why Princeton. Why now. And what’s next.
SPIA’s supplemental essay has long been the part of our application where we ask you to go beyond the other dimensions of the file and where we seek to get to know you on a more personal and individual basis. We all come from somewhere and it shapes us – both in who we become and what we value. We’re interested in your story and what shaped you. What do you value? This essay often helps us to further understand the person behind the paper.
A few years ago, the Graduate School introduced the personal statement. This essay reaffirms Princeton’s strong commitment to welcoming students from diverse backgrounds and experiences. It provides applicants an additional space to describe how their academic interests and life experiences will help them contribute to Princeton’s scholarly community. We hope to further understand how you will contribute to our tight-knit and vibrant campus community.
We understand there may be some similarities and overlap in how you interpret and write each essay. Our hope, of course, is that each essay will reveal something new and that each provides space and opportunity to translate through as rich and as full a description of your background, goals, and aspirations as possible.
Through each of them, we are looking for you to tell us your story in the way that only you can.
If you are re-applying to Princeton SPIA, please be mindful that our admission committees are looking to assess what has changed over the last year and any growth—professionally, academically, personally. Please make sure to draw this out through your file.
Here are a few questions to consider as you prepare for the application:
- What is new since your last application?
- Why are you a stronger candidate now than in your prior application?
- Have you undertaken any new projects or initiatives since you last applied?
The surest way to ensure the same result is by sending the exact same application.
So, let us know how you’ve grown, and help us understand the ways in which you have created change and deepened impact for those in your community.
In terms of the process, reapplicants must upload all application components, even if they are the same as what was submitted in a prior year.
You may reuse some aspects of your last application like the supplemental essay, transcripts, two letters of recommendation, the policy memo, and GRE scores, if applicable.
Reapplicants must provide a new statement of purpose, an updated resume or CV, and at least one new letter of recommendation.
We look forward to learning more about your experiences, passions, and commitment to public service through this year’s application cycle. Thanks for your continued interest in our community.
We wish you all the best!
We are approaching our application deadline on December 15th and would like to thank everyone who has expressed interest in our community. We’re so glad to have engaged with you!
For those of you who have chosen to apply, we look forward to getting to know you. We appreciate the time, investment, and energy that each of you put into your application which will be read and reviewed by at least two, if not more members of our admission committee. All files are read individually and holistically.
Please also keep in mind that due to our commitments in reviewing applications, we appreciate your patience and understanding during this busy time.
For last-minute resources before finalizing your application, please see the links below.
Application Pro Tip: Showcasing your Commitment to Public Service
Application Pro Tip: Letters of Recommendation
Application Pro Tip: Writing an Impactful Policy Memo
Our application deadline is December 15, 2025 at 11:59 p.m. ET. With this in mind, please note there are no extensions or exceptions to this deadline, so make sure to submit your application well in advance as the application portal will close at that time.
A few more notes:
- Princeton graduate programs offer one admission application cycle for fall-entry admission.
- The December 15th deadline is for all three graduate degree programs at SPIA—the 2-year MPA, the 1-year mid-career MPP, and our PhD.
- If you are applying to the MPA program and have scheduled your GRE for December, please include a brief statement in your application that contains your test date, so that our admissions committee knows your score is forthcoming.
- Also, when you receive your GRE scores from ETS, please forward a copy to spiaadmissions@princeton.edu. Our office will use this as a placeholder until we receive your official scores.
- Testing after December 15 is not recommended as we cannot guarantee scores will be received in time for our review process, and MPA files without a GRE score will be deemed incomplete until we receive your results.
- It is fine to submit your application even if your three recommenders have yet to submit their letters on your behalf. However, you might want to give them a gentle and polite reminder of the application deadline and encourage them to submit as soon as possible.
For additional application questions, please refer to the following pages:
- The Graduate School’s Applying to Princeton page
- The Graduate School’s Prepare Your Application page, and the English Language Proficiency testing page
- The Graduate School’s overview of SPIA's application requirements
- Detailed pages on the application for the MPA, MPP and the PhD
Once an application is submitted, it is the applicant’s responsibility to check the application portal for updates and to confirm that we have all required information.
- To check the status of your application, please see the following:
- When you submit your application, you will receive a confirmation email. No notifications will be sent for completed applications.
- It is the responsibility of the applicant to view their application checklist to confirm that all required items are received.
- An applicant who has submitted their application, and paid the application fee, can return to the application portal to view their application checklist.
- The application checklist shows received materials. Duplicate materials and items that are not required as part of the application will not appear on the checklist. Checklists are only updated after the application is submitted and the application fee is paid.
- You can verify the receipt of letters of recommendation and test scores. Any item that has been received will have a date next to it. Tests that have been received will show the test date.
Finally, for any last details about our tight-knit and supportive community, please see these links to learn more:
- Graduate Admissions Viewbook
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at SPIA
- Internships and First Destinations after Graduation
- Biographical profiles of current MPA, MPP and PhD students
- Curriculum and Requirements for the MPA, MPP, and PhD.
Good luck to all who are applying!