steepingtea

Sorry for the delay, but here are some of my thoughts on Accepted Students Day at Wagner: Size and logistics: It was incredibly well run and functioned smoothly especially considering the number of students there. The number of students felt big to me as there were probably around 250 accepted students present. However, I saw multiple familiar faces throughout the event and staff/faculty were incredibly warm making it feel smaller. This may seem like a weird thing to say, but I felt like Wagner has been incredibly well organized and thoughtful in terms of communication, accessibility of information on their website, use of social media, etc. Their event reflected this same level of attention to detail. Faculty: Wagner faculty took a big lead in hosting panels, describing their courses and being very present throughout the day. I struck up conversations with several of them and found them to be approachable, helpful and interested in the accepted students. This was a good sign to me in terms of gauging their future level of engagement. There were several who I got very excited about taking classes with in the next couple of years. I got the sense from current students that Wagner faculty are well-connected and eager to help students access friends/colleagues/acquaintances in their network. Other accepted students: It may have just been that I missed them, but I didn't encounter lots of full-time accepted students. At least for the first semester, I plan on being enrolled full time. It seemed that MANY of the people I met were already living and working in NYC. I am sure that this was skewed by the fact that they could more easily take a day off work rather than travel across the country, but I'm going to be relocating to NYC and I want to make sure there is a potential group of friends awaiting me at Wagner - not just people who already have fully established lives! Cost of attendance: Cost is heavily weighing on me. I have received my best financial aid package from Wagner, so I am not as concerned with tuition as I am with cost of living - but both should be a concern for everyone. It seemed that any time this was brought up most people had the sentiment that "it's SO worth it" and it's important to "invest in yourself." Frankly, it seemed kind of like a negligent attitude. I wanted somebody to level with me. I am highly fearful about mounds of debt, so I walked away with the sense that it was imperative to get a job once I get to NYU. Career services/alumni resources: It's apparent that the Wagner connection for alumni is alive and well in New York City. Beyond New York wasn't entirely well addressed in their career session, but I think it depends on your ability to search and connect yourself in that city. For example, if you want to be in San Fran, do you have a personal network there that can be enhanced by the Wagner network? They did not discuss placement rates in the career session other than to say, they don't like the term "placement rate" because they are not a placement office. I get what they mean, but more hard numbers would have been helpful. They did mention their career fair which apparently draws large numbers of employers and students from other MPA programs, but it seems like most alums I spoke with are working in a job at the same place they interned while at Wagner.

Yes, absolutely! I will share thoughts and any other ways to connect. Last night they tweeted a message saying "RT if you've been accepted to Wagner" but no one had retweeted them which severely limits my scouring of potential classmates

Does anyone know if there is another thread with accepted students or perhaps something like a Facebook group? I am heading to Accepted Students Day this week, but wasn't sure if I had missed the boat on another way to connect with prospective classmates.

I JUST GOT MINE!!!

I think that email last night qualified as cruel.

If it is by March 8th, that would be within the next 15 hours or so ... here's to the (hopeful) end of the waiting game!

Anxiously awaiting an answer, but it's comforting to know I am in good company in this limbo state. Good luck to all! Fingers crossed that answers arrive sooner rather than later.

Not yet. Fingers crossed. Looks like the site now has March 8.