GradSchoolGrad

What are people's thoughts re: deferring for a year? There will be a vaccine available by then, classes won't be remote, and by graduation we will be hopefully closer to the end of any recession that occurs. That being said, what are the chances of funding being worse next year? I'm thinking quite likely ? 

So one thing to think about is how COVID-19 will probably scare away a lot of the Chinese international students (make that international students period). Their full tuition (or close to full tuition) payments subsidize a lot of funding for American students. My bet is that funding will decrease.
 
Another thing to think about is how if you defer to next year, funding may decrease by virtue of competition - as in a lot more people will be trying to ride out the recession by going to grad school, and you'll have to compete with them for funding. 

GradSchoolGrad, you and I have attended Georgetown McCourt and Tufts Fletcher respectively so we are biased. That’s why it’s important to be objective in our statements by providing specific examples. Grand statements such as the case in point here aren’t helpful. I can equally respond by saying that a lot of people outside of the Northeast do in fact know what Tufts is. For example, for the class of 2024 the Tufts admission rate was 13.99% (2,831 accepted / 20,223 applied). Conversely, Georgetown stood at 16.37% (3,276 accepted / 20,002 applied). So, more applications came to Tufts than Georgetown and Tufts was more selective than Georgetown.

HKS has a heavy private sector focus but I would caution against reading too much into MBB placement. Top MPPs/IR degrees — non-dual degrees — send folks to top consulting firms, but the caveat is that many tend to be international offices — i.e. you’ll need language skills and perhaps sponsorship.
 
HKS also loves recruiting MBB consultants so they may actually just be returning to their previous job, accounting for MBB placement on HKS website — this I do not know entirely, but is possible as well.

I am actually really concerned that you got into Yale with no funding (at least you don't speak of any). Coming out of grad school 200K down coming straight from undergrad in a more narrowly focused graduate program in my opinion is a risky move.
With UM, I recommend you consider negotiation getting higher scholarship (they should be able to give you something).
If it was a single degree, I would go with MPP, just because it has a broader ranger of career applicability.
If you have the time, patience, and money to do a dual degree, I would do it if I were you (make that I did do a dual degree myself). Not true how this is, but I have heard stories of people at UM having more scholarship negotiation leverage by virtual of dual degreeing - think about it , two programs covering you for 3 years vs. one program covering you for 1 year.

I think we need to pull back what it requires to attend an awesome PhD program (assuming related to policy). 
 
1. Grades. A- or higher GPA (and that is a bit of a stretch)
2. Letters of recommendation from stars in their field
3. Research output (alternatively, applied work, but unless it is something ridiculous, it matters less generally speaking).
That being said, I think it is important to not go to a place that risks hurting you one of these areas. What does that mean?
1. If you are NOT comfortable with calculus, your grades might struggle with Harris.
HOWEVER... assuming you don't mind math...
Harris is a no brainer. It is arguably the most intense quant MPP program + you would get to know major academic leaders in the field. Plus, there are lots of energy projects in the midwest that you can do research with and would be relevant for developing countries as well.
 

1. It never hurts to negotiate. Just be prepared for a no. The reality is that HKS has a decent waitlist of great candidates. Why spend money on someone that they don't have to? 
2. My sister went to HKS, yes the Harvard name is shiny and a great talking point at bars... but honestly, her friends who stayed in the policy space got the same jobs as people out of other top tier programs. Now... I will say, with HKS, you do get a network that is unmatched and they are exposed to extraordinary opportunities (those that ride a bit outside of policy in my opinion) and innovation that other places simply do not get.
3. When you say you are interested in consulting, what type of consulting?

Government operations or Commercial?

If you want to go to a McKinsey, Bain, BCG, your only options are HKS and Harris. 

If you are good with a Deloitte and want to work in their government operations office, you want to make sure to check which each school to see if they are core recruiting school

I will say that I have never met any of my friends in MPP land who have actually liked working in Government Operations consulting. They just tolerate it at best (Golden handcuffs theory). 

@graduate2020
From the superficial examination, it seems like JHU SAIS makes the most sense as they are giving you the most scholarship and very generally speaking, it isn't that much of a brand or opportunity loss vs. HKS if they are giving you no scholarship. 

That beign said, what exactly is your
A: specific career path interest (details do matter)
B: how much flexibility do you care for (as in if you realize you don't like you can pivot)
C : How much does networking matter to you? 
D : Does the language requirement bother you?

If your heart is into IR, I would say its wash between SAIS and SIPA MIA from a pure academic perspective. I recommend you think about where you would build community. SIPA in general has reputation of everyone having their NYC lives and the study body not being that cohesive. SAIS generally is better in terms of community. Honestly, you need to visit the two to really get to know.
As for McCourt... go there if you want to do IDEV program analysis work or ride the Georgetown mafia to get into Capital Hill... but short of that, it is a pretty poor option to get into most other international relations oriented jobs. In terms of overall MPP quality Harris wins academically hands down. Obvious downsides to not being in DC as well as pros. 

Just something else for people to think about as it looks like this corona virus business will be bringing forward a likely recession (I really hope I am wrong). 

In some ways, going to grad school in a recession is pretty great, because you are riding out the misery of lower incomes / job hunting in the first place. There are also more opportunities for cheap / free labor (internships / projects you could get in grad school). HOWEVER... depending on how long a recession lasts, your job prospects at the end of the road can look pretty rocky. As you are thinking about grad school, I recommend thinking about two things.
 
1. Put greater emphasis on considering which program / school have the greater potential return on investment. The great way to look at this is actually see employment numbers and where people end up (most schools publish them. If a school doesn't, that should be a warning sign). Another part is asking the hard questions of if the school (not the brand) actually prepares people for a better job (emphasis on better and not just any job). Ask students/recent alumni about that. 

2. Scholarships matter more. A penny saved is a penny earned at Ben Franklin roughly said. Also tied to this are money making opportunities in school that have concurrent career advancing value  (TA / RA / Paid Semester side internships).

I give this advice from two perspectives. I graduated college in the last recession and I saw people who went to MPP programs immediately after college struggle a lot. Some of them just had the ill-conceived notion of going to any grad school to ride out the recession rather than thinking about how their grad school selection supported career stability and their career goals. Hence, I know people whose MPP's were basically throwaway degrees as they worked at a restaurant or did something completely not related to their degree for a year or so after graduation due to the recession. The other perspective is how I saw so many people from my MPP program not have a job at graduation (in a middle of a booming economy). The jobs some ended up taking (sometimes many months after the fact) were at times equal, if not a step below their careers level pre-grad school (I understand this to a certain point is subjective). 

There is no competition.
1. UC Berkeley is far and away the winner. They have a research center dedicated for tech policy. If you care about this policy area - UC Berkeley is a no brainer pick. 
https://ctsp.berkeley.edu/
2. McCourt is a distant second. They are trying to get their hands on figuring out tech policy, but DC isn't a tech hub (outside of defense, and that is its own story that realistically doesn't apply to most international students).
3. I have known and heard about CIPA for a while, but I have never seen any CIPA student in any policy student event, conference, or activity (even in New York City). Being in upstate New York, you are simply removed from both the industry and government side of things. 
 

Something I recommend people think about is how COVID-19 could possibly create massive resource issues for their graduate program / University for the next year or so.

For elite programs like Harvard Kennedy School,  Princeton's Woodrow Wilson, Columbia SIPA, this will likely be less of an issue since resource wise they tend to be relatively sheltered. They have the combination of A: A crazy war chest of endowment money, B: a name brand, and C : A persistent large pool of applicants (even if it shrinks, it will be fine) to deliver high quality students.

All other policy schools (even other well-regarded ones) may struggle because COVID-19 has A: hurt their endowments and B: Massively shrank their applicant pool.

The applicant pool shrinkage issue is particularly relevant if a grad program has become financially dependent on Chinese international students paying full cost. I have encountered some MPP programs that were approx up to 40% Chinese international students. With everything going with COVID-19 and all the related consequences. That population will likely shrink drastically. That means less resources for the program to spend (especially after fulfilling scholarship funding promises to students) on programming.

What does this mean? If you were sold on a graduate program that had a sales pitch of "we are investing lots of resources into XYZ - like a new building, a new center, a surge of famous faculty" + the student population is not diverse, that program will suffer the most with COVID-19. If you were thinking about enrolling in that program, I recommend you think of alternatives that are more COVID-19 durable. 

As for deferring, I think that all depends on how stable your job is now and how much you want to gamble on when the recession will end. 

So I actually hear that question a lot. I'm going to answer this from two perspectives.
1. Program Qualities: With area studies, you don't have to go through the pain of some of the annoying core course that you would have to in MSFS and get straight to what matters for the area. Generally speaking, I find the area studies people to have thinner resumes and to be younger. Interestingly, I also find a lot of them competing for the same jobs as MSFS people (granted they can market their area speak skills and languages). Obviously from a prestige factor, MSFS takes the cake. 
2. Personal Perspective:
Ultimately it comes down to personal preference. If you really really really love a region and want to dedicate your life it, area studies is the way to go. My personal preference is to go broad because:
A: I personally like to compare and contrast and believe a lot could be learned by comparative analysis. For example, I think there is a lot to be said about comparing China's coronavirus response vs. Italy's.

B: The world is getting more multi-disciplinary period. I think there is a lot be said about functional knowledge 
C : Broaden our network!!!! 
Also just something random to throw out there. You don't know what you want to do for the rest of your life. Most don't, even those in their 50s. I met a lady at conference who was really interested in Asian foreign affairs and been in the area for 7 years. This was 3 years ago. What is she doing now? Local governance issues in Portland, Oregon. She made the life switch for personal reasons. A broader education gives you more flexibility in the long run.

Hi everyone. In the absence of an SSP student or recent grad give perspective, I'll chime in. Of course, their perspective would be much much much better.
I can speak to SSP because I worked with SSP students in Georgetown, been in programming with them, and I know people from my last job who went to SSP. 
The awesome things about SSP:
1. Brand weight: Without a doubt SSP program carries a lot of brand weight between Georgetown and SSP specifically.
2. Caliber of People (for the most part): Most people I know who has done SSP has done either been A: a totally great human being that has done awesome things (scoring high profile Fellowships like Boren, high quality jobs, and and etc.). I have pretty much been impressed by every SSP person I have ever met. I will say that the average MSFS person is more impressive, but I still hold the SSP people in high standing. 
3. Connections: Bottom line, SSP has a lot of connections (like defense consulting firms or research organizations) that offer its students an opportunity to grow their network + build their resume while in grad school.
4. Flexibility to Do DC Internships: SSP is structured to basically make your life super super easy to do internships semester side. So you have no excuse to not get the opportunity to do it.
The interesting things to know about SSP:
1. Its interesting relationship with School of Foreign Service (SFS): I think it is interesting that everyone calls it the best program in the world etc. etc. It is true that the best IR grad program is the Master of Science of Foreign Service (MSFS) in the School of Foreign Service (SFS). Yes SSP is part SFS, but it is not the MSFS. Among the other major grad programs housed by SFS are SSP, Global Human Development (GHS), and all the area studies programs. That being said, nearly all of the classes, lectures, guest visits, and career opportunities are open to all who occupy SFS. HOWEVER - MSFS general has the best dedicated resources and budget. SSP is in relatively good position, but not nearly the prestige and full resources of MSFS. Also, SSP is seen as the little brother of MSFS, and within the SFS cultural environment. 

2. Unique social dynamic of SSP: What I always thought was crazy was that most of my SSP friends never knew each other (some never heard of each other) even though they were in the graduation year. This is because, SSP has lots of flexibility of when and how you take your classes. As consequence, there is not strong community bonds that take place as everyone moves to the best of their own class schedule / research / internship. 
Ultimately, what I'm trying to highlight is that what makes or breaks your SSP experience is the internships you have and the community you grow, which is rather easy in DC + how they schedule the programming. However, from an academic perspective, its good, but nothing to special. 

I completely agree. HOWEVER... I recommend people think about this as an opportunity to evaluate a grad school in an alternative (if not even more focused) way. That is to talk to people who are in the programs or recently graduated the programs you are looking into. I always recommend at least 3 - A. someone from a similar background that you are from, B. Someone with similar career goals as you C. Someone totally random. 

The reality about official student visits is that at the end of the day, they are essentially live demonstration that serve to give a sales pitch about the best of what the program has to offer (I know, I used to be part of them). After all, there is a business side of every grad program and that is to amass the best human capital (students) at a target window of numbers. 

What these visits don't do necessarily is identify how a program fits you (pros and cons) + growing pains / persistent challenges. Talking to students / recent grads, especially those you know or have a common bond (i.e. sports, hometown, boy scout alumni - anything) that are willing to give a comprehensive and honest picture can be just as good, if not more insightful than a visit. 

Some ways to start these conversations.
1. Ask the admissions office for people you can talk to.
2. Ask people in the forum if they know anyone and they are willing to connect (I connected with two people already)
3. Check out your LinkedIn network. You will be surprised

I certainly think they should. It's a lot to ask people, especially the working professionals whom a lot of these programs look for, to leave their job/family/whatever then commit two years of time and incredible cost without being able to get a feel for the culture of the program, and other intangibles you can only get by physically being there.
 
From a budgeting etc. standpoint, I understand why they would have difficulty making a group decision to push back acceptance to May or June,  but right now we're all in an episode of Catfish where you have to get married before Nev flies you across country to see your s/o in person. The slideshows are great, the info online is great, but I couldn't imagine quitting my job to move in with an internet girlfriend.

I think another thing I should have asked you to give you better feedback is what area (or areas) of policy / type of non-profits you are interested in. Also, do you have specific regional interest / location interest? I say this because different schools have different policy area strengths and weaknesses, and it could be nuanced. So for example, Georgetown McCourt MPP's top strength and weakness (they have more than one, and this is also my opinion of what I view it to be):

Top Strength:
Academic Policy Area: Health Policy
Policy Function: Data analysis
Geographic Location: DC
Broad Focus Area: Domestic Policy 
Type of Policy Utilization: Federal Powers
Unique Career Factor: Semester Side Internships
 
Top Weakness:
Academic Policy Area: State and Local Policy
Policy Function: Qualitative analysis
Geographic Location: California
Broad Focus Area: International Relations Policy (non - IDEV)
Type of Policy Utilization: Non-profit (non-research) innovation
Unique Career Factor: Comparatively limited employers who target McCourt as a core hiring school 
 
 

@indianIRguy is correct if you want to get set up with a career focused on shooting towards the research based work side of the house in a niche area (hence you have to give up the food area). If you are interested more in the intersection of food + trade + ag as a function of policy engagement via policy programming (private sector or public) or policy related program management, an MPP is a very logical decision. I have to warn you though, food / ag policy that rather unpopular to pursue in some policy schools. At McCourt, I only knew of 1.person interested in food / ag policy. That 1 person transferred to UT Austin after a year when she found herself so frustrated with lack of support / interested peers. At all the conferences / competitions I have been to, I have yet to encounter another food/ag policy person. Hence, picking a school with professors in the school or partner schools that specialize in the area is super important if you want to play this game with an MPP in mind --> Duke. 

Duke MPP has a World Food Policy Center:
https://wfpc.sanford.duke.edu/
There are other programs that support food policy consideration: 
A class they have for example (it isn't in the MPP program per se, but you can cross-register):
https://nicholas.duke.edu/academics/courses/food-agriculture-and-environment-law-and-policy

 

If your heart is into IR, I would say its wash between SAIS and SIPA MIA from a pure academic perspective. I recommend you think about where you would build community. SIPA in general has reputation of everyone having their NYC lives and the study body not being that cohesive. SAIS generally is better in terms of community. Honestly, you need to visit the two to really get to know.
As for McCourt... go there if you want to do IDEV program analysis work or ride the Georgetown mafia to get into Capital Hill... but short of that, it is a pretty poor option to get into most other international relations oriented jobs. In terms of overall MPP quality Harris wins academically hands down. Obvious downsides to not being in DC as well as pros. 

So I think this comes down to academic chops vs. applied opportunities. McCourt DSPP, by virtue of being DC will give you great exposure to opportunities to work on applied problems. However, the reality is that Georgetown is not an elite math / data engineering academic space. If you want to get really crazy into advanced statistical methods and the cutting edge techniques and approaches, CMU and U. Chicago will be better at having those resources. You will still have access to lots of applied opportunities, but you simply won't have as much opportunity to find projects on your own with DC organizations. 

I also personally wouldn't go to Fletcher. This is just a me thing, but the world is getting more multi-disciplinary and it really helps to do projects with and have access to people from other programs. Tufts simply doesn't have a law school, a business school, or etc. that would have meaningful collaboration for someone in Fletcher. Hypothetically, they are port of the consortium with Harvard and MIT, but being able to cross-register and actually collaborate with people in other programs are two very separate things. 
I know someone who went to Fletcher, who even took a class as Harvard Kennedy School, but she really was academically isolated from other disciplines just by virtue of logistics. 

Bottom line, I would not go to McCourt MPP for IDEV. You might be in DC, but you really don't get much focused and concentrated support. The most celebrated IDEV MPP grad of my time therewent to a run of the mill IDEV research center as an analyst. The second became a contractor for the World Bank (not full time - contractor). 

The IDEV people I know in other schools ran their own non-profits or had legit innovation projects. That doesn't happen at McCourt MPP - period. Now McCourt MIDP or MSFS IDEV or SFS GHD at Georgetown are much better options for IDEV at Georgetown in my opinion. 

Chances are that you will probably get into McCourt with funding, but I would take Harris acceptance assuming your interest is international development. At the end of the day know one really cares if you are an MPP or MAIDP. They just know you are a grad student from a really esteemed institution. 

You're graduating into the best job market of the last 20+ years AND coming out of an incredibly powerful university. What a privilage. Don't waste this historic moment hunkered down in grad school. Do some good internships, get some quality job experience under your belt, and save your money.