Atlas445

It's a faster pace of life out here for sure so the best thing you can do is just dive in and start swimming!

I think I'm the one you're talking about. I'll be working full-time and attending Georgetown part-time. I already live and work out here in DC so I've got a lot of the logistics figured out. As far as the loans go I'm waiting until registration so I can adjust the amounts to be exactly what I need. I called the financial aid office and they said I'd have until August to get the master promissory notes signed.

When I was deciding between George Washington and Georgetown I looked at the course offerings for the upcoming semester as well as previous semesters, and put together a mock schedule based on the academic requirements for graduation from each program. I then looked at the professors teaching the classes that I wanted to take/needed to take to fulfill my degree and their professional background and research publications/interests. When doing this it became clear that Georgetown was a program that I was much more interested in, and after going to their admitted student's day I knew it was the right choice for me. I would suggested putting together a mock schedule for the programs you're thinking about and looking at what professors are listed as teaching the courses you would want/need to take. Then think about which program is more interesting, or makes more sense for your career goals. Location is important, but it's equally important to be excited about the program you choose so that you can be successful while studying there. It's tough to get good grades and put in the necessary effort when attending a program that you're just not that interested in.

Let's say that money wasn't a factor, which program would you be most interested in attending? Which program are you most excited about? Why - professors on faculty, courses offered, etc.?

Previous Schools (Name, type, or tier): Top 50 Public School Previous Degrees and GPAs: BA – International Relations, 3.33 GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): 157/154/5.0 Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): 1 year as Researcher for Lobbying Firm, 2.5 years Research Analyst for a federal government agency (in the IR field), and leader of Model United Nations student club during undergraduate study Math/Econ Background: Probability and Statistics, Micro/Macro Econ, Quantitative Analysis for Political Science, Work Experience with R Statistics program Foreign Language Background (if applicable to your program): 2 years of Modern Standard Arabic while in undergrad Intended Field of Study in Grad School: International Affairs/Security Studies Long Term Professional Goals: Diplomatic/Security related position with a federal government agency (State Department, FBI, DoD, etc.) Schools Applied to & Results: Princeton WWS (rejected), Harvard HKS (rejected), Columbia SIPA (waitlisted), Georgetown SSP (accepted), GWU Elliott School SPS (accepted w/ $20k merit scholarship), American University SIS USFP (accepted) Ultimate Decision & Why: Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service - SSP. I was really torn between the Elliott School’s Security Policy Studies program and Georgetown’s Security Studies Program at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, especially with the offer for a $20k scholarship to attend GWU. Some would say I’m crazy for turning it down, and maybe I am! However, after evaluating the course curriculum and the professors teaching the courses at these two programs I found Georgetown’s program to be of far greater interest to me because of the larger offerings in subjects that were absolutely fascinating, and many of them being taught by current practitioners actively working in the field. The chance to experience a program like this with guaranteed small class sizes, aggressive on-campus recruiting from government agencies, and boundless networking opportunities offers an education simply unparalleled in the International Affairs/Security Studies realm. Many on here are particularly risk averse in terms of the cost of graduate study, but for me I couldn't allow $20k to be the deciding factor. In my heart I’ve always wanted to go to Georgetown, and now I will be! Advice for Future Applicants: My first piece of advice would be to start this process early! It’s easy to lose focus when something is seemingly off in the distant future, but the earlier you begin this process the better off you’ll be. My applications definitely improved as I continued through the process, and it's not surprising that I was rejected at the schools whose deadlines were sooner (Harvard and Princeton - early December). I got better at writing statements of purpose as I continued through the process, so definitely get an early jump on writing those SOPs! My second piece of advice would be to apply to as many school as you can, and don’t rule out programs because you think you won’t be accepted. You never know unless you try. I figured Georgetown was a big reach for me, but I got in! However, it is important to remember that this process is competitive so think about the things that strengthen or weaken a school's consideration of you as a candidate. If you weren't the Michael Jordan of academics in undergrad (which I certainly wasn't), then it might be worth your while to try and get some work experience in your desired field to boost your resume and demonstrate that you're on an upward trajectory career-wise. My final piece of advice is to trust your instincts. There are generally three camps of individuals on these forums; those that preach the virtues of taking on as little debt as possible even if it means studying at a program you’re not excited about, those that would spend untold fortunes for the benefit of attending the most prestigious school they can, and those that fall somewhere in the middle of that spectrum. These different ideologies all have their own merits and detractors, which is why it’s important to trust your gut and do what you feel is right for you. No one else knows you better than you know yourself, and no one else knows what is best for you.

Well his username is "SuaveSosa" so... there's that. But seriously, that username & question together made me laugh for some reason so thank you haha!

I think you can take 4 classes a semester at Georgetown's SSP, you'll just finish the program in three semesters. The financial aid package they put together for me recommends a borrowing amount that would accommodate four classes a semester assuming the maximum full-time credit hours being 12 per semester. I think the limiting factor to the classes you can take is the credit hours required for graduating in the program, but I do think you could take more credit hours than needed while enrolled as long as you paid for the differential? I'm not sure on that but anyone else who knows feel free to clarify. As far as the night classes go, for me I view it as a benefit since I'll be working full-time while pursuing my masters. To compensate my plan is to enroll part-time so I can take fewer classes and focus more on the material from each and engage with the program more in terms of events, guest speakers, networking, etc. It would be awesome if I didn't have to work, but unfortunately that won't be option. Are you going to be working while attending?

After doing the schedule comparisons in excel I found the program at Georgetown to have more classes that I was interested in studying (more options in general), and with professors that I was more interested in learning from/networking with (if possible). That being said it's hard to walk away from a merit scholarship, but I feel that playing it safe would leave me with regrets as well. Since the admitted student's day for both programs is this Friday, I'm going to go to the one for Georgetown with the mindset that if I'm not completely blown away by the sheer awesomeness of their program that I should be fully prepared to accept GWU's offer. I PM'd you as well.

It's tough to turn down a free ride. I suppose if you feel that the professors pose some decent networking value to you, and the courses available represent something that you want to learn or feel would enhance your resume within the security/gov realm than it would be fine. I think it's always a good idea to look at the course catalog they have for this year and previous years to get a sense of what classes are available, when and who they're taught by to put together a mock schedule for the duration of your time there and then see if you like the program compared to another mock schedule put together from the other program. I did this for Georgetown's SSP and GWU's SPS program with the professors names listed by the courses and hyperlinked to their profiles so I can quickly look at their experience, research, etc. and compare the programs side by side, class for class, schedule for schedule to see which program makes more sense.

How about some more details? What are you wanting to study? What kind of work are you wanting to do? Where is this unknown school located? Who would your professors be? Do they have work experience that is actually "in the field" you want to get into working at the places you'd want to be working at?

You're entitled to your opinion, but I'm inclined to disagree. To clarify my intention wasn't to suggest that SSP is "better" than the MSFS program, it was simply intended to mean that there are more resources being devoted to it as evidenced by the greater course offerings specifically intended for the SSP. My research suggested that the SSP admits more students into its program than does the MSFS program, and while the importance of the programs are certainly relative to individuals like you and I, they are less relative to the Walsh School of Foreign Service as revenue generating mechanisms. Admitting more students brings in more revenue, which enables the school to devote more resources to programs admitting more students. That's why I stated that the SSP is the "primary" program at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. It admits the most students, generates more revenue, and in turn has more resources being devoted to it. Perhaps that's because it allows for part-time study making it an easier "sale" to prospective students looking to attend graduate study, or because it's academic rigor isn't as difficult as the MSFS leading to fewer students failing to complete the program, etc. Whatever the reason, it doesn't change the fact that it simply has more resources being devoted to it, enabling it to take on more students, and devote more classes to that particular program. This doesn't mean that it is a "better" program than MSFS.

I did my best to draw a comparison between Georgetown's SSP and GWU's SPS program in but those are slightly different programs than what you have applied to. The relevant information from that comparison to you would probably be that success is possible at either institution and not in a measure significantly greater at one vs. another. I feel that while Georgetown likely has a little bit more "prestige' than GWU, it is unlikely that it would have any noticeable impact on your career prospects unless you were seeking work outside the beltway, which it sounds like you may be considering. I believe that Georgetown's Walsh School of Foreign Service is considerably more selective in terms of admitted students for their MSFS program than GWU's Elliott School is for their MAIA program and that this gives it the perception of being more prestigious to attend (which it may very well be), but I think that in reality the selectivity of the program has more to do with that fact that it is not the primary program at the Walsh School of Foreign Service. By contrast the MA program in International Affairs is the Elliott School's primary program, which is why it admits more students in general. I think that the academic rigor of Georgetown's MSFS is probably a bit more than that of Elliott's MAIA, but I think what it should really boil down to is the class offerings they have that you would be interested in taking, and which professors at these two institutions will be teaching them. Did they have careers in the field that you're interested in, or study the subject matter that you'd be most interested in studying? Do the faculty/professors you'll be having regular contact with pose greater networking opportunities to you by virtue of their respective resumes, experiences, education? A lot of people in these forums are fixated on the money aspect of a program, and rightfully so given the unpredictable nature of the economy and the jobs market post-graduation. However, the real question shouldn't be whether or not the cost is too high, but rather - what exactly are you buying with that tuition? If you can put forward a good answer to that question, then you'll have solved the riddle of where to go. I'm currently trying to solve that riddle myself, and while I don't have any better/more specific information for you, I wish you good luck in finding your answer!

I've been trying to compare these two programs to the best of my ability as a researcher (it's what I do for a living), and I gotta say it's a tough comparison. From my research I get the impression that Georgetown's SSP is more academically rigorous (more required readings, mandatory attendance - if you miss a class it hurts your grade, if you miss two you'll be removed from the class). Upon comparing faculty at the two institutions I found that Georgetown's SSP faculty seems to have more professionally experienced individuals that have specialized in security related issues in their own careers, whereas GWU's SPS program faculty have resumes with more time spent in academia (not necessarily a bad thing, but would give Georgetown an edge in terms of faculty networking opportunities). The class scheduling and offerings at Georgetown contain more classes specifically geared towards security and are designated as such with the SEST-xxxx coding system. The class scheduling and offerings at GWU seem to be more sporadic, with certain classes (that would be interest to me) not being regularly offered and many of them designated to other departments such as HIST-xxxx, PSC-xxxx, IAFF-xxxx (History, Political Science, International Affairs), etc. I feel that the main difference between Georgetown's SSP and GWU's SPS program is that at Georgetown the SSP is the primary program at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, whereas at GWU the SPS program, while the second most popular program, is secondary to their MA in International Affairs. I think this is why the curriculum at GWU's SPS program is less restrictive leaving the structure and courses largely up to the determination of their students. GWU's SPS program offers several specializations, but they are fairly open to a variety of classes, some of which would be seemingly unrelated to one another but still contained with the same specialization. Specific classes on certain subject matters aren't always going to be available, and some of which may have not been available for the past year (potentially longer). While Georgetown's SSP offers a variety of different classes, there definitely is a sense that the curriculum becomes more restrictive by virtue of choosing a specialization . However, there is definitely some overlap in the classes a student can take to fulfill a specialization and other program requirements at Georgetown. In terms of events and guest speakers both programs have had a wide variety of very prestigious and important speakers available to their students/programs and plenty of events designed to enhance the educational experience while offering additional career development opportunities. I think that both programs have career services departments that are well fleshed out, providing their students with access to numerous opportunities in their fields and providing services that would further enable students to find gainful employment (resume writing, practice interviews, etc.). My final thoughts would be that the two programs are fairly evenly matched with Georgetown having a slight edge in terms of professors that may be more valuable to network with (depending on your career goals) and class offerings specifically designated for their Security Studies Program. Though this is purely my opinion based on the research I've done, I think what pulls Georgetown's SSP just slightly into the lead is that there seems to be more resources being devoted to this program relative to its counterpart at George Washington University's Elliott School. Personally, I'm very interested in studying terrorism, insurgency and counterinsurgency, which there seems to be greater offerings for at Georgetown, and less so at GWU. I also found that more of Georgetown's faculty have professional and academic experience with this subject matter, which is of interest to me. However, the prospect of taking on $64k+ debt is certainly cause for concern. My hope was that there may be some current students or alumni from either of these two programs lurking around these boards that could offer more insight into their strengths/weaknesses, but unfortunately it looks like we'll be left to sort a decision like this out on our own. At this point I am still undecided and frustrated that both of these programs are having their admitted student's day on the 10th.

Well, I guess I can only choose one admit day to go to... I'll see you at the admit day for Georgetown. And nice avatar Snake, maybe I should change my username to some variant of Judge Dredd.

Where did you find their admitted student's day? Haven't seen anything about it yet, but if it's the 10th that's the same day as GWU Elliott School's admitted student's day lol.... THE DILEMMA CONTINUES!