WhatAmIDoingNow

It you do, you are better off going federal and getting the repayment plans and loan forgiveness plans.  That being said, do not take out more than you need. Apply for scholarships, paid internships, and fellowships.  Take into consideration the cost of living and the cost of attendance as the total cost of the MPP and do a cost benefit analysis. 

I'm in my 2nd year in graduate school with a wife and a toddler. It's not that uncommon even at prestigious schools. Many schools have a club for families to join and will point you towards more resources. As for work load, talk to your advisor ahead of time about it. I work about 60 hours a week, but with a flexible schedule. Some nights I'm up late so that I can spend more time at home, but for the most part I work 8-6 Monday through Saturday and read papers for an hour at home. I had my family in mind when picking. Childcare will depend on where you live. Where we are living is very expensive, so my wife opted just to work at home. Despite the crazy work hours and the lack of money, we are very happy and we are enjoying our time in graduate school.  

I really prefer "cost averse and risk savvy" as a label.
 
But there are different ways to think about this, because it's not black and white, and help you keep it in perspective:
 
1) If you're really torn: there doesn't have to be a rock (boatloads of debt) or a hard place (a less prestigious school). Depending on your age, experience, and career thus far, it might make sense to wait and apply another year. You get better (guarantee of) funding with more work experience; I think that's practically a fact. 
 
2) A less prestigious school could end up being a really good place for you -- it depends very heavily on your own interest and work and what you're willing to do there. I think prestige is fairly overrated, 
 
3) Finally, I've seen some really successful people who don't have any sort of graduate degree. Even though we're surrounded every day by people with postgraduate degrees, I think we ultimately do know that's not the only way to success and that's not for everyone. 

I feel like brand/prestige are good things, but the real question to ask yourself is what value you're deriving from a given program.  You could go to any school in the DC area and do well for yourself by virtue of the networking opportunities that will be available by being in such close proximity to major federal government and non-profit entities.  I would think it should depend more on what your end-goal is in terms of career, and what the professional background/experience of your future professors is so that you can gain better insights into how to break into that career field, and also for the networking value those professors will pose to you as they will undoubtedly have contacts in that field and at the places you potentially would like to be working at post-graduation.

If you'll be more focused on servicing your debt than on your education. Don't take on the debt. 

It you do, you are better off going federal and getting the repayment plans and loan forgiveness plans.  That being said, do not take out more than you need. Apply for scholarships, paid internships, and fellowships.  Take into consideration the cost of living and the cost of attendance as the total cost of the MPP and do a cost benefit analysis. 

We know that some professors know about the grad cafe. We get occasional visits from them. It's possible that they also read the relevant forums sometimes. 
 
The chances that anyone will go to the trouble of trying to identify an anonymous poster on the board and enact "sanctions" on them are probably fairly low. You would have to post something pretty outrageous on the one hand, and revealing on the other, for someone to go out of their way to identify you and to do something about it. If it were me, I'd be wary of misidentifying a student based on anonymous posts and accidentally punishing someone wrong.
 
However, it's a good time to remind everyone that everything you post on the internet is there to stay, and with enough time and effort, you could be identified even if you think you're anonymous. Think about how much personal information you post and how you behave online.

You are applying to really good schools and I would say that for most/all of them you have below-average scores. Given the amount of time you have before the application season, I think you should definitely retake. Your UG GPA is alright but I think you could really do a lot to help yourself by trying to get closer to 160v/155q or better. 

Yeah...
I wish all schools get back to us before March 15th so that we have at least a month to make a decision.
Well...hopefully all schools will notify their applicants before April. I know Wagner's decisions are coming out at the end of this week (according to their timetable listed on their website). 
 
By the way, has anyone heard from Chicago today?
They rejected my phd app a couple weeks ago, and just got back to me for MACRM. (It's a new master's program Chicago is offering) I think I checked the box in my application that says 'yes re-use my app for the MACRM admission if I don't get admitted to the phd program.' I am not all too happy about the admission they just gave me. Sweet. They want me to get a second master...

I think the path you are suggesting is very common, as well as very common sensical. As long as you intend to go to this school if you don't get into SAIS, then depositing at this school is absolutely the right thing to do. If you ultimately do get into SAIS from the waitlist, then you can forfeit your enrollment deposit at the first institution, and enroll at SAIS. If you have your heart dead set on SAIS, then you shouldn't deposit at any other schools and just wait or apply next year if it doesn't work out. In all other circumstances, you should deposit at your second favorite school, where you will most likely have a great experience and a fruitful career and a happy life. 
 
I don't think this is unfair at all to anyone on the waitlist; this has nothing to do with them, because schools may ultimately decide not to take anyone off the waitlist, independently of whether accepted students decline or accept offers. They don't take one person off the waitlist for every one that declines admission, because schools always over-admit and must over-admit. What your chance of getting off the waitlist ultimately depends on is the entire composition of the cohort.
 
There is no drop-dead date for declining an offer, although you should always make those decisions in good faith. A student from the cohort above me had deposited, enrolled, and actually spent a few days at another school before he decided he should really be here instead, and switched over in the middle of orientation week or the first week of classes. Anecdotally, I've also heard that some people will take a week or two of classes before they were wrong about graduate school, and that it wasn't for them at this point, and left early enough in the semester to get most of their money back. 

Honestly, at this point my purpose in getting this graduate degree is mainly so that with it I could have a better chance at getting a job in IR (after having applied for entry level jobs for years with no luck). Not sure what else to do at this point to advance my (non-existent) career, but I guess that's getting off topic.

I'll have to move later this summer. But until then I'm just working and reading whatever journal articles I can. I figure there's no time like the present to start reading up on the literature, even though I have to do rotations so I don't actually have a lab/project yet.
 
What are your plans?

My two cents: Elliott has a little more reputation and prestige than SIS. Elliott is closer to downtown, whereas American is a little far from the action. American is more politically liberal.
 
If there's a big difference in total cost, I'd say go for American. Network like crazy, distinguish yourself with good grades and get to know your professors and others who can 'hook you up' in the future, and you'll be just as fine as anyone out of Elliott.
 
Graduating with no debt means you can apply for jobs that require being debt free, you could buy a house sooner, etc, if that's important to you.

I'd say go with the school that give you less debt between sis and elliott.  At the end of the day, if you network really well from both schools, you'll find something. Plus, American University is a huge school that's been around for quite some time, meaning lots of alumni are coming out of there and many of them are in DC and otehr areas. I'd prefer Elliott, but if SIS was considerably cheaper, your salary after graduation can go more towards you rather than loans, considering that you'll be recieving relatively the same pay after graduation from both schools and I don't see the trend that Elliott grads get paid substantially more than SIS grads.

For those of you who are thinking about PhD programs, here is a pretty comprehensive list of current PhD programs: http://www.appam.org/assets/1/7/PhD_Descriptions.pdf 
 
The programs are not ranked. This is a great starting point to look into different programs, to then look into the faculty and how the programs fit with your interests.
 
 

Like "WhatAmIDoingNow" said, asking about other programs are very good. For example I asked a postdoc in university X ( which has done her PhD in the same university ) about the program in university Y and let her know why I think university Y is good and what I like about there. For the answer she gave me some information on where X is better than Y and where Y is better than X.
Also with such a question, the person knows what are the most important things you are looking for in a program and can help you more.

Heinz MSPPM...still waiting. 

Who is still waiting? Some of these schools need to send out their decisions..NOW.
Jesus I'm so tired of waiting. 
 
Has anyone applying to CMU Heinz or NYU Wagner heard from the programs?  

I am surprised about how much of my life waiting, checking, and dreaming has taken over my daily life. I currently have a decent job as a school administrator but all I can think about is dumping it to get my PhD in order to change the system of education. 
 
I wait wondering if I did enough, worked hard enough, had enough people read my work to ensure it was the best it could be. 
 
The process makes me emotional . . . very unexpected. 

Ironically your answer was the condescension the OP didn't want, if you read his/her request. 

I guess I'll defend my original statement a bit. I am totally an advocate for lifelong learning but unless you want to do something super specific like an MD/PhD working for the CDC or another career line that requires a combo of advanced degrees, I still feel it is not necessary. You can learn quite a lot without having to go back and sit through another degree. If you have the time and money to do so - then do it. My whole point is that an advanced degree provides one with the tools to be an independent learner, researcher, etc. Those are the skills you've gained - so eventually you should pick a career where you can further develop those skills but that by no means means that one should stop learning. I don't plan on doing so but unless the landscape of my future career path changes dramatically, I won't be going back to earn another advanced degree.

Well if there's a greater than 0.10 probability of finding the $1k, I pass it by and roll the dice on the big score, esp. if as the poster suggests, the $100 is still likely to be around when I get back.

This is quite enjoyable. Thank you, everyone, for your comments.
 
For what it's worth, I've decided to see if there's a proverbial $1000 bill down the road. After doing my own research of the job market, beyond simply getting a position worth the work of a PhD, I've grown a bit wary of placing myself at the mercy of the whole geographic roll of the dice. So I'm still planning on applying again in two years, but I'll have plenty of time to consider everything and improve my chances for one of those top schools.

It's worth remembering that some of these decision release dates are strategic.  You have a lot of programs competing for a relatively small slice of top students, and many of those top students want to go to an Ivy League or similarly high-ranked, big name program if they can, and if they want to go into federal or international policy after graduation they'll likely be drawn to the industry centers for those activities (New York and DC), because of the networking and internship opportunities they provide, or just because they think -- rightly or wrongly -- that's where they need to be.  
 
So if you're a non-Ivy League program or a program outside of DC or New York,  or if you're a great program like Tufts competing with an Ivy League program in your backyard, it's in your interest to get your admission decisions (and your funding decisions) out as soon as possible.  That gives you weeks to sell yourself to applicants and get them excited about the special qualities of your program, so they'll be more likely to remember you once decisions start coming in from Ivy League programs.   It doesn't mean your program is less pretentious it just means you have to work a little harder to attract the same eyeballs. 

I read everything that's available as an e-book and all articles as PDFs on my kindle paperwhite, and I love it! Saves me from carrying so much weight around, and it allows me to annotate and highlight the texts without carrying around sticky notes and markers.