MaxwellAlum

I hear you. The ILO might be one exception (one would hope so given what they do). Also your university's career office might have information on funding for unpaid internships.

Not when I was there 6 years ago. At that time a lot of people were pushing for them to start paying interns. There were definitely cases of interns being homeless due to the high cost of living in New York and Geneva. Not sure if any progress has been made on that.

Prestige can help, but who you know matters more. Probably the best thing to do is to intern at one of the organizations where you want to work. A word of warning - a lot of UN agencies are increasingly relying on consultant contracts, which basically means you don't get any job security or benefits, and while it can perhaps be a foot in the door, there's really no guarantee. If you pass the YPP exam (doing an internship and studying the history of the UN can help), you're likely to get offered a (non consultant) position in the Secretariat. The problem there is you don't get a choice of which position (it wouldn't be in any of the specialized agencies/funds you mentioned), and it's basically take it or leave it, or at least it was 6 years ago.

Definitely - MPAs and MPPs are perfect for going into budgeting and finance related jobs. Might be worth arranging informational interviews with people in a local/state/federal budget office. I know several people who enjoying that career path and doing interesting work, but it's not for everybody.

I'm not against more quant in MPA programs nor do I think it is useless. The more quant you have the better consumer of research you can be. That's important for any policy job. To what extent you can use the skills you learn in those programs to conduct rigorous impact evaluations or design surveys I don't know. All I can say is that in my experience MPAs and MPPs are not research focused degrees and if hard research is your goal, a PhD will get you much farther skills-wise and in terms of credibility on the job market IMO.

I agree with ExponentialDecay. I have an MPA and work in a research/policy analysis job in government, but the type of research I do is really different from that which a PhD in an academic position might do. I don't conduct or analyze the results of robust, random sample surveys and am not qualified to do so. I don't run regressions because, while my MPA gave me enough stats to know how to run a regression, it certainly wasn't at the level you see in academic papers. Mostly my work involves interviewing government officials, describing government programs and budgets, and analyzing data but at a very descriptive level, which is not always uncomplicated but is certainly quite different from what an academic would do. I feel lucky to be able to do this type of work without having spent years and years in grad school or writing a dissertation ::shudder:: but I don't consider the work I do to be equivalent to the type of work academics do. Some of my colleagues do have PhDs, which while not a requirement definitely confer a good amount of credibility in this field. I'm not saying this to knock MPAs/ MPPs, but to say that they don't really prepare you to do hard research, and I don't think they help much if the ultimate goal is a PhD. I know a couple of people who went to grad school straight out of undergrad and are doing great. But an equal number ended up making career changes that involved getting another grad degree. It's so much better to go into grad school knowing what you want. For me, the best way to figure that out was to get full time and paid work experience.

This isn't on your list, but Syracuse offers significant aid in the form of graduate assistantships. Some of these are awarded as part of the initial offer, but I remember a handful being available for students to apply for when they arrived in July (Syracuse's MPA is a 12-month program starting in the summer).

Not specific to IR (lots of people with IR degrees don't go into IR jobs), but in my experience, several of my peers who went into local or federal government in the DC area were making $70k+ two years out of grad school. Most of us are over in the $90-$110k range now that we are 5-6 years out (GS-13 level in the federal government). Salaries won't increase as fast from here on out (a lot of the increase comes from noncompetitive promotions, which stop at a certain point), but assuming reasonable cost of living increases (more likely at the local level than federal at this point, unfortunately), it's not a terrible place to be. Some friends who work in nonprofits/NGOs/USAID contractors have not had the same level of salary progression. I believe they are in the $60-$70k range at this point. If you go into a government job with the ability to get noncompetitive promotions your salary can increase pretty fast in just a few years.

We use income-based repayment plans. Although I was fortunate to graduate with less than $50k in debt, my spouse has over $100k. Now that we've been in the workforce for five years, our salaries are each in the $90-$100k ranges. We pay a combined $1,000 a month on our loans on an income-based plan. It's a lot to pay (it'd be really nice to have that money freed up), but we're still able to save a lot for retirement and for a down payment in a relatively high cost region. The problem with taking out so much debt for a public policy/IR degree is that return on the investment is hard to pin down. It's really just a foot in the door, and it's not the only way to get there. With the right work experience/internship, nobody is going to care where (or often if) you got your masters. Have you considered looking into local or state government jobs? I live in the DC area, but I work in local government. There are definitely interesting jobs at the local level, and you are closer to the action in terms of your impact on people. It could also put you in a better position to get scholarships for a public policy degree in the future.

I think these rankings are useful mainly for identifying programs to apply to that you wouldn't have otherwise thought of. As an alum of the Maxwell School at Syracuse, I have no illusions that my MPA is somehow seen as more prestigious than a degree from HKS or Princeton - it's definitely not. But it wouldn't have occurred to me to look into applying if it wasn't for the US News rankings. No employer will care about your school's public affairs program ranking in US News. They're not going to look up the most recent ranking when deciding who to interview. Many (particularly private) will care about the brand name of the university, particularly if it's an Ivy. Other than that, it's really about the network, and the rankings can give you a sense of how well-established a program is. More established programs are likely to have better networks. My advice is use this list to identify programs to research and apply to the ones that best fit your interests and preferences.

With the major caveat that any amount of debt is too much if you can get the same result by spending less, I would say that $30k is definitely manageable. You can pay that off in 10 years with monthly payments under $350. It's still a significant amount of money to fork over every month, but assuming you're looking at jobs that pay $50k out of grad school, it's reasonably affordable and is not that much higher than what you'd be paying on an income based plan. And if you're really motivated and don't have a lot of other expenses, it wouldn't be totally impossible to pay it off faster by making larger payments. $70k is a lot. Under a 10-year repayment plan, you're looking at monthly payments of about $800 a month. That is going to be difficult to afford on $50k in a high cost region. That's going to get in the way of your financial goals even when your income goes up, unless you're willing to live quite frugally for a long time (I'm talking about roommates and long commutes). Income-based repayment will probably be the way to go with this amount of debt, so basically you need to be prepared to be paying back your loans for a very long time. It's not impossible, you won't be destitute (unless Congress eliminates income-based repayment entirely, which is unlikely), but it will impact you for a very long time. My sense is that $50k is the very upper limit for student loan debt in terms of what you can reasonably pay back in 10 years on a public service salary (monthly payments under $600), assuming no forgiveness and assuming good financial health otherwise and no major existing expenses. $600 is a lot of money to pay per month, but you can potentially get that amount down to $500 by making extra payments when you graduate if you're willing to be extra frugal for a little while. Income-based repayment might still be desirable at this level, but the interest isn't so much that your balance will balloon during your first few years out of grad school. Higher amounts are not impossible to manage, but they mean committing a good portion of your income to your student loans for a really long time, so you're going to want to make absolutely certain you're spending it on something worthwhile.

Glad to be of help! I do just want to echo some of the points gelatinskeleton made. When you are this early in your career, so much can change. Of my cohort that did a dual MPA/IR degree several years ago, about half are working in something related to IR, and the other half are working on domestic and local policy. A surprising number of us are in local government. At least in my case, I made a choice to work in local government, despite having an offer to work in an international organization, because I realized I didn't want to live abroad again. I think a lot of people who study IR realize later on that other sectors are a better fit for them, or they happen to find interesting positions in other sectors that pay better. Of those working in IR, it's a mix of people working for USAID/State/Defense contractors (for profit and nonprofit), international orgs (World Bank, IADB), and US government (State, Treasury). Some worked for a couple of years in IR-related jobs with the Feds, disliked their jobs, and left for non-IR related jobs in the private sector. I believe a lot of those in the Federal government went into the master's program with a scholarship that required them to work with the Feds after graduation (and thus got support in securing a position). Many people I know who wanted to work in the Federal government were very frustrated with USAJobs, and many were not able to get in. Personally, I don't think you should count on getting a US government job in IR. It may be other schools are better than Syracuse at placing folks, but my experience is that folks with a very narrow focus in their job search are likely to be frustrated.

Re: PSLF As someone who is cautiously hoping to receive forgiveness and been submitting my certification forms, I will say it is an awesome deal. Paying 10% of your income over 10 years is significant (after 5 years of raises my husband and I are paying a combined $1,000 each month, and boy would we love to be able to do other things with that money), but the forgiveness is a massive benefit and fortunately tax free. Laugh if you like, but my understanding is that there are people who have received forgiveness, just not many because of the intricacies of the repayment plans available in 2007 (if you think I'm being foolish, bear in mind the money I'd otherwise spend paying off my loans faster is going straight into my 401k, which is a much better bet than throwing money into loans that might be forgiven). If you're starting now, the rules are pretty clear for someone working in government (nonprofits is a bit dicier), and if you pay close attention (don't rely on your servicer, know which repayment plans qualify and make sure you are on one of them), I don't think there's a huge risk of being denied. For people considering grad school now, there is a very real possibility the program will be eliminated soon for new borrowers. That being said, if you start grad school in the fall of 2018, you might still qualify. The proposed House bill to reauthorize the Higher Education Act (the PROSPER Act) effectively eliminates the program for people who take out their first loans in July 2019, but if you start borrowing before then, you can keep taking out qualifying loans until 2024. (see https://www.usnews.com/education/blogs/student-loan-ranger/articles/2017-12-13/potential-effects-of-prosper-act-on-student-loans ) There are definitely still risks that they will turn around and eliminate the program for everyone or otherwise change the terms I've described above. But another major risk is that you'll finish grad school and realize you really want to work in the private sector, or for another non-qualifying organization like the UN, the World Bank or the IMF (surprisingly employment at international organizations does not qualify for PSLF). That's why I would not recommend going into grad school counting on PSLF - grad school should open up career options, not limit them.

Over a decade ago when I was in high school looking at colleges, most of my peers were planning on taking out loans to be able to afford elite private universities. My parents strongly discouraged that, and I ended up graduating debt free from undergrad (I chose a school that offered me significant scholarship money over a slightly higher ranked school that offered me basically nothing). I'm so glad that I did that, especially since I ended up studying English literature and was never super motivated to seek out high powered private sector jobs. I did take out some loans for grad school, but they are pretty manageable. Student loans are not the worst type of debt, but it is still real debt. $100k in loans, at current interest rates, will accrue $500-$580 in interest every single month. That's what you have to pay before you even start to make a dent in the balance. And then factor in you'll also want to be saving for retirement, saving for a home, and at some point graduating from living with roommates. Income-based repayment plans are awesome and I think they would be the way to go in this situation, but you need to be aware that you'll likely be paying back your loans for 25 years (Public Service Loan Forgiveness might be a possibility, but Congress is likely to get rid of it soon, and many IR jobs don't qualify anyway). That's basically committing to setting aside 10-15% of your income (over poverty level) for the majority of your working life towards your student loans. And yes, that is for an investment towards your future. But IR degrees are pretty generalist - you're not going there to get specific skills or a certification that is absolutely required to get a job in the field. There isn't any rule that says you HAVE to get an IR masters to get a job in the field. So an alternative is to think carefully about what you want to do in IR (nonprofit? State Department? International finance?) and map out all possible ways to achieve your career goals. If taking out $100k in loans for a generalist IR degree is still the best way, then go for it. But it may be that a more specific degree (finance?), applying to the Foreign Service, taking the UN exam, or signing up for the Peace Corps are more cost effective ways to achieve your goals.

Your story sounds quite far-fetched and is not consistent with the experiences of friends with IR degrees, many of whom did not attend prestigious schools or have "flawless" GPAs. Not saying they all have perfect careers, but as far as I know none are hiding from debt collectors in Latin America hoping for regime change in Venezuela to get a full-time job. Were you not eligible for federal loans when you attended grad school? Fellow GradCafe readers, do not to take out private loans for grad school if you are eligible for federal loans. With federal loans you have access to income-based repayment, which means if you don't have an income, your payments will be $0. No need to hide out abroad unless you really want to.