maplesyrup88

As a current first year who put a LOT of time and thought into the financial aspect when applying last year, let me share one little nugget of advice: It may be obvious to some, but it took me a while to realize that we should NOT take the programs' cost of attendance at face value. I applied to the same DC schools as many others, and when I was doing my debt calculations I originally went by their published cost of living, but it turns out these numbers are pretty inflated. That is to say: GW assumes you will live alone in Foggy Bottom, SAIS assumes you'll live alone in Dupont Circle, and Georgetown assumes you'll live alone in Georgetown, AKA 3 of the most expensive areas of DC. I eventually figured out that with wise living choices (splitting rent with roommates; choosing a cheaper zip code) I could probably pay 10k less PER YEAR than their cost of living calculations. This helps even out the playing field against schools in cheaper areas (Fletcher being prime among them). You could say the same about NY-area schools and possibly others. Of course, there's nothing you can do about the tuition being higher at these schools, but just keep in mind that living expenses can be more malleable. Why do the DC programs and others inflate living costs? It's well intentioned: by doing so they increase the amount of Grad PLUS loans you can take out to help fill in any shortfall, since federal law dictates that you cannot borrow more than the cost of attendance. So they are giving you the flexibility to take out more loans in case you need them. But it should be made clear that they are using the upper limit of their range for living fees, not the average or typical living fees borne by students. So if you're using the 140K figure, you could conceivably pay more like 120k. Not a game changer, but hopefully helpful for some. Personally I still wouldn't pay that much, but for those lucky enough to get at least some scholarship funding, thinking about how much you could save on living expenses helps close the gap a bit. Good luck everyone!

Advice for future applicants: Apologies for breaking the rules, but I simply want to share one nugget of wisdom for future applicants that I never saw here and would have made my decision process a little bit simpler had I realized it earlier: It may be obvious to some, but it took me a while to realize that we should NOT take the programs' cost of attendance at face value. I applied to the same DC schools as many others here, and when I was doing my debt calculations I originally went by their published cost of living, but it turns out these numbers are pretty inflated. That is to say: GW assumes you will live alone in Foggy Bottom, SAIS assumes you'll live alone in Dupont Circle, and Georgetown assumes you'll live alone in Georgetown, AKA 3 of the most expensive areas of DC. I eventually figured out that with wise living choices (splitting rent with roommates; choosing a cheaper zip code) I could probably pay 10k less PER YEAR than their cost of living calculations. This helps even out the playing field against schools in cheaper areas (Fletcher being prime among them). Of course, there's nothing you can do about the tuition being higher at these schools, but just keep in mind that living expenses can be more malleable. Why do the DC programs and others inflate living costs? It's well intentioned: by doing so they increase the amount of Grad PLUS loans you can take out to help fill in any shortfall, since federal law dictates that you cannot borrow more than the cost of attendance. So they are giving you the flexibility to take out more loans in case you need them. But it should be made clear that they are using the upper limit of their range for living fees, not the average or typical living fees borne by students. Good luck everyone!

I wrote a polite email to the financial aid office immediately upon getting my acceptance email stating that I would love to attend but would need funding to do so. They wrote back with a link to a form for requesting a financial aid appeal. Unfortunately I believe the deadline to submit that form was sometime last week so if I were you I'd try to call them first thing tomorrow and see if there's still any opportunity to appeal. For the record, I believe SIPA is known to not have much money for aid so I wouldn't get your hopes up, but it never hurts to try. I did not end up submitting my appeal as I've decided to go elsewhere, so I can't say whether it might have been successful. Good luck!

All good points in the previous post, but I would say I left feeling conflicted. It was a very effective open house, no doubt, and I would agree that the students were both highly impressive and helpful. The admins seemed very satisfied with their pedagogy and with the program's professional focus, and I'm sure with good reason. That said, they seem to offer a relatively fixed program of study that will certainly prepare one for a career on capitol hill, for example, and would quite possibly make the initial job search within DC significantly smoother, but I'm a little bit wary of any claim that the longer term career benefits substantially outweigh those of other top tier institutions such as Fletcher or SAIS, both of which have great brands and loyal alumni communities (especially Fletcher on the latter point). For me this longer term angle is a crucial factor because my expected debt burden is so much greater at MSFS (and I suspect I'm not the only one), and speaking to past professors and others in my network has driven this home. Clearly a very, very strong program, and all things being equal I probably would be sold. I guess I came looking to be absolutely blown away if I was really going to shell out so much more for this program, and I would say I left not quite sold--impressed to be sure, but conflicted. Just my two cents.

I received a call on Friday mentioning an unspecified fellowship but no mention of it on the letter this morning.

Congrats to all accepted! @Akueldo was this update posted at the same time or did you get a second email about it? Nothing in my letter about it and the accepted student site says under "Resources" that fellowships would be mentioned in the acceptance letter :/

In a word: yes but I always saw this as a long shot so not too stressed. Good news is I think they will choose 30 fellows this year which is up from 20 in recent years. Good to see that especially with funding for new public sector positions seeming to shrink everywhere else.

This is really helpful! Since you seem more familiar with this, maybe you can she light on the following: 1. If I work for 3 years at a nonprofit, then take 2 years off for grad school, then return to the nonprofit or public sector full time, do I only need to wait 7 years for grad school loan forgiveness or is it 10 years of public service beginning at the disbursement of loans? 2. The site says "PSLF only works on federal "Direct" student loans. These are loans with the federal government as a lender. To participate in this program, you will need to consolidate your loans from Sallie Mae or other loan companies into Direct Loans. See http://loanconsolidation.ed.gov/ to learn more about Direct Loans. It doesn't work on Perkins or parent PLUS loans." So does this mean private loans can be consolidated with government direct loans and forgiven after 10 years as well? Thanks!

Apologies that this isn't directly related to admissions, but very relevant for us potential government and nonprofit employees as we think about financing grad school. I found this article really interesting: http://mobile.nytimes.com/comments/2015/01/25/upshot/a-quiet-revolution-in-helping-lift-the-burden-of-student-debt.html Living at home most of the time since college, I managed to pay down most of my undergrad student debt, but working at a nonprofit, I wonder if this was the right choice. After grad school, maybe I should apply for income based repayment, pay the minimum possible each month, and assume the rest gets forgiven after 10 years. Does this sounds right? What's everyone else's plan for dealing with grad school debt?

Okay, thank you!

Can anyone confirm that there was in fact an "early notification" option on the application that people checked off or selected when applying? I see no such question on the application now or on the pdf copy, but they are saying only those who selected it were informed.

That's very disappointing, especially because they told me earlier that we would be notified if anything was missing from the our files, but it sounds like you had to call to find out. I haven't received any response from them since Dec. 30 when I failed to get any decision notification so I plan to try again today. Really disorganized and inconsiderate of everyone who put in the time and effort to make the early deadline. I think this is the first year they had the option so maybe they're still working out the kinks.

I still haven't received it.

@akueldo Got it, thanks. Guess it doesn't have to do with that email then. Congrats on your acceptance btw!

What did people's confirmation emails say after they submitted their apps? Mine said I wouldn't hear back till March so I called to clarify and they assured me I would hear back by Dec 30. I thought that was strange though and beginning to wonder now...

Yeah I noticed that too. Going to try again on Friday since it sounds like they're running online info sessions so maybe there will be someone in the office. Pretty upset with SAIS right now!

Going to call first thing tomorrow, hoping they're open. Would be really upsetting if something went wrong after all the effort of getting it in on time for the early deadline. Hopefully just an email glitch or something.

Anyone else still receive nothing? No one picked up when I called... Starting to worry...