Batignolles

Ok, the open house is tomorrow - so *someone* must be going, right? Also, on a Fletcher reputation note: Yesterday I was at the US embassy filing some paperwork for my husband. As part of it, I had a consular interview as to why I was returning to America. The FSO was so excited I was going to Fletcher, and mentioned that she had many friends in the foreign service who went there, and that it was a great program. An unexpected endorsement, but a good one!

I actually think Fletcher can be a better program, depending on your interests, as it has more flexible courses that you can customize to your own interests. Harvard's core courses make up nearly all of the first-year, so a big part of the decision for me was whether I wanted to spend a year (and the associated costs) taking that set of required courses, or whether I would rather be more targeted in what I wanted to learn. In any case, with a good scholarship, I think you'd be crazy to turn down Fletcher for the privilege of paying for Harvard's full fees! Plus you'll be in good company if you choose Fletcher over Harvard, too .

Is anyone planning on attending the Fletcher open house on April 11 and 12? From the agenda posted on the welcome website, it looks like a great series of events, and I'm sorry I won't be able to make it (I live overseas). However, I'm set on going to Fletcher and would love to hear more detail about various aspects of the program and student life! It would be great if one or two people who were planning to attend could take a few notes and post them here. Thanks!!

Yup, my decision is up as well: just loans. It makes the decision easier, anyways - I had my heart set on Tufts all along, so with a half-tuition scholarship versus zero dollars, I'm going to be happily headed to Tufts come this fall!

For those of you considering SIPA, I thought I'd share a link to a class offered at SIPA that you can watch in its entirety (10 classes) online. The class is Conceptual Foundations of International Politics, offered by professor Lisa Anderson. It's a good way to test-drive the teaching and material in program before enrolling! http://www.academicearth.org/courses/conceptual-foundations-of-international-politics-graduate

Just to help people get started, when I was looking through for potential resources, I started with the lists compiled by the schools themselves. I focused on HKS and Fletcher, since I was applying to their programs, and found they had very thorough lists of potential scholarships. The Harvard list is quite searchable, but overall it took me a few hours to go through the lists, though, and see what could apply to me and my particular profile. If you're keen to get funding, though, I recommend you do the same! Harvard's list of opportunities: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/degrees/sfs/prospective-students/assistance/domestic/external Fletcher's list of opportunities: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/admissions/resources.shtml

From my research, it seems like it's a mix (though for the big two-year scholarships listed by Cornell07, I think you have to apply for at the beginning of your studies). Many of the others, which tend to be smaller awards from individual associations, are often renewable after you receive an initial year of funding, but you can apply for a second year as well. The thing I would say is if you're looking for second-year funding, it might be good to start this summer. Many of the bigger scholarships I found have October-November-December deadlines, which could be hard to manage when you're just getting into the swing of things during your first semester. You might want to start putting together statements as early as you can to ensure you've got really strong materials together for a real shot at the cash - many scholarships or fellowships open to multiple graduate fields are pretty competitive. (The general rule I've seen is the bigger the amount of scholarship, the more competitive it is.)

But in all honesty, the application cycle for 2010 funding is pretty much over anyways, so retrospectively sharing what you applied for can't really hut anyone. I've posted a few of the scholarships I applied for (and others I found but didn't apply for) over in The Bank forum, where they're captured under the sticky "Sources of Funding 2010". My advice to next year's applicants is to look through this list, and to add to it as you find new opportunities to share. Also, I did a really thorough search of fellowships and other funding opportunities back in September when I was beginning my applications process, and my conclusion is that - aside from the obvious big public service fellowships that everyone knows and that are highly competitive - there aren't many big funding opportunities specific to public policy or international relations. Instead, I ended up applying for a few that applied to specific but still fairly broad groups of graduate students. As an example, I applied for one through the American Association of University Women that funds women returning to graduate school after a significant stretch of work experience. There are others I found for ex-military, for minorities interested in grassroots efforts, etc. etc. There are tons of these kind of opportunities, but you have to seek them out based on your profile rather than based on your graduate program choice. Anyways, I encourage everyone not to be petty but to share your successful (and unsuccessful) fellowship applications from the 2009-2010 cycle! That way, next year's applicants will be able to apply to those same opportunities - which in my opinion is good for the community, and is really no skin off your back.

I'm not on the waitlist, but thought I would add a comment. Given how small the entering class is, I'm betting the people admitted from the waitlist are hand-picked to replace the individuals who aren't accepting their offer. That is, someone in US domestic policy backs out, they'll replace them with someone with a similar profile, rather than an international relations person; there might even be gender, minority or work experience factors to replace as well. I assume the goal in pulling from the waitlist is to keep a balanced class - that would explain why they would actually need to have an unranked wait list with a variety of profiles in it. Though that probably doesn't make it any easier to wait... now you're not just waiting for numbers to back out, but someone with the right profile! Best of luck either way, guys!

Still no word... but my thinking is that they were waiting to see who got in before beginning to assess the applications. It might be a few days yet before we hear from them. I'm not sure that it has to be awarded in time for the main financial aid deadline on April 1 - any thoughts?

To clarify, I'm an MPP applicant. In previous years, MPP/ID and MC/MPA went out at different times than the MPP notifications, and it seems like the case again this year. Best of luck in the wait! Hopefully it's not too much longer!!

I heard via email, from a sender called appstatus (appstatu@hks.harvard.edu). Good luck! Edited to note that my SPARKS is also updated - there's a new tab that says 'New Admits'. There's no welcome or admit message other than in this tab.

I heard via email, from a sender called appstatus (appstatu@hks.harvard.edu). Good luck!

In as well! April 1 for aid decisions...

Well, I certainly hope it will be by the first week in April - if the open house is on the 9th, they really have to give people at least a week to plan! So I'm betting on the 29th as the last reasonable date for giving us an answer giving the open house timing. MPA vs. mid-career vs. MPP probably has different decision release dates, though - I'm not sure they send them all out at once. The key question for me is when the funding news comes. Last year, acceptances came out on March 22nd or so, but funding came out around April 3rd. To be honest, giving a good funding offer from Fletcher, which is a great school, I'm not sure I'll be so jazzed about a HKS acceptance unless I know can afford to go on as competitive a financial basis as Fletcher. So for me the key deadline is when we get the FA news... Not that I'm not keen on HKS overall - I cross-enrolled in a course there as an undergrad, and really liked the experience. Once we hear from HKS, I'm happy to share my experiences and thoughts on strengths / weaknesses of the program.

jndaven, I'm not sure that school admission works like that. I don't think that every school is gunning for the exact same applicant profile. I think that each school has different strengths and weaknesses, and is looking for candidates that fit best with what they have to offer. Princeton is a very public-service oriented program, with a significant US focus - just because you didn't match with that doesn't mean that you wouldn't be a great candidate (possibly with a scholarship) at a school with a very different focus. I was dinged by Princeton, but got one of Fletcher's top scholarships - probably because, as I knew when I applied, I'm a much better fit for Fletcher than for WWS. So on that note, it's likely that HKS is as good a school as Princeton (some rankings would say better), and will be perhaps almost as competitive this year, but it has a very different student body and very different program goals. I imagine sometimes they're giving top scholarships to the same people that got into Princeton, but not always. So I don't think you can deduce your chances at HKS just by looking at how you've done at Princeton. Which is another way of saying that you should hold out hope until you hear otherwise. It ain't over 'til it's over!

Same here - refreshed it and mine now reads that I have won the Fletcher Board of Overseers Scholarship for $18k. I guess that's what you get when you jump the gun! Still surprised at getting any financial aid. Now the decision of school-vs-work gets harder...

I honestly can't believe this happened to you - I really hope that you are at the very top of the waitlist after they put you through all that. Hopefully you get great news from your other schools in the near future as well, to distract from this debacle. (I also really hope that WWS learns from this and professionalizes its decision process a bit more in the future, given that appropriately managing acceptance / waitlist / rejection notification is one of the most significant parts of the admissions process...) If it makes you feel any better, I'm still pretty impressed that you got waitlisted

It's a little weird to send out decisions on a Sunday, no? Wouldn't the 22nd or 19th be more logical choices?

Accepted here. Though no funding, which is not surprising either. Though if I accept I'll probably end up deferring, and spend another year in the private sector saving up cash to avoid taking on student loans. Took on big loans for undergrad, and after the total pain of paying them off, vowed never to do it again...

Rejected here. Not surprising, given I have only worked in the private sector (albeit for the public sector). It's always good to know, though! As to the wait listed questions, last year a few people from this board got in from the wait list, so there's definitely hope! The only missing piece of the calculation between the yield on the 85 and the final admits is the number of deferrals from last year. So between yield and 2009 admits, hopefully there's still space for at least a few of you this year. Congrats to all admits - and to the wait-listers. You guys are rock stars

Feel extra pity for those of us in Europe, who started work at 12:00am EST, when the first news was going out... It's been a looong day so far! The husband and I are just now heading out to a big, boozy dinner at a great restaurant so I can calmly ignore my email for the rest of the evening. And I wish the same for all of you - do something you enjoy this afternoon and evening. Don't let the adcoms truly take over your day

I'm sort of hoping they wait until 6 on Friday, since otherwise it might ruin my ability to get work done! On the other hand, I live in Europe, so anytime around noon or later on Friday would work just fine for me In any case, hopefully just one more day...

I hear you, wednesdaybythesea - I'm still waiting to hear from all three of my schools as well. I really should have thought through the timing better when I was deciding where to apply...!

Bastille - I agree with many parts of your post, notably the idea that an MPA and an MBA can both offer a rigorous, quantitative-heavy curriculum if you so choose. Similarly, within the confines of both programs you can fill your time with what your characterize as "fluffy" courses. (It's perhaps a separate discussion as to whether these "fluffy" skills are more of less valuable in the long run than analytical skills - some may serve you better as a junior analyst, others may serve you better as you ascend to leadership, motivational and oversight roles. But I don't want to digress too much here.) However, I think that there are (at least) two big differences that you might be overlooking between an MBA and an MPA, outside of the curriculum. First, most people heading into an MBA have two or more years experience working in business, and usually in a strong role for a good organization or company. For most good programs, this is a prerequisite for even being considered for admission. While many MPA programs require experience, not all do - and it's the average rather than the minimum that hovers at around two years. Importantly, for MPAs that prior experience is also usually not in business. Arguably, that's why you choose an MPA degree - because you're interested in things beyond the business sphere. But lacking prior business experience means you are de facto less well set-up for a subsequent business career, whatever the intervening educational materials: real life is different than case studies and homework assignments. Second, as a consultant in private industry with many of my peers in business school, I can assure you that around 75% of people going to b-school aren't going for the curriculum. Many (if not most) business skills can be picked up on the job, and unless you're trying to switch careers (say, from academia into business, or from marketing into finance), it's the networks and connections to your classmates that you're after. That's why so many MBA programs offer unranked classes and don't release grades, or grade pass-fail. It's also why my company pays almost 50% more for an MBA than for someone without that degree doing a similar job - in a few years, their connections will literally be worth money. And let's not forget that connections are also what help you get not only your first job, but all subsequent jobs. So companies want MBAs more than MPAs, because most of your MPA classmates are going into the public sector (though some, of course, do go into the private sector) and won't be of much direct use to a business career. Even if they are still great, smart, driven people. The above points are, I suppose, a way of saying that if an MBA and an MPA are competing for a job (as you imply in your post), then it really depends what the employer wants to get out of their employee - rather than who is more "quant-y" or has better stories to tell. I would argue that employers seeking MBAs and those seeking MPAs are fundamentally different, and looking for different skill sets and goals from their employees. I really doubt the two are genuinely in competition for that many roles - to each their own sphere, perhaps. Given that private industry is in the business of making superior returns, it's probably not a stretch to say that an MBA offers much greater financial returns than an MPA. But all this isn't to say that an MPA isn't a great degree that sets you up well for some really meaningful (and usually decently-paying ) jobs - but it's not going to make you wealthy the way an MBA can. And that's basically because it's a different degree - and it reflects both a different background and a different choice as to where you want to head in the future. And as someone who has made a clear choice to pursue an MPA over an MBA, I really hope (and sincerely do believe) that my future classmates have made a similar choice for a reason - and not just because they couldn't get into b-school. Edited to reply to Bastille rather than aijoni