OffToTheRaces

So if school B offers money after April 15, I wouldn't be able to accept if I accepted at school A before April 15?

This is a fairly straight forward question and I just want to double check my understanding. I got into to two strong MA programs in my field. School A is offering assistantship/funding and school B isn't. If I accept the offer from school a BEFORE April 15 and school B offers funding after that, would I be able to accept the offer from school B? My understanding of the policy is that offers accepted AFTER April 15 are legally binding.

I am over the moon at having been accepted into my top choice programs. UGA outranks GSU by about 20 places in the US News and World Report list, but I'm not certain that such a thing makes them worlds apart. Both programs appear to be quite appealing and can be a great launching pad for my career, but is it worthwhile to think in terms of what will take me further quicker considering their profiles? Also, GSU is offering me an assistantship, making them all the more attractive. Like everyone else, I have until April 15 to accept. Is there a second round to the assistantship process or has that ship sailed (relative to UGA)? Is it worth taking on the debt at UGA when GSU would be much more cost effective?

I am getting geared up for grad school. I'm a 2009 graduate from a prestigious New England liberal arts school and I studied abroad at very prestigious institutions as well. I graduated at an especially bad time and really struggled professionally. I did manage to establish a decent resume, but I'm to the point of being limited by my lack of a graduate degree. I have a family to support and I'm looking to at least get on track to do a much better job of providing. I have determined that an MPA would be the best fit for me in terms of my interests and background. As a result, I have some questions about selecting and comparing programs as well as choosing a concentration. 1. Because of my family needs, I am looking at local programs in the Atlanta area. I have the pedigree to go into a top tier program, but I don't think my wife and I would be able to support ourselves in those locales without family support. I have a lot of relatives in the area here who can help with childcare while I'm getting my degree. I don't have that in other places. As a result, I wonder about how the prestige and reputation of MPA programs affects career prospects. Obviously, there is some impact, but I a unsure of its extent or nature. Would going to a locally respected school leave me with limited geographic options? Would that dissipate over time with real life experience? Obviously, I want to get the best education I can so that I can be the best candidate and worker but I wonder how much name recognition plays into the former. I would say that the prestige of my undergraduate education did little to nothing to help me in my job search and I also found that the name recognition was non-existent out of the Northeast to the extent that it was there in the first place. The content of my education was immensely helpful and I wouldn't trade it for anything. What I suppose I really want to know is if name recognition is worth sacrificing for or if I should prioritize programs that offer the most productive rigor given that ranking systems can be gamed. 2. What is the most lucrative concentration for an MPA? What is the most in-demand field within public service and non-profits? What kind of options are there in the private sector for an MPA holder and what do companies look for? My career has been almost entirely in the non-profit world, and I found that I didn't make much in the way of profits (har har har). I do however appreciate that the picture gets a lot better as you work your way up. I'd rather have consistent access to numerous secure jobs that pay 40-45k than the off-chance of snagging a handful of 90k jobs because it's difficult to support a family on hypothetical income. I am definitely interested in working my way up wherever I go, I just want to get the chance to do that, to make sure I get the right tools to make that journey, and to make sure my family is taken care of throughout that process. As I tell my wife, "we don't need a Benz, we just need to pay bills."