Hey, I am in a similar situation. Like you, I too received a merit fellowship at GSPIA, and after much contemplation, I have made my decision to go to Pitt. GSPIA is offering me basically a free degree (at the most, I will have to take loans out for housing and living expenses, which amount to half of those in DC), while at SIS and GWU, I'm getting no funding. I think that GSPIA's MPIA looks really interesting, and like you said, ratings don't mean that much, as they are largely the product of institutional biases and politics. I have a feeling that if GSPIA would be located in the heart of DC, their ratings would be right below, if not match GWU and SIS. In any case, before I made my final decision, I spoke with my academic advisors and parents who are both in the higher education business as well as students and administrators at the two aforementioned schools, and so far, the general consensus is that I should "take the money and run." Indeed, I feel that GSPIA is doing everything to attract me, while the other schools, especially GWU seem to only highlight "how wonderful they are," in light of their DC location and better ratings. Indeed, location and better ratings might be a plus, but ultimately you have to ask yourself whether your education will be significantly better. My conclusion is no. Not to sound cliche, but I think that I could really thrive at GSPIA, as they recognized my potential and gave me money. At SIS and GWU, I would have a financial noose over my neck, as I would have to worry everyday about how I would pay off my skyrocketing debt in the aftermath of graduation. As people much wiser than me said, graduate school is just as much about making smart financial decisions as it is about improving your credentials and expanding you intellectual premise. Ultimately, I feel that at GSPIA I have nothing to lose if they are offering me money, while at GWU and SIS, I would have to be working part-time/full time to defray the massive burdens of tuition, with no guarantee that I would land a better job in the end. I'm just graduating from undergrad this May, and the prospect of my undergrad debt combined with graduate loans seems like a terrible, financial cost to bear, only for me to say that I went to the "higher-rated" school. By going to GSPIA, I will remain financially solvent, while at the same time keeping my options open, especially if I want to pursue other degrees in the future whether that would be going onto a PhD or a law degree. Furthermore, GSPIA, in connection with Korbel and Maxwell, runs the DC center in Washington, where you can take classes in the fall of your second year, get a great internship, and expand your network. You must remember that half of GSPIA's alumni live in DC, and many of them work for the exact same institutions that GWU and SIS graduates work at. Study abroad wise, I can, for example, go to Brussels in the summer to research the EU and intern or utilize any other of GSPIA's partnerships to expand upon my degree. Whatever I do, GSPIA seems to be offering me many possibilities, a lot of which don't differ from the opportunities of GWU and SIS. At the same time, I am financially secure, to an extent at least that I'm expanding my skills and avoiding the terrible job market for the next two years, without piling up mountains of debt. This is as best of a package as I could have asked for, and I think it would be pretty foolish on my part to pass it up. Anyway, I'm speaking from my point of view. If finances are less of an issue for you, then perhaps you can weigh your options differently, but from your description, GSPIA seems like the best deal for you as well.