chimmu1141

Thanks, Expedia! My only qualm with the program is that the Education & Human Capital specialization within the degree is not very strong (this is my area of interest within development). Students told me there are not enough classes and the ones that are available are kinda disappointing. I am choosing between this program and an International Education program. Did you enjoy meeting fellow admitted students? Has the open house swayed your decision one way or another?

Hi Expedia, I forgot to ask, did they talk about the specializations at all? I have heard from several people that while the core classes are really great, some of the specialization classes are not as great as they expected. And they didn't feel like there were enough time/courses to develop technical specialization.

Many thanks, Expedia, for sharing your thoughts. I think they cancelled one capstone session which had more students working for non-profits and multilateral (I attended the capstone session since it was available virtually) but it does seem like Georgetown SFS is very connected to the private sector, as according to their employment statistics last year, I think 30 - 40% are employed in the private sector. For multilateral, it was only like 5%. But perhaps there are just more jobs with private contractors around D.C. I agree that the cost of living in D.C is so high. Did they say anything about opportunities for working on campus, paid internship, etc.? This might help to offset the living cost a little.

Hi all, I was wondering if anyone was able to attend the Admitted Day today at GHD? If you were, it would be incredibly helpful if you wouldn't mind sharing some of your thoughts/notes of the Admitted Day. I am an admitted international student and unfortunately could not attend the Admitted Day so any insights would be much appreciated! Many thanks!

Hello MaitreTea, I just PMed you since I am hoping that I can learn from your experience making the decision between these schools since I am currently in a similar situation (substituting Stanford for Harvard GSE). I am interested in international education development and I have the same questions that you did about these programs. I also received some funding from each school. It would be incredibly helpful if you wouldn't mind sharing why you picked the Georgetown GHD program at the end and now that you have gone through the program, what you like and don't like about it. I am an international student and unfortunately I cannot attend the Visit Days at these schools so I am trying to reach out to as many channels as possible during this decision-making process. I would deeply appreciate any insight from you as you went through a very similar experience. Thank you so much!

YES! I graduated in 2013. When did you graduate? And thank you, that would be incredibly helpful! I am trying to find out information through as many channels as possible since I can't visit in person. I have heard from an acquaintance who is attending HGSE that classes are a little bigger than he expected, so less attention and chance to interact with professors. He said there are lots of opportunities for networking, but you also have to compete for those with the 70-80+ people attending your program. But I guess this is unavoidable anywhere. He graduated from a small liberal arts college like ours...so I guess big classes and larger cohort size are more difficult to adjust to.

I hope that visiting the schools will help you to make your decision. I am an international student, and unfortunately cannot fly to the US to attend Visit Days. I would really appreciate it if you can share your experience of Penn and HSGE on the Visit Days since I am on the same boat as you are now...Also this is totally random but reading your previous posts, I just realize that we attended the same college for undergrad!!

Also, now that admission results are out, where are you guys thinking of heading and what factors are swaying your decision? I've been accepted to HGSE (awaiting financial aid result), Stanford (10k), Columbia (zero funding), Vanderbilt (33% tuition), and Georgetown's Global Human Development program (50% tuition). I've eliminated Columbia because of funding, Stanford because the program doesn't leave time for internship during the year, Vanderbilt because of location. If I get accepted to Penn GSE as well, it will be a really hard decision between HGSE (1 year), Penn GSE (1.5 year) and Georgetown (2 years) since they each has aspects that I like and don't like.

Hi all, I applied to the IEDP program at Penn GSE on Jan 15, and finally on Feb 10 my application was marked ready for review. It's been almost 5 weeks and I haven't received a decision from the program yet. Should I email the program directly and ask or would that be rude? Thanks!