fletcher_grad93

I remember being you, eager public service hopeful, reading TheGradCafe some two years ago after having been accepted to Fletcher. I was blind with the supposed prestige of the degree and all the great experiences I was sure to have in the program. Now, two years later, I can honestly say attending Fletcher was the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life. I am $100k+ in debt, have learned nothing that couldn't be learned for free on the Internet, and am about to graduate with no job; this outcome is common among my cohort. I have no one to blame but myself, I was warned about the worthlessness of these sorts of "policy" degrees, but I chose to ignore the warnings to chase some silly phantom ideal of prestige. Icing on the cake?: almost nobody even knows what a Fletcher is outside of IR. I cannot stress this enough: if you are not independently wealthy, these degrees are not for you. They will not open doors. They will not allow you to put food on the table or provide for your family. They will certainly allow you to obtain a pittance-paying job at a non-profit, or, in the absolute best case scenario, a somewhat dull but steady government job, but that's it. You will not be more competitive than a garden variety MBA, no matter what any admissions officer tells you. I cannot even begin to tell you the farce that is the Fletcher Office of Career Services. I've been told to apply to dozens of jobs on Indeed.com by the career counselors; that is the sum total of their advice, the so-called "Fletcher Advantage." These degrees do not attract top tier companies and only rarely do organizations come to campus to recruit. Most of the internships available are unpaid. These schools do not have special connections or networking cachet. They will not get your foot in the door somewhere doing some unicorn analysis work or the like. Nobody will respect you for having a policy/international relations grad degree. You will be outclassed in the private and public sector by MBAs, JDs, and people with certifications like CFA and PMP. I know many of you will write me off as one bitter voice of gloom and doom. To be fair, I am quite bitter. I had a good job, no debt, and a generally decent standard of living before I came to Fletcher. I selfishly traded all that away to chase prestige, to open doors to a brilliant career of international relations, or so I thought. These careers largely do not exist and/or are incredibly hard to get. There is no career path that is magically unlocked with a policy/IR degree. None. You want to be a Foreign Service Officer? You don't need a graduate degree, and even if you feel you do, you certainly don't need an expensive private one. The real world simply doesn't care that you can write a dozen page paper on the status of country X in an evening. The real world doesn't want to appreciate the nuance of your supposed interdisciplinary education. The real world wants you to fit into a nice little box like "MBA-haver" or "lawyer." I know, I know, you love IR, you feel you're too cerebral for an MBA, you don't want to go to law school. I totally get it. I was there, and not all that long ago. But life isn't fair, and, I'll say this again: unless you are not independently wealthy, these degrees are not for you. I hope at least one person reads this and heeds my warning. Do not go to these schools unless you can get a heavy discount. Please don't end up like me with no job and huge debt. It isn't worth it at all. I wish I had never gone to Fletcher and regret my decision to do so daily. Please learn from my mistake. Signed, A Fletcher grad