allischu55

Hi! I am a current student in the Fletcher MIB program. I wasn’t familiar with the MIEF program at SAIS, but after looking at the program website, it appears to differ from the MIB in a few keys ways. First, the Fletcher MIB curriculum is broader than the MIEF. The first year of the MIB mirrors the first year of an MBA program so in addition to finance, classes cover strategy, operations, marketing, statistics, and economics. It looks like the MIEF curriculum is strictly finance, economics, and quantitative methods. The more focused MIEF curriculum seems like great preparation for a more narrow set of post-grad school opportunities (central banking, commercial banking, development banks). Fletcher’s “International Finance and Banking” field of study is pretty comparable to the MIEF, but the MIB core curriculum will give you more exposure to other business topics. If your end goal is working in Financial Policy at a multilateral institution, you may also find that Fletcher’s law and international affairs classes help put the finance in context. As you said, answering the question of which program is a better fit will depend a lot on your background and goals, but I’m happy to answer any other questions you may have about Fletcher.

I'm currently at Fletcher and can confirm that the Fletcher culture is extremely close-knit. Not only is there a tight-knit community among students, but also among students, professors, and staff. The flexible curriculum is a huge asset because most Fletcher students have very specialized interests so it's essential to be able to tailor the coursework to your own interests. In terms of the field work, I think many students use the summer internship as an opportunity to do field work and, in many cases, they link that field work to their capstone/thesis.

I'm currently in the MIB program so hopefully I can help with a couple of these questions. I would say that there is no significant difference between the profile of the MIB and MALD students (but keep in mind that the Fletcher student body is an extremely diverse group). Both programs attract students with significant international experience and students in both programs have worked in the private sector and public sector. The big difference between the two degree programs starts when you get to campus because MIB students have a core curriculum of classes during their first-year, while MALD students do not have these required classes. The result is that MIB students are part of a distinct "MIB cohort," which is a awesome community. That said, there many MALD students who choose to take some of those core business classes so the MIB and MALD students are entirely integrated. I think the average age of an MIB student is a couple years older than that of an entering MALD. Many students do end up cross-registering for classes, usually during their second year. It's a great opportunity to take advantage of especially if your interests are more specialized in a topic area where Fletcher doesn't offer a course. Most Fletcher students have quite specialized interests so it works out well to access other classes in things like water policy, system dynamics, health care, etc. Cross-registering also gives you the chance to build your network in Boston. In terms a "discernable difference in the quality of the classes," I have heard that some Harvard students find Fletcher courses more rigourous because many Harvard professors are very focused on writing and publishing. I'm sure that doesn't apply accross the board, but I can definitely vouch for the rigor of Fletcher classes, and even more so, the committment of the professors. The professors are extremely dedicated to ensuring that students get as much as possible out the courses by making themselves available 7 days a week to discuss ideas and answer questions. I really cannot imagine a better group of faculty.

For Fletcher the work experience abroad is critical. In terms of the GRE score, there's no minimum score and provided score ranges are based on percentiles: the middle 50% GRE verbal score has been in the 77th - 96th percentile range, the middle 50% GRE quantitative score in the 61st - 84th percentile range, and the middle 50% GRE analytical writing in the 49th - 92nd percentile range.

I've done the evaluative interview. It's really important to be able to articulate why you think you will be a good fit for Fletcher and how a Fletcher degree will help you achieve your professional goals. The interview is usually conducted by a current student and so it's also a really good opportunity to ask questions about the school.