shiningstar7

Posted this on a different forum, but posting here also. Hey, so I'm having a hard time choosing between Tufts MALD, Columbia MIA, and George Washington SPS. I was hoping someone could give me some advice after hearing my reasoning + pros & cons because I feel stressed with the upcoming enrollment deposit deadlines. Thank you in advance~ Context About Me - I have a fellowship that offers me financial assistance, 2 great internships with the government, and a job straight after graduation in the government. So, technically I don't HAVE to be in DC because I have that fellowship that will make me end up in DC for the summers anyway for my internship. I'm from Texas... so I need information about the city too. I've had an internship in DC before, so honestly, DC is the only one I'm familiar with the area, but I've never visited GW. I visited Tufts for a day, and I really liked it, but again, I don't know Boston. Personal, but I'm a Christian, so I'm gonna be attending a church and need Christian clubs on campus to help keep me sane lol I'm South Asian heritage... so I need some diversity to make me feel not alone I'm 21 (will be 22 as I start grad school), so it makes me wary since I'm also super young and entering grad school Columbia - Pros: I like the program? It's an Ivy League Cons: Honestly the biggest negative for me right now is the cost of tuition & cost of living in NYC. I like the program on paper (looking into the International and Security Policy concentration as well as Management specialization), but I don't know if it's worth the debt at the end. I'm appealing for more money, but SIPA didn't offer me additional financial aid in addition to my external fellowship... that means I would need to pay 40k a year. Is it worth the debt? I mean I have a guaranteed job in government after college, so is the name/Ivy League status helpful for someone who already is going to be in the government after college? I've never visited either... I've been to NY before, but I've never seen the campus. Tufts - Pros: I like the size of the school where you can get to know everyone and can good attention from professors... it'll help with the community aspect. Visiting made me feel good because I got to talk to a couple of students, the admissions dude was nice, and I liked the classes I visited too. I like the ability you have to cross-register and take a few courses at Harvard too for more experience. Cons: I don't know Boston. I'm not good with the cold... so will I survive? It's not DC either, so if I want to do a job to get some experience... it may be hard to find organizations in Boston that are IR/gov related? With my external fellowship + funding Tufts offered me, I only need to pay $5000 per semester if I attend. But, I'm appealing for more because there's no harm in trying. GW - Pros: I am covered in terms of tuition, which would be amazing considering I have undergrad debt I need to pay off. Big school, so lots of clubs and opportunities to connect/find my people? I know DC (from my 1 semester experience there). Night classes only, so it will help if I want to find a job/internship during the day. Cons: Big school, so I don't know if I'd get a small school attention. Never visited, so I don't know if I would like the campus atmosphere and such. I think I'm really wary of grad school life since I haven't experienced it yet. I really don't know how it's gonna be different from undergrad, so I need to really be intentional in finding community/my niche. I guess that's why I'm confused? PLEASE HELP!!!

Hey, so I'm having a hard time choosing between Tufts University MALD, Columbia MIA, and George Washington SPS. I was hoping someone could give me some advice after hearing my reasoning + pros & cons because I feel stressed with the upcoming enrollment deposit deadlines. Thank you in advance~ Context About Me - I have a fellowship that offers me financial assistance, 2 great internships with the government, and a job straight after graduation in the government. So, technically I don't HAVE to be in DC because I have that fellowship that will make me end up in DC for the summers anyway for my internship. I'm from Texas... so I need information about the city too. I've had an internship in DC before, so honestly, DC is the only one I'm familiar with the area, but I've never visited GW. I visited Tufts for a day, and I really liked it, but again, I don't know Boston. Personal, but I'm a Christian, so I'm gonna be attending a church and need Christian clubs on campus to help keep me sane lol I'm South Asian heritage... so I need some diversity to make me feel not alone I'm 21 (will be 22 as I start grad school), so it makes me wary since I'm also super young and entering grad school Columbia - Pros: I like the program? It's an Ivy League Cons: Honestly the biggest negative for me right now is the cost of tuition & cost of living in NYC. I like the program on paper (looking into the International and Security Policy concentration as well as Management specialization), but I don't know if it's worth the debt at the end. I'm appealing for more money, but SIPA didn't offer me additional financial aid in addition to my external fellowship... that means I would need to pay 40k a year. Is it worth the debt? I mean I have a guaranteed job in government after college, so is the name/Ivy League status helpful for someone who already is going to be in the government after college? I've never visited either... I've been to NY before, but I've never seen the campus. Tufts - Pros: I like the size of the school where you can get to know everyone and can good attention from professors... it'll help with the community aspect. Visiting made me feel good because I got to talk to a couple of students, the admissions dude was nice, and I liked the classes I visited too. I like the ability you have to cross-register and take a few courses at Harvard too for more experience. Cons: I don't know Boston. I'm not good with the cold... so will I survive? It's not DC either, so if I want to do a job to get some experience... it may be hard to find organizations in Boston that are IR/gov related? With my external fellowship + funding Tufts offered me, I only need to pay $5000 per semester if I attend. But, I'm appealing for more because there's no harm in trying. GW - Pros: I am covered in terms of tuition, which would be amazing considering I have undergrad debt I need to pay off. Big school, so lots of clubs and opportunities to connect/find my people? I know DC (from my 1 semester experience there). Night classes only, so it will help if I want to find a job/internship during the day. Cons: Big school, so I don't know if I'd get a small school attention. Never visited, so I don't know if I would like the campus atmosphere and such. I think I'm really wary of grad school life since I haven't experienced it yet. I really don't know how it's gonna be different from undergrad, so I need to really be intentional in finding community/my niche. I guess that's why I'm confused? PLEASE HELP!!!

I am still waitlisted! Why are you turning it down? How's the financial aid?

My best financial offer and my 2 current most-likely options are Tufts or George Washington. American also gave me a good financial offer, but I prefer Tufts or GW. I did not like Columbia's financial package, and it doesn't seem worth it to me.

Program Applied To: (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): IR To: Georgetown MSFS, Columbia SIPA, Tufts MALD, George Washington SPS, American IPCR Schools Admitted To: Columbia SIPA, Tufts MALD, George Washington SPS, American IPCR Schools Rejected From: None yet (But waitlisted to Georgetown MSFS) Still Waiting: Well waitlisted to Georgetown so that? Undergraduate institution: A small private Christian college that nobody knows lol Undergraduate GPA: 3.86/4.0 Undergraduate Major: International Relations (French minor) GRE Quantitative Score: 152 GRE Verbal Score: 156 GRE AW Score: 4.5 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): Will be 1 year this May (graduated in 2018) Years of Work Experience: Full-time (0), Part-time (almost 2.5ish) Describe Relevant Work Experience: Diplomatic intern at a representation in DC, English tutor at my university, writing intern at a nonprofit law firm, volunteer intern with a state senator's chief of staff, went on a humanitarian trip to do social work, did a lot of volunteer work during college (like homeless shelter outreach and tutored refugee students) Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): I like writing, so maybe it wasn’t bad, but the only people I had edit my essays were my mom + brother lol. I talked a lot of how I am a Pickering Fellow and how the university will help me in my work for the Foreign Service after graduation, talked about my childhood international experiences + service opportunities I had throughout my life, how I got interested in IR, and I talked about the university and the program there that I wanted to study. Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): I assume all are pretty good? I had a good relationship with all my recommenders (former French professor, former IR professor - also my adviser during undergrad, and my former internship supervisor). But tbh, internally I was kinda freaking out because I sent the requests in quite late (for my liking). Other: Think I was waitlisted to Georgetown because of my lack of experience (mostly) + GRE score (not a very good standardized test taker haha), but really the strength for my application was that I'm a Pickering Fellow so I already have the internships set and the job set after graduation. Middle-class family, South Asian. I took macro, micro, stats, an intl bus class during undergrad, but I’m not very good at quant-heavy work, but I want to get better at it (and I did mention that in my essays tbh). I was born in a developing country, I lived in 4 different countries (all in Asia except for the U.S. obiously) from the time I was born till I was 12… so, much of my life was spent abroad. During my entire time abroad, I attended international baccalaureate schools. I only recently (in the past few years) attained my U.S. citizenship. I’m sure all this helped with the diversity/international experiences aspect? I’m sort of bilingual (I say sort of because technically I can’t read or write in my native language), and I studied French during college. I studied Spanish in high school? Took part and did get some recognition at MUN and MAL during college, involved in floor leadership, graduated with my B.A. in 3-years…? I'm very young (21), so really it's a miracle I've gotten this far! I'm pretty sure Pickering + international experiences helped me thus far. I'm pretty sure I'm the kind of person they look at/think of when they look at candidates "HOLISTICALLY" - I fit in that category pretty well in my opinion. Hope this helps! MY QUESTION TO ANYONE WHO CAN HELP: - If you had my current accepted options and were me, which would you pick? If I got taken off the waitlist at Georgetown, what would you pick then? I'm curious because I'm kind of confused on what to do. - Would you pick NY (But Columbia is still very expensive even with the fellowship) or DC (I like GW over American btw because I like the SPS program a lot) or Boston (Never been there but heard Tufts is a good school and MALD is a good program)?