moahb

I have been accepted to both SPPD at USC and Wagner at NYU. I received about twice as much money from USC as NYU and could live at home thus saving a great deal in rent but I've always wanted to live in New York. I've visited USC for an admitted students day and will visit NYU on April 9. So far the biggest difference I am aware of is that USC has the incredible Trojan Network that is pretty powerful, and has a stronger West Coast presence than NYU does, and I probably want to end up on the west coast. Anyone have any thoughts that might be useful of the pros/cons of either program as I make this decision? Thanks!

From what I've gathered from my visit to USC any financial aid other than scholarship/merit based aid is pretty standard. Less any scholarships, you can borrow federal loans up to the cost of attendance (tuition, fees, books, rent, living expenses, etc): Federal Stafford Loans (per year): 8,500 subsidized 12,000 unsubsidized 6.8% fixed interest with 1% origination fee Federal Graduate PLUS loans for amount about that: 7.9% fixed interest rate 3-4% origination fee Need credit approval, no credit score check, just looking for defaults, etc Unless NYU has other need-based financial aid for graduate students that I am unaware of.

Since you are in the Public Affairs arena, don't forget about the new Public Loan Forgiveness which could potentially mean that over a certain point you would not be accruing more debt, because above a certain point it would get forgiven after 10 years. For more info on the PLFP visit: http://www.finaid.org/loans/publicservice.phtml http://studentaid.ed.gov/students/attachments/siteresources/PSLF_QAs_final_02%2012%2010.pdf http://ibrinfo.com/ For me, it looks like, even though it would be 35-45k more in loans to attend Wagner (NYU) vs. USC SPPD, I would only end up paying about 20k (only, yeah, I know) more due to this program. Its still a lot of debt, but 20k looks a lot better than 45k.

I just attended an admitted students day at USC for the MPA program and this is what they told us about federal loans which I believe is true across the board and not just at USC. Just for filling out the FAFSA you are eligible for the Federal Stafford Loan Program. Each year you are eligible for: $8,500 Subsidized loan (no interest accrual while you are at least at half-time student, and for 6 months following graduation) $12,000 Unsubsidized loan The interest rate is 6.8%, and there is a 1% fee upon origination. Assuming you have no defaults on your credit record, you are also eligible for the Federal Graduate PLUS Loan. This loan has a 7.9% fixed interest rate with a 3-4% origination fee. They do not look at your credit score for this, just that you don't have any defaults or problems making payments. You can borrow up to the cost of attendance (tuition, fees, rent, cost of living expenses, etc) as determined by each school individually based on specific factors of the school. If you receive any merit-aid this is deducted from the amount you can borrow. Let's say that your cost of attendance for a year is $50,000 and you receive $10,000 in scholarship. You can then borrow the $20,500 (8,500+12,000) in Stafford Loans and $19,500 in PLUS loans. Again, as I said, this is what we were told by the USC financial aid office and from my research it seems to be true across the board, but certainly check with your schools financial aid office to verify. Good luck out there!

Program Applied To: MPA Schools Applied To: NYU Wagner, USC SPPD, GWU TSPPPA Schools Admitted To: NYU Wagner, USC SPPD, GWU TSPPPA Schools Rejected From: n/a Still Waiting: none Undergraduate institution: Undergraduate GPA: 3.523 Undergraduate Major: Politics and Sociology GRE Quantitative Score: 760 (85%) GRE Verbal Score: 570 (80%) GRE AW Score: 5 (81%) Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 7 Years of Work Experience: 7 Describe Relevant Work Experience: For the first two years after college I was in City Year (AmeriCorps), creating a service-learning program for middle school students and recruiting others to participate in City Year. For the past 5 years I have been working on a college campus for a nonprofit organization, advising student leaders, creating community experiences, leading service learning trips, and overseeing a student run camp for children whose parents have or had cancer. Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): I worked quite a bit on my SOP, going through many drafts (and actually writing it once before scraping it and starting over). I had a lot of people look at it and provide feedback. I think it could have been a bit stronger, more specific, but then again, other than knowing I want to work in nonprofits I can't drill down much more specifically than that right now. Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): One was from the Executive Director of my current nonprofit who knows me quite well and wrote a beautiful and impassioned letter on my behalf. One was from a professor from undergrad who I think wrote a strong letter, but hard to say. One was from a former colleague and was pretty emphatic.

Hopeful - I submitted my application at the end of November. I don't know how they do the notifications. I was surprised too by the mention of semi-finalist, I hadn't seen anything to that effect before. Will we hear about finalists before we have to make a decision? I'm frustrated because I don't think NYU is a very realistic option at the moment, urgh.

I got accepted to the MPA program with a Dean's Merit Scholarship (18K, except really 15K/yr for MPA since there is a lower units requirement). Received my letter on 3/4. They had run out of letterhead after printing the MPPs so MPA letters got delayed. If you can't make the March 26th event (I am hoping to be there) there is another event on April 9th that you can ask about (though I realize this conflicts with Wagner, and possibly others). Financial Aid info other than scholarships apparently doesn't come till some time in May (according to USC Financial Aid) though I am going to ask SPPD if they can find out for me, cuz this is important info to have in the decision process, no? Good luck all!

I received my email notification on Friday as to being accepted which was exciting, as well as scholarship funding. The amount was rather low I feel (about 30% of tuition). Apparently the Goldberg Fellowship is set to notify semi-finalists either this week or next of their status. I was also accepted to USC with about 60% tuition funding. I'd really love to go to Wagner, but I don't know if the funds are going to make sense. Did anyone hear anything about assistantships? Any ideas of how to get Wagner to match what USC gave me? Is it okay to ask if they might be willing to do that? I'm planning to attend the visiting day on the 9th of April.