Cestlavie

Big name, check. Funding, check. Go with A. No student debt, and a big name that comes with the promise of a big-paying job is an unbeatable offer IMO.

IHEID has compulsory French classes if you really want to learn the language. It really depends on where you want to work at the end of the day though. If you want to work anywhere outside of Europe, then I would go with SAIS. It has a better overall reputation. Nobody outside of the Geneva bubble knows much about IHEID. Although Sciences Po is considered the best Grande École in France, it is no match for SAIS. If your plan is to work in Europe, then IHEID or Sciences Po are cheaper. But if in doubt, go with the name. That's what employers care most about.

If they don't contact you, you've been rejected. This is a very common if infuriating practice. My two cents: don't waste your time calling them, and getting put on hold etc. Accept your fate and move on to better things.

Go with Stanford. Your employer won't care about the precise details of the modules you completed - he'll care that you went to Stanford. A little known fact is that most of what you'll learn about your career will be from work, so the differences between the faculties doesn't really matter in the long run. Institutional reputation, however, does. Stanford is where you want to go. If you reject this, you'll regret it forever.

American Universities are the best in the world. Europe just doesn't compare, because the Unis there tend to be indebted, poorly funded etc. They rely on state funding, and socialism breeds inefficient and shoddy administration. Only Europeans think that their universities are as good as those in America. If you want to study anywhere outside of Europe (Asia, Oceania, North America etc), having a degree from a US uni is much better than one from a European uni. I know that costs are a concern, but once you get a job, you'll pay off your debt and never look back. Its in your long term interests to go all American.

So your point is that its uniqueness is not measurable in international rankings?

*Bump* I guess nobody knows?

I've been accepted to the MIA program at IHEID but cannot find any information about how reputable the graduate school itself is. Most of the International Affairs rankings seem to either not mention IHEID, or rank it well below American international affairs graduate schools. I am not sure whether this is because the rankings are Americentric, or because the school truly is at the lower end of the ladder. The only good reason I can see to go to it, rather than say SAIS or LSE is that it is cheap. However, more experienced friends tell me that you have to pay for quality. Do any insiders care to enlighten me as to what is going on?