dmacd99

SAIS and SIPA both have good figures for putting people into the private sector, though SIPA is slightly better (47% v. 40% last year). Given your interests, I'd say SIPA would be better due to location (the networking advantage is big), and because you have the option to structure a more quant&finance-heavy curriculum than SAIS if you want. however, I have to agree with the others, I don't think those advantages outweigh 70K.

Those are great financial aid numbers, congrats. I'm deciding between the same schools except harvard, but much less aid. If you have such specific interests, you should get in touch with the career services office at each place and see how many people they place in those kinds of jobs. Also, those programs all post employers of their graduates on their websites. But the careers offices could more specifically answer your question. They make a lot of money out of these programs so I've found them to be responsive. You should also check out the curriculum of each program, professors, etc. Personally if all else were equal I would go where there was the most funding. But I suspect that after research you'll find that certain programs better suit your interests. For DC think tanks it's hard to beat SAIS, their people are all over. And even if HKS is a bit better, the difference wouldn't be worth 100K to me.

My decision is between SFS/SIPA/Fletcher/SAIS. As has been said in part, SFS is largely a State department feeder. I actually know one guy though who went from SFS to goldman sachs as an entry-level analyst, but he said that was extremely rare, and said that if you're interested in banking then he would only recommend an MBA. Of the schools I mentioned, SAIS and SIPA have the best private sector numbers (40% and 47%, respectively). SFS and Fletcher are more like a quarter of grads going into the private sector. If you are dead-set on a policy career, SFS might be better. If you want private sector though, SIPA would probably give you more options. I've heard SFS is pretty narrowly focused, but then I've only talked to 5 or 6 people.If the job you're looking at would be a step toward what you want to do long-term, then I would definitely try to defer. SIPA has a detailed doc on their website, basically it says that deferrals are case by case.I was also looking at working before attending SIPA, to save money, but it wouldn't be a step forward career-wise, so I'm just gonna go into more debt but I'll be doing what I want to do a year earlier (hopefully).not sure if it's a factor for you, but the average age at SFS is younger than SIPA. SFS takes a good number of kids out of undergrad, and I've heard there are actually SFS undergrads in some of the classes.