vincehoward

People generally say schools have great "career services" because students' career outcomes happen to be great at those institutions. Obviously WWS' student body is among the most (if not the absolute first) qualified and elite public policy/management candidates in the US. They are highly sought after by public, private, nonprofit and international employers everywhere. I'm not sure that there is any compensating for this aside from doing very well in school, and leveraging the networks you already have. In my experience the people who know *exactly* what they want to do tend to have the most satisfaction in their career outcomes because they absolutely gun for those positions early and hard, maybe even before they matriculate to their program. Also having great work experience to tout helps with the job hunt during your MPA/MPP. Princeton students tend to have exemplary work experience before they start WWS (just check Linkedin), whereas I see many students at other schools go straight from undergrad or soft work experiences then wonder why they aren't having much success with their job hunt. Experience is highly valued so perhaps seek that out before you go to grad school if this is a concern. Hope this helps.

PMF placement is really finicky and contingent on the availability of jobs in each dept and the depth/experiences of the applicant pool. If you think you have a great resume then your choice of grad programs really doesn't matter all that much. I wouldn't let marginally better or worse historical placement numbers weigh heavily on my decision of what program to attend.

Most deadlines have passed by now. I'd still check APSIA but in general you should conduct your fellowship/scholarship search the summer before you plan to apply (for all those prospective applicants out there). I'd also ask your school if there are any available assistantships or on-campus gigs.

Thanks for the info! Your rationale makes a lot of sense. Good luck at GW.

I would call the office to ask about your financial aid. How was admitted students day? Are you leaning towards Maxwell or one of your other choices?

Student loans are nondischargeable so if you hit hard times there is no way to escape the debt. You want to minimize your student loan debt as much as possible, not pile it on with more and more just so you can pay your car note. If I were you I'd sell the car and take the T. You'll be near Boston and a quick bus or train ride away from most places you'd need to go. Get a friend to drive you or rent a zipcar if you absolutely need to drive somewhere which should be rare since you'll be a student.

As Drake would say, "Don't do it, please don't do it."

The merit aid notifications have gone out already. If you didn't receive one of the few fellowship (Zuckerman, Urban Scholars, Leadership in Ed) offers then your "financial aid" will be a list of loan sources to contact about raising that 65-75K you'll need over the course of the program.

I'm assuming you don't have to make loan payments for undergrad/grad school, right? That really changes everything. You can say you're living comfortably now because you aren't shelling out $800+ a month to repay your debts. Some people would also like to have kids around 28-30 which also adds quite a lot to the heap in a major city. DC/NYC rent is also a bit higher than Boston which makes a difference too. Living comfortably in a secondary city like Boston or Chicago, and especially an even lower tier city like Atlanta or Houston is possible on 50K + minor loan payments. My main point is that I think it's nuts someone would even consider taking 100K in loans for a degree they think will only earn them a $50,000 starting salary.

Perhaps this is the new normal. I'd say that as a highly trained professional I'd expect to make more than an average wage in a major city. 50K isn't very much at all if you count high rent (unless you have a roommate but who wants to live with a roommate after the age of 25-26), overall higher cost of living for fuel/public transit and food, and loan payments, etc. I guess if that is really how much some people expect to make then the most rational strategy is to try and minimize debt as much as possible or even avoid graduate school altogether.

Take the money and run.

Do you guys live in major cities? 50K is not very much for a single person, let alone if you want to get married and have kids. Perhaps if you have a spouse earning a significantly higher wage then it doesn't really matter but at that point it's probably more cost effective to stay at home with the kids instead of working full time.

Probably Princeton

What kind of funding did Maxwell give you if don't mind my asking? I received a half tuition fellowship, but was hoping for more, perhaps an assistantship.

LOL at this scenario. People are ridiculous. Wait for the financial aid to come back and if HKS offers full tuition THEN this becomes a worthwhile conversation topic. Otherwise go to Princeton and do not look back.