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Hi there! I assume you're talking about the MIEF program? I believe the program only started last year, so this year's cohort will be the second class. The MIEF students struck me as very international, and perhaps a bit younger than the MA students. These are all vague impressions, however, as I had no involvement with the program itself and my interactions with MIEF students were superficial. I got the sense that MIEF students really develop an identity as a cohort b/c a lot of their courses are in half-semester blocks, which is different than the MA/MIPP traditional-semester schedule. But there is some crossover between students (one MA friend of mine who was super into finance classes took two MIEF courses, I believe). The MIEF program pulls from some of the best SAIS faculty as well. I wish I could have been of more help, but I did just find this interview with Prof. Bodnar, who founded the program, that might give you some more details: https://goo.gl/oUU0jQ And here you can see employment outcomes for MIEF (as well as MA students): https://goo.gl/XCJp5a

Interesting, not sure why that discrepancy exists. There are a fair number of non-American students who have done some kind of master's before SAIS (a lot of European undergrad programs are 5-year master's degrees), so it's possible that has skewed the numbers somewhat. Also, a lot of SAISers did Fubrights, Peace Corps, or military service before enrolling, so I don't know how those would be considered in terms of counting years of "work experience." But overall I think with 4 years of work experience, you'll fit right in. There are definitely some 23-year-olds who worked for one year before enrolling or came straight from undergrad, but there are also a lot of 30-somethings who have very impressive backgrounds --- and most people fall in between these two extremes. In terms of housing location, a lot of SAISers live in Dupont Circle, but they often tend to be non-American or quite wealthy. A lot of students live in Columbia Heights, Adams Morgan, and Mt. Pleasant, and to a lesser degree, Shaw, Bloomingdale/Eckington, and Woodley Park. All of these neighborhoods are bikeable/transit-able to SAIS, and you can generally get there by foot in 30-40 minutes. Some people lived a bit further up the red line as well, like in Cleveland Park or Tenleytown, or further out in Eastern Market or Petworth. And of course there are those who commute from suburbs (Arlington, Alexandria, Chevy Chase, and Bethesda primarily).

I only knew one person who did general IR, but she was very focused on finance (and may have done a specialization or two in that arena), so I think she wanted more flexibility in her courses in order to be able to really go deep on fin classes. To most people, I would strongly recommend a concentration, because as you suggest, I do think it helps with access to resources (even just in terms of faculty support, not to mention funding/research opportunities/study trips). Strat is definitely one of SAIS's strongest concentrations, and has a LOT of funding and trips. One potential downside is that you could get lost in the crowd as you'll have so many other people in your cohort. AFP is up there as well in terms of SAIS concentrations, but a little smaller and my friends who did that seemed to form pretty close bonds with the professors, some of whom are quite impressive. Of my friends who did strat, many are now doing jobs in defense-related fields (contractors, consulting, federal agencies, etc.), whereas my AFP classmates are doing more broader federal policy and diplomacy jobs.

I never took summer classes, but I did take language courses during the school year. The overall quality of instruction is high -- I loved both of my professors -- but some students will treat language courses as their last priority, especially if they have already passed SAIS's language requirement (a good chunk of incoming students have already reached "proficiency" in a foreign language upon enrollment and then will take another language that they don't need to meet graduation requirements). If your question about workload is in reference to language classes, I would say it's totally manageable for most languages, and a lot of it will be determined by the amount of effort you want to put in. I have heard that courses like Chinese and Arabic can be quite intense, and require more classroom hours in addition to assignments.

People who do their entire degrees in Bologna receive a Master of Arts in International Affairs (MAIA), which involves writing a thesis. I think their requirements might be slightly different (maybe slightly less econ), but they take all their classes with the regular MA students (who form the bulk of the cohort in Bologna). All of the MAIA student I can think of off the top of my head were European, and many of them actually did a joint program where they spent one year at SAIS Bologna and other year at the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna or somewhere similar. Most found jobs in Europe, but one I know got a job in DC and another went to central Africa. The MAIA group is much smaller - maybe 8-12 students. Socially speaking, there is no distinction between MAIA and MA students in Bologna. I'm not as familiar with Nanjing, but I think there are a number of programs there including a one-year certificate program, in addition to a 2.5 year program split between Nanjing and DC. Everyone has access to SAISWorks! Let me know if that doesn't answer your question.

On career services - I think they were accessible and decently helpful at both campuses overall (certainly miles better than at my undergrad, where i was handed a one-sheet primer on resumes and told to check monster.com), but this is not a business school situation where large companies are going to come and do seasonal recruiting and you have a job all tied up 6 months before you graduate. You're going to have to do some legwork, with the help of career services and staff members from your concentration. I ended up finding my full-time job through the SAIS job listings site ("SAISWorks"), which career services collate, as did most of my friends. Before I got that position, career services helped connect me to a few alumni in fields that interested me, reviewed my resume, helped me brainstorm some potential target employers, etc. They bring in recruiters and representatives from different companies/organizations to give talks - I went to a few and some are definitely more helpful than others. I also think they run workshops on things like salary negotiation, but I never attended one. There was a career fair, but I found that pretty "meh." Personally, I found it was pretty easy to get an internship from Bologna, but I was connected to the position through my DC-based concentration. I have found SAIS alumni to be shockingly responsive. I don't think I've ever had one email or LinkedIn message go unanswered. You just need to know how to make use of the community. Even though I'm less than a year out, I have already had a few requests for coffee/requests to review applications to my company, etc. from current students and more than once I have been a little surprised at how maladroit some people can be when trying to network. Don't be that person who attaches his/her cover letter to a first contact email, asking a complete stranger to review it within 24 hrs! For your second question, I got to Bologna in my mid-20s, which felt pretty in the middle of the cohort there (I think the average starting age is 26 or 27). There were definitely some straight-out-of-undergrad types, some of whom were a lot more mature than others. It's hard to say how this affected class discussions, b/c there were also plenty of more experienced/knowledgeable people in all of my classes (and some very bright 22-year-olds!), but I do think Bologna skews younger on the whole just b/c there are fewer 33-year-olds who are willing to relocate across an ocean for 9 months. In a certain way, Bologna felt more academic (and European), whereas DC felt a lot more "practical"/career-oriented. So in Bologna there were lots of people who could go deep into analyzing Leviathan or The Wretched Earth, but fewer people who could be like "when I was serving outside of Fallujah in 2004..." Does that make sense? ETA: I think typical work experience in Bologna would be things like "3 years at non-profit," a LOT of peace corps, "4 years at random soul-sucking business or consulting job," "3 years at NGO in Africa or Asia," "5 years in random office job in home city and now want to get back to my true passion, IR," "2 years working for congressman," a few military, etc. Close to everyone, if not everyone, had lived abroad.

To be honest, this isn't something i thought about too terribly much. Since I went to Bologna, by the time I got to DC I had a whole posse of friends, and still managed to meet "DC people" through classes, events for my concentration, study trips, extra-curriculars, part-time campus job, the weekly SAIS happy hour, etc. SAIS is a very collegiate environment, and if you want to have a big group of SAIS friends you can probably make that happen without too much trouble. There are definitely some people who have their lives outside of SAIS and come to campus for class and leave. But that's the minority, and I imagine that could happen at Georgetown as well since it's located in DC and people may already be established in the city. It's probably a bit different at a school like Fletcher where I would imagine almost everyone moves there for school, but I couldn't tell you about that first-hand.

I think some students go into grad school with a clear vision of the path they plan to take, but they're the minority and many of us change our minds regardless. I do agree with went_away in that doing a lot of research and developing your networking skills will go a long way as to helping you figure out what you want to do and how to get there. I also think that while our internship system is messed up in this country, the one advantage is it gives you the opportunity to see what different fields are like to work in. I think a lot of the time, people who have never worked in an office before will be pretty surprised when they get their first office job, especially after you get so much education and assume that you will end up being fulfilled by your work.

We MA students had to take one quant class (like stats, econometrics, or corporate finance) and then four foundational econ classes (micro, macro, monetary theory, international trade theory). SAIS definitely attracts some people who are really interested in quant, but if you're not, that shouldn't scare you off. I have plenty of friends that addressed those classes as something to get through on their way to take classes on Chinese domestic politics, gender dynamics in the developing world, US Congress and foreign policy, European imperialism, etc.

I came across plenty of MIPPers! You typically affiliate with a concentration, so you're not totally without a community, and I actually found that some of the MIPPers were often the most friendly and well-known people on campus, perhaps because of the confidence that comes with age . In fact, the president of our Bologna student council was an MIPPer. Also, in DC MIPPers have a weekly happy hour so that they can network amongst themselves. As an MIPP student I believe you would not have the same kinds of quant requirements as MA students do -- I would double check this though. I didn't do conflict management, but I have some good friends who did and I think they tended to like their courses, but sometimes complained that the program is not as well-funded as some of the bigger concentrations like strat or even some egional studies programs. Basically this means fewer perks (subsidized study trips and the like). But I'm repeating second-hand info here, so I would encourage you to reach out to the program to see if they can put you in touch with any former or current students to give you a more complete picture!

Hi! Apologies for the delay. So I partially answered your first question in the last AMA, I'll copy some of that here and make a few edits now that it's almost 2 years later - wow! I was deciding between SIPA, Fletcher, SFS, and a regional school which shall remain nameless lest I be too easily identified. The regional school offered me a lot of money, but after visiting it, consulting mentors in the field, and putting in a lot of thought, I decided that the lesser debt wouldn't be worth the dimmed career prospects. SIPA was out b/c I just didn't get a good vibe when I was there (although I have a good friend at SIPA and he loves it), plus they offered me 0 dollaz. Fletcher just never intrigued me (although I never visited), and they offered me the same amount of $ as SAIS, so it was easy to cut. SFS offered me a token amount of money, but the program felt too small when I visited...Ultimately it came down to a question of money and fit. I would say that whether SAIS can really help you depends on what direction you want to go in afterwards. For example, if you're really interested in defense or more economic analysis type stuff, SAIS really distinguishes you and is very connected in those fields. If you want to work for a non-profit, or in a non-quanty fed government role, there's less of a "SAIS advantage." What do I wish I knew when applying to grad school... I wish I had known not to stress so much, because I think most of us on this board are overachievers compared to the general population, and that one B- we got sophomore year is not going to sink us. But in terms of advice you might actually take ...I wish I knew going into grad school what kind of coursework would help me get and then excel at jobs I might want upon graduation. For example, I have ended up in a field where SAIS's famous corporate finance class has come in handy, but I didn't take that course until my second year, which meant I didn't have the opportunity to take follow-up classes that built on corporate finance as a pre-req. I think the take-away from this is that it's useful to have some concrete ideas of potential job targets going in, and then you can seek out the advice of professors and counselors about how to structure your coursework upon arrival. It's hard because your interests will probably change as you go through the program (mine certainly did!), but I think doing some legwork before you start will give you a good foundation to take advantage of all the resources at your disposal.

Hi! I'll start with Bologna vs. DC. Bologna vs. DC/DC vibe Bologna pros: more academic (b/c fewer "practioner" professors and few people are doing internships/working); much more tight-knit student body (because everyone lives close to each other and typically knows no one in Bologna upon arrival, whereas in DC people live throughout the city/suburbs and many have their own pre-established social lives); European perspective on international affairs; better language instruction; opportunity to travel in Europe for both academic purposes and pleasure, as well as career trips; cost-of-living significantly lower than DC so even including extra traveling you might want to do/flights to and from the US, I easily spent 10-20% less money during my year in BO Bologna cons: less class selection, especially in areas like finance/quant and Asia-focused courses, etc.; fewer internship opportunities (which again can be viewed as a positive if you want to focus on academics for a year); a slightly more "immature" feel to it (younger student body, a lot of partying on weekends) DC pros: more class selection, especially in terms of quant; more internship opportunities; more "big name" faculty (although I find this better for bragging purposes rather than actual quality of instruction - I actually typically found "practioners" to run the WORST classes by far for so many reasons...); more speakers/conferences; more opportunities to network in field; more "mature" feel to it (student body is a bit older) DC cons: I found non-quant DC courses to be less academically rigorous than Bologna; if you don't go to Bologna first and aren't super social/involved on campus it's quite a bit harder to make friends in DC; very expensive to live in DC which can be demoralizing; American-style language instruction (read: low standards) In terms of the DC vibe, I think it's overall quite collegial and people can make friends if that's what they want, but much less of a bubble than Bologna was as people often have their own lives in the District and some students just come in for class and then leave. But it's definitely not a commuter vibe like GW or AU where most students are working full-time and then cramming in night classes. And if you want to be involved, however, there are a million student groups, publications, clubs, etc. and some departments are very tight-knit SAIS community/job prospects The SAIS community is second-to-none in that the school fosters a lot of SAIS pride/community spirit on a level I never experienced in my somewhat larger undergrad institution. The SAIS network is real and helped me to get a pretty prestigious internship while in DC, which was very useful when applying for jobs (where I also work with a few SAISers, although they weren't hiring managers). Job prospects are good overall, but your mileage may vary depending on your background and what you're looking for. I found my full-time job in late summer, and it's a position that I truly love and that pays slightly above the average salary that SAIS published in its career outcomes, so I'm certainly happy and feel it was 100% worth it! The vast majority of my friends had full-time gigs by early fall. The ones who have struggled a bit more typically fall into one or more of the following categories: non-Americans who had trouble finding employers to sponsor them (although many of these people end up going for jobs at World Bank/IMF/IDB etc. where they can get diplomatic visas); people with little-to-no work experience (some of them have to take slightly lower-level or lower-paid gigs than they had envisioned); people with unrealistic expectations of what they can reasonably get based on their academic backgrounds/previous work experience (numbers 2 and 3 overlap a lot). I think it's also important to think about the kind of job you want, the potential salary, and what kind of loan burden you may have. For example, I have some friends who work in development and haven't cracked 50k, which is extremely hard to live on in DC if you have any kind of debt and don't want to live with 5 roommates into your 30s. But I have friends who've gone into consulting or done more quant-y jobs making in the 80s and 90s, which obviously is more than comfortable. So I guess what I'm saying is that average outcomes/salaries can be misleading. I'm working from home today so I'll save my response for loveglove for a little bit later!

Hi everyone - currently snowed in here in DC and running out of things to do on the Internet, so I figured I'd fire up my ole gradschoolcafe account! I graduated from SAIS last spring after having spent my first year in Bologna. I did an AMA in 2014 when I was still in Italy (linked below), and and figured I'd drop in to see if the current any of you current applicants had questions you'd like to ask. So...feel free to ask me anything!

Sorry for the slow response - hadn't checked this thread in a while. Hopefully it's not too late. No matter when you take it, micro is probably going to be hard for you. I did it during preterm, and I did fine but it was challenging. If anything, it's more difficult than during the regular semester because it's so compact. A number of people I know actually failed the midterm and had to really get it together for the final. For me the benefits were a) not having it appear as a grade on my transcript! getting it out of the way to take more interesting econ classes and c) socializing during preterm. Of course if you come after preterm you will make friends, especially if you have a tight-knit concentration, are naturally outgoing, or get along really well with your roommates (who hopefully attended preterm). But it's true that a lot of early friendships are formed during that time, and a number of the people I know who came afterwards definitely complained that things were a bit harder for them.

I totally agree with your cautioning of Yuanchen Cai re: taking on so much extra debt for dubious added prospects. If s/he were an American wanting to work in DC, I could see the dilemma. But if you're wanting to work internationally, then an American degree wouldn't seem to provide that much extra value (unless it is from a school that is truly internationally known, like Harvard). However, I think it's worth mentioning that foreign students can still do internships in DC as long as they are unpaid, which - quite frankly - most IR internships are. Foreigners are then are entitled to work in the US for a year after graduation. I have no idea how student visas work in Switzerland, but here in Italy, us non-EU students can only work on-campus for 10 hrs/week. Switzerland is known for having some of the strictest immigration laws in Europe, so I doubt their student visas are much more permissive.

I don't know much about IHEID, but I would concur that it's difficult for non-EU students to get jobs in Europe (although I certainly know some who have managed to snag internships for the summer, including one Chinese girl). Regardless, 70-80k is a huge amount of money, especially if you're borrowing it. I couldn't imagine turning it down unless you've soberly run some numbers on how your life would look post-graduation and determined beyond a shadow of a doubt that SAIS would give you something that IHEID never could.

You should see if SAIS will set you up to talk with students in your potential concentrations. The regional concentrations here tend to be EXCELLENT, and I have heard great things about both European Studies and Latin American Studies. They both have very dedicated faculty and highly-developed internship programs. European Studies is actually based in Bologna, so there's a major advantage there. I can't speak from experience, but I have heard some ILaw students complain about lack of faculty guidance in terms of finding internships and the like, but they all seem to love their courses.

People here are very, very social on the whole. It's one of the defining characteristics of the Bologna campus, for better or worse. A lot of friendship forming happens during preterm, when there are lots of parties, during weekend trips, via the many happy hours and events we have around campus, and of course via classes/concentrations. The fact that we are somewhat socially isolated here in Bologna (few of us speak much Italian) only increases the social cohesion. Here at SAIS, security studies is called Strategic Studies (or "strat"), and it's one of the strongest concentrations at the school. The Bologna strat professor is kind of a legend around campus, and the course offerings are quite solid. I know of a number of strat people doing internships with the Defense Dept., State, various security contractors, etc. all obtained from Bologna. The advantage with federal jobs is that they expect to be hiring from all over the country, so it doesn't make much of a difference to them if you're in Italy or Arizona. Overall, people seem to love it - I know a number of people who have switched into strat from various other concentrations here because it is considered so solid.

The timing of my previous response is funny, because we just got a reminder to fill out our FAFSA forms and apply for aid for next year. I can't comment for sure, but I've heard that they doll out aid mostly based on first-year GPA, with some attention paid to overall level of funding/need. But can't comment on what GPA would cut it.

To clarify, I don't think it's worth it to go 120k into debt (or more if you have undergrad loans), just based on the salary prospects post-graduation. But if your parents can pay for it or you have such significant savings (or your fiance is currently doing a neurosurgery residency...), that's a different story. I absolutely think going to SAIS gives you a great education and greatly elevates your career prospects. Some students do get additional funding in the second year. Are you American or not? The non-Americans all apply for funding for the second year in DC separately, and have already gone through that process and found out whether or not they got any extra money. I think more than half did. As an American, I think you can apply for funding through your concentration or through the general SAIS pool, but they haven't given us (Americans) info about that yet. But if you calculate that you can only afford SAIS if you get funding in the second year, I would say that that is a risky proposition.

Yeah, I think the open house was really what pushed it over the edge for me. Last year the different concentrations had break-out lunch sessions, which I highly recommend attending if they happen again this year. Your experience at SAIS can vary greatly based on which concentration you choose, so getting a sense of how strong yours is (do they have a formal internship program, do they provide funding, do they maintain an active alumni network, do the department heads seem engaged with students...) might help you decide if going to SAIS is worth the cost.

I didn't have to take the online econ courses, but I did take micro during preterm along with survival Italian (which is the most common pre-term choice). The thing that makes preterm difficult is how fast it goes, but it is also pass/fail, graded on a curve, so you have to screw up pretty badly not to get through it. There were TAs during preterm - one was a PhD econ student at the University of Bologna, and the other was a young Stats professor at SAIS who I believe has a PhD in math or is working on one...There are also TAs during the regular year, although they are often fellow master's students who did well in the course the previous semester (or who waved out of the course). The TAs have weekly review sessions and office hours. The professors have weekly office hours, and occasional review sessions. Like any university, some professors are known as being better teachers than others, but all (in my experience) have been very accessible. While the econ courses are challenging, I personally think they're worth it because they really help you understand the rationale behind so much policy-making at the international level.

I haven't personally taken advantage of a trip yet, but there is one I'm angling for next year. Wish me luck! There are basically three categories of trips: 1) career, 2) departmental, and 3) individual professor/research center-initiated. The career trips you have to pay for yourself. From Europe, students headed to Geneva, Brussels, and twice to London. The departmental trips are generally free (maybe you have to cover some personal expenses). For example, a group of European Studies concentrators are going to China over the spring break. The individual professor/research center ones can be partially covered, or not. There is a trip to Berlin in May that is being largely subsidized, whereas there was a trip to Bosnia over the winter break that students had to pay for themselves. There's also a trip to Israel over the spring break, but I'm not sure about its funding status. So in short, there are definitely a lot of opportunities to travel! Generally you have to apply for the trips, and of course the expenses-paid ones tend to be more competitive. I know in career services, they try to make it so that everyone who applies gets on at least one trip. On the departmental or course-based trips, they prioritize people in the concentration of course.

I was deciding between SIPA, Fletcher, SFS, and a regional school which shall remain nameless lest I be too easily identified. The regional school offered me a lot of money, but after visiting it, consulting mentors in the field, and putting in a lot of thought, I decided that the lesser debt wouldn't be worth the dimmed career prospects. SIPA was out b/c I just didn't get a good vibe when I was there (although I have a good friend at SIPA and he loves it), plus they offered me 0 dollaz. Fletcher just never intrigued me (although I never visited), and they offered me the same amount of $ as SAIS, so it was easy to cut. SFS offered me a token amount of money, but the program felt too small when I visited... I chose the 'Europe' part of SAIS Europe b/c they assigned me to Bologna, haha. But I did see it as an incredible opportunity to spend a year in Europe while working towards a substantive degree, and to have access to my professors in a way that just wouldn't be possible in DC. It's not uncommon to eat lunch with your professor in the campus cafe, or for him/her to show up to a party or host a movie night...It's also been great to be able to bond with my classmates on a deeper level. Our community here is pretty isolated (for better and sometimes worse), but that means that we all really get to know each other. Of course if you don't find your people, it could be a bit stifling... And yes, I am happy with my choice. There are definitely downsides, as there would be to any program, but I think whether the positive or negative wins out depends largely on your goals, personality, and adaptability. For example if you're easily frustrated by stores not being open on Sundays, then the year here is going to feel a lot longer! Or, on a more serious note, if you're feeling super career-go-go-go at the moment, then maybe you'd rather get to DC right away. But if you're willing to focus more on academics for a year, and are excited about the side-benefit of more social bonding and travel opportunities, then Bologna is a great option.

To clarify, I do know students who work off campus in Bologna doing babysitting/tutoring type stuff, but nobody I'm aware of has a 9-5 office job or even a waitressing gig off-campus.