[Still Waiting? What is Your Top Choice?(Fall 2015)]

Still waiting to hear back from Heinz and Columbia SIPA -ESP waitlisted me. However with how expensive Columbia is (72K+ for just tuition for 1 year), it's quickly dropping to the bottom of the stack. 

 

Got into Georgetown, UW Evans, and Michigan Ford. UW used to be my top choice due to that's currently where I'm working/living, and not having to move is a good draw. But UW is the only school that didn't give me funding, where as Georgetown and Michigan both gave me substantial fellowship money. Also the lack of opportunities internationally and DC wise for students from Evans is also a little alarming.  

 

However I might still go to Heinz if I get accepted to their Global track. Spending a year in Australia is a wonderful experience and I would not want to pass that up. 

[Carnegie Mellon - Heinz Current Student]

Has anyone received any news from Heinz who applied to the Global Track? I got an email on the 15th stating they are still reviewing my application. But the fact that so many students already got in makes me less hopeful. Is it because the Global track is later due to the Australia component? 

[Georgetown MPP Admitted 2015]

Hi all- I'm a current MPP student as well, and found this board helpful last year when making a decision, so thought I would return the favor. Re: funding- Georgetown considers funding a negotiation. I really wanted to attend Georgetown and be in DC, but with the funding I got from other schools needed more from Georgetown to be able to choose it. I spoke to people at admissions and told them my other offers and they were able to increase my award to match! So if McCourt is really where you want to be, I would highly recommend talking to someone and saying you've gotten other offers at X amt from other schools. 

Also, the reason why it takes longer to get your $$ offers is because it has to be processed through the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences as well, which I believe is who dispenses the money.

 

Georgetown & McCourt were 100% the right decision for me, and it's lived up to (the very high) expectations I had. I will say that one of the reasons I picked McCourt was because of its student body and how active it is- everyone has amazing internships (have friends at Brookings, the World Bank, consulting, on the hill, Urban Institute, etc), there's at least 5 events every week, and the people are great - our class is 40% international and there's a lot of diversity in terms of experiences and cultures. Georgetown has a fantastic reputation, and is highly regarded by everyone in DC. It's known for it's quantitative rigor, and while classes can be tough, the professors are supportive and the work has paid off. The network is great- I've found McCourt alums everywhere and got both my internships this year because of the McCourt network. It does skew younger than other policy schools (average age is 25-26), but that's one of the reasons I chose it. I'm in that age range, and I appreciate the fact that the class is more social than other ones because of it. This is solely my opinion, but when I visited other schools and heard from friends at other schools, it wasn't as social, either due to competitiveness, other priorities (like family), or location. Which isn't a bad thing at all, it just wasn't the right fit for me (I'm probably biased as well, because I'm a city person). I've found that at McCourt, everyone wants to do well and it's definitely an ambitious group, but it's also supportive- people help each other out and are happy to make connections for you. 

 

Thank you for all the insight! This really helps a lot. I'm also currently deciding between McCourt and Ford (plus Evans for UW). One of the biggest concern I had was that as an international student, all US Govt jobs are not available to me. But you mentioned that 40% of students were international students, where did they find their internships? Through NGOs and other think tanks? 

 

Also, for whatever reason, Georgetown's ranking in MPP/MPA was not as high as some of the other schools like Evans and Ford. Do you know why that would be? Was that a concern when you made your decision? Or do you feel like that wasn't warranted? 

 

Thanks again!

[Georgetown MPP vs. University of Michigan MPP vs. University of Washington MPA]

I was wondering if anyone has any insights between the three offers I currently have between Evans School for UW, Ford School for UMich, and McCourt School for Georgetown. 

 

1) UW: No funding, and the most expensive school out of the three. However, according the US News Grad school ranking for Public Affairs, Evans was ranked very high (6th best), especially in the field I want to study in (Environment Policy). It also has a Capstone project as part of the curriculum, which I value highly. Finally I have been working in the Seattle area for the last 3.5 years, so I have the familiarity with the area already. However, looking at the employment statistics, most of the graduates stay in the PNW after they graduate, with very few heading to DC. Anyone know why a program ranked so high has very few opportunities in DC?

 

2) Ford School: 20K funding, with 5K per semester. The employment statistics is a lot more balanced, with 1/3 heading to DC and has students working all over the country instead. However, the curriculum is focused purely on coursework, and there doesn't seem to be a Capstone project or research opportunities at all. 

 

3) Georgetown: $25K per year funding for the first year, which can be renewed, which is the highest, though it is also still very expensive school. McCourt did not rank very high, which really surprised me, but with its DC location that is a huge draw. However I'm curious on why it's not ranked higher? Is it because the program is still very young? One consideration is that since I'm an international student, all US Govt jobs are out of question for me, but there are still a lot of NGO in the area. 

 

If anyone has any sort of insight, that would be awesome! 

 

Thank you all!