AONomad

I also heard back, and also received +5k over the course of the whole program (spoiler alert: it was a lot less than I had asked for and I thought I had given pretty extensive and strong reasons lol). Was hoping for at least 10-15k more. 5k more doesn't really change the calculus of my decision that much. Can't complain of course, better than having 5k extra debt that's for sure.

@HNC people did you guys see the sample readings in Chinese on this page? https://mediahost.sais-jhu.edu/saismedia/media/portal/admit/preparing-hnc/preparing-hnc-sais.htm#preparing-learning-curve Is anyone else super nervous? lol, even importing into Pleco to use the dictionary I think that'd take me like 2 hours to read the short ones omg

Haven't heard from GT yet, fingers crossed... and good luck with Cornell! And my friend, hrm, don't remember what he's researching, something relating to AI ethics I think, not 100% sure.

@tacos95 In the absence of a crystal ball, this calculator is pretty useful for making cost comparisons: https://themeasureofaplan.com/grad-school-calculator/

No it's not only for Georgetown, not sure exactly how it works but it seems either different universities choose how to distribute the funding differently or maybe some get more than others, because SAIS also listed it among the available funding sources (for HNC) but it was for significantly less value than GT's.

Good call, I'll try that if I'm not awarded the FLAS Fellowship (if I am, it'll be cheaper to go there than SAIS regardless of the financial aid reconsideration decision).

I have an April 15 deadline at Georgetown's Walsh School. Waiting to hear back if I'm awarded the FLAS Fellowship there, which is apparently quite competitive. I'm planning to do the $500 deposit and confirm admission since that's my top choice, but if SAIS approves my request to more than double my scholarship... I'll likely end up reneging on Georgetown. I'm not sure how much that's frowned upon, but I'm sure they're aware it happens since they all coordinate admissions marketing and yet don't have a standardized enrollment deadline. I imagine that's what waitlists are for anyway. Don't think it's a big deal. Per my comment above: I think it's fine to renege as long as you're okay with losing the deposit. You need to do what's best for your financial/career future. If SIPA ends up being $10k, 20k, $60k?! cheaper, then you need to put that first and not worry about whether an intangible institution is going to take offense after they made things more complicated for you.

It's April 17. ?

I would think the reverse is true, that more specialized degrees have a better time in a recession than generalist ones that face competition from a greater variety of people

will do!

Good luck to you too

Yeah, Ms. Saam from the HNC admissions office implied as much... but then in that case I'd be concerned that maybe 1 year isn't enough time to do a lot of networking in DC on top of a full time MA program, vs. having two years to find a job with the Georgetown one and the second year being part-time. Also, judging from past posts on this forum, it sounds like the SAIS career office is a little more hands-off than the Walsh one, so students have to hustle more on their own for internships. (It's probably easier at SAIS given proximity to think tank row, but still.) In any case, I just sent my financial aid reconsideration form, so we'll see what happens.

Great, thank you for the info! And congrats for getting into UW Madison! One of my best friends is doing a PhD there

I was also admitted to Georgetown's MASIA program, and because that one is one full year + one part-time year, it ends up being cheaper than the 2.5 years of full time study (1 in Nanjing and 1.5 in DC) even taking the scholarship into consideration. My end goal is also to work in DC rather than China, so in some sense I feel like I don't need to spend more time over there (already studied abroad in China twice).

I did, but it was sent to me directly from my program's director, since I had already said I was going to be declining the admission offer. It wasn't a general e-mail blast

Yes

Yes. I was admitted to the Hopkins-Nanjing Certificate + DC MA program.

They said they can't guarantee a reply about increased funding before April 17. That's quite late... it's after Walsh SFS's decision day, heh.

The initial e-mail made reference to a scholarship ("FLAS Fellowship, if received, will waive your scholarship offer" or something like that), but when I asked for more details about it, they said the e-mail was just worded poorly and there was no scholarship offer. No info about a funding waitlist was mentioned.

Similar to my experience, I wrote back to decline my offer of admission since Georgetown ends up being cheaper, and received back: Before you decline your offer of admission, however, I’d like to inform you of several opportunities available to you: · You are able to request a financial aid reconsideration for an increase in your award. I’ve copied my colleagues in the SAIS financial aid office on this email; please feel free to summarize your concerns in an email to saisfinaidinfo@jhu.edu . In the coming days you will be provided with instructions on how to submit a formal reconsideration request via your online application. · You can be put in touch with our academic affairs department to learn more about ways optimize your time enrolled at SAIS and so that you may enter the workforce as soon as possible. Additionally, our admissions department has added a virtual information session to discuss these issues on March 26 at 2PM EST. You may register for this session here; if you’re unable to attend a recording will be provided to you.

I got into Georgetown's MASIA program... without FLAS the total cost would be 123k, eep. Does anyone know if the FLAS funding is a one-time thing or is it renewable for the second year, too?

Haha for real. I just crunched some numbers though, and it looks like Georgetown comes out the same or cheaper for me than SAIS, even with the scholarship. So Gonna go over there and stay in DC for the 2 years most likely. Gonna talk it over with some professors. My GRE was 162 verbal, 155 quant (lol), 5.0 writing. Undergrad gpa was 3.6 or 3.7 thereabouts, law school gpa was 3.21. Work experience was... I think 3 years in total but the vast majority was part time or internships. Oh my goodness those are amazing options, hella congrats!

I don't think there's anything wrong with calling now and saying that you were reading online discussions where people already heard back, so you just wanted to check if they had already issued decisions for all students or if maybe they do rolling decisions. It's a pretty neutral and valid question, I think you're within your rights to find out now lol

Yoooooooooo that's heckin' loads! Congrats man!!!

I'm not confident in my ability at all! I legitimately guessed or made reasonably calculated wild assumptions on like 80% of the STAMP test questions lol. I don't think I was supposed to have passed rofl I'm going to have to do an immersion program this summer if SAIS ends up being the school I choose, I think. Need to factor that into the cost calculations.