gomer

If I remember correctly it is two hours and you can jump from question to question, spending as much or as little time as you want on each question.

I'm a current SAIS student and I took the statistics waiver exam last summer. It's a web-based, open note, open book exam. The questions are pretty challenging and require you to apply concepts and do calculations. You can't really study for the tests, but having the subject fresh in your mind helps, so if you took that course years ago then I suggest skimming through a textbook on the subject. Be sure to have one or two good textbooks, a prep or outline book (Shaum's Outline of Statistics was a big help for the stats exam) and plenty of scratch paper and a calculator on hand when you take the exam.

I'm a current SAIS student and I can say that some students dress very casually and other dress up a bit. The DC/East Coast location and the fact that many students intern or attend events around town mean that most people dress nicely. And you don't see a lot of SAIS or Hopkins apparel worn around campus, at least not as much as at the state school where I went to undergrad.

I went to HNC and now am a student at SAIS. Feel free to PM me if you have questions about either program.

Thanks for posting your thoughts, rhodeislander. Wolf Blitzer also spoke at last year's admitted student's day. Videos of the many of the panels at last year's admitted students day went up on the school's website and YouTube channel soon after, so if you missed it keep an eye out for videos online.

I'm studying at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center this year and will enroll in the MA program at SAIS next year. My only SAIS experience so far has been taking microeconomics in DC during pre-term in August. I did met a lot of 1st year students over the summer and there were a number of students who were straight out of undergrad. The majority had 2-5 years of work experience. The website currently says "middle 50% GRE verbal score range has been 158-165 (79th - 96th percentile) and the middle 50% GRE quantitative score range has been 154 - 161 (67th - 86th percentile). For the GMAT verbal score, the middle 50% has been in the 34-42 range, and the GMAT quantitative score has been in 38-49 range. If you're curious to see what the average scores for SAIS were for the old GRE exam, it was 729 Q, 650 V and for the GMAT it was 41V, 46Q (I saved this info on my computer when researching schools a couple years ago).

I received an email on May 16th with my JHU user ID (they called it the "JHED LID"). The email has instructions on how to log in and set a password. Now I can log into https://isis.jhu.edu/ to access info about events, financial aid, registration, etc., and log into http://my.jhu.edu to access my @jhu.edu email account. Did other SAIS '14 students get this email? Next up is receiving the tuition bill and pre-registering for classes in July (at least for students at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, I'm not sure about SAIS DC/BC classes).

Thanks a lot for sharing your impressions, Rose1. I have been traveling abroad for the last month so I couldn't attend any open houses. I was choosing between SAIS and SFS and your thoughts on their open houses reconfirmed my decision to go with SAIS. ms1211, you have a tough choice to make and only a couple days to make it. Yikes! If NYC is a big draw for you, if you can tailor SIPA's broad course offerings to fit your interests, if you can find a niche within a concentration and if you can do internships in the area you're interested in (there are lots of media and foreign policy orgs in NYC), then I'd say SIPA looks like a great fit for you. I got into SIPA but preferred the DC schools over NYC because I want to intern and later work in federal government. I hope you can figure out which school is the best fit given your academic and career interests. Best of luck!

I decided to do the HNC/SAIS 5-semester option a couple weeks ago. When I signed up for pre-term last week I received an email saying that the admin office would send instructions about my JHU user id and login. I haven't received that info yet, but maybe it will be sent out in early May after the deadline to submit the matriculation fee. There is a Facebook group for the entering class at the Hopkins Nanjing Center. It's called "Hopkins-Nanjing Center12-13" -- http://www.facebook.com/groups/287106761372868/

Hopkins-Nanjing Center 2012-13: http://www.facebook.com/groups/287106761372868/ No group yet for SAIS DC

That was my result. I was accepted and learned via email on March 9th. Has anyone else heard from SAIS or HNC? I applied to the 5 semester option at the Hopkins Nanjing Center for the fall of 2012 and SAIS in Washington for the fall of 2013. Maybe SAIS MA applicants are getting their results later than applicants to the HNC/SAIS 5 semester option. I recieved an email from "Sais Nanjing <nanjing@jhu.edu>" on March 9th saying "Thank you for your application... Attached you will find a letter informing you of the Admissions Committee’s decision regarding your application. Additional information, including financial aid decisions, will be emailed to you by early next week and an official copy of the attached letter will be sent to the mailing address you provided." A PDF version of letter from the director of admissions at HNC and the director of admissions at SAIS was attached to the email. The letter said that I was accepted to the two programs I applied to. I am still waiting for the email with financial aid information (I'm hoping that "early next week" means today, Tuesday March 13th). I am also waiting for the official copy of the letter in the mail, but I live in China so it may take 1-2 weeks.

Same here, I was accepted into the MPIA program at UCSD (provisionally accepted for now, until I submit official copies of my transcripts). Still waiting for news on funding.

Schools and Programs Applied To: JHU (SAIS and HNC), Georgetown (MSFS), Wisconsin (MIPA), Columpia SIPA (MIA), UCSD IR/PS (MIA), Texas (MGPS) Schools Admitted To: waiting Schools Rejected From: waiting Still Waiting: all Undergraduate institution: top 10 public university Undergraduate GPA: 3.58 Last 60 hours of Undergraduate GPA (if applicable): 3.69 Undergraduate Major: Political Science and Spanish GRE Quantitative Score: 710 GRE Verbal Score: 600 GRE AW Score: 5.0 Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 4.5 Years of Work Experience: 4.5 Describe Relevant Work Experience: English teaching, marketing, non-profit management, event organization Languages: advanced Chinese and Spanish, some Portuguese Quant: one undergraduate, introductory level class each in calculus, statistics, physics, microeconomics and macroeconomics (with grades of B or higher) Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): hard to do a self evaluation of my statements, good but not great, I guess. Strength of LOR (be honest, describe the process, etc): same as my statements, hard to know, but I think they're all pretty good letters