ivydreams3

At the SAIS Bologna Info Session they gave us the link to this 2013-2014 Incoming Students Guidebook: http://www.jhubc.it/DOCUMENTS/incominginfo.pdf

I completely agree. There are so many factors that could throw you off. Will the program still exist in 2024-2025? Will they change the rules for eligibility? Will they decide to only forgive interest or only forgive up to a cap? Will you even end up working in a public service job, etc, etc. Best we can do is hope but not really base our borrowing decisions off of it.

Revolution is obviously overly obsessed with prestige. It's kind of sickening that Revolution put down people who went to "no name colleges" for undergrad. Really? Not everyone started off as brilliant or rich, most of us have to work hard to get anywhere at all. It is likely that most of the SAIS MA candidates don't have private sector experience because most IR degree seekers didn't start off studying IR with the goal of entering the private sector. Duh!? Why did you even apply to SAIS?

Actually, at the financial aid chat last week I heard them say that they save most of their funding for second year students. Maybe I misunderstood but I am pretty sure that is what was said. Also, when I researched the Loan Forgiveness Program, it stipulated that you could use a 10-year standard loan repayment plan OR a plan based on income contigency (ICR) or income based repayment plan(IBR). The ICR and IBR plans allow you to chose a longer repayment period and thus leave room for a pretty substantial amount of debt to be forgiven. But it is also a catch-22 because if you use IBR or ICR then you end up with more interest acrued and a higher total loan balance putting you at a greater risk if you end up not being eligible for PSLF. I am curious as to how being laid off from your public service job would affect your eligibility. Directly from the Govt website http://www.studentaid.ed.gov/repay-loans/forgiveness-cancellation/charts/public-service: "Before deciding which repayment plan you want to use to repay your Direct Loans, it is important that you understand the implications and costs of that decision. The longer you make PSLF-qualifying payments under a 10-Year Standard Repayment Plan, the lower the remaining balance on your loans will be when you meet all of the PSLF Program's eligibility requirements. In fact, if you make all of the required 120 monthly payments under the 10-Year Standard Repayment Plan, there will be no balance left on your loans to be forgiven. Under the IBR and ICR plans, your monthly payment amount will likely be lower than under any of the other PSLF-qualifying repayment plans and your repayment period will likely be longer. Because of the longer repayment period, additional interest that will accrue on your loan, and the smaller monthly payment amount, you will be left with a higher loan balance that could be forgiven. However, if you ultimately do not meet the eligibility requirements for PSLF, you will be responsible for repaying the entire balance of your loan, including all accrued interest."

About 95% sure that I will go to SAIS Bologna too! My main contender against SAIS is GWU ITIP but the more I think about it, the more my heart tells me to go to Bologna. Some reasons for this tentative decisions are: The quant/econ focus is exactly what I want and the abiltiy to specialize in quant methods and/or international finance while still concentrating in ERE (if I play my cards right) is really ideal for me. My short term career aspiration is to work in trade policy but in the long-term would like to be involved with an investment project to build/redesign cities for sustainability. The curriculum at SAIS combines these two things really well and I think I will be able to develop my aspirations and gain a better understanding of how they could be made possible while at SAIS. As someone who has never even been out of the US and who has been taking Italian for 3 years, the opportunity to study in Italy is hard to pass up. The idea of a smaller cohort in Bologna is a huge draw for me because I really want there to be a community feel to my graduate education. You really get the best of both worlds because you also inherit the large SAIS network and still get to experience SAIS DC in the 2nd year. I can imagine that traveling through Europe will be alot easier if you're stationed in Bologna. It could be a life-changing experience for someone who has been couped up in the same state their whole life (me). There are a few things about Bologna that I am still curious about such as what types of professional skills clinics might be offered in Bologna during the school year? How approachable and available are the faculty at Bologna? How difficult is it to secure internships or part time work in Bologna at the CCSDD or the Bologna Institute for Policy Research and could you work there for only one semester?

Dinged as well! Disappointing but at least now I know. Looks like I will (most likely) go to SAIS Bologna.

Aw man. Sorry to hear that. There is that admissions randomness I was talking about. You have options people are dying for, though.

Gotcha, I will definitely ask and let you guys know.

Do you mean that the advanced micro (offered in pre-term) is a pre-req for monetary policy and trade theory? If so, is it possible to sort of get around the prereq requirement and take micro at the same time as monetary policy and trade theory in your first semester? Ideally, I would take micro in pre-term but I am sure there are some people who might not want to/won't be able to attend. Also, thank you for all the help in clarifying the econ reqs.

That would be so helpful, thank you!

I'm wondering the same thing. I'd love to make room to have a double specialization or possibly double concentration with one specialization. The ability to learn more quantitative methods is an important criteria for me. Does anyone know anyone who has passed the waiver exam for the IR theory? I've taken so many IR theory-related courses in undergrad I am hoping it would be possible. But I'm not sure how intense the exam might be. Also hoping to take the waiver exam for intermediate macroeconomics since I have taken that class already. Anyone have any insight or speculations as to what these exams might be like?

That's amazing! Congrats!! I think you mentioned that you didn't have much full time work experience but I looked at your stats and I am not surprised you got in at all. I'm still waiting. The anticipation will be the death of me lol. It seems like pretty much a flip of the coin whether SAIS admits will get into MSFS and whether MSFS admits have gotten into SAIS. I looked at threads from last year and people were still waiting up until the 28th. I seriously hope the rest of us don't end up waiting for that long!

I'm with you. I'm hoping it will be tomorrow or Friday. Best of luck!

That is exactly the dilemma.

I am in the same exact boat. Excess of 20k undergrad debt. Its a scary prospect. But the more I think about it the more I do not think I could turn down SAIS.