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dan451

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Everything posted by dan451

  1. Wish I could go, but I'm in Korea. I'd love to hear any reports from there, though.
  2. Hey, no problem, Cadmiel. And congrats on making a choice! I have no doubt you'll be happy with it. You're right that the downsides to Fletcher are small. It just seems like such a great environment and a top-notch school. The people I talked to there were so impressive, and the flexibility of the curriculum is special. You can't go wrong. For me, however, the pendulum has swung again, and I'm going for Georgetown. As someone who's never lived in D.C. and has basically no connections in the IR world (for me this is a drastic career change), I think I need all the help I can get in getting a foothold in D.C. circles. But, yeah, it's going to be expensive. Not looking forward to that.
  3. Well, first off, I was admitted to the Bologna campus, which I'll admit was very tempting at first. I applied to the Latin American Studies program and Bologna has a lot of coursework available in that area. But since applying, I've decided not to focus on a region. I may be interested in exploring American foreign policy, and a guy in the program told me he was really unhappy with what was available at Bologna in that area. D.C. has more, but you have to wait a year to take most of the courses you want. I'm also not sure I want to pursue a track that is so econ-heavy, as I'm not sure it'll help me much in the career I hope to carve out. Finally, the class size is so huge, and I wanted a smaller program. I got a $15k scholarship to SAIS, and it was hard to say no to such a great school (and to a year in Italy), but for what I want it's just not a good fit.
  4. I'm right there with you, freaking out over the same choice. Am looking at a possible career as an FSO. Got very similar deals from Georgetown (no $) and Fletcher (some $, but still expensive). I've eliminated SAIS and it's between Fletcher and Georgetown. I talked with an alum from Fletcher for about an hour today. Earlier today I was thinking Georgetown, now I'm not so sure. Obviously, he was biased, but here's what he did say that was useful. 1). If you absolutely know 100% that you want to work in the foreign service, there's no better place to study for that than Georgetown. There are people working as foreign service officers who came from Fletcher (the career services guy told me around 50 alums are FSOs) but Georgetown is just designed like no other program to churn out FSOs. It's the best at it, hands down. 2). If (like me) you're not 100% sure about being an FSO, Fletcher can be a great place to explore a vast array of other options. Think of it as a really good restaurant that serves all different kinds of food. Yeah, their lasagna won't be quite as amazing as the strictly Italian joint, but what if you sit down and decide you don't want Italian? It sounds like Fletcher alums find some pretty interesting and rewarding career paths after graduation, and the Fletcher network is so vast and strong that you can, in your two years of study, have ample time and opportunity to study the menu and find something you like. 3). Fletcher class sizes are way bigger than Georgetown's. This is a big negative, in my view. You might have 50 people in some of the more popular classes, apparently. (I've heard it's the same deal at SAIS, some huge classes). The guy I talked to said this wasn't optimal, but that he never had trouble getting into office hours, and he still found the faculty quite accessible. Still, Georgetown has much smaller class sizes, somewhere in the 20 range. So Georgetown's the big winner there, looks like. 4). Location. Yes, Fletcher is in Medford. No, it won't rock your world, but this does apparently bring the students closer. Georgetown will get you plugged into the D.C. network a bit faster than Fletcher, if only because you can intern during the school year (most do). 5.) Career services at Fletcher is awesome and well-plugged-in to the "Fletcher Mafia". They make it their job to know you and your interests and help you line up contacts. Fletcher people are everywhere, so you can find alums for just about any area of interest. That's it, I think. I'm hoping to make some contact with MSFS students this week. So probably in a few days I'll be all aglow about Georgetown again. Color me confused.
  5. Yeah, got the same news today, no funding. Real bummer. Any current MSFS kids out there who can tell us how generous or stingy they are with funding in the second year? I know it says on the web site more than 50% get funding their second year, but I wonder how big those awards are, on average, and what kind of student usually gets the bigger ones. If most of them are closer to the low end ($4k), I think I might pass on Georgetown, much as I love what I see.
  6. Got my acceptance to Georgetown yesterday, too. Same deal, a congratulations email with funding info forthcoming in regular mail early next week. I'm also in at Fletcher ($15k) and SAIS Bologna (awaiting word of funding, if any). If the other two schools don't offer me funding, I'm probably going to Fletcher, though I am aware that Georgetown does offer more funding the second year. I don't know where I come down on the whole debate yet (Fletcher v. Georgetown). My take so far is that the curriculum at Georgetown is tremendously well-designed to prepare me for a career as a diplomat, which is actually what I want to do. Fletcher is infinitely flexible, but I'll have to be purposeful in how I shape my degree and resist the urge to drift. D.C. is a better place to prepare for a career in government than Boston, but that's not a deal-breaker, in my book. Just some preliminary thoughts before I dig deeper over the next month.
  7. Yeah, I'm in the same boat, no buttons at the bottom of the page at all. Should I read anything into that?
  8. I'm doing a career change. I studied creative and professional writing in undergrad (Carnegie Mellon University). Got a good GPA (3.95) -- that was years ago. Since then, I've been a journalist, a writing teacher at a public arts high school, and most recently an ESL teacher in Argentina and South Korea. I speak Spanish; learning Korean is proving quite difficult. I took the GRE this summer, really hit the books hard, because I wanted to show that even though I didn't have a quant. background, I had a facility for it (took Calculus in high school, then one semester of it in college). Got a 760v, 800q, 5.5 a.w. I didn't have the econ. prereqs, so I took them online and will be getting one letter of rec. from my Macroeconomics professor, who liked me. My main concern is whether my professional background is irrelevant; I'm a recent convert to IR. I am passionate about it, but this has only been within the last two years. I know living abroad helps, but I don't have the internships, NGO or public service background that some of you have. I'm currently deciding between international development and American foreign policy. Originally, I was drawn to the idea of being a diplomat, perhaps consular work or public diplomacy, but increasingly lately I've felt the pull of development. Latin American economic development and politics are what fascinate me. It was my time in Argentina that led me down this path. I really like what I've learned so far about Fletcher. Also interested in Johns Hopkins (particularly the Bologna option; would love to get a European perspective on things and practice my Italian). I'll also probably apply to Georgetown and maybe Harvard and WWS (both pie-in-the-sky), and possibly GWU or American. From what I've read on here, SIPA doesn't interest me -- too outsized, too impersonal. Anyhow, thanks to everyone on the forum here for giving such useful advice. I've been sifting through these posts for a while and learned a great deal -- and been humbled.
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