monocle

Apply broadly and apply for scholarships/fellowships. IMO it doesn't really matter which have a reputation for being generous or stingy, but which ones actually give ME the money. If you don't get what you need, you can always try again the next year.

Then you're fine. Good luck!

Hey Grameen, i'm not in a position to write a response to more of your questions right now, but there definitely are Development Economics programs, outside of traditional Econ PhD departments. Just take a look at Ohio State's Ag, Environmental, and Development Econ department here http://aede.osu.edu A professor I studied with in undergrad had his PhD from OSU in that department, which is how I knew. But I'm 99% sure there are Dev Econ programs at other schools too.

Your course load will be fine. As in, your courseload would look probably sufficient to complete the necessary quantitative prereqs. But not really anything above and beyond, or anything that would seem impressive to an adcomm. Do you plan to get work experience before you apply?

I want to highly emphasize receiving a grade. Don't audit a course unless you are planning to take a graded course afterwards. You could do the calculus series very affordably at a local community college, it's all the same material for the first two or three courses whether at UC Berkeley or Indiana Technical Community College, so I'd save your money and not do an expensive, online, name-brand uni course. Your GRE quant is definitely not going to be prohibitive. But your problem with quant is probably that you haven't taken any college math courses (meaning even if you had calc credit it was from high school, so no one will count it). Yes, there are cases of people with lower quant scores getting into WWS/HKS. Why? Because unique work experience and a good personal/professional narrative are more important factors. I saw your previous "Where did I go wrong thread," and you hit a couple of the big concerns "minimal quantitative/econ-related coursework, no time abroad" but to me your weakest point is probably work experience. But by numbers alone you also seem like the type that could be a crapshoot admit any given year (I mean that in the best way haha). You wrote that your SOP was about an interest in education policy which is somewhat incoherent with your work experience. So you should focus on showing how you will further your career as an education policy professional (by gaining strong WE in that sector). You also said you had 2 letters of recommendation from Professors and only one from an employer, which you should reverse next time as these are professional schools and unless your professors advised you in a work setting or are practitioners themselves they would probably only be able to speak to your intellect and potential in the classroom (not outside it).

@a.khalid congrats on your acceptances! 1. It might depend more on your goals.. The differences between these programs other than location seems highly nuanced... I wouldnt worry about prestoge, but I assume you're feeling anxious about turning down Harvard? Theyre all prestigious enough, and you can still tell people you got into Harvard. Harvard's private sector median salary is markedly higher than the others' however, they dont separate dual degree candidates with their law school and business school, (and maybe med school) which might inflate their private sector salary stats a bit. The other sectors have about the same salary, so no theres probably no guarantee you would have a significantly higher earning potential from Harvard MPP at a multilateral or research institution. SAIS and Georgetown are top dogs in DC, but I get the impression that the School of Foreign Service is much more "famous" than McCourt MPP. Ive even heard some who think GTown is better than SAIS because of its smaller class size and higher selectivity. But personally, I didnt even apply because I liked SAIS more and was confident about my chances. But seriously no one is going to hold it against you for choosing any of the fantastic programs in DC over any other, so again I wouldn't focus on the reputation further than "is this school serious about their students"

@Ohmyfriend The key difference as I saw it was that Cranbrook was pure artwork all the time working on his pieces, whereas at SAIC he did a lot of humanities and things unrelated to his art. At SAIC there was a moment when I thought he was going to change tracks and try to pursue a graduate degree in anthropology.. I got the sense he did more varied interaction with social sciency type people, and as I said before more political.

My brother actually went to both Cranbrook and SAIC (albeit he's a sculptor, not graphic designer), and obviously they are both fantastic schools. This isn't typically my area, but I happened to see it in the recent threads tab. For what it's worth, if you want to "push the boundaries of design" you're going to have to be extremely proactive and self-directed about your studies anyways, so it probably won't make a big difference on the school just based on name/program alone (or whether or not there are classes). Are there any particular artists/professors at either school that you think can help challenge you to bring out your best work? Would you feel stifled or inspired by the cityscape of downtown Chicago or among the abundant lakes in suburban Michigan? As a non-artist, I was impressed by the work of students in both schools, but I did get a sense (through my brother) that the SAIC students were more political/controversial in their art... so if that's what you mean by pushing the boundaries, maybe you could give SAIC a second look. Apologies if this seems really off-base, but you should also really consider the money, my brother is in over 100k of debt, which seems insurmountable at this point on his salary.. though I suppose if you're a graphic designer there is potentially more money there.

While the SAIS program isn't designed to prepare you for academia, since you know what you'll be getting into, you can start gunning right away and making connections with professors, seeking advice and mentorship to help guide you to being prepared for a PhD. Having SAIS fully funded seems like a pretty good opportunity (especially if you change your mind). I know some people might initially think "but the opportunity costs!!", but working as an RA or for a non-profit while you write more PhD applications isn't going to net you a whole lot of money, and I think being in a university environment could be just as beneficial. It sounds like you already made up your mind, but to me it seems like a no-lose situation to go to SAIS.

Go to Princeton! A business-focused curriculum is not what you should be looking for in the MPA, however you probably can direct a lot of your studies towards public-private partnerships/public management/public innovation if you want to at Princeton. WWS has the best reputation not just for the money but also for academics, so go and don't look back. My heart's kind of breaking to know that there are people who got in to WWS that might not go :'(

I think you're probably right to rule out SAIS, beyond the money, it seems your goals may not be in line with a program with a bigger quantitative/econ focus. Here's my take: it sounds like you really want to go to LSE but since you don't have a clear direction for your thesis/employment prospects, you don't want to pull the trigger yet. (is that right? If so, ) My advice would be to go for it at LSE. Once you've made your decision, you can start doing all the work you need to prepare yourself for the program. Perhaps find a couple more specific jobs in the field (maybe refugee caseworker or something), start reaching out to organizations that work with displaced peoples and figure out how you can best prepare yourself throughout the program. Also start getting to work on your thesis ideas and read a ton in your spare time on that topic before you start. Develop an action plan so that you know exactly what you need to do to get where you want to be. I'm not really a big proponent of the UK 1-year master's but if seems right for you, the best you can do is prepare to make the most of it. My vote is LSE and hard work.

What is your current background? More information on your profile and goals would help! Also, what are your expected levels of incurred debt at each school? Personally, I wouldn't put 2 years as a con outright.. There are pros and cons for 1 year programs and 2 year programs

Ok, it wasn't really a funny story.. sorry all

Agreed. Though I don't think you need to worry much about AW. Funny story, I didn't prepare for the GRE (didn't know there was a writing section), when I saw it was the first section I decided I wanted to prevent myself from any anxiety later on in the exam, so I just wrote one parapraph that I thought logically summed up my argument. I got a 3.5. It didn't stop me from gaining admission to SIPA and SAIS (the AW can be was offset by very high Q+V, work experience, GPA, Essays).

So many people wonder, but SIPA says they don't record averages. HTH! http://admissionsblog.sipa.columbia.edu/tag/scores/

You can get in. You may want to work for a couple years, though. I had a GPA a bit higher than yours with two D's on my Senior year (I was really lazy). I got into three of 5 schools to which I applied. Just be sure to own up to your mistakes and prove that you are better than your GPA. You can do that with test scores, good work experience, and recommendation letters (not to mention your personal statement).

@marga_mae Yup! But thankfully I don't have to do the pre-term.

you'll have to give more info about your goals... like what types of jobs you want etc... But based on your initial info, if you'll be debt free at Sciences Po and you want to get better at French while looking for a job in Europe... It sounds like Sciences Po is a no-brainer!

Sorry for being presumptuous! Have you considered continued work for a while before returning?

Congratulations on your choices! But may I suggest deferring and going to work first? It'll help you figure out what kinds of jobs there are and define your goals. I've said this multiple times on this forum, but too frequently I've encountered job-seeking graduates from UK universities looking for work (entry-level poorly-paid positions), without concrete goals of what they want to do, and without any practical skills/experience. I think this comes from the culture that so many UK students go to their Master's straight from undergrad. Seriously, going to work first will make your MA much more valuable.

svent makes a good point.. I wasn't careful enough in reading. So OP hasn't graduated yet. And if I read this correctly OP would need a 4.0 in the final semester to get that 3.1, so it's probable that OP has a GPA below 3.0. American isn't known for being very selective, so I'm more optimistic that OP could get in with a couple good grades... That being said, that is a lot of debt incurred by attending SIS. Still, foregoing the other two schools may yet pay off for OP. I am a big proponent of going to work for a couple years before doing a graduate degree in IR. You can apply again and then weigh all your options after considering funding. You'll probably get more funding with interesting WE.. And your GPA will matter less. And understanding, hopefully, what kind of jobs are actually out there, you can consider the schools' employment percentages, salary data, where their graduates work, and what they do (and how much debt you'd still incur) and see if it's in line with your goals first. I doubt that UF/FSU would make worse financial offers if OP has a better application. And OP would maybe have done more financial planning and saved money to pay for grad school.

Congratulations on excellent choices! I'm a little biased towards SAIS, because I think I'm going to go there, so take my advice with a tiny grain of salt. I'll try to be helpful, though! I've added my comments to your original post below:

Do you have any work experience? Sometimes explaining things like this in an addendum sounds like you're making excuses.. because they really have no proof that this is the truth. Taking graduate level courses and succeeding is a way to show you've moved beyond whatever tendencies that prevented you from succeeding, and it's a pretty common thing for people to do in order to improve their applications. I've not heard of the university inviting people to take those classes at their institution before, but its doesnt seem that strange to me... I don't think it would hurt that much to take the classes, (but also reapply to a bunch of other places to try to get more money). You should probably revise your addendum in that case to say something along the lines of (my irresponsibility during my freshman year resulted in these bad grades... here's how I've shown I am more responsible now and can handle graduate work). But I would also advise getting work experience if you dont have any. That would also improve your chances at getting funding.

42k of loans isnt too bad, but have you factored in cost of living? you could try using a loan repayment calculator with the amounts for each school. Then budget out your living expenses against your salary -taxes... just figure out how long it would take to pay off that debt and whether you think its really worth it

I'm making the same decision. I've essentially come to the conclusion that the programs' prestige is about the same. The salary and employment data seems very similar and the employers are also very similar. Makes it a tough decision no? I am pretty sure I'm going to pick SAIS fwiw. It seems that SAIS has a strong reputation for heavy, quantitative economic preparation which is something I desire. I was also accepted into IDEV, and I got the notion that the program has more structure and rigor than what I would do at SIPA. I'm a self-starter, so I never imagined a problem directing myself at SIPA, but I think at SAIS I won't need to do as much legwork to get the attention I want, and can focus my energy elsewhere (like looking for jobs/internships and networking in DC). The two big draws at Columbia for me are the city (I like NYC way better than DC). And Columbia has a campus with access to all of those resources. So Columbia wins in the qual of life dept. I found this thread interesting as a compare/contrast