senatorsmith85

God, I was freaking out because of this but got an email at 4:05 central time offering admission and a 10k scholarship.

there are 2 (one just says "Goldman School"

anyone want to claim UCLA MPP?

Second everything said by 1.99. I'd also add that WWS isn't about just checking off all the right boxes--it's about checking those boxes and them deciding you're one of the 60 most qualified public service leaders who applied and there aren't two people with better versions of your profile. NOBODY can assume a WWS admission--the real perplexing issue isn't "why was I rejected?" The proper question is "why was I accepted?" If prestige is so important, I'd apply to less competitive programs that are hooked to bigger university names. Yale Jackson springs to mind, but then just random East Asian studies programs or whatever attached to Harvard, Berkeley, Columbia, and other brand name schools. If these folks don't know what Fletcher is, then they won't understand that you're not attending the most prestigious IR programs in those countries and will just fawn over those university names.

it does seem though that rejections went out on the same day...meaning you're probably in good shape if other people start recording rejections and you haven't heard a thing. also ppl mention receiving an email "strongly implying" admission...

So who thinks Berkeley will be sending out emails today?

Oh interesting--completely forgot that they had a different Masters program. I just need one acceptance and then I can return to being human again (I hope).

If you search under "policy" it should be like the fifth one down. Duke Sanford School Of Public Policy, Masters (F12) Accepted via Website on 1 Mar 2012 ♦ I 1 Mar 2012 I checked the website and I couldn't find anything.

Anyone want to claim the Sanford MPP admission?

Somebody mentioned on another thread that last year all the early March notifications were international (marked with an "I" or a "U"), which is true. The single acceptance also has an "I". All the Americans heard at more like 3/18. So as a domestic student, I'm not expecting to hear anything for a long long time. As soon as someone posts an acceptance with an "A," however, I'll go nuts.

Who here was furious when they realized it was going to be a leap year (and thus theoretically an extra day of waiting at some schools)?

As somebody who doesn't know a thing about consulting, I have to say that this thread has provided entertainment by the truckload for the rest of us. Keep it up!

Never heard of one and must be a good sign! My uneducated guess this late in the game is that it has to do with a fellowship or there's something in your app they want to know a bit more about (and they're clearly interested in you).

It may be the case that the real advantage of the Dean's Scholarship is the earlier notification, not the $90k...

Fuck...that ruined my Friday--now I'll be hitting refresh on the results page until 6 (Central time is the devil...). It seems that a handful of people heard when the PhD folks did in early March and then everybody else got an email telling them they'd hear 3/18-22. AND it seems a disproportionate number of those early notifications got the full-tuition Dean's Scholarship. So maybe they let Dean's Scholarship winners know earlier than the rest?

Why can't they just email it--saving money that they can roll into funding packages and the time you freak out over? I don't understand some of these admissions people!

I assume that this indicates that this year's HKS decision will be later than last year's.

I'd recommend applying for the Foreign Service then pretending you didn't. That is continue to apply to graduate school/look for other jobs/your life as if you hadn't applied since being on the waitlist can be such a limbo. If you get the call, it's a lifetime gig so there's no problem screwing some people a little but by breaking a job commitment or deciding not to go to graduate school even if you've sent in a deposit if you're comfortable with that.

The OP's post is from two years ago and her friend is probably finishing up her master's program and thinking about jobs now. news2yous bumped it to bring up the issue of paying for a MA when you get little funding. We've been having a discussion about the issue over here:

Lots of good points here. I think it's definitely quite possible there's some bookcooking on HKS's part especially with the self-reporting and dual degree issues. MYRNIST also makes a good point about it seeming easy to pay $14k per year while youre single and childless. Nevertheless, I think it's important to distinguish between a mortgage and a graduate degree. While a MPP certainly doesn't deliver the earning power of a JD or MD, it certainly does deliver SOME earning gains. The question is if they're high enough to justify the annual debt payments. If the gains were high enough, they would even make it easier to have children and a mortgage (as is the case for a MD). Are the earning gains from an MPP (or IR degree, dont think it matters here) less than 138k or 14k per year for ten years? I think in most cases it does deliver those kinds of earning gains especially when you remember that BAs working in public policy or IR often have very little upward mobility. I think the real issues are: 1. Risk. I think that on average, you can earn $14k more per year with a MPP than without one. The problem is that average=/everyone and you're definitely risking that you may be one of those folks. 2. Often if you get into a HKS, you couldve gotten into a lower ranked school that would throw some money your way. Then you have to start weighing whether HKS or whatever is worth paying say 5k a year more for ten years than Duke's Sanford School. I think that's really a case by case basis. If you all think that 100k is too much debt, what do you think the acceptable cutoff is? I find it more helpful not to think in terms of the big number but the annual payment and then work backward from there.

I've always thought it insane to take 100k in debt to pursue a MPA and MPP. I think a lot of people on this board agree. I've been doing some thinking about it however and my brain thinks it could be a good idea for some while my gut is telling me "hell no." I'd be curious to know why my brain is wrong. Say you're making 45k two years out of college--standard pay for a research assistant or lower-level advocate at a non-profit (at least in DC). You get into HKS's MPP program, taking on 100k in debt, which according to this student loan calculator comes to $138,000 with an annual payment of $13,800 ($1,150 per month). The median salaries for a first year HKS MPP grad are 60-65k for federal government, 80-85k for local government, 55-65k for international organizations, 50-55k for non-profits, and 95-100k for private sector. Someone with 100k of debt clearly couldn't take the below median non-profit jobs, but the federal government, local government, international organization, and private sector medians all seem perfectly OK. Given that many of the career paths MPPs pursue become kind of dead end without a masters degree (a research assistant at the Urban Institute isn't going to get far with a BA), doesn't paying 14k a year for a salary that's at least as high make sense? It's also quite possible that right after grad school is the low point of the wage premium a MPP would enjoy--that five years down the line a MPP could help you earn a lot more--I have no idea. It's obviously hard to compare the economics of going versus not going ten years down the line, but it now seems not insane to me. Now, tell me why I'm wrong!