WIPDXSFBay

Has anyone else been accepted to the MPA/IR joint program? I received about 52K (GA included) for the program overall, and it's my most generously funded program. However, I'm interested in entering the State Dept. or the multilateral sector professionally, and I wonder if Maxwell would be a sufficient means to break into these sectors. Anyone have any insight?

I currently work as an analyst for a financial services firm in SF, and from my experience I'd say that the opportunities for consulting are fairly present. However, I cannot speak to whether there are more than the east coast, given that my only professional experience on the east coast was working for a think tank in DC. What I can say with confidence, though, is that every big consulting firm has an SF/Bay office (KPMG, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc.), and I can only imagine that they'd have offices in Seattle, LA, etc as well. That being said, I would be very mindful about what sorts of consulting opportunities are here. Aside from boutique firms, I imagine that the majority of the consulting opportunities will be financial service-related or technology-related, given that the Bay runs on the finance and tech sectors. I can imagine that any of the other major cities would be similarly situated. The best way to figure out what sorts of success Goldman grads enjoy is to do a LinkedIn search of the companies that you'd be interested in working with, and refine the search through choosing Berkeley as a filter. About half my office are Cal grads, many of which didn't major in finance or business, which should say something about the school's strength. However, know that if you're planning on entering a consulting position that isn't focusing on Dev, networking will be more important than what you study. In addition, you'll be competing against MBA grads that concentrated on these topics from Stanford, Cal, Penn, etc. Hence, your network will be essential. In this regard, across the west coast, I wouldn't claim that Cal is any better or worse than UCLA, Stanford, or USC; but it should be a robust brand name for the Bay Area.

Another added bonus that I forgot to mention is that regarding natural beauty, you can't beat the Bay. Even the East Bay or the North Bay by themselves (the Oakland Hills, Marin County and Napa, etc), there are so many destinations for hiking, sight-seeing and so forth. With concern to getting a GSI, it's important to take into account whether you'll be competing with other grad students in the professional program (ie Goldman master's students), or these students and doctoral students. In this case, you may find it more competitive, given Cal's immense graduate student body. However, don't take what I say as law, I'm only thinking out loud.

Thank you for your thoughtful input. A brief survey on LinkedIn sheds light on degrees that seem to be more versatile regarding my interests (both State Dept/IOs and private sector consulting), whereas it seems like both SAIS and Fletcher are strongest with these sorts of placements (in addition to Hienz to being strong with firms such as EY and Deloitte). I totally agree that one should hedge their bets regarding State and IOs, although I think the fear reflected on this forum about the potential cuts are a bit overstated. I should qualify the following with a grain of salt, but I don't feasibly see any budget cuts to the State Dept of such a magnitude ever being passed even by this congress, which is the most conservative we've seen since maaaayybe Gingrich's reign as speaker. However, the risk of cuts to the IOs are very very real, whereas any shortfall would have to be picked up by other member states. In that scenario (can't say how likely it is) it may mean that people with US citizenship will have more difficulty acquiring jobs such as Political Affairs Officers, etc., whereas other people of other citizenships may be given more preference. But it may not, and given how ridiculously competitive it already is to land a position like that in the first place, it may not even have a material impact. Anyways, I can't say for sure, nor can I affirm that any of this current budget will have appeal to Senate Foreign Relations Committee whatsoever (I remember Sen. Graham saying something like "it was dead on arrival"). But I certainly agree that in the very very plausible event that cuts of any sort do effect my primary job market of interest, and it does throw in some added unnecessary risk to my "dream job" outcome, in addition to the risk is already being a bit higher by the idea of added debt. Regarding the 'more debt' route', I see it like this: could I jump ship from a job in the low-paying policy world (switch from income-based payments) and grind for a couple years to strive for a six-figure salary in the consulting world to knock out my immense (est. between 80K-120K) debt load in a couple years? Maybe. I currently work as an analyst for a financial services firm in SF, so at I know what it takes to land these sorts of jobs. Does that escape route have enough secondary appeal to justify pursuing a degree that will make landing "dream job" more likely? Right now, I have no idea.

I can speak a bit to the Bay, as someone living in South Berkeley/North Oakland. The first consideration you correctly make is the cost of living here, which is immense. For perspective, rents in Oakland have increase by an average of 75% in the past five years. However, the salaries are commensurate with the cost of living, if you are willing to take a position in the private sector. Another consideration you should make is career trajectory/opportunities here in the Bay. From my experience, your best opportunities with the name brand of Cal will likely be on the west coast. Here, you have to ask yourself whether your career interests align with what the west coast has to offer in terms of policy related positions. Take a moment and look at what's available for jobs of your interest offered by the City of Berkeley, City of Oakland, SF, etc. Outside what the city administrations have to offer, or State level stuff in Sacramento, the other only robust opportunities for policy-related gigs will be in energy policy, sustainable investment, environmental policy etc. I know of a few people that went to Cal that do There are certainly NGOs and non-profits you can jump into, but for perspective you will not find rents cheaper than 1K/month for a room in the east bay at it's lowest, and 1.3K or so for the lowest rents in SF. Take into account transportation on the BART with an average of maybe 200/month, plus other extra cost (high taxes etc), and to live on less than 65K/year will be tough. That being said, this really is a great place to get a job, as there are certainly jobs abound, if you are willing to bend your interests to suit a career in the world of finance or tech. However, I take it you're not going to grad school for the money. I was also accepted into the MSPPM DC program with good funding. As someone that lived/worked in DC for a bit, I can say that the DC edge is substantial for career growth. Even outside DC, having that job experience on your resume tends to carry far outside the DC bubble. However, and this is probably biased as I am interested in international policy/foreign affairs related jobs, but I didn't really hear much of Heinz's reputation when I was working in the city. But again, I was surrounded by SAIS, Gtown, GWU, American, etc, folks and working in a think tank... hence I may not have been in the right crowd to see whether CMU DC students were killing it in the professional world.

Hey everyone. I hate to beat a dead horse, but I'm reaching out to see if anyone has any thoughts about how to go about deciding which Master's of IR or MPA graduate school I should attend this upcoming year. In particular, I'm split on whether the debt burden justifies attending a more 'prominent' master's program, over perhaps a less prominent program with more funding. Has anyone else had this dilemma? I was lucky enough to be accepted to 7 of my 8 programs, with various degrees of funding and I'm having some difficulty parsing out my choices. With that in mind, I've been accepted to the following programs + funding (roughly ordered by my preference of where I wish to attend): JHU SAIS Bologna MA (no funding), Tufts Fletcher MALD (20K overall), Syracuse Maxwell joint MPA/IR (52K overall), GW MA in Philosophy and Social Policy (44K overall), CMU Heinz DC program MSPPM (46K funding overall), Cornell Institute of Public Affairs (6K overall), Brown's MPA (6K overall). Am I crazy to turn down more funding to attend, for example, SAIS or Fletcher, over other programs? As it stands, there's a chance I might get a better award from Cornell or GW, and I plan to petition the admissions team at Tufts to see if I can get more funding. I fear that SAIS might be a lost cause regarding funding, from what I've read on this forum. However, this is the program I've wanted to attend for quite some time. I intend to pursue any opportunities for further fellowships or external scholarships wherever I attend, although I recognize that this would be a burden on me during my graduate studies, especially if I attend SAIS or Fletcher with the substantial debt obligations looming over my head. Has anyone been in this position -- where you turned down generous funding for a program with less funding with more recognition in the policy world? For reference, I am interested in working for a multilateral or international organization, enter public service or work for a think tank. Best possible world would be political affairs for UN, or something State Dept related. (If all else fails, I suppose there's always priv sector consulting?) Any current students/alum of these programs have any insights? Anyone in a similar position?