ExponentialDecay

No policy degree is worth more than like 20k out of pocket (I personally wouldn't even pay that). Take the full ride.

Can confirm. Once you're out, people see 1) that you have a master's, 2) that it's in IR, which doesn't imply anything in particular about what you know or can do. The hair-splitting about the relative prestigiousness of various IR programs that goes on in this forum is pretty silly. If you're going to get this degree, praise be to god, get one that doesn't put you in a financial hole. Everything else is very secondary.

Is there a reason you're singling out Chinese students rather than asking this about international students in general? Or would you rather not bring that up, since that would be "geopolitical"?

US News rankings and similar aren't very meaningful. You should be basing your school choice on things that more immediately reflect quality, like placement and what professionals employed in your target field think.

I'm afraid it's much more difficult than a general definition for either of those terms. Career paths: there is no set career path for either of those degrees. It depends on a variety of factors, like your background, what school you go to, what classes you take, what internships you do, whom you meet at this one happy hour... I know tons of people with either degree, and they're employed in anything from investment banking, to the State Department, to random private companies, to local government, to moving back home and working at the supermarket. Courses: entirely depends on the

The public sector is not a monolith tbh. Of course, the various museums, schools, public transports and other parks and rec are very much in flux right now. But a huge proportion of the government machine is countercyclical. If you have skills in macro modeling, bank closure, and a whole slew of obscure economic-financial subdisciplines, you can have a job yesterday - and the number of these positions will only increase in the next 2 ish years. If US public policy were run differently, a bunch of other sectors, from education to infrastructure, could also be countercyclical. I don't like

bro, this OP is from 2012...

The name of the degree doesn't matter. "IDEV" as a trajectory is also not specific enough to make a good decision. Do you want to do private sector development or early childhood education? The same program, even if it's literally called IDEV, will not serve both of those needs equally well. You want to go to a school that has regular course offerings in your narrow area of interest. If you can, it helps to learn how the degree places with employers you're interested in. You can't find this out from the internet in sufficient detail, so you'd actually have to talk to people. This also onl

[quote] will having no work experience for nearly a year likely disqualify me from most reputable MPA/MPP programs?[/quote] No. Programs will be lenient, most of all, because academia is facing some very lean years and professional grad schools in particular are struggling to attract and retain enough students to stay open. If you're a legal person and you're willing to hand them money, they'll take you. That said, all the discourse about being cautious when investing in this degree applies doubly to anyone without work experience. Pandemic or no pandemic, it's going to take you time

As well as any other school. Getting an STC position isn't super challenging in general, but moving on to staff requires a lot more than just going to a prestigious masters program. STEM designation isn't as important if you're aiming for IOs since you can work on a G visa (some don't even take OPT and make you open a G visa right away). That said, if you change your mind (and many people do once they realize the reality of working at an IO), a STEM designation is nice to have.

I talk about US programs and the US immigration climate because that's what I know. My impression from secondary sources is that Canada, Australia and a handful of EU countries (e.g. Germany, Poland) are feasible to migrate to via school, but I don't want to advise because immigration in each country is its own beast. The added complication is that a lot of traditional policy jobs require local citizenship or residency and policy degrees don't necessarily transfer well outside of policy fields.

lol dude what is your problem?

@GradSchoolGrad Please enlighten me if you see otherwise, but I've read both posts I made here and I see nowhere that I've been unkind or not nice, to you or to anyone. You never explained why you took such a condescending tone with me, "First off" and so on. Based on my longterm experience on this board, you are very invested in being the resident expert on all things here and you become incensed whenever somebody posts something you disagree with. I'm really not looking for an internet fight so, if you can't keep your communications civil, I'd rather we not interact anymore. You can post you

I'm sort of confused by your tone. I'm not saying a US education is bad; I'm saying that trying to immigrate via F1 now is much riskier than it was even a short while ago. I don't understand why you're acting defensive. 1. It doesn't matter. Even if Biden wins in November, policy and procedure doesn't just change like that once a new president takes hold (I should hope that people who advise on the Government Affairs grad school forum know that). It takes time for a new administration to make changes to immigration policies - hence why Trump's immigration policies, most of which were impl

I would definitely pick a program that is STEM-certified. More and more MBA and policy programs are going that route, including some big names. That said, regardless of what you study and how many years of OPT you have, the current administration has made labor migration so difficult (not just H1B, but EB, L, O) that staying on after school has become exponentially more difficult than when you were in college. A lot of companies that hired internationals even 5 years ago now won't consider non-residents. Based on what I heard from a lawyer friend (large fwiw, of course), a lot of compani