Upstater

FYI, I have officially turned down a $15,000 renewable fellowship. Should open up some money for someone else. Best of luck.

You can get 15K fellowships with the lower tuition. I got one.

Seriously, these emails need to go out. I was finalizing my application over thanksgiving. I have received word back from all other schools (all of which were submitted after WWS application). Send out the emails. Now. Please.

Congrats to the MPA admits. I did not realize how much smaller the class size was in relation to MPP students. "Our MPP program is the largest of the four admitting ~90 students per year; 6-12 students enroll in the MPA each year;"

could you also say what program you applied for? MPA? MPP?

Status: Accepted, Awarded $15,000 Fellowship renewable for both years UGPA 3.1/4 Major: Sociology GRE: V-161/Q-159/W-5.5 Work Experience: 5.5 years total . 1.5 years at Environmental Non-Profit, 4 years government consultant in Environmental Policy. I recently visited the school so let me tell you the lowdown. I visited last week and was sent my fellowship offer Friday afternoon. When I talked to Jennifer and Judy earlier, they told me a few important things. 1. The tuition has been reduced to ~$30,000. 2. Since the tuition has been reduced, the financial aid will also be reduced (ie, dont expect $30,000 fellowships with the lower tuition) 3. As of Friday, they had not released any financial aid information, to anyone. They said that they had an initial list of say ~30 offers that they were waiting on final approval to release. I can only surmise that I was in the initial list, though I am not certain if other have been notified. Additionally, I was talking with current fellows, asking whether they were disappointed that the tuition was only now going down. I was told that basically, from the fellows, it will be the same out of pocket expenses regardless of tuition. Thus, with a $45,000 annual tuition, the highest level of funding was ~$30,000 ($15,000 out of pocket). Now, in my situation with a $30,000 annual tuition and a fellowship of $15,000, it remains $15,000 out of pocket. Basically, if you get the highest level of funding, it will be the same money you need to pony up. However, if you do not get funding, the program becomes a lot more competitive. The reason tuition is being lowered is that the program is moving into the School of Human Ecology (the Department of Policy Analysis and Management). This reduction in cost will come at the expense of some of the freedom that CIPA offers to create their own curriculum. Basically, over time, there will be more core required classes. However, in the meantime, the freedom remains, and the price is lowered. Please let me know if you have any questions and I can let you know if I know anything else. Overall impression is that this is an attractive program, even more so now that the tuition is lowered and I received funding. Strongly considering it.

I got an email today asking me for some additional information for my application. Not sure if its a good or bad sign. I am hoping its a good sign.