dreindc

I am hoping to get some advice from people on this board regarding a decision that I have been waffling on for a few weeks. I hope that other people can benefit from any of the responses, as it probably applies to a number of situations that people are currently in. I have been accepted to all of the schools in the DC/Metro area, and received varying levels of funding from each of them. I have narrowed my choice down to American University's SPA, University of Maryland's SPP, and the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. AU and UMD have offered me excellent financial packages, as well as assistantship positions, that would pretty much cover most of my costs of attending. Georgetown on the other hand has offered me a $12k scholarship. While I am grateful for the scholarship, I would still be required to finance an additional $20-25k for tuition, over the course of the first year alone. I have been experiencing very similar experiences to some of the most recent posters, in terms of not being able to get a word out of the GPPI administration regarding the possibility of additional funding. I have sent several emails over the past month, but I have not received even one response... All of the previous communication that I received, prior to receiving the scholarship notice, was highly cryptic, and I felt that there was a state of confusion on their part throughout the process. I do not know if I should hold on for the possibility of hearing about assistantship opportunities, or whether their silence should be taken as a No. While I do not believe this to be the case, it is difficult to not take this lack of responsiveness to be a sign of the program. It has become highly frustrating to say the least... While writing this my decision seems like a no-brainer decision. However, I have been wrestling with this for the past 3 weeks. While both schools are highly regarded for their programs, the Georgetown name holds a little more weight, once we start moving out of the DC area. I know that many of these topics on the board deal with the major question of how much is debt worth to for a public service degree, but with regard to job prospects, is there any clear cut advantage to say choosing Gtown over AU or UMD? Any advice would be greatly appreciated...