Cornell07

"I regret that I cannot attend _____ University and have instead chosen to attend ____ University. I wish I could take [x] from your school and merge it with [y] from _____ University, but reality denies me this ideal world. Ultimately, [z] has proven to be the deciding factor that has pushed my hand in this challenging decision. Thank you again for all of your assistance and guidance through this process.

While I cannot accept your offer, I suggest you speak to Cornell07. I can attest without reservation that he is a worthy, distinguished, and highly qualified candidate, who would be a perfect match with you and your department. In light of his impressive tangbile and intangible qualifications as a scholar and assured future as a luminary in his field, I am honored that you ultimately extended your offer to me. Even though you may have originally passed over his application, I am sure that he would gladly look past this unfortunate oversight.

Kindest Regards,
redwine"

At Yale, for my MA program, there are no A/B/C/D/F grades, only Honors, High Pass, Pass, and Fail. Everyone needs to get during the two year program at least two Honors to graduate and one more Honors for every Pass. One could say that the grades are roughly equivalent to H = A, HP = B, P = C, F = F, but even that varies significantly from professor to professor. Only 2 or 3 students in the past 10 years have received all H's, but only 3 or so have been asked not to return for their second year due to poor grades. A major incentive for getting top grades is to be one of the few people who will be reconsidered for funding for their second year.

I just wonder what the heck will happen when I apply to PhD programs next fall...

"I regret that I cannot attend _____ University and have instead chosen to attend ____ University. I wish I could take [x] from your school and merge it with [y] from _____ University, but reality denies me this ideal world. Ultimately, [z] has proven to be the deciding factor that has pushed my hand in this challenging decision. Thank you again for all of your assistance and guidance through this process.

While I cannot accept your offer, I suggest you speak to Cornell07. I can attest without reservation that he is a worthy, distinguished, and highly qualified candidate, who would be a perfect match with you and your department. In light of his impressive tangbile and intangible qualifications as a scholar and assured future as a luminary in his field, I am honored that you ultimately extended your offer to me. Even though you may have originally passed over his application, I am sure that he would gladly look past this unfortunate oversight.

Kindest Regards,
redwine"

"I regret that I cannot attend _____ University and have instead chosen to attend ____ University. I wish I could take [x] from your school and merge it with [y] from _____ University, but reality denies me this ideal world. Ultimately, [z] has proven to be the deciding factor that has pushed my hand in this challenging decision. Thank you again for all of your assistance and guidance through this process.

While I cannot accept your offer, I suggest you speak to Cornell07. I can attest without reservation that he is a worthy, distinguished, and highly qualified candidate, who would be a perfect match with you and your department. In light of his impressive tangbile and intangible qualifications as a scholar and assured future as a luminary in his field, I am honored that you ultimately extended your offer to me. Even though you may have originally passed over his application, I am sure that he would gladly look past this unfortunate oversight.

Kindest Regards,
redwine"

"I regret that I cannot attend _____ University and have instead chosen to attend ____ University. I wish I could take [x] from your school and merge it with [y] from _____ University, but reality denies me this ideal world. Ultimately, [z] has proven to be the deciding factor that has pushed my hand in this challenging decision. Thank you again for all of your assistance and guidance through this process.

While I cannot accept your offer, I suggest you speak to Cornell07. I can attest without reservation that he is a worthy, distinguished, and highly qualified candidate, who would be a perfect match with you and your department. In light of his impressive tangbile and intangible qualifications as a scholar and assured future as a luminary in his field, I am honored that you ultimately extended your offer to me. Even though you may have originally passed over his application, I am sure that he would gladly look past this unfortunate oversight.

Kindest Regards,
redwine"

"I regret that I cannot attend _____ University and have instead chosen to attend ____ University. I wish I could take [x] from your school and merge it with [y] from _____ University, but reality denies me this ideal world. Ultimately, [z] has proven to be the deciding factor that has pushed my hand in this challenging decision. Thank you again for all of your assistance and guidance through this process.

While I cannot accept your offer, I suggest you speak to Cornell07. I can attest without reservation that he is a worthy, distinguished, and highly qualified candidate, who would be a perfect match with you and your department. In light of his impressive tangbile and intangible qualifications as a scholar and assured future as a luminary in his field, I am honored that you ultimately extended your offer to me. Even though you may have originally passed over his application, I am sure that he would gladly look past this unfortunate oversight.

Kindest Regards,
redwine"

"I regret that I cannot attend _____ University and have instead chosen to attend ____ University. I wish I could take [x] from your school and merge it with [y] from _____ University, but reality denies me this ideal world. Ultimately, [z] has proven to be the deciding factor that has pushed my hand in this challenging decision. Thank you again for all of your assistance and guidance through this process.

While I cannot accept your offer, I suggest you speak to Cornell07. I can attest without reservation that he is a worthy, distinguished, and highly qualified candidate, who would be a perfect match with you and your department. In light of his impressive tangbile and intangible qualifications as a scholar and assured future as a luminary in his field, I am honored that you ultimately extended your offer to me. Even though you may have originally passed over his application, I am sure that he would gladly look past this unfortunate oversight.

Kindest Regards,
redwine"

Yeah, getting tons of funding from a public university when we have Bush in the White House is an awesome accomplishment. Kudos to you, sir (or m'am)!

No one can provide reassurance as to possible future regrets, but I can tell you that your present line of thinking is sensible and mature. Fletcher is an excellent program, and being able to graduate with negligible debt (vs. 100K+ at HKS) confers an enormous advantage. Among other things, it will give you much greater flexibility when you enter the job market. In my view (and I speak with some experience, having recently completed an MPP program as a mid-career professional), younger students do not pay sufficient attention to the implications of debt. You must decide what is most important to you, but if I were in your shoes I would choose Fletcher without hesitation.

It depends on a lot of factors -- especially what do you want to do and what is the other degree program in?

In my cohort, I'd unscientifically guess that about 1/3 or slightly more have outside sources of funding (a job they are returning to after graduation in the private or public sector or a fellowship like Muskie or Pickering), 1/3 have some Yale funding (few, if any, have full rides; most just get a few thousand per year), and the rest are footing the bill themselves through personal contribution and on-campus jobs. I'm in the third category and am paying for it with the money I saved up working in the private sector and by teaching (depending on the class, it is not always terribly taxing compared to the amount of money you receive).

I chose Yale also over some other cheaper, also un-funded options like American and GW (both about 10K per year less, I think) because what I would get out of it was easily worth 20K to me.

Good luck and I hope to meet you in a couple weeks!

It all depends on what you want to do. Though I want to be a foreign service officer, it is not required to have a graduate degree (perhaps not even a college degree, I think). A large portion of getting the job is taking the written foreign service exam and then passing oral+group exams. So, in short, yes.

Generally, I'd say that I like the program and that I still would select Yale over SAIS, which was (out of my accepted schools) the only other one that really competed for my interest. Both programs easily eclipsed my other accepted programs at GW and American in terms of overall quality of students, faculty, and match with my interests.

I admit that sometimes I do wonder if I made the right choice and, when I reassess the options I that I had, I still come to the same conclusion that Yale was a better match for me.

Here's what I think would have been useful for me to know or internalize (there are, of course, plenty of other pluses and minuses, but those you should be able to get out of any info session or the like). Also, yes, you should consider your academic and non-academic lives when selecting your school:

Positives

If you are feeling motivated and funded, you can easily sneak your way into a dual degree. You can get a joint MA/MBA in only one extra year or joint MA/JD in two extra years. Though it is still very tough to get into the JD program, our students have lots of success getting into the MBA program.
Pay is really good for Teaching Fellow positions. Though they aren't as easy to get as the school would have you believe (you are only getting one your first semester if you are very lucky), you stand a great chance of getting one your second year. I am a grader this semester and get a little less that $5k and next year I will probably be getting about $9k each semester to TF. This is a great opportunity to get build relationships with professors who are a) interesting in their own right, B ) can write great LOR's for jobs or further graduate study, and c) are probably willing to put you in contact with people who can get you a job or an internship. As you will all agonize really soon, money will weigh heavily on your school selections and these are much more useful campus job options than what most other schools can offer.
There is a campus pub with cheap drinks and a laid-back atmosphere just for graduate students. It may sound silly to bring this up, but having this sort of place to hang out and meet other graduate students without breaking the bank is a really nice option for us.
There is a surprising number of opportunities to go on school sponsored trips. Over winter break, 50 grad students went to China on the PRC's dime and a cohort will be traveling to Japan late this summer (i.e. that time between the end of internships and the start of school). I know someone who takes a class that every semester travels somewhere pertaining to a development-related topic.
If you want to make the minimal effort, it is easy to be connected to the rest of the MA IR group. Some people seem to be shut-ins, but for the most part, if you want to make a bunch of friends who will be your support structure for the next two years, it is not hard. The benefits of a small program!



Negatives
Though many of the requirements seem very open ended, your options may be quite limited depending on your background. Specifically, I am thinking of our econ requirement. One of the big reasons that I passed on SAIS was my lack of interest in econ and limited math background -- a couple stats classes and zero calculus. You need to take an economic analysis course and an international economics course. If, like me, you have a limited math background and only intro Micro and Macro, you have essentially no other options for these requirements other than intermediate Micro and Macro.
I wish more classes did simulations, something SAIS seemed to offer many more of. Every once and a while, a class will give as a midterm or major assignment a detailed description of a crisis (e.g. Iran and Venezuela set off nukes simultaneously, declare an alliance, and put an ultimatum on Israel high-tailing from the West Bank). But that only sort of resembles a simulation, like one (exceedingly hard to get into) class that takes over a building, sets up student led government, and then, over the course of two weekends, the professors throw a mountain of problems at you, while requiring you to hold press conferences, light the x-mas tree etc...
Undergraduates get lots more love from the university than MA candidates. it feels sometimes like we are the somewhat overlooked middle children -- they get more funding, cushy dorms, and better access to the zillions of great speakers who visit campus regularly (often at "master's tea's".
You can only take one course per semester at one of the professional schools. So, don't think you can moonlight as a JD candidate.
Remember, just because someone is famous, he is not necessarily a good professor -- just ask the people who have had classes with Tony (Zzz...) Blair.


Others

[*] Yeah. It is true that New Haven is pretty lousy town. I was a little spoiled by living in Ithaca during my college days, which is what I use as a benchmark to compare collegetowns. Restaurants are often expensive and not that good. This isn't the cornfields of Kansas, mind you, but when you want some good food that isn't pizza or Thai, your heart will wander. Also, there are lots of homeless people and there sometimes is gun related violence. I've never felt any more unsafe than I would walking around the Bronx, but there are places pretty close to campus where I probably would not go jogging or park my car late at night, if you know what I mean.
[*] Parking is a pain in the butt. Meters and pay-by-the-day lots are fabulously expensive. I pay about $675 for a year long garage spot and I consider my investment worth every penny.
[*] Don't believe what people tell you about this being an easily bike-able area. It does snow -- this is New England, people.
[*] The library hours seem waaaay to short, imho.
[*] You are locked out of all of the undergraduate college buildings.

also missing Cornell (CIPA).

Yeah I added JHU MPP and Brandeis after the original post. But that screwed up the order of the questions (moved the 'none of the above' from 18 to 20) and didn't transfer the related response. Which is to say, I'm not gonna add any more programs, such as Cornell.

Generally, I'd say that I like the program and that I still would select Yale over SAIS, which was (out of my accepted schools) the only other one that really competed for my interest. Both programs easily eclipsed my other accepted programs at GW and American in terms of overall quality of students, faculty, and match with my interests.

I admit that sometimes I do wonder if I made the right choice and, when I reassess the options I that I had, I still come to the same conclusion that Yale was a better match for me.

Here's what I think would have been useful for me to know or internalize (there are, of course, plenty of other pluses and minuses, but those you should be able to get out of any info session or the like). Also, yes, you should consider your academic and non-academic lives when selecting your school:

Positives

If you are feeling motivated and funded, you can easily sneak your way into a dual degree. You can get a joint MA/MBA in only one extra year or joint MA/JD in two extra years. Though it is still very tough to get into the JD program, our students have lots of success getting into the MBA program.
Pay is really good for Teaching Fellow positions. Though they aren't as easy to get as the school would have you believe (you are only getting one your first semester if you are very lucky), you stand a great chance of getting one your second year. I am a grader this semester and get a little less that $5k and next year I will probably be getting about $9k each semester to TF. This is a great opportunity to get build relationships with professors who are a) interesting in their own right, B ) can write great LOR's for jobs or further graduate study, and c) are probably willing to put you in contact with people who can get you a job or an internship. As you will all agonize really soon, money will weigh heavily on your school selections and these are much more useful campus job options than what most other schools can offer.
There is a campus pub with cheap drinks and a laid-back atmosphere just for graduate students. It may sound silly to bring this up, but having this sort of place to hang out and meet other graduate students without breaking the bank is a really nice option for us.
There is a surprising number of opportunities to go on school sponsored trips. Over winter break, 50 grad students went to China on the PRC's dime and a cohort will be traveling to Japan late this summer (i.e. that time between the end of internships and the start of school). I know someone who takes a class that every semester travels somewhere pertaining to a development-related topic.
If you want to make the minimal effort, it is easy to be connected to the rest of the MA IR group. Some people seem to be shut-ins, but for the most part, if you want to make a bunch of friends who will be your support structure for the next two years, it is not hard. The benefits of a small program!



Negatives
Though many of the requirements seem very open ended, your options may be quite limited depending on your background. Specifically, I am thinking of our econ requirement. One of the big reasons that I passed on SAIS was my lack of interest in econ and limited math background -- a couple stats classes and zero calculus. You need to take an economic analysis course and an international economics course. If, like me, you have a limited math background and only intro Micro and Macro, you have essentially no other options for these requirements other than intermediate Micro and Macro.
I wish more classes did simulations, something SAIS seemed to offer many more of. Every once and a while, a class will give as a midterm or major assignment a detailed description of a crisis (e.g. Iran and Venezuela set off nukes simultaneously, declare an alliance, and put an ultimatum on Israel high-tailing from the West Bank). But that only sort of resembles a simulation, like one (exceedingly hard to get into) class that takes over a building, sets up student led government, and then, over the course of two weekends, the professors throw a mountain of problems at you, while requiring you to hold press conferences, light the x-mas tree etc...
Undergraduates get lots more love from the university than MA candidates. it feels sometimes like we are the somewhat overlooked middle children -- they get more funding, cushy dorms, and better access to the zillions of great speakers who visit campus regularly (often at "master's tea's".
You can only take one course per semester at one of the professional schools. So, don't think you can moonlight as a JD candidate.
Remember, just because someone is famous, he is not necessarily a good professor -- just ask the people who have had classes with Tony (Zzz...) Blair.


Others

[*] Yeah. It is true that New Haven is pretty lousy town. I was a little spoiled by living in Ithaca during my college days, which is what I use as a benchmark to compare collegetowns. Restaurants are often expensive and not that good. This isn't the cornfields of Kansas, mind you, but when you want some good food that isn't pizza or Thai, your heart will wander. Also, there are lots of homeless people and there sometimes is gun related violence. I've never felt any more unsafe than I would walking around the Bronx, but there are places pretty close to campus where I probably would not go jogging or park my car late at night, if you know what I mean.
[*] Parking is a pain in the butt. Meters and pay-by-the-day lots are fabulously expensive. I pay about $675 for a year long garage spot and I consider my investment worth every penny.
[*] Don't believe what people tell you about this being an easily bike-able area. It does snow -- this is New England, people.
[*] The library hours seem waaaay to short, imho.
[*] You are locked out of all of the undergraduate college buildings.

Woo hoo! I just got accepted for my State Department summer internship at the Regional Security office at the embassy in Rome!!!

Lacking WE is the my weak point in applying to these top MPP/IR programs directly from undergraduate. I wonder if my 4.0 GPA , one year study abroad, several internships(government, foreign bank, NGOs) could help the whole package? I have a clear idea and a specific issue I want to address in the SOP. P.S. I'm an international applicant. My GRE Verb can't compete with native students. Will there be a different criteria for international applicants?
Thanks for your advice.

What made you choose MSFS. I have acceptances to same schools/degree programs, but having trouble deciding. Only $ I got was Fletcher ($15K).