I have all my offers back now, and have narrowed it down to 2 choices. I'm not sure which to do from here and am looking for thoughts from you all, particularly anyone maybe who is familiar with the schools or these fields.
I have a lot of positives and negatives for each.
Preface- I'm looking to have a job in international policy analysis afterward.
Uconn mpa - has offered full funding the first year plus a generous stipend of 10k. A majority of the students have 2nd year funding during their internship and instate tuition isnt that bad anyway, though its likely i would have 2 nd year funding if i didnt really mess up.This program would be a half hour from my house, but most classes are at night ( that's a huge negative for me personally), its completely domestic focused though with a heavy Econ leaning with 8 core classes then 4 electives and the internship and capstone. Their internship placement program is really great at placing students in good local government offices and well known NGOs, however their international oriented internships are pretty nonexistent, and the internship though is during the school year, so I could always do another one in the summer on my own dime if I could find something in like do maybe... Though that's very difficult without connections. It's a well respected program, but its not really focused at all on the direction I want my job in after, but I would likely walk out with zero debt and having generous stipends both years.
UMass - has offered full funding my first year plus a 8k stipend, however 2nd year funding is not guaranteed and its basically on you to make the connections to find 2nd year funding through assistant ships with profs on campus. It sounds like most people who are really driven and doing well in the studies can find funding, however every year there are a few people who don't. Since I'm out of state the tuition if I couldn't find it the 2nd year is 30k ... Which I don't have at all and since I don't really have credit I think I would only be eligible for loans up to 20k and not the grad plus ones. This program is very policy oriented, and has specialization in international focused areas. Their internships are during the summer and unlike uconn they do not place you... You have to find your own yourself. This would be an hour commute for me, but I do already commute 40 min for a current job, and this would only be like half the week.
So basically what I'm feeling is that umass is the better program for the direction I want to go job wise, but the 2nd year funding is a risk. Uconn is financially the best choice and more covenant to get to, but it doesn't have classes during the day and I'm worried it doesn't have enough policy or international orientation in classes.
