Ruella76

I am a current SAIS student and while I agree with the others that SAIS is not designed to prepare you for a PhD, there are some people who pursue one afterward (either right afterward or a couple of years out) - at SAIS and elsewhere. It's not by any means bad preparation for a PhD, but the usefulness of it will depend entirely on which courses you choose. Keep in mind that you will have required courses in economics that won't pertain much to your area of interest. The fact that you have a full ride there might still make it a good option - just keep in mind that it might involve a year of lost time, since the MA is a two year program whereas most pre-PhD master's or intro classes for a PhD would only last about a year. I can't tell you much about the availability of research opportunities with professors in the Strategic Studies program - it might be worth trying to get in touch with some profs in advance to ask about that. Barring that, there are opportunities to pursue research with academics at think tanks around DC.

Hi everyone, I attended the SAIS Bologna Open House last Friday and wanted to post a message outlining my thoughts and impressions. I thought this might be helpful for those of you who were accepted to Bologna for the first year but won't have the chance to visit Bologna or SAIS before having to make a decision. My impression was very positive overall. We started in the morning with a couple rounds of panel discussions with professors of economics, international relations (those who teach the more introductory courses), history, European studies, American foreign policy, as well as the language program director. These are some of the 'core' professors at Bologna who have been there for many years, and tend to be very accessible and interested in having close relationships with their students. Later in the day during lunch and at happy hour (located at the bar that's inside the Bologna center) I noticed that both admissions and these professors seem to know all of the current students by name--a testament to how small and intimate the program is (200 students). Several current students also told me that the BC has two or three main types of professors, the 'core' ones who tend to be more academic and personable, the 'outer core' who are quite involved with the BC but sometimes teach at the University of Bologna as well, and the 'practitioners'--visiting professors who spend the week working at various international institutions in Europe and fly in for the end of the week to teach classes at the BC on Friday and Saturday. The practitioners are a bit more touch and go in their teaching ability but tend to be more practical in their approach, and often give more specific and in-depth courses. All of the current students I talked to gave positive reviews on academics, saying that great courses and professors can be found across the board, and literally no one complained about any absolutely terrible courses. Even those who don't like economics very much in an econ-heavy program admitted that they are able to get through the material ok as long as they put in the effort. Career services got slightly more mixed reviews. However, my overall impression was that with career services and indeed, any MA in IR program in general, you get exactly what you put into it. Some students complained that they thought career services hadn't been doing enough for them in terms of helping them find summer internships. But as soon as you arrive in Bologna career services is very aggressive about making sure you get in contact with them and meet with them to discuss your short- and long-term goals, and within the first month everyone is required to go through a series of sessions on networking, interviewing, resume writing, etc. After that, the bulk of their efforts revolve around reaching out to alumni and putting students in touch with alumni in their area of interest. They organize four career trips throughout the year to London, Brussels, and Geneva and while space is limited they do try to make sure that everyone gets to go on at least one. Most students seem to have summer internships lined up already. However, this did seem to vary a bit by concentration, as some concentrations have additional career services and networking events of their own (PM me if you want more details on this). I'm sure it's no surprise to anyone that the social scene and quality of life in Bologna are very high. Bologna is beautiful, with so much history, good food, and a relatively low cost of living. Everyone seems very happy, raves about the city and the close connections they've formed with their classmates. While they're excited about moving on to DC next year, they also seem to regret that the atmosphere in Bologna is unique and won't be the same at SAIS DC. My conclusion about the whole SAIS BC/DC thing (corroborated by current students) is that by attending both you get the best of both worlds. In Bologna you get a smaller and more intimate experience, in a quieter city where it's easier to concentrate on academics and form close connections with your classmates and professors. In DC you have (obviously) all that DC has to offer in terms of internships, networking, and IR events, but students are pulled in all different directions by everything going on around them. It's this combination of two different campuses and the way they complement each other that has sold SAIS for me. I learned a LOT at the Open House and could go on forever! But these were the main highlights. Feel free to PM if you have any questions.

Not yet, although I'm leaning that way...I'll be attending the Open House in Bologna on Friday to get a better idea. Will anyone else be there?

So I just got an email from Georgetown saying that not only did I not get any funding for the first year, but that from now on funding will only be offered during the admissions process. In other words, if you didn't get any funding from Georgetown, there's no way you'll get any second-year funding even with outstanding grades. So I guess that finalizes it; that's a no for Georgetown :\

I don't have any extra insight to offer on SAIS vs GWU (I'm going through the same process right now, and am still not very close to a decision). But I did just want to say that I think you've narrowed it down to the right schools, and agree with your decision to rule out Sciences Po. I live in Paris right now and for a while dreamed of staying here and doing my IR master's at Sciences Po. But after talking to quite a few students studying abroad there from American universities (both in IR and outside of it) I realized that for Americans the French approach to education is really difficult to adjust to. Very academic as you said, without nearly as many 'extras'--extracurriculars, career services, ability to build relationships with profs outside of class--even the facilities leave something to be desired (i.e. it's difficult to even find space to study at a library). Sciences Po is a bit more forward-thinking than other French universities but like most things in France, it seems like it still suffers from a lot of bureaucracy and resistance to change. I think you're right that it would help you get a job in France due to its reputation. But French schools in general seem to have a problem with preparing their students for the 'real world': the French put a lot of cultural value on academics and intellectualism--hence the push for that within the education system--without thinking of how any of that ties to practical value within the professional world. These are of course my distant observations and generalizations based on my own biases, so take it with a grain of salt. If you want to still maintain some connection to France and Paris, keep in mind that GWU has the opportunity to study abroad at Sciences Po for a semester. I don't know anything about how that works or how useful it is but that's something you could investigate. Other than that, I'm afraid that both SAIS and GWU suffer from an undeserved lack of name recognition in Europe. (That isn't based at all on the value of those schools, it's just that most Europeans have only heard of Harvard and Columbia which is really unfortunate). I have no idea how much this matters. These are things I'm wondering about for myself as well.

Haven't heard anything either. It's been awhile since I logged into MyAccess but when I did I didn't see anything--didn't know if that was because I didn't get anything or they just hadn't decided on funding yet. I wish they'd be clearer. In my head I've basically ruled Georgetown out because I'm assuming no funding. If it turns out there's more funding on the way it could be confusing for everybody.

In your opinion, what are the strong and weak concentrations at SAIS and SAIS Europe? I'm most leaning toward SAIS for next year, but am a bit concerned that my intended concentration (international law and organizations) is one of the weaker ones. On the other hand, I'm also wondering about approaching my main interest (democratization and human rights) from one of the regional concentrations, either European studies or Latin American studies, which I've heard are both strong. I'm also early in my IR career so probably only 80-90% sure of what I want to go into anyway. Just wondering what your thoughts are on the relative strength of each concentration so I know what I'm getting myself into.

Yup, I'm still very confused about this. (I must admit though, so far I haven't put any effort into contacting admissions and finding out what's up.) They make it sounds like the "real" letter (and potential funding info) is on the way, but it's hard to be sure because the info available in the admissions portal and their emails don't seem to line up. It took like two days between seeing my admit notice in the admissions portal and getting an email from them saying I was in. So I don't know what to think about whether there really is another letter coming. The one I saw online looks pretty official already. Good luck to all those still waiting. It must be very frustrating, the lack of good communication on Georgetown's part. Judging from last year's thread, the exact same thing in the previous admissions cycle, so Georgetown hasn't done much to improve the way they notify candidates of their status.

Very confused about this as well.

Woops, I misinterpreted your post asking if anyone had the April 15 deadline to mean that you had the April 15 deadline. So we've all got the May 1 deadline, which I think you're right might be because GW is behind after their deadline extension. Must learn to be a bit more patient aha...

I am crossing my fingers...but I just found this on their website: To accept the offer, you have to "Submit a $500 non-refundable tuition deposit to the Elliott School Office of Graduate Admissions via credit card, electronic bank transfer, check, or money order. The deadline to respond is April 15 if you were awarded an Elliott School fellowship or May 1 if you were not offered a fellowship." I got the May 1 deadline so....bah Don't want to sound presumptuous but I met with the admissions director several months ago and he told me that based on my profile I would have a good chance for fellowships. Not good enough perhaps. A bit bummed because I liked their whole scheme about being able to work full time while studying since they have all their classes in the evening. Ah well. But pyrrhus it looks like you're golden!

Can I ask where you heard this? Wouldn't be surprised if you're right, just wondering if you heard it from their admissions office. pyrrhus, I'll message you in a bit. Don't want to reveal too much of myself on this forum.

I found the admissions thread from last year and the way they released decisions was a mess. Most people never got an email saying their decision was out (I didn't get one this year either); decisions were released gradually and at random and over the course of several days; and with funding, some people seemed to have funding info written right in the letter and some people found out about funding later in a separate letter. They don't make it easy to know what's going on! I'm very happy to have been accepted, but with no word on funding I can't be any closer to making a decision. I wouldn't go with no offer. I've gotten some funding from other schools that I probably wouldn't turn down for full price at Georgetown. So let's hope the funding and admissions results are all released very soon!

Alloy, between SAIS and Georgetown it's difficult to say, if you care about international name recognition. Because frankly I think neither are that well-known internationally. It's hard, because those are the two of the best IR programs, but outside the US people only know a handful of the best US universities and usually they have no idea what programs are good at which schools. (Case in point: I went to an Ivy that isn't Harvard or Columbia for undergrad and now live in France. No one has heard of my school.) Of the three you mentioned, Columbia imo is by far the best well-known. I've noticed for example that in Europe Columbia tends to be even better known and considered a better school than Yale or Princeton (in general, not just for IR). That goes to show how fickle the whole name-recognition issue is. I think it's sad though to just pick Columbia based on that factor alone, because SAIS and Georgetown might be better programs for you. But I understand why you want to take that into account if you want to work outside the US after your master's. I've been thinking about the same thing.

It might just be Bologna first in case anybody's nervous...I believe my app was handled entirely by the Bologna center, since I put it as a preference and was counted as a "non-US applicant" (have dual US-foreign citizenship) and was interviewed for the program. Maybe they've come out with those decisions first. Also I was a bit too antsy about the funding notice--I ended up getting an email like five minutes later. 20kEUR for first year That's awful about IHEID. I wouldn't worry too much about the other decisions yet--European and American schools have such different admissions criteria. In the US it's a bit more holistic IMO; in Europe they seem to care mainly about your grades and how similar your undergrad degree was to their program. Plus they don't take GRE into account. It's why I didn't apply to any European programs, I was certain I wouldn't get in! I wouldn't get too down, you may have some good news yet.