Clay Made

What do you expect them to tell you? Career placement varies so much at a place like SAIS. I think you'll find more about placements by simply checking out LinkedIn and reaching out to alums once at the program.

The wait has been friggin unbearable!!!!!!!!!

Negotiating is really standard. It doesn't make you look greedy. At least, if you're not totally clumsy or rude about it, it shouldn't make you look greedy. Most grad students are offered near poverty level salaries, so if you already have student loan debt, are supporting dependents, etc, it's completely reasonable to want to try for more. And it's also totally reasonable to factor funding into your decision, especially when you're deciding between two or more otherwise similarly appealing programs. I'd say go for it.

In at SAIS, GWU, Fletcher, Yale and Denver Korbel! Congrats to everyone. Tried my best to stay off this site for the past few days to avoid anxiety!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh! A little worried then. Perhaps should email them tomorrow then. I am right in thinking they do inform all applicants about materials, whether completed or missing?

Anyone hear from SAIS in relation to their application materials being complete? I'm quite anxious to know! I might drop them an email tomorrow but just wondering...

Bump!

@hopefulodi Yep, in the same situation. my friend has been a little tardy with getting it back to me so I've asked a few fellow gradforum users to help! I'd be interested in swapping statements if it might be helpful. Definitely would be for me. Let me know

Exactly the same!! 600 words is a nightmare and a blessing too!!! I think mine is OK. Interested in swapping?

The Quant questions are incredibly difficult! I was just wondering whether anyone else had any success with it.

Anyone in the process of writing theirs? Or even completed the essay? Need some critical eyes on my one! How did you guys find it?

Bump, lets get this thread going again!!

Anyone interested in exchanging SOPs so soon to the deadlines? Would really appreciate the help. PM me and I can send it via email. More then happy to do the same for you (as many users here already can attest to!) Thanks and happy new year to everyone!

The prompt is pretty clear on both questions to answer them adequately but I found this to be pretty useful. http://saisbolognaadmissions.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-analytical-essay-youll-want-to-read.html

I'd be interested to hear views on this. From my brief chats with admissions and students, I gather they hold a lot of events and most students are seasoned 'networkers' that they make the best of the opportunities available to them. If OP is considering that the careers service will find him a position, I think you'll be in for a shock. Although careers services fluctuate from the good to the bad across grad schools, most students end up leveraging their own connections to gain positions. SAIS is my number 1 choice so I'll definitely appreciate someone to correct my perception if I'm wrong.

Congrats on your score! Its more a case of forgetting formulas and tricks and eventually giving up on the problem. Some I can salvage through general artihmetic but math is not my strong point. It is a little reassuring about your last part but I feel I am missing some key things, especially when I go back and review my answers. I'm finding it hard to consume the information.

So the GRE is practically around the corner and I seemingly cannot stop sucking at Math. Even general concepts seem to get lost for me. The biggest obstacle I think is that the little techniques given by books just do not stick in my head and I end up screwing up questions. I'm using Manhattan GRE. I'll give you an example. I'm doing the problem set questions in those books, and even for the somewhat 'easy' questions, I end up getting like 12 out of 20, when I need to hit something like 18 out of 20 really to have a realistic shot at my school choices. What can I do? Really worried I may end up with a really low score (practice test thus far has hit 154Q)!!!!! EDIT: I'm a reapplicant and my scores last year were better but they didnt hit the aid targets I needed so retaking.

40% of SAIS students head into the private sector so depending on your interests, it can be lucrative.

When I applied last year, they mentioned the top 30% get aid ranging from $7k to full tuition but I would imagine most fall on the low side.

Well said. I do disagree on GWU being as good as Fletcher or SAIS because its not but that's not really relevant to this discussion. I agree with everything else. Personally, I found Harris to be terribly managed when it came to adcoms. Time after time they ignored emails, didnt respond to calls and generally caused me to reject their offer. I was given moderate aid by Chicago and I did really like the school. However, the experience I had with adcoms really put me off the school. They do a terrible job selling the school, there's completely false information on their website, and in general it makes the school seem second rate. Now the professors on the hand were excellent in selling the school (which is the word of a friend I trust who is at the school now) so there's that. The point I'm making is that aside from being badly run, Harris is quite stingy with their aid. I attempted to leverage aid I received from a different school to gain more but I didnt actually receive a response!!! But everything MYRNIST said is correct. Its relative to the quality of students they encounter and review. I just felt you ought to know how Harris operates before you place all your eggs in one basket!! Good luck.

I was accepted and considered the school before settling on Fletcher. A few points: Poor communication from the people involved - Harris' are ridiculously bad at answering emails, returning calls, taking calls, and just general etiquette I would expect from a school that I'm committing 2 years of my life too and over $80k. The two directors are extremely incompetent (as it appears on the face of it anyway), have very little dialogue between them so to the point that when they actually do return an email, they provide contrasting information. Incredibly frustrating. And just bad form really. Why would anyone consider your school when the representatives are awful? The admissions team are just as bad, in particular the coordinator. Little aid - I was given very little aid, and in addition I was given no reason for it. From experience reading these forums and friends who have gone to grad school, after explaining about how aid compares from various schools, a school may be more accommodating. Predictably, I received no response. Inaccurate information - the website is littered with incorrect information. Information, which when I sought clarification on, I was given another answer. Even an updated website, and confirmation that said information was wrong, it still remains on the website. In the 2012 incoming class, I know of at least 6 people not accepting their offer because of similar reasons to my own. The real shame is that, the faculty is tremendous and gives a great and more welcoming perspective on the school when I spoke to them at a visitation.

Great! Anymore?

Also in the exact same scenario. Never considered this at the time of applying, as I thought the admits were the difficult thing. I have no aid from MSFS, but decent aid from all my other admits. My no.1 choice was SAIS but was rejected due to some issues, so I'm not sure what to do. Having spoken to the SAIS director of admissions, it was intimated to me that, aside from a mishap with my application, I would have been accepted as they evaluated my file but couldnt offer admission. Now the veracity of this I cant confirm but it just messed with my head further. The only saving grace for me is I'm waiting to hear from the Fletcher School still so things could dramatically shift. Fingers crossed. I just accepted a great job so it seems much more prudent to wait and reapply for Spring at least but likely next Fall.

Chicago Harris - http://www.facebook.com/groups/377985535568436/ Tufts Fletcher - https://www.facebook.com/groups/276276539085355/

Hi guys. As we're nearing the deadline for our respective choices, I thought it'd be a good idea for prospective students to connect and find out more about plans for their attendance. Please enter all Facebook groups for any school under this banner. Better to combine them all rather then have individual threads! Thanks!