went_away

Lol at Kennedy / SIPA prices. Such an easy choice. Go to Jackson.

You're graduating into the best job market of the last 20+ years AND coming out of an incredibly powerful university. What a privilage. Don't waste this historic moment hunkered down in grad school. Do some good internships, get some quality job experience under your belt, and save your money.

This is great, current info from someone within the MSFS program right now. Your effusive feedback matches my impressions that the MSFS program outperforms SAIS/Fletcher MALD/SIPA. My caution extends to all programs in this field (except maybe Princeton and Yale): the career and earning prospects of international affairs degree holders are outweighed by their cost. Take Freedom House - a mid-level management position at the DC HQ will pay less than $80k (for someone with 2-3 years experience and a fresh master's degree think closer to $40-50k). My exhortation from the above would be for IR folks to look carefully at our field's (generally terrible and competitive) job market and what skills and experience will truly pay off in combination with an ostensibly elite degree. In my experience and observations: veteran's preferential hiring status, a special government hiring route or fellowship, a security clearance (ideally a top secret at least), a technical cert like the PMP, a solid/unique combination of skill sets (check out Neil Irwin's book, How to Win - great resource on combining skill sets to be the most competitive for a particular job). As always, remember that foreign policy and diplomacy are still a rich man's game. Who your father is and your last name will matter far more than any of the above - just check out the Council on Foreign Relations permanent member list (if you went to Harvard/Princeton/Yale/Stanford undergrad none of this matters - you'll be fine).

Glad to hear you and your friends have done so well...

And those jobs mostly don't exist anymore for anyone but veterans, members of the brahman class, and recipients of special and diversity hiring programs.

You mention the private sector multiple times. Why not do a program that's aimed at getting you there? Any of these top-30 MBAs would give you better private sector career outcomes than SFS/SAIS/SIPA - https://poetsandquants.com/2018/11/14/2018-mba-ranking/3/. Without the possibility of getting a security clearance and lacking U.S. citizenship, I think you're really setting yourself up for disappointment (not to mention a massive expenditure of money followed by a series of unstable, low-paying jobs) if you attend one of those programs and attempt to forge a public service career in the U.S. The reputation of the Georgetown MSFS program is mostly built on the number of graduates it has sent to the foreign service and that is a path that is mostly closed now even to U.S. citizens, much less a foreign national.

Probably still worth it. Ideally it tops out as an 11 or better after a couple years. I would still be skeptical of any hand shake government job offer until you're in the seat, even a 7.

The so-called job offer sounds shady, fake and/or tentative at best. If however it is legit I'd say this is a no-brainer for Georgetown.

An MPA makes less than 0 sense for you unless you're extremely wealthy and interested in the degree for its own sake. Gates Foundation is the type of place you could go work with your background. There are also any number of higher tier international development organizations that would consider you at the director level.

I would say it's solidly at the bottom of the top tier and competes on price, schedule (evening classes), location, and wide availability of classes. Weak points are student quality and career outcomes. It's a sort of you get what you make of it program. I will also say I have hired some of their professors for teaching gigs and been quite impressed with their academic quality.

Great work! Sounds like you got the best offer from the best school.

In order to be able to give you any kind of useful answer, you would need to give a detailed breakdown of each school's scholarship offer and total cost, as well as your past experience and career plans. Also would be useful to know your current financial situation (debt, earning power, financial obligations).

It is a long-standing theme of my posts. Just take a look at the history for more info. Briefly, what sorts of jobs do you expect grads of these programs get, how difficult is it to get those jobs (i.e. how many job openings are there per graduate), and how much do you think they get paid....in short, there aren't many jobs, they don't pay well (at least not for the first several years generally), and an elite master's degree has much less influence than other factors do for your odds of success. Typical jobs for someone 1-2 years out of their MA program (and who had 2-5 years professional experience prior to their degree) are: State Deparment/DoD contractor (though you need a clearance for this - a grueling process many can't get through) making $60-85k, terrible benefits, and awful job security; think tank/NGO type making $40-65k (not enough to live on in DC/NYC) with long hours and so-so benefits; doing World Bank short term contract (STC) working contracts for 3-6 months at a time on subsistence wages and few to no benefits; some kind of "social good" enterprise, same deal as the think tankers. Things that influence your chances of success MUCH more than any elite grad degree: - Veteran's preference (especially former officer) in U.S. federal hiring. - Studying something useful on the job market in undergrad and having experience in that field (engineering or computer science). Relatedly, having studied anything at all at an ultra elite undergraduate institution (think Harvard/Stanford/Princeton). - Gaining access to a diversity or eliteness focused U.S. federal hiring program like a Rangel Fellowship or a PMF. - Having rich and well-connected parents who know how the game played and how to play it for you. This makes a huge difference even if your father wasn't an Ambassador, Admiral or Senator. Just being a retired Colonel can be enough to ensure your offspring get a great job in this field.

My original post lays out the sources I considered. Do you disagree with the ranking or any particular school or do just believe it's not possible to rank them at all? If the former, give us your opinion and supporting evidence. If the latter you'll need to consult a professor of epistemic uncertainty.

lol I love Fletcher and think OP would thrive there, but a full tuition scholarship really can't be argued with considering the extraordinarily weak job market for graduates of elite international affairs programs.

GW is the weakest of the three but that doesn't matter as you've got the federal job in hand. If they're offering you a full tuition scholarship, that is *definitely* where you should go. I would recommend picking up some part time work to avoid additional debt beyond what you already owe.

Number one, Kennedy is a better school than Fletcher or SIPA in terms of professional outcomes and prestige. Number two, they offered you more money. There's zero question of where you should go. You will have plenty of opportunities to develop an international focus while at Kennedy and I would also recommend you cross-register for a couple Fletcher classes. Enjoy!

Your verbiage and hostile tone are uncalled for. Having said that, I share your general skepticism about the professional utility of these programs, but wouldn't go quite so far as to say it doesn't matter which one you go to. Some schools and programs do produce better professional outcomes on average than others and these conversations are an attempt to shed light on that and bring a greater sense of accountability.

I don't really have anything else to add other than you should probably go somewhere else for school on a full tuition scholarship unless you're quite certain that Kennedy will land you an engagement manager position at Mckinsey/Bain (i.e. paying in excess of $150k annual straight out of school). Of course, if your family is rich and generous none of my analysis matters.

No clue. Probably somewhere below NYU and somewhere above Virginia Tech (I'd probably put NYU at or a little below the Elliot School's ranking). A full tuition scholarship would of course significantly alter the calculation for an accepted student.

I would rank Harris a fair bit higher than SAIS (on par with or higher than Kennedy) and would say going into big debt to go to any of those schools is an outrageously bad life choice.

It's just a different kind of degree with a different student demographic. If you go to a happy hour with Fletcher/SIPA/Kennedy grads, the difference becomes clear pretty quick (Kennedy kids focused on domestic policy not so much international).For whatever it's worth, most Kennedy grads I've met tend to be in much better jobs than grads from those other 2 schools (they also tend to have an insecurity/chip on the shoulder issue that seems to stem from their dramatically lower social prestige status than Harvard undergrads and MBAs, but that's another story).

$$$ UCSD is a perfectly decent school. In fact, it's quite great and the weather's better. Barring ridiculous amounts of family money, it's hard to overstate what an easy choice this is (though I would strongly consider Harris with an 80% tuition scholarship).

There is zero doubt NYU is the better offer. None.

I would strongly urge you to give it another shot and try to get into Jackson or Wilson. Much better schools than SAIS and much, much, much better funding. Also, your offer at SAIS is better than anything you'll ever get from SFS. Edit - just re-read it and see you may have a research coordinator offer at HBS. In that case it truly is a no-brainer. Put off grad school for another 1-2 years, build the resume and savings and get a better offer next time around.