Hi everyone, first post!
So I was accepted into the 1-year MA strategic communication program at American and the 2-year Public Diplomacy joint-degree program (MA in International Relations and MS in Public Relations) at Syracuse.
The decision has basically come down to location vs. curriculum for me. I completed my undergrad at UMD so I have many friends in the DC region and was very impressed with AU's visiting day in terms of the connections they have in the area. Their placement rate is very high, and I would like to live in DC permanently when I exit grad school. My concern is that, because I am already somewhat lacking in job and internship experience, I won't be able to rack up enough experience in the one year of the program to successfully enter the competitive DC job market.
On the other hand, Syracuse would give me a full two years time to rack up as much experience as I need, but the internship options in Syracuse are obviously much more limited than they are in DC. The last semester of this program takes place in DC, so that last semester may negate the location issues, but that's not for a year and a half. The overall reputation of Newhouse and Maxwell seem to be better than AU SOC, but I was not as personally impressed upon visiting the school and talking with students and faculty.
Both schools offered me pretty nice assistantships, but American would be cheaper in the end because of the shorter length of the program.
Does anyone have any advice for me? I'm completely torn 50/50!
