ExponentialDecay

Aside from Princeton, all policy schools routinely take people straight from undergrad (and stiff them with the full bill, maybe with a tenner knocked off). That said, what you propose is a supremely bad idea in every way. There is no good reason to go to professional school out of undergrad. You won't have the work experience, direction, and probably maturity to make anything more of the experience than just an extension of college. A 6 figure degree shouldn't be a box to tick - especially since you only do it once. At least you're doing a year-long internship, but you should also consider doing another 2 or 3 years in a full-time job, even cursorily relevant to policy. It's never too late to go to grad school, but it is frequently too early.

If you have 10 years experience, you're in a different category. The standard policy programs are for people with 2-5 years experience, whereas people with your level of experience tend to go for executive programs. That said, without knowing what your experience is, with 10 years of policy (not admin assistant, not random barista job) experience, you are competitive anywhere.

The first tip would be not to rely on getting insanely competitive scholarships to fund your grad school. For instance, UK programs notoriously have little funding, especially for internationals, and it is further unwise to treat professional graduate school as a study abroad opportunity. Unless two things are true: the program is substantially cheaper than your other options, or you plan to work in the country after you finish (which, if you don't have a UK passport, is going to be a tougher nut to crack than scholarships), get your degree in the States. I can't speak to famous scholarships, but based on my personal/hearsay experience getting institutional scholarships, the two important factors are having your hard stats in good order and articulating why you'd be an asset to the program in a way that makes sense to them. I got funding everywhere, but my biggest funding was at a program that makes an accent on preparing people for the subfield I'm in at organizations where I have a network. You may want to read the relevant subforum. There's lots of good info there.

It should not be difficult for you to get some position that is relevant to your education when you graduate from Bocconi (if you are a non-EU citizen it will be more difficult, but still feasible). It doesn't really matter at this stage whether the position is development-related or not as long as it's professional rather than busywork. I'd suggest you do that for two or three years then apply to grad schools, or else apply to masters programs in Europe where your current profile will be more competitive.

You have a great profile, but in the US students don't go to professional programs directly out of undergrad, so programs want 2-3 years of full time post-college experience. You'll still get into all of these schools, but your lack of work experience will adversely affect your ability to get (non-negligible) funding. The potential exception to that is Stanford, as it's not a typical policy program. I don't recommend taking out 6 figure loans for a policy degree as an international student with no policy work experience.

The university pledged more money than you need? I don't see the problem.

Thanks for the lecture, but 1. I'm referencing RuPaul. I know POC doesn't just mean black. 2. What does race have to do with whether or not OP can attend SAIS part time? I'm sure I just misunderstood, but jfc you trolls need to gtfo with this holier than thou bullshit

...Why they gotta be black? Also, I don't represent SAIS in any capacity. You're just as effective googling "SAIS admissions contacts" and writing or emailing the people that come up.

Not that OP isn't posting bizarre threads and asking easily googleable questions, but none of that really precludes others from using these boards for their intended purpose.

The JH MIPP doesn't offer part-time? Where did you get that from? I'd advise you to contact the admissions office and explain your situation, because I definitely know people doing a variety of SAIS programs part-time.

No. PhDs train you to do research. JDs train you to do law. The two are not the same thing. @ZeChocMoose not in legal academia, but a friend of mine who is says the credential needed to teach law school is called the JSD.

oh wow. basically everything in biology is in that list, and then they have a section for URBAN PLANNING ahahaha. Studying geography is a threat to national security ffs.

Then why does it matter that people with JDs get paid more? Lawyers get paid more because lawyers always get paid more. If you want to be a lawyer, a JD is a good idea. Otherwise, no. Assuming by "flexibility to find work" you mean you want to easily find a job, using the term "flexibility" is a bit ironic. The most requested people are people with a narrow specialization... but then you have a narrow specialization. You have to be careful about picking one because it may very well lock you into a certain region, type of organization, or even fall out of vogue in a few years and leave you doing the unemployment version of Eat Pray Love. Law (or finance, and sometimes M&E) is a good specialization because it's basically a support role that allows you to work on a variety of projects in a variety of organizations and it has exit opps from the field. In that sense it's good. Getting a JD to work in any non-law role? Huge waste of your time. Ultimately your question is never about degrees. You just default to degrees because school is all you've known so far and this is how you understand career progression (and PC, for all its benefits, does little to teach you otherwise - yeah you're in a "shithole country", but someone else is still making the strategic decisions for you). If you have the right skills, most organizations won't care if you have a degree or not. A degree is either the first step or a formality - it won't determine your "flexibility" or your success in the field. For all the harping that schools do on their successful alumni, success is something you create yourself. This is as delicate as the balance between flexibility and specialization, but while it's important not to do dumb shit like take out 6 figures for an MPA or get a JD to not work as a lawyer, if you're gonna do school, do a program that works for you. Maybe that's HKS, maybe that's Georgetown, or maybe it's a tiny university in Europe. Don't follow anyone's advice.

In my experience, 1 large suitcase per person is just enough for a long-term overseas move (advice I have yet to implement, as I travel with 2). Realistically you only need take the essentials for your first month in the country (so, if you're moving in summer, don't bring your winter stuff), any documents/memorabilia you need, and whatever one weird thing that you have that you irrationally can't let go of (I have a special pillow I like to sleep on, so I bring that). Toileteries, basic household goods, most clothing - all of that can be replaced.

? My situation has nothing whatsoever to do with yours.

Just fyi you're asking for a lot from people who aren't professional admissions consultants and aren't paid to help you. Here's what you do: check what PhDs these schools place students into. For PSE, it will mostly be their own PhD program (which is good btw), but a few go on to top PhDs as well. Contact the school/professors to chat about your options if you need more information (professors won't always answer but the admissions office can usually give you more detailed placement info). Check the urch forums - they have a lot of discussions on this topic (to the extent that, if you've done your research, you really shouldn't need to be posting such a question anywhere). I would also advise you to apply to other European schools that place students into top PhDs (Bocconi, BGSE, CEMFI, etc) and not to get hung up on top PhDs - economics is incredibly competitive and you need to be a top student (in one of these incredibly competitive, cutthroat programs) to have a chance. But you can still have an excellent career from a T30 downwards. Don't do any degree with "policy" in the name. The pre-PhD programs are always called something like economics, or economics and finance, or economics and [insert mathematical thing]. That said, placement will differ slightly from program to program and school to school (e.g. some schools are macro-focused, others micro, some are more theoretical and others more applied) and whilst it doesn't matter too much, it's better if you're working with professors who are known in your subfield. It also helps to get relevant research experience.

I just came here to say that you should never ask the MIT international student office anything because they are Boston's biggest trash fire. I've never known them to give the correct answer to a non-trivial visa question.

You know you need OPT to work at this lab this summer, right?

ok good luck

You don't know multiple people, you know one guy. But sure, there are all sorts of scholarships for all sorts of weird things, both national and institutional, and sure you should apply for those. I'd also see if you have any minority angles or specifics of the work you do that could earn you money.

I mean this isn't a comment on your finances. You asked about scholarships at Columbia master's programs and I answered. FLAS is effectively an external scholarship administered by the govt.

Why are you asking..? You are already accepted at a program? How substantial is the scholarship? If it's in the 10-20k range, this is fairly common and used by many schools like Columbia to incentivize students to come and pay the remaining 3/4-5/6 tuition. They make more money by forgiving some small portion of your tuition and getting you to come than by losing a student (they're not really giving you money - they're discounting a service with a fungible cost function). Public schools don't have as much freedom either in setting their costings or controlling their budget, as they have to report to the taxpayer, but their tuition fees are also usually lower. For instance, Columbia charges 56k in tuition whereas various SUNY campuses charge ~15k, less if you're a NY resident.

I'm not sure why your status as a nonprofit employee would matter for paying for school. afaik nonprofit employees don't get any special benefits.

You'll easily end up consulting at the WB from either of these degrees, and neither will have much influence on whether you get a staff position. I'd consider what career you want to have, not where you want to work. I can see some situations where MSFS would provide a premium.

OP, bluntly, does mathematics interest you outside of its job prospects? Either as a way of thinking or as a way to answer questions that you're interested in? I don't think it's difficult to know whether you enjoy math, regardless of how much higher-level math you've taken, because you either enjoy thinking through problems in a logical and abstract way or you don't. It's definitely possible to develop a lot of depth in both mathematical and language training (hello, yours truly), but the feasibility of this project depends on how prepared you are when you come in and the course structure at your undergrad.