wasistdas

the SIS admission login page is down for "scheduled maintenance." Spidey sense tells me decisions are a-coming.

washdc, thanks for the offer. 1. Have you started the recruiting process? If so, what are your opinions of the quality of companies that come on campus? 2. You care to elaborate on the negatives of the school? It is hard to get a realistic view of any school. The website shows what the school wants us to think about AU. 3. How is the camaraderie between students? I understand that at some of the top schools, the programs can be pretty cut-throat between students, more law-school-esque. thanks!

No one thinks you will get a good job, or any, at the UN with just a BA regardless of work experience. But then you jump straight to the other extreme of MA + no work experience. Why wouldn't it be both? Work, then MA. I think of most of these MA's the same as an MBA. An MBA without work experience is pretty useless in my eyes, except in certain specializations.

It isn't a coincidence at all. I can only give recommendations based on my own experience and the experiences of close friends and colleagues. I would consider my experience to be an absolute minimum, especially the time abroad (although how you remember my profile is a little.....). After talking with peers at some "dream job" places in both the government and private sector, they also recommended this formula of 5-7 years of working, the back to school, then 10 years of working, then back to school. For those planning on joining the foreign service or working abroad and have never spent more than a half a year from family, expectations might not meet reality. I think the "average" stats at many of the schools reflect this as well, with average ages pushing towards the late-20's almost 30 with work experiencing matching. the most important part, for me at least, isn't getting in to the school, it is competing afterwards. Nearly all jobs postings you will find will say "3-5 years of experience" or "7-10 years of experience" or something along those lines. With a MA you will be overeducated for the first and under-experienced for the second. In the rather vitriolic thread about the poor guy from the law school asking about how to get a consulting job, I think a lot of these ideas were fleshed out. What you say about self-justification is spot on (although that doesn't help me with this recurring dream about an admissions board made up of sharp-toothed teddy bears). That doesn't change the fact, however, that if I applied at any other point in my life, I would feel vastly underprepared. I am sure that if I continued my current track for a couple more years and looked back, I would feel the same way about now. However, at no point would I feel prepared coming right out of undergrad with no work or life experience.

another update from the fletcher blog regarding admissions info: http://sites.tufts.edu/fletcheradmissions/

I take a pretty hardline approach to this and say that no, they are not at all worth it without both at least 5 years of work experience and at least 1 full year abroad. for me, work experience does not mean a 6-month internship/traineeship at a time. The 5+ years of experience gives the individual a chance to really figure out what they want to do, and gives the hiring manager/admissions officer proof that when you say you have initiative/creative thinking/ambition your resume reflects that. The experience doesn't have to be 100% relevant, but should show steady career progression. for the year abroad, I mean actually living and working a real job. 1 semester studying the language at a university doesn't count for me. I have been abroad for nearly 2 years and have only now actually started to become immersed. more than just getting into a top program (which is important), without experience you will simply be under-qualified for the best positions and over-educated (in-debt) to take a low rung job after graduation. This is the most important part, finishing the degree is not even really step one, it is like getting your gear together before going on a long hike.

I agree. I am living in Istanbul and you have about a 50/50 chance of ever getting your mail, and even when you do, it can take 6-8 weeks. My sister sent me a Christmas card last year on December 1st and I only just received it a week ago (the card was postmarked in the US). I see that some schools use an express service like DHL or FedEx, hopefully that will help with the process.

ugh, but then you will have to live/study in Malibu for the next couple of years. It is a rough life.

Unorthodox? I didn't know there was another way. I specifically remember in the SAIS instructions something about Adcomminus being a fickle overlord.

@myrnist: I don't have any evidence other than anecdotal evidence from peers, what I have seen on this blog, what I have picked up off the various schools website. For the MA programs, I have seen very few people with significant funding. Add on to this the substantially higher cost of living in these metro areas, and suddenly even with a substantial scholarship you are left holding a large student loan payment. Of course, the catch is that many of the best internships are in these metro areas. I guess the biggest difference is exactly how far your scholarship goes. A $20k scholarship at Georgetown makes a good sized dent in the cost, but you will still be walking away with a lot of debt. A $20k scholarship at UT-Austin and we are talking something substantial. Assessing the value is, of course, up to the individual. Looking at Georgetown SFS and UT-Austin LBJ: The standard tuition and cost of living for LBJ are already considerably lower than SFS, but so to is the prestige of the program. On the SFS website, it says that they award 20-30% of their students scholarships/fellowships, with a maximum scholarship of $20k. Say they admit 100 people into their program, and give full scholarships to that 30%, giving us $600k in scholarships, best case scenario. Most students are not receiving that 100% tuition. On LBJ's site, they say they give $1 million in fellowships/scholarships. $1million in Austin logically goes a lot further than $1million in DC. These aren't direct comparisons as LBJ is annoyingly vague, but can still be marginally useful. Also available to LBJ as a public school is the out of state tuition waver which immediately makes a significant impact for the student without showing up in their scholarship information. Fletcher vs. UCSD: Directly from the Fletcher site: "Fletcher scholarships typically range from $4,000 per academic year up to full tuition. The middle 50 percent of scholarships awarded are in the $7,000 to $18,000 range. Please note that Fletcher offers very few full tuition scholarships, and assistance to support living expenses is not available." So, half of admitted students receiving a scholarship may expect that money to cover between a 20%-50% tuition based on a tuition of $37k, which, while very generous, leaves the student with a lot of debt after accounting for the high cost of living/tuition. UC San Diego says they provide $1.2 million in scholarships to 25% of their incoming students. With an in-state tuition of just $18k (half the cost of Fletcher even when paying the whole shebang), that $1.2 million goes a LONG ways. Cost of living in San Diego isn't cheap though, especially if you live by the school. GW Elliott: 20% of admitted students receive fellowships/scholarships, but those are not all full scholarships. TAMU Bush School: Average first year scholarship of $5k plus $1k "technology scholarship" to buy a laptop. Plus students get in-state tuition ($11k) saving you $7k a year. I guess it is unfair to call the top-tier schools "stingy." Rather, one would need to get a 50%-100% scholarship at the top schools to match the full tuition price of the less expensive not top 10 schools. I guess it is a bit like someone offering to take $10k off the price of a ferrari or $10k off the price of the honda civic. You are getting the civic for almost free, but you are also definitely not getting a ferrari. Of course, the whole situation becomes a lot more convoluted when factoring % of aid going to Ph.D. students and external fellowship opportunities that are generally associated with the top tier schools. Your points on the competitiveness of the scholarships ring true, but, regardless of this, the total cost of attendance after scholarships are considered at top tier schools compared to those from lower tier schools (sometimes significantly lower) is disproportional. This post is very long, convoluted, at best unhelpful and at worst a waste of time, but it's the best I could do while eating lunch.

My understanding is that funding at any of the schools in DC is rare. Schools outside of DC/Ivies use funding as a recruiting tool to steal away candidates that are perhaps above the schools profile. Sometimes this still isn't as helfpul as it sounds. For example, I received approximately 50% scholarship in tuition from a school, but because the cost of living is so high, it would still be about $30k a year in loans. There are a lot of other threads on the pros/cons of that amount in loans, so I wont go there, but I wouldn't count on a significant enough amount of financial aid coming from the DC/Ivies to make a significant difference.

via email. I had just finished an online interview with another school and was a bit down on myself for not doing as well as I know I could have, so it was welcome news. As I plan on working for the government after, taking out that much in loans despite the $18k a year scholarship is daunting.

University of Denver Korbel School- international security. $18k scholarship, still super expensive school. 1st acceptance so super excited.

ef8763a, I don't know about SPo, but just a few thoughts from a fellow expat in Turkey. If you are in Istanbul, PM me and I will send you a list of NGO's that you might be able to work for, probably on a volunteer basis though. I also know of some volunteer-based organizations badly in need of volunteers, again, in Istanbul Have you looked at Boğazici University in Istanbul? They have a good program that people know regionally (definitely nowhere near the level of the top American Schools or even SPo), so if you are committed to this area, it might be a good fit. Your scores are definitely far and above the average there, plus, as I am sure you know, you will have an in with one of the tighter/more american stuyle alumni groups in Turkey. Either way, I wish you the best of luck, and envy your language skills. My Turkish leaves a lot to be desired.

from the TAMU website: "Shortly after the January priority deadline, the Bush School Admissions Committee reviews all of the submitted applications and narrows the pool of applicants to a manageable number, usually about double the intended class size. Selected applicants are invited to the Interview Conferences in February and March, where applicants have the opportunity to meet Bush School faculty, students, and staff to learn more about the Bush School. Final decisions are announced in mid-March." If you got the email, you made the first cut and now need to make sure you are in the top 50%

Anyone going to the interviews for the Bush School? I got the email invitation yesterday, but won't be able to attend as I live out of the country and even with the generous 25-33% reimbursement, it is still too hefty of a financial burden. They say that not attending won't negatively impact admission of financial aid/scholarship opportunities, but I would think it would be impossible not to, what do you think?

pretty damn well thought out. one thing I would recommend thinking about, however, is the difference between getting in to a program and being able to afford to go. would it not be better to take a few years to gain work experience (while earning money) to make yourself a better candidate for scholarships and non-loan financial aid? Taking out $50-60k per year to pay for a degree and then try to find a job competing with those with many more years of work experience and the same degree while at the same time being restricted by those student loan payments and unable to take a risk on a potentially life-changing job will not be ideal. Working a few years to upgrade your resume (I am a big believer that gre and gpa are more used as disqualifies than qualifiers) will significantly increase your financial aide chances. if you can independently fund your degree, more power to you, but I still believe that you would be graduating with too little work experience to land the job the graduate degree would normally provide. finally, a few years away from the academic/college environment will, without question, help you make sure this is exactly what you want to do.

the "good" nightmare: my wife and I are accepted to our dream schools.... her in Texas and mine in D.C. the bad nightmare: full 8/8 rejection and back to the drawing board

there is no reason not to fill out a FAFSA. Aside from the huge factor of loans as rising_star said, most schools have some aspect of need based aid. That need is assessed by the numbers represented in the FAFSA. It takes all of 15 minutes to complete (as long as you have filed your 2011 Federal Income Tax), and you can have it automatically sent to 10 schools I believe. Also important is to get it in as early as possible, as need based aid is a pot that shrinks year after year and is generally disbursed early on in the process. Or you could not do it and just leave more for me

how were you guys able to complete your FAFSA already? Don't you need your 2011 W2?

exactly what loimographia said. the fletcher school just emailed me saying I was missing my GRE scores, although I thought I had sent them back in July when i took the test. Turns out, I sent them to the wrong institution code, but still within Tufts (i was just a little bit frazzled after the test...). Hopefully it wont be a problem and they will be able to send the numbers from the different department to the correct one. as a side note, the Tufts folks are absolutely amazing with this stuff.

I don't think retaking the GRE would do anything to help, especially since you have proven academic success in calc, stats and econ. It is unfortunate that the dean never got back to you, I would be interested in what he said. Otherwise, just keep your head up, I think anyone would love to have the resume you have, although I know that doesn't help much now. In regards to the name clout, your reasoning is sound. In my opinion, for most of these schools the education is more or less the same from one top tier school to the next, it is simply the brand and the alumni you are buying with your tuition. As an American, not knowing Notre Dame is near impossible.

and this is why I have nightmares about applying. Your resume is obviously excellent, so unless your SOP's were terrible (your writing is clear, so I doubt that is the case), you are just one unlucky bastard. may I ask why you didn't take the 80% scholarship offer from Fletcher? That place is every bit as good as WWS and HKS, but perhaps with even better job placement.

just submit and don't look back. i found a missing word in mine similar to what SNES said, replaced "the Cairo Airport" with what I thought was simply "Cairo." Ended up with, "finally reaching the Cairo, we ..." I don't know if you have ever been to the Cairo, but I hear it is nice this time of year. such an idiot I am.

Since you are no longer in the geographic area, there is no problem requesting recommendations via phone and email. I emailed my recommenders as they are in CA and I am in Turkey. I opened with my name, dates attended and courses I took with them, followed by a request for a strong letter of recommendation. I apologized for not requesting in person, but then explained the geographic limitations. Finally, a sentence about what I am doing now. If they accept, that is the time to reply with more information (CV, grad schools applying to, etc), you don't want to make your first email too long. Also, don't forget to send them a hand written thank you note after.