Rheana Gray

He’s already making decent money in private sector tech which is admittedly a unique situation as well. I don’t think it’s a poor decision given the context and the terms of funding that GWU had tied to it (the CyberCorps fellowship for GWU requires 2 years of work in a government position post grad so there’s opportunity cost for higher earnings in private sector that were at stake as well.)

My friend just turned down GWU with full-funding to attend SSP instead (with no funding) and he's pretty confident in his choice. It's a very personal decision so you should really try your best to understand and get to know the communities and alumni networks of the programs you're choosing between, SSP has such a strong community that I knew right off the bat that it was the only program I was seriously considering (I went to GWU for my undergrad).

Got a little post card thing in the mail that says applications to SSP were up by 35% this year. So while SFS as a whole experienced 40% increase, the SSP specific increase is 35%. Also in an admitted student session they had mentioned that roughly 160 students were accepted this year.

Woohoo! See you in the Fall

To be fair if you compare it with previous years, way more people are getting funding this year. I heard it was like 5 people total in past years and this year there’s already like 3 people on GC and 2 other people I know personally who’ve gotten it!

Crazy!!! From everyone I’ve spoken to it seems like they’re being especially generous this year funding wise.

No problem!! Congrats, have you decided if SSP is where you're going? It's the only program I applied to lol

Lol if you want to PM me I can send you screenshots as to where to find your letter!

8:39 PM EST ! !

I got into SSP with a ~5k/semester merit award!!!

Oh goodness, "Location:Japan." I'm sure they'll have electronic results available.

This is getting super into the weeds, but I have a UPS delivery that showed up on my account for tomorrow from "WEBB MASON INC." and I have no idea what the package is, hopefully it's an acceptance letter lmao.

Congratulations, but thanks for the heart palpitations!

Nothing from SSP yet.

I seriously think they do it just to mess with us. Every time I see "SSP Admissions" in my inbox I get a mini heart attack

So it was mainly reputation. Having a technical undergrad, SSP seemed to present an ideal opportunity to bridge technical cybersecurity knowledge and policy. I actually learned about SSP after stumbling upon the Georgetown Security Studies Review while doing research for an undergraduate research paper on Huawei and cyber economic espionage. From there i started recognizing that a lot of people I admire in the field graduated from SSP (e.g. Katie Nickels, formerly of Mitre ATT&CK), and after reading Dr. Ben Buchanan's books on the intersection of cybersecurity and statecraft, i really started to get excited about how much SSP seemed to be investing into their technology and security concentration. I'd looked at Carnegie Mellon's MSISPM program but that seemed pretty redundant for me given that I already work in the field and have an undergrad in the subject. The other program I was considering was George Mason for Digital Forensics, but in the end i only ended up applying to Georgetown because I really want to better understand international relations and how geopolitical conflicts influence state sponsored cyber operations. Also the use of emerging technologies such as AI really drew my interest from an ethical standpoint and that's something I decided Georgetown would provide the best opportunity to explore that. Point is, I've been at Cybersecurity in a technical capacity since Junior year of HS, attending NSA/NSF funded residential camps, being an active member of my cyber club, doing a malware internship, and working in cyber risk management, so I didn't feel like there was much to be offered from the more technical masters programs that I couldn't otherwise obtain through job experience. Georgetown also has a Master's in Cybersecurity Risk Management that seems to be growing.

? Okay, are we allowed to freak out now?

Program Applied To (MPA, MPP, IR, etc.): MA in Security Studies - Technology and Security ConcentrationSchools Applied To: Georgetown SFSSchools Admitted To: None yet.Schools Rejected From: None yet. Still Waiting: Georgetown Undergraduate Institution: GWUUndergraduate GPA: 4.0Undergraduate Major: CybersecurityGRE Quantitative/Verbal/AW Scores: n/aYears Out of Undergrad (if applicable): n/aYears of Work Experience: 1Describe Relevant Work Experience: 1 year working in cybersecurity policy and risk management for a government contractor.Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): 9.5/10 - Had about 3 completely different copies initially, final draft was revised by multiple people including 2 PhDs (one of which served on HKS admissions) and alumni of the program I applied to. Really identified niche areas of the program I felt I could contribute to, strong interest in research thats directly based on work done by the concentration head.Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): 10/10 (President of the Company I work for, Director of my undergraduate program who knows my academic strengths and leadership skills very well, and a Professor with over 30 years in the intelligence community who's written LORs for students who successfully were admitted into the program.)Other: President of a student org in undergrad, balanced full-time work and full-time school for multiple semesters while maintaining a 4.0, strong national competitor in cyber competitions, niche technical internship experience.

For all grad programs or MSFS, MPP, or SSP specifically? Everything I heard in the SSP info sessions said mid-march which is why I'm freaking out

Yeah I've never heard of results being released this early. It's likely what you said about it being for the Spring semester (hopefully).

No way! I tried searching for the post and didn’t see it anywhere. I’m so anxious now, oh my gosh there goes my plan of having a productive week ? just kidding, but I’m going to have a much higher resting heart rate now that I know people are hearing back

I know they said mid-march, that still doesn't stop me from checking the grad application portal daily. ?

I applied to SSP (concentration: technology and security) with a 4.0 GPA (technical undergrad, not IR related) from GWU, no GRE, somewhat strong work experience relevant to the concentration in which I applied, solid references, President of a Student Org, and a maybe not so great writing sample. Honestly not sure what to expect. I showed a lot of interest throughout the application process by going to all of the applicant happy hours and other events hosed by Georgetown, but I don't really know if they consider those things. Biggest concern is funding, I had really hoped for the CC SFS scholarship but apparently it's year 5 of it's funding and can only support 2-3 students this year. However, they've applied for renewal and if that gets approved they would be able to fund anywhere up to 11 students. In the scholarship information session they said that they accepted ~12% of applicants last year so with it being even lower than years past I'm not too optimistic.

I noticed that right after submitting my application and this is what I got back from Robert; "On my end, it shows that you've uploaded the 600-word analytical writing sample. This happened to other applicants where the writing sample didn't appear in the final check-list although it had been uploaded!"