terrapin

Harrista, Planning on staying in Chicago upon graduating? What sort of local job prospects do you have your eye on?

From what I know, Chicago is the better school and the better program. But yes, I'd say cost/funding should play a significant role in just about anyone's decision.

I would say both have great brand names. Hopkins' is probably even stronger in the world of IR/Intl Development.

Darn. No $ for me. No update either. I feel left out! Then again I never did get any sort of email stating that my application had been updated in the first place. I have only seen it on the website.

Decisions are out. Admitted. Good news. Anyone else?

Wow... Not really sure what to say about that.

I don't know anything specific about these two programs, but I can tell you that Charlottesville is less than a 3 hour drive from Chapel Hill. And culturally, there is little to no difference between Central Virginia and North Carolina. Neither of these schools are exactly located in a policy "hotbed" if you will. Go with whatever your gut says.

I can see it both ways. On the one hand, frequently extending deadlines and delaying announcements doesn't exactly make them look like the most organized bunch, but if the alternative is receiving no information at all, I imagine most people would pick the twitter account. I suspect there are probably very reasonable explanations for the various extensions/delays. It is the University of Chicago after all, and not some fly-by-night operation. Of course to the applicants, all we see is the twitter blurbs (tweets?).

Thanks! Had assumed it would be this week based on "early early March" tweet, so this is good to know!

From Harris's Admssions Twitter:

Per their twitter, looks like they extended their deadline again to 15 Feb to hear back by early March.

I am an early admit. and nothing here!

I would look at PhDs but that's just me. Never understood those who get two masters degrees, without getting them concurrently.

Allow me to echo Doyle's points. Having served 5+ years as a Marine officer, I was faced with a similar question. There were numerous attractive options available to me had I decided to stay in (FAO, Congressional Fellowships, Masters Programs, etc,) but as we both know, a lot comes down to luck in the military and there are no guarantees whatsoever. So I had to make my decision to stay in or get out independent of these potential "gold mines". Ultimately I decided that I wasn't being challenged much anymore as a Marine, and at just 28 I had grown physically and mentally tired of the old games. Not to mention the fact that I am engaged to a wonderful and independent woman whose own career would surely suffer if I continued to move around every 3 years. So, you have to decide based on the merits alone of staying in or getting out. If you still feel the calling to serve your country if called upon, you could enter the selected reserves (or whatever the Army equivalent is), as a nice middle ground. For what it's worth, if you do well on your GRE, I think you'd be extremely competitive at any of those schools. You have plenty of time to take them, and it is a test that is easily mastered with some brute force studying.

It seems to me that you would be extremely competitive for your schools. I would say your GPA, UG degree/institution, work experience, and LORs are all at least above average for all of those schools. Your GREs might be a little low, but I have to believe that the rest of your profile more than makes up for it. Good luck; I share your nervousness.