Tooday

I am an international student living outside of U.S., and therefore I am a bit clueless about what would be the best decision for me specially regarding the financial concerns. I would really appreciate any comments or help. Coming from: a developing country in Asia! Deciding between: Harris MS-CAPP, $25K annual scholarship, COA: $50K tuition + $30K living expenses (annually) vs. defer this and wait for another year and apply to more quant-based programs (this year I only applied to Harris! I know that's silly!) Other Factors: So I need to pay around $55K out of my pocket per year. So almost my only concern is financial. Here are a few things to consider: I am married and my wife would accompany me. I may get a $3K stipend per quarter from TA/RAs (that's not guaranteed though). I cannot get any kind of loan in U.S. (due to some legal issues). I have a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Applied Mathematics, and have competed in competitive programming contests like ACM-ICPC regional contests. So the computational and programming aspects of the MS-CAPP would be easy and at the same time appealing to me (actually my main reason for applying to this program is that it has an interdisciplinary nature combining CS + Math + Humanities; I don't want to pursue pure CS or Math). Further, I have more than 7 years of social and policy work (both voluntary and paid) at university-level and now nation-wide level (in my home country). I have a sibling in US who is a permanent resident and lives with their family; gets a decent salary ($200K+), so I may count on their support (maybe $500-$1000 per month), though it's not guaranteed And finally, I can gather at most around $50K from my personal savings and bring them with myself to U.S. Now, I am not sure whether to accept this offer, or instead defer it and wait for another year applying to more schools offering similar program (like Heinz)? I have heard about the reputation of U of Chicago and Harris, but I am not sure how much that's true and what the career prospects are? I am a pragmatic person, loves working and does not like studying very much, so I expect that I would start a career right after graduating, hopefully in a decent corporation or organization with a focus on data science aspects of policy. Thanks in advance for any help/comment/advice.