xnormajeanx

i also had to submit another essay, and yes it was for merit-based scholarships. i also don't think what you said about gtown is true at all. yes, GPPI does have an affiliated center for research on children. But I have ALWAYS heard that GPPI is a top destination for people who want to focus on foreign policy. i think you're obsessing a bit OVERmuch about this.. don't take everything people say on the internet as truth! of course there's going to be criticism on any school. god knows people bash KSG a lot all over the place, but most people would still put that on top of their list. if you have concerns, call or email the school or VISIT for godsakes.

is there any hope of taking them again? if you're applying in june you have plenty of time to prep and take them again. also, i didn't even know there were deadlines that late.

i'm canadian too. i didn't have to take the toefl, but princeton made me get a professor to fill out a statement documenting my proficiency in english! my 790 score on the GRE verbal apparently didn't cut it.

Thanks for posting this!

I was also thinking maybe I should not even bother with the MPP right now. But now I've actually warmed up to the idea of going to GPPI. Yes, I will have some debt. But applying again in another year or two might not really mean less debt. Tuition will have gone up (more than inflation, as it usually does). Yes I will have saved more money. But I will also have hated my life and felt miserable about my job for another year or two. Basically, it's money, and I either pay it now by saving or pay it later with interest. The interest I will pay is worth liking my job a lot more (and probably having higher earning potential, too.) Another point, in terms of GPPI's career services: I do have some reservations about how organized it is and how strong it is compared with a school like Ford or UChicago or KSG. But you know what? I'm smart. I am aggressive. If a school sets a job up for me, awesome. If it doesn't, I think I can handle myself. I've done it before. There are tons of opportunities out there, and I don't even need a ton. I just need one.

i am in the same struggle and constantly changing my mind. but here's whats been going through my mind the past few months. i am also an international student i looked at all the same programs as you and out of the ones you listed, only applied to gtown. i started applications to the ford school and to gwu but never submitted them because i realized i would not have been thrilled at either place even if i ended up there. i didn't want to be in michigan. michigan is a depressing place. i looked at the course offerings, the professors, the concentration/policy tracks, etc. and felt that georgetown fit best with my conceptual model of what i wanted a policy program to be like. plus, i felt that it had the broadest appeal. i am from canada, and people in canada often know about gtown -- but not the others. i don't know if i'll remain in the US -- if i go home, i want to have a degree that is recognized. all this said, i am still not sure i want to go. i was offered 24K+ funding per year, but the amount i will have to take out in loans still seems like an insurmountable burden. i am also waiting on decisions from harris, gspp, wws and ksg, and hoping for some place to accept me with more funding.

i dont really have anything productive to add besides... congrats. that is a lot of schools that you got into!

Somebody got into GSPP's MPP program today! Who was it? Fess up!

montreal is a very cheap city to live in -- and beautiful too. the cost of living is a fraction of what it would cost to live in a city like toronto, boston, NYC, san fran, etc.

i know this, and i told myself when i was applying that i was only applying to schools i would feel good about going to. but it's been months since then and minds change!

matriculation rates are far less important in graduate level rankings than in undergraduate though... (right?) and same here -- also an MPP applicant, got a nice offer from a school very early which was not my top choice -- I think putting down the other schools may have helped me get so much funding. then again, i could just be overanalyzing.

wow. i've never heard of a law school paying all your tuition. i had no idea that existed. insane!

i think a lot of us end up applying to a few "safeties" we arent THRILLED about attending!

on the other hand... is it possible schools might give you more funding? to try to draw you away from those other schools...

Canadian schools are also public and a lot cheaper.

oh my god... my HEAD is going to explode, not just my computer. I have so much work to do right now too. It's all going to bite me in the ass. plus, people keep freaking me out and giving me near-heart attacks by posting stuff like "anyone heard yet?" except my heart JUMPS before my brain processes what is written and for half a second I believe decisions have gone out. i really need to calm myself.

I have been refreshing my inbox every few seconds and refreshing the results page here just as often! it's horrible! last night I dreamed that my admission to UChicago was contingent upon my winning some quiz show on television.

i think chicago is great without a car. there's train AND the L AND bus.

me too... Gtown is the only school i've heard from good luck with funding! i wonder how many people get full scholarships. Web site says funding can be up to full tuition...

Haha I didn't mean to be discouraging. i'm in the exact same boat. i am very seriously and thoroughly weighing the pros and cons of carrying so much debt. from what i've heard, the brown program is a bit more "regional" and may not have the broad appeal of a DC school/Columbia/KGS/WWS or even UChicago. the program is also very new , so you never know where it might go. this could be good or bad. i honestly don't know too much about wagner... all I know is that NY is way too expensive for me... so I wrote off NYU and Columbia for myself at the beginning of the process.

That's likely... although I find it a bit odd when it comes to funding. What if you save a bunch of money for the last batch but the people in that batch aren't as deserving? Or what if you don't allot enough money for the last batch? Seems like they should make money decisions all at once. But yes they gave me my funding offer exactly a week after I submitted my essay.

That's odd... I got the scholarship e-mail several weeks ago which said the scholarship committee met two weeks ago!

i'm a journalist... i got a 4.5 on the GRE writing. i've published in major daily newspapers across the country and won distinctions for editorial writing. journalism writing apparently does not fit well with this "hamburger" set-up... in fact, i think I remember not writing much of a conclusion.

Just out of curiosity (I'm not applying for PhD programs... don't know how it works) how common is it for schools not to give ANY funding and for grad students to be paying tuition out of their own pockets?