mapiau

I applied to six. In retrospect if I'd spent more time researching the courses offered by each university I probably would have applied to only four schools, or even three. Similarly, I don't think the concept of a "safety school" is very useful for grad admissions. You should only apply to the schools that offer the courses and networking which will help you in your career and align with your professional goals. One of the two schools I'm deciding between is less selective and prestigious than the others but it's strong in my field, so I don't consider it a safety and am glad I applied.

I applied to six. In retrospect if I'd spent more time researching the courses offered by each university I probably would have applied to only four schools, or even three. Similarly, I don't think the concept of a "safety school" is very useful for grad admissions. You should only apply to the schools that offer the courses and networking which will help you in your career and align with your professional goals. One of the two schools I'm deciding between is less selective and prestigious than the others but it's strong in my field, so I don't consider it a safety and am glad I applied.

I'm in with financial aid - $14k! I also got a Fulbright scholarship (I'm an international student), so I'm definitely going to attend. SFS is my dream school and I couldn't be happier!

Big congrats to everyone who was admitted to such a selective program!

Congrats!
 
I got SAIS too but with no funding! I doubt I will take up SAIS with so much debt even though the program is amazing! . I am so far leaning towards GPS out of all my acceptances. 
 

for me, if I get full funding from UCSD like in the form of a Robertson fellowship (full ride + stipend), then it will be a very tough decision. I'm expecting at least $5000 in fellowship funding though because I was a PPIA alumni. I want to be involved with East Asia policy in the future, which UCSD + a Robertson would be a great set up for. However I'm working in the private sector now, and could see business as a possibility after grad school as well, so I want that option to be open too, and that's where SAIS and SIPA come in. I know SIPA also has a great Asia network in case I want to work in Asia in the future.

mapiau on fellowship renewal
Most classmates have no problem renewing their fellowship so long as grades are maintained. I think SAIS recognizes that this is a major factor in any decision to attend; they're not going to sweep the rug out from underneath you. I don't know about Bologna/DC fellowship continuity. These questions may be better answered by an adcom or financial aid staff member. 
monocle:
I'm a first year that just secured an internship for the summer. Can't speak to post graduation, but I don't expect to have any problems. 
 

Depends on the program though. If you are looking at an MPP, it is new. I believe this will be their first class incoming. 

Right, and many templates don't explicitly mention the other offers they've received. I can see the pros and cons of different approaches, and my decision would probably be based on several factors. Some schools don't offer stipends to anyone, so if I received a full ride and stipend to WWS, it's going to be hard to convince Indiana that I would seriously consider them if they offered me a full ride. If I received a full ride to Duke and Michigan offered me nothing, saying I received a full ride at a peer school and that I really think Michigan is a good fit but I can't justify the $80,000 difference--I think that would be very effective. If I didn't have any offers that I thought the school would find convincing, I would not state my other offers.
The same thing goes for mentioning a specific amount you would want. If I was 100% not willing to attend a school unless I received a specific level of funding--and I didn't think I would get more than that amount--I would state that in the letter. If I was just trying to get more funding from my choices in a general sense, I would not mention a specific amount.
OP, I think there's a number of questions you would need to ask yourself before writing the email.  Think about the different approaches and which works best for your situation. You may even decide you need different templates for different schools.
Good luck!

That's just a personal preference of mine. I'm not sure how a program office would read into a bulleted list of each offer as described in the above template. I would not list the other offers in detail that I had received unless they pushed me on it. I'm not laying all my cards out on the table, so to speak.

In addition to SAIS, I applied to American SIS (Global Governance), Georgetown SFS (MSFS), Syracuse Maxwell (MAIR, a combination of a MPA and IR degree), Tufts Fletcher (MALD), and UCSD GPS (MIA). SAIS is definitely a good fit for my goals, but I'm trying not to think about ranking schools until I know more about my funding situation.

I feel ya. I think I have a decent chance of being accepted, but I'm not sure about the funding so I'm trying not to get my hopes up. If I don't receive any funding there is no way I could go (barring winning the lottery...maybe I should start playing?) so I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic. I have already gotten into Korbel with money so I feel a little less anxious about the DC schools I applied to

I felt like there was a really wide range in just being able to find/access course listings. IMHO the best set up was a pdf file with the courses and brief course descriptions, while the worst set ups were the schools (and there were a lot of them) that just had a link to the registrar's website (with some incredibly unfriendly user interface). Some schools didn't even provide the link.

One thing that I didn't consider, and should have, when deciding where to apply is courses offered. Sure, I researched different programs' strengths and weaknesses, but in the stress of deciding where to apply and beginning my essays I didn't research deeply into schools' course lists or build potential schedules of classes I would take.
Now that I'm researching more deeply there are a few schools I applied to who offer exactly the classes that want, and others that while are in my area of interest aren't as tailored to what I want to study. Lesson learned.

I'm anxiously waiting to hear back from SFS, but at this point I do not really see myself attending Georgetown. A big part of this wariness is cost, of course.
My area of focus is energy issues (electricity, rather than oil and gas) and Latin America. I applied to SFS' Global Politics and Security concentration, and my sense is this doesn't quite fit my goals as well as other programs, like Fletcher (which has a dedicated Resource Policy field of study), SAIS (Energy, Resources and Environment policy area), or UCSD GPS (which offers lots of policy and energy courses). Of course it's often difficult to know exactly whether a program fits your goals while looking in from the outside, but while MSFS offers a number of energy courses, but I don't find these offerings quite as interesting as other schools'.
I've heard fantastic things about SFS' small cohort size, career services office, and location, though. And while it's a bit silly, Georgetown has a bit of romance – DC! Diplomacy! Old statues on snowy days! – that other program don't. I'm attracted to this, and I don't even particularly care about being in DC!

I'm anxiously waiting to hear back from SFS, but at this point I do not really see myself attending Georgetown. A big part of this wariness is cost, of course.
My area of focus is energy issues (electricity, rather than oil and gas) and Latin America. I applied to SFS' Global Politics and Security concentration, and my sense is this doesn't quite fit my goals as well as other programs, like Fletcher (which has a dedicated Resource Policy field of study), SAIS (Energy, Resources and Environment policy area), or UCSD GPS (which offers lots of policy and energy courses). Of course it's often difficult to know exactly whether a program fits your goals while looking in from the outside, but while MSFS offers a number of energy courses, but I don't find these offerings quite as interesting as other schools'.
I've heard fantastic things about SFS' small cohort size, career services office, and location, though. And while it's a bit silly, Georgetown has a bit of romance – DC! Diplomacy! Old statues on snowy days! – that other program don't. I'm attracted to this, and I don't even particularly care about being in DC!

I'm anxiously waiting to hear back from SFS, but at this point I do not really see myself attending Georgetown. A big part of this wariness is cost, of course.
My area of focus is energy issues (electricity, rather than oil and gas) and Latin America. I applied to SFS' Global Politics and Security concentration, and my sense is this doesn't quite fit my goals as well as other programs, like Fletcher (which has a dedicated Resource Policy field of study), SAIS (Energy, Resources and Environment policy area), or UCSD GPS (which offers lots of policy and energy courses). Of course it's often difficult to know exactly whether a program fits your goals while looking in from the outside, but while MSFS offers a number of energy courses, but I don't find these offerings quite as interesting as other schools'.
I've heard fantastic things about SFS' small cohort size, career services office, and location, though. And while it's a bit silly, Georgetown has a bit of romance – DC! Diplomacy! Old statues on snowy days! – that other program don't. I'm attracted to this, and I don't even particularly care about being in DC!