CreamTea

1. Save the money if you go to SPP. 2. Can you get a research assistantship at SPP during your second year? If so, I think it tips in favor of SPP. 3. College Park is not that far and I think you can network a lot if schedule your classes right 4. I've been to visit SPP and I noticed that a lot of professors are practioners so they could help you find an entry point for a Hill job. By the way, I've visited both College Park and GW (Elliot). I didn't apply to Elliot but I applied to College Park because they are more generous with funding. Actually, I lived on the campus for several weeks at the Marriott hotel there. I was working for IFC (part of the World Bank Group) and we had a residential training program that is always based on the campus.

So helpful! Factors: 1) Career services staff to student ratio is very high at WWS 2) Ms. Corwin knows a lot of old alumni Have you ever spoken to Ms. Corwin? What was it like? Was she good a recommeding positions that might suit your interests and did she have contacts at those organizations? I must say that even my undergrad career services office was not good at recommending what positions/organizations to look at

Well, it was just in the constituency in a small midwestern city in the middle of nowhere. I don't know if the rules would be different in DC. The senator is quite prominent though. The odd thing is that I get the feeling that i didn't have to compete with a lot of people for that spot.

Me too- without funding in the equation, I like how small the class size is and how good the career services office is Also, I like how committed the entire school is to public service. I don't think they have a lot of students who want a public policy degree but don't have any goals to use it in the public interest

You can also start from the consituency itself. When I was an undergrad in the Midwest, I easily got an internship offer in the district for the senator. If I remember correctly, all I had to do was send my resume and write a sample letter on why we should qualify for a grant for our fire department. I did a little research, wrote the letter, had an interview which focused on the senator's activities and was offered the unpaid internship. The only problem was that I am a foreign student and in order to take it, I'd have to get course credit for it, meaning I would have to pay tuition for an unpaid internship. The advisor/professor at the political science department at my university, where the job was posted, thought it was nuts to pay to work (and I did too) so I turned it down. Anyway, I ended up interning for a member of parliament in London and that was also cool but also unpaid.

I am very unhappy with LKY and quite ready to just drop the whole application. I've pretty much settled on a school anyway. After almost a month (I wrote to them on March 10th), they finally reply saying that they can't find my GRE scores and one of my references. Frankly, I don't feel like asking my CEO to send it again after it has already been announced that I am leaving.

Thanks 1.99! This is what I was looking for. So apparently, WWS career services is able to give their students a leg up in the process. When I was an undergrad, our career services office would secure about 8-16 interview slots for our university's students only. They also gave lots of "empty" advice but securing interview slots was what I loved the most about them We didn't have to compete with students from other universities for these slots. I work for an NGO and I used to work for IGO and I agree, the interview is the key to everything. HR people are wading through hundreds of resumes and if they don't happen to look at yours, it doesn't matter how experienced you are. Did the WWS students say how the career services office is able to do these things: do they work solely through the alumni or is it because they have employer-school relationships? Basically my question is: if I work hard and network through alumni, would I be able to replicate the same thing or do the employers do it as a favor to the career services office in exchange for them providing a stream of qualified candidates every year? Retail or wholesale approach? When I was an undergrad, our remote location worked in our favor because the recruiter would spend the night in a hotel nearby and he would make the most of his time by interviewing as many students as he could since he had to make the trip out. I wonder if the same thing applies to Princeton, NJ Unfortunately for me, my target employers are all in DC but Georgetown didn't give me any funding so I am going to SIPA (and very happy to be doing so!) but the NYC edge is only helpful in that I can take the bus to DC frequently.

Thanks Vincehoward but I am actually looking for more information on the career services side of the equation rather than the students side. If people have praised WWS career services specifically, I am assuming it is because they did something to help the already amazing students. I have sufficient work experience so that is not a concern but my undergrad university had excellent career services (I think it ended up being ranked #2 by some magazine) but as a business major, I naturally focused on those jobs. As a policy school- how does WWS career service work?

So far, I think WWS has won the most praise for having great career services. Is that because they can arrange a lot of on campus interviews? Or is it because the staff have direct contact with recruiters? Piquant and BDKK, I'd love to hear in what ways they are great. I wasn't accepted to WWS and will probably go to SIPA (one school whose career services is decidedly not good- I've asked several current and former students) so I'd love to know what I am missing out on so I can try to make up for it. And for heaven's sake, there must be something other than networking that I/we can do to increase our chances, right?

Cockroaches- lots of them and horrible smelling hallways read the yelp and yahoo reviews for international house

What are your other options? Why is it between MIT and HKS? What about MSFS, SAIS, etc. In my case, I went to Notre Dame for undegrad and borrowed over $80k. I was able to pay off half that by working in finance right after graduation. I don't like working in finance but I am interested in development finance so it was not a big problem for me. If you are the same, it might be worthwhile to work in consulting or finance for a year or two post MPA/ID especially if you live in a country where that gives you a lot of credibility. However, if you really don't want to do consulting or finance, please consider MIT, MSFS, SAIS, etc. This time around, i don't want to work in finance after grad school just to pay off grad school so financial aid is a huge factor in my decision on which school to attend.

Hi all, So I've ran a search on gradcafe and see that there are several individual posts asking or wondering about the quality of living at I-house but they are scattered in different threads. Hence, there has never been a definitive answer to the question of whether I-house sucks or not. As an incoming SIPA student currently living in Asia, I am desperate to know if I-house is indeed a bad choice. Any input?

I am attending SIPA. Any news on International House? Who is living there right now? Is it clean? I've heard horror stories but I really want to consider living in the South building rooms

Haha, the Chinese students I took it with finished in just 15 minutes. They found it so easy! That's odd. They told me they'd get back to us by early April

What kind on second year funding is available? i am still trying to decide on fletcher's offer...

One of my options is to attend SIPA and Lee Kuan Yew School to do a dual degree. MPP and MIA I am really keen to study in Singapore because of my personal interest in the country itself. For SIPA students out there, I've heard the career services leaves much to be desired but for those who successfully secured DC-based jobs in development organizations (like the YPP programs or IBRD/IFC positions) when is the best time to be in NYC so I can travel to DC frequently? First year- to secure summer internship with target organization Second year- to go through the recruitment activities I worked for IFC in the field offices and for China, the internships are really important in getting a foot in. In fact, I think it one of the main ways IFC Beijing sources full time staff. However, I have no idea how it works in HQ. As for IBRD, (if I should be so fortunate) I prefer a non-YPP job. I would rather work for a fixed department Thank you

1belle, I am from the Philippines too! I work in Beijing now. Send me a private message so we can connect

I think it is only $3K but I want to do the dual degree program so will probably spend only a year at SIPA. I really hope I can take someone else's slot.

Oh, bummed to know I did not get into IFP I wonder if there is a waitlist for it. If someone declines to attend, is there hope I can take their slot? Oh, I just saw that you applied for MPA. Should I go hold onto to tiny hope that they have not decided MIA IFP yet? Are you going to accept gatsby8724?

Oh, I'm not saying anything about Heller. I'm just saying that I am not factoring it into my comment since the post was just about HKS or SIPA. MIA

I've been working for almost 6 years and that includes three years in the World Bank Group. That also includes 2.5 years in China. I would say that in China, the Harvard brand means a lot. It's up to you to quantify it but it is certainly worth at least a few thousand dollars more than Fletcher or Georgetown, etc. For example, there is a government ministry here that only takes MIT and Harvard interns. I am not kidding. My colleagues sort resumes (first cut) according to how famous the school is and let's face it, there are very few jobs where only MPP/MPA types apply. In most cases, lots of MBA types apply and the person sorting the resumes could have an MBA and have no clue which policy programs are best. And more examples of why it is valuable, it's very case specific I guess. Perhaps it matters more in China/India than it would in the US.

Did anyone get into HKS (MPP) and SIPA (MIA) but with no or little funding from both?

I got in with $20K fellowship . I got the news past 6pm New York time (what is going on?) I am still waiting on International Fellows. For SIPA, acceptance to a special (i.e. smaller) program is important to me because I don't want to get lost in the sea of students. It's a major factor in my decision making process. Has anyone heard back on the International Fellows Program?

Ignoring the fact that you got an offer from Heller, I would go with HKS MPP for 40K. No question about it

I am but it is 2:00am here so I am going to sleep! hope i get good news when I wake up