DevinMiles

This article may be of interest to everyone who is reading this thread. American scam: My kid and I are both supposed to go broke paying for college? Forget it I’ve learned what many students and parents already know: The student loan system is a quasi-criminal shell game https://www.salon.com/2018/03/22/american-scam-my-kid-and-i-are-both-supposed-to-go-broke-paying-for-college-forget-it/

While you have already made the decision, I also have to add that GWU is a good choice. I was accepted there and sat in on a class to check it out. While I decided to head elsewhere, it was extremely impressive. The thing that impressed me the most (for my interests) was that the professor was very connected to international relations/diplomacy in DC. My sense is that you get the real deal in terms of people working in IR, not looking at it from a theoretical level.

For more affordable Security Studies programs, the Bush School at Texas A&M is a great choice. George Mason University's program also comes up quite often since it is in the DC area and you can do an internship while studying there.

Tairos said the same thing I would have said: AU is not known for security studies. Neither is Fletcher. If you are interested in USAID or NGOs, those might be good places to head. But of course, you do not have to focus on security studies or go to a top-ranked security studies program. In fact, you would save a lot of $ to go elsewhere, but you mentioned Georgetown so I thought you were only aiming at the top schools. Also, for graduate certificates there are some affordable IR-related ones at the Bush School at Texas A&M also. Good luck.

Good decision for the graduate certificate. Besides terrorism studies, there are a few out there that you could pick up after your master's such as cybersecurity (UMUC) or geospatial intelligence (Penn State) fairly easily from other universities. For master's programs in security studies, Georgetown and SAIS are certainly outstanding. GWU is close to the same level and worth applying if you are interested in DC schools. Outside of the DC area, Korbel in Denver also has an outstanding program that is actually more demanding than many others. And GSPIA at Pittsburgh is well known for security studies. Avoid American University and Fletcher for anything related to security studies. Good luck.

An interesting Op-Ed on the dismantling of the Foreign Service that is relevant to this topic: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/27/opinion/dismantling-foreign-service-budget.html

Reported? went_away, you aren't seriously trying to get a moderator to remove posts that disagree with your unusual efforts to promote Fletcher, are you? And personal attack? This forum is intended to help applicants with objective views of schools. Obviously some former students may use it more for advertising to promote their schools rather than be objective about the pros and cons of their school, but it is an open forum in which other users can counter such opinions which many readers see as exaggerations.

I am sure there are many others who also feel went_away started this thread as yet another way to promote Fletcher by oddly claiming it is up there with SAIS and SIPA. Yes, it's a good school... but c'mon....

You should take any comments by went_away on Fletcher with a very big grain of salt since he is known to make wild exaggerations about the school.

You need to read your first response again- where you write about the ease of living independently in DC, shopping at Whole Foods, and going out "several times a week." Your debt-free situation is irrelevant. The original post is about people who have debt. You seem to be obsessed with the OP's comments on "rich international types" for some reason and are ignoring the substance of this helpful post. I will ignore your rantings and advise others who read this thread to also ignore them since it detracts from the excellent comments made by elmo_says. Congratulations on reaching 624 posts, even responding to mine within one hour. However, next time you should consider whether posting is actually helping anyone on here- especially new applicants for these programs. It seems like your rants are for no one but yourself, especially as they present a distorted view of the situation in DC for recent graduates. elmo_says: Thanks again for a great post. It is definitely one of the best posts I have ever read here on Grad Cafe.

I am actually extremely surprised by some of the responses to Elmo Says. As someone who has worked several years in the DC area, I can say that the depiction of the work/life/post-graduation scene in DC is extremely accurate. Those who say, "nahh... it's not that bad.. " with a load of debt are not being honest. Yes, YMMV with your graduate degree, but this is overall a very truthful post. ExponentialDecay's rantings are not helpful. It portrays living in DC with debt as far easier than the reality. It portrays everyone as knowing exactly what the outcome of their degree will be. And attacking the person posting is certain never helpful. Having that rant as the first response took this thread into a weird direction since this is a very helpful post. Thanks a lot, Elmo Says. It's unfortunate that you had to put up with some odd behavior on here, but your comments are appreciated and will likely be of great help to new applicants.

It is great that you went there and liked the program, but you should try to be more objective. I read your post again and get it that you want to promote the school, but you went a bit overboard. I'm not ripping on the school. Fletcher is good for some areas, but it has almost no recognition for security studies. Also, I second what Concordia said about King's College. St. Andrews has a good program too. One other nice thing about many European programs is that they can be completed in one year. And if you want something in DC as a backup, check out GMU. Since it's in DC, they get a lot of people with real world experience like Michael Hayden. Good luck.

Whoa....Fletcher is certainly not known for Security Studies and would barely be in the top ten. It is certainly below SAIS, Georgetown, Korbel, SIPA, and GWU. Even GSPIA in Pittsburgh has a stronger reputation for Security Studies than Fletcher. If you want to switch to Public Policy, Fletcher would be a strong choice. Security Studies? Maybe if you are applying widely and need a backup.

How does FLAS funding work? Is FLAS funding for 2017-2018 in doubt because of the administration's proposed budget that eliminates Title VI for the Department of Education? Is there a strong chance that those who have been nominated for FLAS for the upcoming academic year will not receive it (which has never happened before)? Is it always dependent on the federal budget?

My advice is not to bother trying to socialize with your cohort at this point. Make friends elsewhere. The one thing that no one told me before I started my graduate studies is that it would end up being one of the most socially-isolating experience of my life. I went to a small college town for my undergraduate studies and had a great experience. My graduate studies have been the complete opposite. For one semester, I was enrolled in a social science program at a college town in the Midwest and I left after one semester because the program was a poor fit for my research area but the lack of any sense of community was a bit shocking. It was a small cohort with five other students and I arranged a brunch one day for everyone and they seemed shocked that grad students would actually socialize with each other. It was a bit of an odd program since it was not very selective and several of the students were in the program because they were locals, much different from a program where students come in from around the country without social networks established. I headed into my current program which is a much better fit for my research, but ended up being in a cohort of one. The department said this was very rare, but there were four other master's students from the previous cohort still in the program. One of them attended my orientation dinner and one of the questions I asked her was whether the grad students ever socialize with each other. She said that in the year she had been in grad school, it had never happened even once. She said not to bother trying. After meeting the other members of the previous cohort, I realized she was right. They were not unfriendly, but no one would describe them as friendly or welcoming. I have to admit I had high expectations for the social experience in grad school when I applied for graduate studies: dinner parties, happy hours, weekend trips. I was completely unrealistic for a small program. However, this is common with larger programs. I know someone who went on a ski trip over the winter with 100 fellow business students. One thing that I did differently from you is that I did not even bother attempting to build some sense of community with the previous cohort. I realized right from the start they were an unfriendly group and made friends elsewhere, especially through running groups on the weekends. It would have been a waste of time to attempt to make friends with the previous cohort. The funniest thing was when the weekend before finals of the second semester one of them sent out an email seeing if people wanted to get together. It was just bizarre. There was one more week before they were graduating and suddenly one of them decided he wanted to build a sense of community and get everyone together. Nice try, but nine months too late. So again, my advice is not to bother attempting to socialize with your cohort. Find friends elsewhere. Perhaps like me, you expected a strong sense of community in your graduate school experience. I certainly expected to build strong bonds with my fellow grad students and stay in touch with them for decades after my studies. Nope. They were an unfriendly bunch and finding friends elsewhere was the best decision I made. Six months from now I probably won't even remember their names. I found friends in other programs and through outside activities. Best decision I made.