MidByMidwest

I'm in this exact boat. Which way are you leaning?

Which one did you decide to go with?

I am stuck right in the middle between these two. I got into the Heinz DC Track with 75% tuition fellowship and into Sanford with 50% tuition fellowship. I cannot for the life of me decide between these two programs. I attended both of the open houses and I will say that I prefer Duke (think intangibles). I also think I would enjoy living in Durham more than Pittsburgh (even if it's only the first year in Pittsburgh). However I would be paying about twice as much for my education at Duke as compared to Carnegie-Mellon. Whether or not this is accurate, I have it in my head that Duke is the "better" program. Can any shed some light on this? My career aspirations are working in the Foreign Service or with offices such as OMB or GAO. Like everyone else I would also be open to consulting. Is Duke worth twice as much? Am I judging Heinz too negatively? Any insight would be appreciated.

I don't know why you'd have to take out 60K in loans to attend Duke, especially with your fellowship. I just checked and grad tuition at Sanford is 36K a year. With your fellowship the whole two year program would cost you something around $12,000 when only looking at tuition. Plus the cost of living in Durham is very affordable. You could probably get by with something in the ballpark of 20K in loans if you attend Duke

Just found out I was accepted! Still waiting for my official admission offer

My plan is to apply Fall 2015 for MPP and IR programs. Right now I am trying to decide with course of action would make me a better applicant. My two options are 1) Teach English abroad in Spain for the 2015-2016 school year or 2) take continuing studies courses at IU (where I attended undergrad) in microecon and statistics to beef up my quantitative skills (My GRE quant was 157). In your opinion, which option would strengthen my application the most? Teaching in Spain would give me international experience and advanced foreign language skills, while taking the grad courses would show I'm serious about improving my quant skills and hopefully give me more recent letters of rec. My career goals as of now are vague but I am most interested in foreign service or government consulting, and I am considering MPP and IR schools including Harris, Elliott, SAIS, SIPA, Heinz, Sanford, and Mccourt. Which would be the smartest decision application-wise?