MPAallday

Here's a post that I wrote on a similar thread about this time last year: 
 
I tend to bang this drum quite a bit here, but I personally think that it's not wise to take out a lot of debt for an MA/IR, MPP, or MPA because the salaries in those jobs aren't that high and the rankings don't matter nearly as much as they might for an MBA or JD, for example.  A big part of my decision to attend LBJ was financial. I was accepted to a couple of DC schools, but with little financial aid. Between the higher tuition and higher cost of living in DC, I was looking at about $80,000 more over two years to go to school in DC. As much as I wanted to go to school in DC, I knew that I wanted to go in to government or NGO work and I just couldn't bring myself to spend $80k more to be in DC. On the other hand, between financial aid, working, my savings, and the lower cost of living in Austin, I graduated from LBJ debt-free which was a great feeling to have when I graduated since it meant that I had more options and didn't have to take the highest paying or first job that came along.

If you're interested in working for the federal government, where you go to school will have very little effect on your starting salary. The salary determination process is more or less an equation of education + work experience = GS level X, step Y. The brand name of a school might make a difference in opening doors at NGOs and make a small salary difference, but probably not a big enough difference to offset much extra debt since salaries are generally lower in the NGO/non-profit sector. If you've got your heart set on consulting, then the extra debt to attend a more prestigious program might be worth it, but if you change your mind partway through the program you could be stuck with consulting anyway to pay off the debt. If you come in to the masters as a mid-career student with a lot of work experience though, you could have a higher salary after graduation, so a larger debt payment might not be as big of a problem.

After graduation, I started working with the federal government at a little over 55K in DC, which is more or less average for someone with a master's and a couple of years of work experience. After taxes, social security, etc, I was left with a little less than 40k/year to live on. That's manageable in DC especially since I'm single, but if I had a large student loan payment like the $600-$900/mo payments you can incur if you take out $60K-$80K of loans or had a family, it would be really tough to live in the DC area on that. My salary has gone up in the almost 6 years since I graduated, but it would still be tough if I had a huge loan payment every month. Without debt, I'm able to live comfortably, though not lavishly, save for future needs, and put away some money towards a down payment on a condo/house later on.

Also, being in DC can give you a leg up in networking, especially for the private sector and NGOs, but all of the big policy schools will have a decent alumni network in DC and the big employers of MPP/MPA/IR grads will hit the big policy schools. We had recruiters at LBJ from a lot of government agencies, several consulting firms, and many different international and DC-based NGO/Non-profits.  People in my graduating class went on to work at any number of federal agencies, UN orgs, think tanks, get PhDs, etc. and going to school outside of DC didn't really seem to hold anyone back.  So, while I was initially a little apprehensive about going to school outside of DC, I don't really think it hurt me in the long run. I got 2 great federal internships and then was eventually hired by one of them. Now, I'm in DC and have been able to take advantage of the LBJ alumni network here and build my own network through my current job and living in DC.
 
As an example, 100k in loans with a 10-year repayment at 6.8% interest equals a $1,150/mo payment and, with the interest you actually end up paying $138k.  That's a house in some parts of the country and at least a decent chunk of a condo in a place like DC.  The opportunity cost is higher because if you invested that $1,150/mo in a fund with a 10% annual return, you'd have $237k after 10 years.  Even if your investment only hit 5% a year, you'd still end up with $179k in the bank after 10 years.  So, not only are you paying $138k, you're not saving or investing that same money, so you're losing out on interest and investment gains.

It's ultimately a personal decision, since everyone has a different tolerance for debt and the decision certainly shouldn't ONLY be about debt, but I generally don't think that a lot of debt is advisable or necessary for most MPP/MPA/IR grads since salaries are not usually that high. I also think that the name of the school, while not irrelevant, is not as important in the public sector and NGO/Non-profit sector as it is in the private sector. So, paying big bucks for a name brand is not as important as it might be for law schools or MBA programs. For example, a person that I met at an admitted student day for LBJ when I was trying to decide where to go ultimately turned down LBJ to go to HKS. We now work for the same employer, doing the same job with the same promotion potential, and my salary's actually a bit higher because I had a little more work experience before being hired. He has a ton of debt that he's trying to manage, but I don't.

Since this field is relatively small, a school beyond the top ten is a big step down in prestige. There simply aren't enough people going for professional degrees in MPP or MPA to allow for a large number of excellent programs. It's true that your school won't matter much for government work, but for other areas, it could have an impact. Your cohort at University of Kentucky is likely to be of a different calibre than at Syracuse. 

Adam, I'm completely with Gradytripp on this one. One thing you are overlooking, however, is that you can attempt to leverage the offer from Kentucky to get more money from Maxwell. It's a delicate process, but it never hurts to ask as long as you are polite, direct, and humble without being beseeching, whiny, or accusatory. I wrote a blog post that outlines how you can ask for more financial aid. Might be helpful!
 
http://theartofapplying.com/sample-email-to-request-more-fellowship-aid/

Adam, please feel free to PM me about this...happy to share my perspective inasmuch as I have a broader experience than some of the other posters here. Keneisha's point is well taken. Gradytrip's is the usual mantra. Much of your decision should be based on what you ultimately want to do and how much debt you want to incur.

Depends what you plan on using the degree for. For government work, your salary will be the same regardless of where you went, so taking out loads of debt for it wouldn't be worthwhile.

Accepted from the wait list today!   So so so so excited.

Are you in-state or out of state? For in state that is correct, for out'of state it is almost double the tuition. If you are in-state you have an amazing deal already.

Congratulations! That's amazing! I hope you can contain the excitement as you head to Cal!

It worked! I got my 1st year tuition and fees completely covered, a $10k stipend for the first year, and my $8k professional degree fees are also covered for the second year. I would still need to take out some loans for living costs, but this is SO manageable for a Berkeley degree! I am so insanely grateful that UCB pulled through!  

Best to move on and work your ass off in the program you chose. Best of luck.

YEP to all of that haha. I just started declining my other offers and got SUCH a nice reply from one of them about how she knows I'll love it where I chose and that she's good friends with a professor in that program/knows she will train me right. It was hard enough to decline, but getting a reply like that just made me sad and second-guess even more haha. Oh well, I know I made someone on the wait list very happy!

I received the same email. Guess we will find out Wednesday! 

I was about to accept Madison today when Berkeley called me this morning! All of a sudden, they want to negotiate a deal for funding once I mentioned I was more than likely going to choose Madison's "free ride" offer. She is going to call me tomorrow at 10:30am to let me know how much she was able to secure. This is exciting. I hope it's more than just a few k! Wish me luck! 

I'm turning down LBJ in favor of Georgetown, so I hope it opens up a spot for you!

Why not ask them? Tell them the specifics of your situation, that you want to go to their school, but would accept other offers if there's not really any chance of you getting in. Showing interest isn't going to hurt your chances, and you might get sufficient clarification from the schools to make your decision. 

When it comes to policy schools, six figure debt is ludicrous -- regardless of the name. If I was you I'd be leaning towards Luskin, since it seems like UCLA is going to come through with sizable funding for you. La Follete also seems like another solid option. Ask for extensions from your choices if at all possible.

How will it pay for itself?  If you mean it is 'worth it' in terms of experiences, networks etc, then maybe, but that doesn't translate into the cold hard cash you need to pay back your loans. The Harvard name won't get you higher pay for government work (see, for example, numerous posts on this board talking about govt hiring scales), and most non-profits in the field the OP is interested in don't have spare cash to throw around just for prestige - it might get you a couple of thousand extra in salary if you're lucky, but that's not going to make much of a dent in $100K+ of debt. HKS might get you better access to the top consulting firms, which will give you serious cash if that's what you want to do, but that's not what most people who do MPP degrees want to do.  

I agree with this assessment precisely and I can definitely tell you (I'm actually a career fed so I know what I'm talking about)from the federal government perspective that it doesn't matter where your advanced degree came from. For example, with the PMF program, I know people who are PMFS that went to Harvard and Princeton but I also know PMFs that went to state schools. The first review of any federal job application is only looked at by HR specialists and assessed on the core criteria in the job announcement. It isn't even seen by the hiring manager(who makes the final selection) until after the first review.  Thus, if you're fresh out of grad school but have less work experience than the other candidate, there's a good chance that you're not going to make the next cut in the hiring process.

It's essentially saying it's a bad post. I cancelled it for you by pressing the green arrow (you can not undo it yourself).

I only have one year of work experience but I worked nearly full time throughout my time in undergrad so I feel like that counts for something extra. I was speaking to a student at the gala about that actually and she said that there is a really wide age range that is more dependent on the program someone is in. For example the MSES seemed to be mostly coming straight from undergrad but many of the MPA and MPA/MSES people seemed to have at least 1 if not 2-3 years or work experience. That was just who I bumped into though and what the person I was talking to thought (they were also in the MPA/MSES program so I don't have any info on arts admin). 
 
I thought Bloomington was surprisingly nice! It was a wayyy nicer college town than I expected because I was also worried about living in a small city/town but everyone seemed to really enjoy Bloomington and a few people I spoke with said they had never even been to Indie because they just felt like Bloomington had plenty to offer. I stayed around for a while on Saturday and checked out more of the downtown and found it really cute! They have just about everything in walking distance and there is a free campus bus that takes you just about everywhere you could want to go. This is a big plus for me since I'm hoping to not do a lot of driving and wanted to either go to grad school in a city or in a college town where this wouldn't be an issue. 
 
I will also likely be paying my deposit for SPEA sometime this week! I think they did a good job with the experience day and that really pushed me over the edge along with seeing all the awesome classes they offer and how they seem to do a really good job of integrating science, policy, and decision making.

Hey MPAallday!  I would be more than willing to answer any questions you might have about Bloomington or my experience at the SPEA Experience Day.  

Hello guys. I was admitted to MPA. I was in Bloomington last year, studying English. Since I am still living in Colombia, I am not going to this Friday's event; but I hope you enjoy the visit and we meet in August.

Considering that schools often change their mind about (revoke) admissions offers all the time, I would imagine we would be well within our rights to change our mind before the deadline.

Considering that schools often change their mind about (revoke) admissions offers all the time, I would imagine we would be well within our rights to change our mind before the deadline.

I just heard I was offered a spot on the wait list today. Not bad considering it's one of my top picks! Congrats to all those who received funding and offers!