mrs12

@Africanagyal As far as I know, this is an individual school thing. Because even after receiving word from the government the FLAS centers have to run through their own internal calculations. I would ask your FLAS center if they have any information available on the probable timeline. 

@mrs12 I'm not sure how different the Rangel process is from the Pickering, but I'll be at the SFS Open House and I'm happy to give what advice I can if you'd like!

@Dan_H On the contrary, I think you sound like an amazing applicant and that your age only makes you stand out more rather than detract. Honestly, I believe that starting college later in life is a boon in a lot of ways. I started at 20, and just those few extra years really made a difference in my academic path and the things I was able to do. And: Sciences Po and the Gilman? Those are all really impressive experiences! (Especially if you swung going to France for the Gilman, they tend to be chary about more "typical" study abroad locations.)
I would be really pleased if we got to meet up over this process! Are you headed to the Georgetown SFS Open House? If so, I'm also going to be in D.C. at that time, to interview for the FAIT Fellowship.

Thanks for that, ZebraFinch!  It's definitely been weighing on me.  I'll be 39 when I begin grad school, so definitely older than the median but hopefully not to a detrimental degree.  I know that the FSOs I met overseas mostly came to that career in their 30s and 40s.  It's part of the reason that I felt so at ease there.  I'm really hoping that it works out for the career opportunity, but if not I've already got a great fellowship offer to my preferred Master's program here in California.  
Also: you are correct about the domestic study requirement for Pickering.  Sciences Po was during undergrad.  

RE: age. Lots, if not most, Pickering fellows are on the older side. Youngest I've ever known was 25 at the time of the interview, and the rest were all at least 27-29 at the time of being awarded the fellowship. This was different, of course, when the undergrad fellowship existed, but not anymore. So, you won't be that much older than the many or most of the finalists. I do believe you can't get a degree abroad with the program, though.

I also requested the 17th, because I'll be in DC to visit Georgetown the week before and am hoping to avoid having to stay another extra night.  It was interesting to read about your different approaches to the application essay.  I wrote about the 13 dimensions, but I tied them to my experience as an intern with the Department and to my experience as an LGBTQ activist.  The consul under whom I interned was one of my recommenders, and I asked him to try to focus on the 13 dimensions as well, so maybe our writing just complemented one another's!
I am a nontraditional college student, not having begun my undergrad until I was 31 years old, and I never quite know how people will react to my age when I apply to these things.  I've been successful in every academic application I've completed since I started college - including the Gilman Scholarship, admission and scholarships to the Sciences Po exchange program, and all three of the top grad schools to which I applied.  Nonetheless, I do every once in a while get the sense that some academic authority figure has a negative reaction to me based upon my age.  I hope that doesn't happen on April 17!
Best of luck, and I hope to see you next month.  I'm going to start writing daily practice essays tomorrow, catching up on my back issues of Foreign Affairs, and recruiting friends to grill me in mock interviews.

@mrs12 Haha no worries! And I'm guessing I wasn't their first choice as they only notified me of the Fellowship a few weeks ago, presumably after someone else turned them down lol. But yea good luck on your interview, I'm sure you'll get the fellowship!  

@mrs12 Thank you so much!  I'm leaning towards Yale rn as they just offered me a 25k fellowship, so it's pretty hard to say no to. Lol I'm guessing someone turned them down for Harvard or Stanford (thanks to whoever that was!) Columbia and Georgetown didn't give me anything so it'll be really expensive, but I'm still gonna go check them out at the open houses. Maybe I'll see you there! (at Georgetown) 
Sorry for the late reply btw, its been kinda hectic! I'm at the Midwest Slavic Conference rn at OSU, it's a really great event!
 

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.......
I'm a Pickering Finalist...
I don't believe it. Seriously. I think this is a mistake. I've tried so many times now, is this even possible???
@ayasofaya I'm so sorry! I was hoping to get to meet you at the interview day, somehow. You have to keep trying. Seriously. I hope the Fulbright ETA comes through for you, but even so, congratulations on your grad school results, you're doing amazing. I know just how this moment feels, after waiting so long, and having so much pinned on it, and I want you to know that you're awesome and all of your hard work will pay off somehow/somewhere. 

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.......
I'm a Pickering Finalist...
I don't believe it. Seriously. I think this is a mistake. I've tried so many times now, is this even possible???
@ayasofaya I'm so sorry! I was hoping to get to meet you at the interview day, somehow. You have to keep trying. Seriously. I hope the Fulbright ETA comes through for you, but even so, congratulations on your grad school results, you're doing amazing. I know just how this moment feels, after waiting so long, and having so much pinned on it, and I want you to know that you're awesome and all of your hard work will pay off somehow/somewhere. 

@ayasofaya My gosh, that took forever to find. It got lost in a random folder somewhere on my gmail, which isn't usually my main email. Thanks!
Also, I have good news!!! The results went out today for the Foreign Affairs IT Fellowship Finalists, and I'm one of them! I'll be going to DC in April for the interviews/written test! The odds are still pretty slim, only 5 people will be selected in the end (out of 10 finalists). But I'm trying to let myself be excited today before I devolve into worrying. 
Somehow I thought it'd take longer for the results to come out, so now my patience is shot and I want to hear back from the Pickering already...

Last year was March 29th, the year before that March 27th. So I'd assume we're not looking at this week. :3

Just wish we had an actual date so I could concentrate at work the next two weeks

With the major caveat that any amount of debt is too much if you can get the same result by spending less, I would say that $30k is definitely manageable.  You can pay that off in 10 years with monthly payments under $350.  It's still a significant amount of money to fork over every month, but assuming you're looking at jobs that pay $50k out of grad school, it's reasonably affordable and is not that much higher than what you'd be paying on an income based plan.  And if you're really motivated and don't have a lot of other expenses, it wouldn't be totally impossible to pay it off faster by making larger payments.
$70k is a lot.  Under a 10-year repayment plan, you're looking at monthly payments of about $800 a month.  That is going to be difficult to afford on $50k in a high cost region.  That's going to get in the way of your financial goals even when your income goes up, unless you're willing to live quite frugally for a long time (I'm talking about roommates and long commutes).  Income-based repayment will probably be the way to go with this amount of debt, so basically you need to be prepared to be paying back your loans for a very long time.  It's not impossible, you won't be destitute (unless Congress eliminates income-based repayment entirely, which is unlikely), but it will impact you for a very long time. 
My sense is that $50k is the very upper limit for student loan debt in terms of what you can reasonably pay back in 10 years on a public service salary (monthly payments under $600), assuming no forgiveness and assuming good financial health otherwise and no major existing expenses.  $600 is a lot of money to pay per month, but you can potentially get that amount down to $500 by making extra payments when you graduate if you're willing to be extra frugal for a little while.  Income-based repayment might still be desirable at this level, but the interest isn't so much that your balance will balloon during your first few years out of grad school. 
Higher amounts are not impossible to manage, but they mean committing a good portion of your income to your student loans for a really long time, so you're going to want to make absolutely certain you're spending it on something worthwhile.   
 

Not so much in my opinion. You know how they say that you should never lend money to anyone unless you are ok with never seeing that money again? I think it applies here as well. Public service loan forgiveness is an AWESOME reward if you do end up working in public service for 10 years and everything goes according to plan, but you should not count on it. Every federal government employee that I have talked to about it has not qualified, but full disclosure, I've only talked to like 4 people about it. 
You still have to make payments for 10 years, which are arguably the most financially unstable years of your life. If you do income based repayment it may be manageable. However, I think if you CAN pay more of your loans but are paying the bare minimum in hopes that you will have a large chunk forgiven after ten years, the interest you accumulate + uncertainty around actually getting paid out = bad idea. 
I'm not sure what field you want to go into, but a secret about working for the federal government is that a lot of people who "work for the government" actually work for private contractors. Government jobs are hard to get, and these contractor jobs are in my opinion really great ways to work in your field despite this limit on fed jobs. In some cases, they are more interesting than actual government positions, which come with a heap of legal and bureaucratic responsibilities that do not appeal to everyone. Contractor jobs are often through private companies and won't qualify for loan forgiveness. I'm not sure what it's like within state or local government, but I feel fairly confident in this assessment for the fed/IR/international development world.
I think my biggest issue is that depending on PSLF limits your career decisions. 10 years is a long time and, as obvious as it may sound, your life is going to change. You may move somewhere and the only job you can find that pays the rent and that wont bore you to death is not in the public sphere. Your government job might get slashed and burned during budget cuts so you flee or get laid off and take the first job you can find, and it happens to be in the private sector. Even if you do that just temporarily, I believe that makes you unqualified for public service loan forgiveness (please correct me if I am wrong!!). You also may get a job offer doing something insanely awesome that will challenge you/expand your horizons/help you save 10 million starving children/allow you to live in your dream country -- but it might be in a private organization. 
Plus, policy change and bureaucracy. Programs can be canceled at any time and rules can change. I don't remember the details but my fed colleagues said that the process was tricky and they hadn't realized they were not qualifying for it. I'll see if I can find some more info on what exactly tripped them up. I would make sure you keep an eye out on all the rules and regulations on how to qualify, but don't plan your life around it. 

I think @MaxwellAlum's advice is spot on. Generally, yes, $100k in loans is a horrible idea. 
If you haven't done this yet, make sure you understand what paying off 100K loans looks like every month: https://www.bankrate.com/calculators/mortgages/loan-calculator.aspx 
100K over 10 years at 5.7% interest (which i think is about average interest for Dep of Ed loans for grad students) is $1,095 a month. That is insane. That was the price of rent in my bare bones apartment in DC. It sounds like you have work experience, but for anyone reading this who has not been financially independent before, this is a TON of money. It is really hard to make this work with a public service income, and you will feel it. Even if you pay it off over a longer period of time at a lower monthly rate (~$600), it is still really expensive!
Plus, I think it is important for people to have a financial safety net and start building it when they are young. Shit happens and you need to be able to pay for it. For example, dropping your phone in a pool, your computer crashing, wanting to visiting someone you love who is sick, your apartment flooding or getting broken into (get renters insurance PLEASE), medical issues of all shapes, severities and sizes, friends getting married and having babies in distant corners of the country/world. When I had just graduated from college I didn't realize how many things of this nature would happen, but unexpected expenses are a very predictable part of life. Plus, being able to travel for fun or engage in hobbies that bring you joy is pretty sweet. 
I would also encourage you to map out what you want to do and all possible paths to it. Talk to people who took untraditional paths to the career you want. And also, constantly ask yourself why you want it, because I think we can get caught in the sparkly exterior of our career dreams without prodding a bit to see what is actually behind it. Why do you want this career? What natural skills and strengths of yours does it engage? What about the day-to-day of this job appeals to you? What larger impact does it work towards? Think beyond the field but the actual position you want within that field or organization, because this significantly alters the type of path you should take to said career goal. 

No. 
Because IR is a hypercompetitive, long-shot field (especially the Foreign Service or jobs of that nature), I would never advise people to get into that much debt for this degree. Here's a common scenario for people interested in IR:
- move to DC
- take entry-level job in DC (sometimes this comes before the first step, depends on the person). Note that "entry-level" can also mean "internship" (unpaid or paid) or "fellowship". But whatever the official title, it'll likely be either a short-term job, or a low paid one, or both.
- Because you have a low-paying job in DC, and DC is expensive, you'll fork over a fair amount of money towards rent with roommates, or to live far away from the center and have a long commute.
- And you still have to pay off the loans.

The above is totally doable for a lot of people when they're young. But as you get older, if you're interested in marriage/having kids/home ownership, that large debt + little savings is a big obstacle to overcome. I know many people around my age (and I graduated undergrad quite a long time ago) who are "stuck" from doing things they want because they can afford to live in DC and pay off their debt, but little else on top of that. Since many of these types of jobs are sort of tied to DC, moving is not a very easy option.

If you're getting absolutely no funding at all, improve your application (this also means "work experience") and try again next year. Apply for external fellowships too; Rangel, Pickering, Payne, the new State dept IT fellowship, Truman scholarship, etc. If you're convinced you must get an IR degree first, at least go to a cheaper school (I think this is still a terrible idea, but it's up to you).

I can only speak for the people who want to enter Foreign Service/State Dept, but I've found work experience is more important than a degree, by far. No experience + fancy IR degree is not going to vastly improve prospects. Take whatever low-paying or temporary, but relevant, job in the field you want first, do that for a year or two, then go to grad school.

Of course, if you're already well-connected, or have family that can pay your tuition or rent or whatever, that is different. But as a person from a very broke family with 0 connections who made it in, I wouldn't get that debt/degree for just a slightly bigger chance. I'm especially concerned that my school is accepting more people straight from undergrad with no experience.

As someone who had lived in the US for a couple of years as an international student when I was a high school student, I think the fact that you have this question tells a lot about how thoughtful and considerate you are of others' feelings. Back when I was in the US, not many people asked me about the reason I went by an English name made up by me. In my case, it was after one accident that I invented a new name. One of my teachers in the public high school I went to could not pronounce my name and I thought he was calling another student and ended up getting marked absent a few times. (This happened especially because he mistakenly thought that the second part of my long first name is my middle name and only called the first part of my name.) And then I decided to get myself a new nickname for my own convenience.
But the thing is, though this new name was something Americans could pronounce easily, I actually got this name from a Filipina singer I admired so much (I'm not Filipina, but I loved her so!), so I ended up really liking this name. I would put my actual name in parenthesis sometimes for my school records. Having a new name somehow made it much easier for me to emotionally adjust to a new environment since my mind could accept the fact that I'm in a foreign country and likely to face cultural and language barriers as a foreign student. Of course I also loved it when my friends were curious to know my real name and call me by that. But I also got attached to my new name. You wrote about how it is not "his responsibility to change his name to make it easier for his American instructors to say." I think this is considerate of you to think this way, but I think it is also possible that he changed his name for other reasons or maybe he came to like it like I did. I think having the "freedom to" and not just the "freedom from" is nice and can be refreshing.
So, although I think that it is quite insensitive and even rude to demand someone else to have an English name just because that someone moved to an English speaking country, in my personal opinion, it is perfectly fine to call "Leo" Leo if that's what he wants to go by. 
If I were you, I would either ask him about his preference or, if he didn't hesitate when he first told you that he goes by Leo, I might just call him that!  As you already suggested in your post, that could make him feel more comfortable. Of course, I'm aware that the fact that I have an experience of being an international student does not mean that I could represent other international students. I just wanted to share my perspective, especially since I really liked and appreciated your question! 
 
 
 

Hello! 
My name is Julius. Hope that you are doing well.

You know, it's funny, I was actually just about to start this exact thread when I saw that you had already done it. That's awesome! 

Well, we certainly are ahead in the process (I'm out working in Ukraine which is why I'm doing it early), but I'd love to discuss it if you'd care to bounce ideas off of each other. 

Lately, especially over the holiday season, it's been very difficult to maintain my equilibrium. I tell myself all the time that I am a good candidate, that I am doing my best, and that I will find my way in life. But then everyone wants to tell me that I will get this or that, or that I have to do this or that because it worked for some other random person, or why should I be worried about my chances when it's all going to work out fine -- and I know they mean well, but it's upsetting. I prefer having very low hopes, and I usually manage to do that without feeling like I'm the wrong part of the equation. It's just a truth of the matter, at this stage everyone is amazing and my level of amazing isn't to such a degree as to make anything a guarantee. It's better to recognize that now, than think things will unfurl before me just because I have good intentions and am smart. So when everyone tries to tell me to stop being so negative, I don't think they realize that they're upsetting my careful balance and actually making me feel worse. If I'm okay with acknowledging the luck aspect of this whole process, that it's not entirely fair, and that my chances aren't guaranteed, then they should respect that. 
Because otherwise I start to wonder... What will they say when I get my inevitable rejects? Do they really just expect perfection? Why can't we celebrate the normal people in life? The people who keep going despite the hiccups and avalanches and rocky roads? What if I end up doing something totally different in life but I know I've tried my best, will they still be telling me it'll all work out and how I should just go for it again? 
I know they mean well, and I know too that they don't really understand the system, but sometimes I just want everyone to stop endlessly propping me up and to be more realistic about this process. A simple, "I believe in you, let's see what happens," would suffice. 
Wow... That was really helpful! I've never been able to say that to anyone, but it was really nice!

@lawine Congrats! I've also heard back and gotten into Wisconsin and Kansas. Haven't heard anything from any of the other schools yet though.
So is it safe to say if you didn't get an interview with Columbia that you're not gonna get any funding from them? But still could get in?
 
I'm expecting to hear back soon from Indiana (submitted app at the same time as my app to Ohio State) but apparently they send decisions out through snail mail only... lol

Ok, I contacted the department coordinator. She said that a prof will contact me with funding details.

Sorry for the late reply - school just started back up for me. But wow your focus area sounds so cool! I'm actually also not interested in going into academia, and just intend on getting a terminal master's to gain more regional knowledge (and improve my language skills) before going into either business/consulting or some non-profit/think tank (ideally haha) that is engaged with the region.
I also actually just got my first acceptance to Ohio State a couple days ago! I'm so happy about it, and it really helped relieve my stress haha though I don't know about funding yet, they'll release that later.  
Also, have you heard anything from Georgetown? I had to check with their grad admissions office a couple times to make sure my transcripts were "received" -- I think it's all set now lol. And speaking of Georgetown, if we both are lucky enough to get in, we might see each other there!  I was also looking on their website and it appears that they enroll 12-18 students every year, they might accept more to account for those who decide to not attend? I wonder how many people apply every cycle...?
 

Got an email from Wisconsin's graduate school saying I was recommended for admissions and needed to send official transcripts! Just relieved that I'll probably get in somewhere! Can't wait to hear from the others. 

@busybee I've heard from two other people I know that they're in the same boat. This happened last year too, it's a technicial error with how they send out emails. The official stance is that this is completely random and not at all an indication of the results. I remember a girl in my group last year who ended up receiving the scholarship after email delays like this. So don't give up hope, as hard as that is! I'm sorry the person you talked to was so brusque, I think they may be getting a lot of calls about this right now. Though why they can't just tell people over the phone at this stage is beyond me!