le_neocon

Got a reject. Was my best application. Congrats to those who are in !

Wow, so we're all back to square one. I come from the private sector where I've worked with Harvard MBAs and people of the like. MBA is the only way to go. Some partners in my company are PHDs, some just have an undergraduate degree, while some are MBAs. But it ultimately comes down to a. what we wanna study - we are all sure about this so MIA +1 b. where we want to go eventually. If we're not sure about this, then MBA is the safer bet This is obviously a very long debate, if you factor in costs, effort it takes to get a top 5 MBA etc. I really don't see a lot in the MBAs that work in my place. It really is upto the individual what you want to make out of your MBA/MIA. A degree won't get you there. That said, you can apply for the MBA while doing your MIA first year at SIPA , right ?

econister, Did the mail have a link to the application site ? Or was the fin aid info within the mail itself ?

Well..its the 2nd or 3rd paragraph and its right in the letter..1000$ just for the course..I definitely need some aid. Anyone else in a similar predicament ?

I'm in..but have to complete their online course to do the economics requirement...delighted..a good amount of aid will make me go here instead of SIPA..

Well, I just received a mail from SIPA with an estimate of their costs and I was just dismayed really. Not that I didn't know that SIPA was already expensive, but to think that you have to spend 130K on a non MBA education is a little difficult. ----- COST OF ATTENDANCE ----- 2010 - 2011 Tuition & Fees 43,867 Room/Board 15,322 Books 1,500 Travel 900 Personal & Others 6,265 TOTAL 67,854 I read a statistic that the average debt a student has out of grad school at SIPA is 66k, which could be revised to 75k this year. I was pretty fine with that. But the question really is how I'm going to reach that figure when I'm starting at around 134K. 20k could be an avg. scholarship award. What about the rest ? A paid internship ? It really baffles. SIPA was my first choice and I really want to go there. And if its a certain level of debt I can handle it, but its just that its getting a little worrying.

Got my Admit with a 5500$ scholarship. Not sure whether I'll choose this over the SIPA admit though.

Bastille, good to see you keen on SIPA too. Heres what I found on employment stats by concentration. It doesn't really have the latest data ( only till 2007 ), but could give a fairly decent picture. http://sipa.columbia.edu/resources_services/career_services/employment_stats/MIA%20Employment%20Data%20by%20Concentration.pdf

I think SIPA works out more well for students are open to working in the private sector also. Going by this forum, SIPA for some reason, after everyone gets their admits or gets rejected, just seems to plummet down in popularity. Well its the only admit I got till now..so can't say much

I think there will be a survivor bias as far as post goes. But I got an email that a decision has been made and was redirected to the application page. There i found a link at the bottom which opened a pop up box with the acceptance letter. For those who haven't got a decision yet..just keep holding on..and I really hope you get the college of your choice.

Hey..I got my admit as well for SIPA.MIA.my first admit !!! Really wanted to get into the program, Now I'll just wait for HKS and SAIS. I'm an international student and my name starts with S.

coakleym.. How do you know that there is a second wave for Duke and CMU...I haven't received a decision so far and so I'm beginning to take it for a reject..more so for Duke..I sure hope there is a second wave.

Yes..I think so too..The thing about SIPA..going from past threads..you will get either decision, admit/reject on the same day..they don't separately mail out the admits and the rejects a month later.

Well, Matt could be reading grad cafe. He has thrown out our forecasts. The latest blog post this year was published on March 12, 2009 last year, a week after the first decisions were sent out. Anyways the day is not too far, all we can do is wait.

I really think the mail stating that we will receive decisions only by mid march is just hedging for a late decision. If you read the blog, the latest post, which mentally prepares all prospective rejects is possibly a leading indicator that the decision date is nearby. I'm sure he isn't going to announce the exact date ( even if its just a day in advance ) on the blog. Realistically this week and the next are 80% possible.

I'm an international student and I've applied to both these places. I think that SIPA students come from a larger variety of backgrounds/experiences. SAIS appears to be more academically focused and traditional. However, these are just initial impressions and I may be totally wrong. That said, I've never been in touch with either of SIPA or SAIS alums, though I've talked to a few HKS alum. While SAIS has impressed me with its highly rigorous econ content, SIPA just offers me that much more of a job surety just because its in NYC. I wouldn't have access to a lot of jobs in DC and I'm not sure how well SAIS grads do w.r.t private sector/multilateral org jobs. But having taken a look at both curricula, I would tip SAIS over SIPA on that front. Its a tricky decision and one that I would love having to make, if I ever get the chance

There are quite a few acceptances, around 7 on the results board. I haven't got mine though.

Well an eventual 55 out of 500 odd applicants is quite competitive..Do you know what the representation is for international students. I tend to think that the sanford school has a lower representation of international students.

Are you sure about this. This will be my first admit/reject, then. For some reason, my heart and head tell me I won't get in..Sigh

why don't u check gradcafe and search for the relevant posts. There are a lot of useful posts from applicants who were in the same predicament as you are now.

Yeah sashmpp, it was your post I saw on colgconfidential. I checked my application but no decision yet. I did check out last years results and some of them came about the 27th feb

Just saw a post on another forum saying that they got their decision. Anyone else got to know their decision ?

I got a mail from them asking for a copy of my degree certificate around 10 jan..send it and the application got listed as complete in a week. I send them a reminder mail twice. It won't hurt to send them a reminder to update your app status..just tell them that you're really eager and anticipating

Well mine now shows that my GRE scores have been received but my TOEFL and Transcripts haven't been received. And I sent both of them at least 1-2 weeks before the deadline. Its quite intriguing. I did however, get a mail from them saying that I will be informed in the next 10 days if my application is incomplete. They also say theres been a record no. of applicants !!