Kole_Kolt

Lol, no and it's not even close, purely because of money. In addition, UCSD can give you just as good of career options as Georgetown and if anything would be a competitive advantage for Asia and Pacific-focused jobs. 

Thank you for this perspective, I really appreciate it!!

Fair enough. But this is a government affairs forum and we were talking about MPPs and foreign policy oriented master's degrees. When it comes to JDs and MBAs, I'd acknowledge the game is far different.  

Those are strong programs, for sure, but their Ivy League status might as well be divorced from their graduate programs. That poster mentioned SIPA. And while Columbia is a great undergrad, SIPA doesn't place better than Georgetown MSFS or even Hopkins SAIS, neither of which are Ivy. I would also argue that HKS is a cash cow for Harvard proper. But in the end, all of these programs are cash cows to some extent and not worth sticker price.  

Not yet. Haven't heard anything. Just really blessed that I made it this far. Hopefully I can bring this home, but we'll see. The COVID pandemic re-sparked desire to pursue a career in national security (infectious disease), being an Asian-American, and seeing the events in our country in recent weeks; I felt like I have something to fight for... for my family and community. 
I would've had made this far without SSP's support during the application process. There's something special about this program and community. 

My 2 cents: don't go to any of them. Stay at your high-paid tech career, get involved with your community, do volunteer work, write for a blog or online magazine, go to conferences, learn the lay of the land. Then in a few more years, you might consider doing a part time or executive degree. Your prospects coming out of an expensive grad school may not be any better than working a couple more years and you'll have a lot less money. Or delay going by a couple years and get yourself better established beforehand to enhance your exit opps (employers will care most about your pre-grad school experience).
If you absolutely must go, go wherever is cheapest, but don't go to a European school or plan to work in the EU.

Woohoo! See you in the Fall 

I'm deciding between SAIS MAIR and Georgetown SSP. Would you say the same thing about the interdisciplinary focus of SAIS? Really struggling between the two.
My personal priority is to work in the realm of security assistance accountability, monitoring foreign military sales and Leahy Law-type enforcement. I'm a bit quant-adverse and concerned that SAIS' econ requirements could drop my GPA, which would make me lose my scholarship and pay full tuition. 

Those are strong programs, for sure, but their Ivy League status might as well be divorced from their graduate programs. That poster mentioned SIPA. And while Columbia is a great undergrad, SIPA doesn't place better than Georgetown MSFS or even Hopkins SAIS, neither of which are Ivy. I would also argue that HKS is a cash cow for Harvard proper. But in the end, all of these programs are cash cows to some extent and not worth sticker price.  

I would personally recommend MSFS or SAIS then, since it will provide the easiest opportunity to intern at State. Of those two, MSFS seems more intimately connected to the Foreign Service than SAIS, which has a reputation for placing grads in roles like the World Bank and IMF. Ultimately, though, a lot of these differences are negligible and if the price for each program is the same, I would say go to the one you will be the happiest at. If Yale is free and you're in love with the program, then that's the best choice for you. No need to have a cookie cutter resume. 

?Oh, well that’s a bit encouraging, thanks for elaborating.

Yeah, that 3.4 GPA requirement is a bit intimidating. I received a 50 percent scholarship, which would be the driving factor in me attending SAIS, but if I lost the scholarship because my grades slip, then SAIS would by far be the most expensive program for me. It's hard to gauge the difficulty in maintaining that GPA until classes start...

I thought I got rejected at first because every other school says congrats before anything else and they didnt lol

Yeah, I believe its by April 20. The exact language they have is: 
Response Deadlines:
April 20th - Students who have received SAIS scholarship
May 1st - Final Response deadline
Any student who receives their decision letter after the above dates will have 2 weeks from receipt of their decision letter to submit the candidate reply form

For those who received SAIS scholarships, do we need to accept the aid package before the April 20 decision deadline? I'm still trying to decide between programs. 
I sent an email to the JHU admissions office but haven't heard back yet. 

Very cool. Thank you for your perspective!

I loved how personalized the SSP process was.  Payton Tanner, then-Assistant Director of Admissions, was super friendly and answered my many application questions so many times.  She made it very apparent that the program is a tight-knit community--and she was right.  Beyond that, SSP seemed to have more practical and hands-on classes that directly prepared folks to work in national or international security.  I ended up getting into cyber threat analysis, and took some amazing classes within the Tech & Security concentration.

SAIS is an amazing program too, but SSP was the right fit for my interests and my personality.  IMO, you can't go wrong with either.

That's awesome, very interesting career path for sure! Excited to see how you get on. 

Hi thank you for your note! Sorry that I couldn't give you a more sophisticated understanding on the pros and cons as well as the career development of these two programs. I'm still an undergrad, and actually I haven't started thinking about which program is better for me (as I'm also waiting for SIPA and HKS). I'm currently planning for a policy career in security.

I'm leaning hard toward SAIS since they gave me a generous amount of funding and, when paired with my GI Bill, I think it'll be cost neutral. I got into GWU too, but no aid. Still waiting to hear back from Georgetown to make my decision. 

I'm into MAIR in DC with 32k/yr from the dean's scholarship
But does anyone know how hard it is to maintain this 3.4 gpa standard so the scholarship gets renewed in the second year?
I'm a bit nervous about quant classes since that's my weakness historically, and I've been out of undergrad for 5 years.

Got the same award as well (Dean's scholarship for 33k pear yer)! I'm still waiting on hearing from other schools, and then hopefully start the negotiation process to raise the aid amount.
Anyone has some tips for successful negotiation?

Got into DC MAIR with 30k/year!

Yes, got into the same program. Super stoked! Any idea on when those financial decisions will be out?

Where are you all checking this, just in the admissions portal?