hippieva

stanford ips or SAIS may be good for you, given your finance background --

take the money and never look back.

good question -- i don't think you should worry about class size. the fact that the program has a pretty robust core means that there's probably plenty of opportunities to get to know your fellow classmates and establish camaraderie. for sake of anonymity i'd rather not say which i'm leaning towards, but i am in a somewhat similar position of weighing ips vs. $$ at the usual east coast suspects. however, i have a few personal factors that make my own decision making process a little bit more complex.

for me i'd not just consider the school's "name" when looking at stanford, but the aspects of student life that substantiate it that you can't find at any of the other schools you're considering: a) the well rounded education you'll receive there (being able to cross register on the same campus, which will enable you to build relationships with people from other schools). this is particularly true as you've expressed an interest in energy, and energy is pretty interdisciplinary. the world-class students, professors, and facilities you'll be working with. you'll find those at all the schools you're looking at, but probably in greater concentration at a place like stanford. the opportunity to contribute to and learn from these resources is pretty exceptional. to me, getting all of this this all for only 35k more is a once-in-a-lifetime deal.

the calculus-based statistics requirement is REALLY WEIRD. where can one even take such a class outside of stanford undergrad? no local schools in my major metropolitan area offer it... (stats alone, yes, calc alone yes, but calc-based stats, no).

the one that's cheapest -- once you start earning in rupiah you won't want to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in debt back in us dollars.

came back to pare down the post, accidentally bumped it -- sorry about that. a few questions for you: -how well known are jhu and tufts in europe? from my 1.5 years in germany i know that most, even many elites, only really know harvard, yale, berkeley, and if you did a high school exchange year in the US, then the local state schools half your class wound up at. the thing is that even though the knowledge is limited, the PERCEPTION of knowledge is high -- that is to say, people think they know a lot about US schools when actually they don't, and, in my experience, these people can judge your intelligence/perceived aptitude based on your US school. that way, a better "brand" might serve you well abroad, especially in countries where promotions and such at the higher levels can depend a lot on pedigree. on the other hand, it's not clear to me how important this to you -- you say several times that you're concerned that a school is only known in IR circles, but from what you've described about your career ambitions, that's exactly the field you want to stay in. so, other than for the general patina, it's not clear how important this is to you. -how strong are the german/european networks of these schools? i remember hearing about some kind of monthly sais HH in berlin. how are fletcher/berkeley/stanford on that front, and how much does that matter to you? i.e. do you think you have a strong network in your field of choice already, are you going to want to build it from scratch in grad school, etc. -what are a few specific jobs in international energy policy/diplomacy field? the field is growing, but outside of multilaterals / governments, i'm not sure who does that kind of work. if you're going to work for a multilateral, then one of the east coast schools seems like a safer bet. if you want a consulting firm, i think the bay area is full of top firms (like ICF international) that do advisory work in this field. keeping that in mind, some thoughts on school specific stuff: berkeley -- for full disclosure: i didn't apply, mostly because of the early deadline. but i remember looking through the alumni list and saw that most of them end up working for the cal state government. it's really a policy trend setter in several key fields, yours being one of them, but the idea of having a network that is not only limited to one geographic zone AND one employer is a turn off. that said, if the berkeley alumni network is strong in europe, it's a great choice. sais -- great job on the sais scholarship, i wish i could say the small one they offered me would put them on my list of finalists. from what i've heard, and for what it's worth, the bologna center is a great place to build a network, but it also has a bit of a party-ish reputation and is a little insular. the dc campus is known as more hardworking. i'm more attracted to sais because its alumni list reads like a 'who's who' of international affairs, and i think this reputation helps it grab a lot of the top students in the field. dc is basically a post-college town, but i wouldn't worry about that since you'll be making friends with mostly sais people anyway. the key question i'd ask is, do you want to work at any of the types of places listed here? (http://www.sais-jhu....internships.htm) if so, sais probably has an alumni network in your specific field. they have an awesome world bank connection, but from speaking to a few friends that go there, the jobs offered are mostly short-term consulting contracts. that's basically how these institutions work, but it's worth keeping in mind it's an expensive decision to make for one short-term job at the end of it. fletcher -- i basically agree with your pros and cons, except that i'm not sure that being able to take classes at harvard is a selling point enough to make a decision on that. here's where their grads work after school (http://fletcher.tuft...sampleemp.shtml). impressive list, but, more or less a list of the usual suspects of employers from of any of these schools. getting your thoughts on the q i posed above on where specifically you want to work can help clarify. stanford -- small class size sucks, but it's more or less a choice you can't go wrong with. my thinking is that being at an institution that dreams big/thinks big/achieves big is pretty once in a lifetime since it can put you against the "best" in a variety of fields so you can push your strengths and weaknesses, and allow you to be at a place where big conversations are happening, and potentially give you the opportunity to be a part of them. if my thinking is right, and it may not be, then it's an experience that's far and away worth the extra debt.

one now works for a european tourism agency in her home country (not her long term goal, she'll eventually land up at some multilateral i'm sure -- she's too focused and good not to), another took advantage of their program for german nationals that lets them intern at the chancellery for a year. sorry i don't have more info, im sure they have some kind of employment report on their website.

can't answer your questions directly, but i came on this thread to say that you should go to hertie/sipa. a) berlin is awesome and you should jump at any chance, particularly funded, to go, i've met a few hertie grads and they are sharp. you'll definitely have a good academic experience.

i spoke with someone in admissions a while back who said they normally get around 200/250 applicants and they accept around a quarter. no idea what things are like this year.

Just curious...their website says early March...

Also received notification today. In, but no $$. Best of luck to everyone out there.

agreed. sounds like a bureaucratic decision and they're stuck in their ways. a little lame for such a dynamic institution --

Hello everyone - I'm applying to policy schools this year and hoping for the best GRE score possible. The math, while once familiar territory, is complete Greek to me now. Any suggestions (prep methods, books, classes, etc.) that helped you get a great (90th percentile) GRE math score? Verbal is another beast altogether... Thanks in advance!

my good friend was very happy with her education at the hertie school of governance in berlin. another friend recommended this uni: http://www.coleurop.be/ also check out erasmus mundus programs

doctoral students maybe, but no way undergrads. completely separate schools.

thanks for the informative post!