zourah

I'll gladly blog the visit days for the ones I attend. Also, you remind me of one other selling point made last night that I hadn't heard/considered previously: Dean Uvin spoke about the three levels on which Fletcher trains their students - the intellectual foundations/philosophy, the practical policy planning, and effective hands-on implementation. He pointed out that many incoming MALD candidates are very strong in one (majored in polisci & know IR inside-out, are coming from the field and are familiar with food distribution in Uganda, etc) and can use their time to supplement it with study of the other levels at which one can consider these questions. It was less a statement about the classes than about the school's philosophy, but it was a way of thinking about the purpose of these next two years that I found appealing.

Wow. I hadn't gotten any emails regarding fellowship considerations and assumed that meant no money - and then the admit package arrived yesterday. $17k out of the blue clear sky, after I'd already started to write Elliott off... ...anyone else get surprises in the mail?

I went to the Fletcher reception in NY last night and heard a lot of the same narratives as javajava just summarized. Still, one of the alums there is actually working in DC and only happened to be in the city - but came because he was borrowing the couch of a friend and fellow Fletcherite who invited him along. The relationships really do seem to hold up well, and the sense of community was strong.

...and there's the synthesis. I just read that first post after having spent two days trying to explain to family/close friends why I was still bummed about getting WL at Walsh even after hearing from HKS - there seems to be a lot of magical thinking about Harvard as the perfect institution. So long as my fellow gradcafe denizens are evaluating rationally, I'm totally unsurprised that a good many will decide that HKS is their first choice...I just read that first post and saw the same words I'd been hearing from people who really don't understand these programs very well, and I'm sorry to have implied that anyone here wasn't carefully considering all options.

Whoa here - really? I see you've posted in threads for SAIS and SIPA. Where else are you looking? Can you really honestly rank HKS in some mythical level all its own above these other top-tier programs? The IR ivory tower survey placed SAIS ahead of Kennedy, even. Look, the Harvard name is big. I've come to realize that even more heavily in the past few days, when people who barely knew to be pleased when I got in at SAIS freaked out over the K school. But beyond that incredibly superficial wow factor, is there something that genuinely distinguishes it from your other programs? So far, I don't have funding anywhere - I'll be taking on somewhere around $100,000 in debt no matter where I go, more or less. And yet I'm going to really go look at my other options also, because I'm not convinced that Kennedy is the epitome of everything I want. It's a very attractive option, but this post just makes me wonder how many people get caught up in the legend of Harvard and stop looking at the details of the programs. Now, if you're looking at MPP programs (especially in anything other than IR), disregard this, as I have no understanding of their relative merits.

I think that's the case for everyone, actually...

Watch out - there are a few others on these boards with WL spots, too, and we'll fight you for it I, for one, have already tried offering a few acceptance-swaps, if only admissions committees would respect message board deals...

No, that's exactly how wait lists are supposed to work. In early June, there will be a small burst of movement as people drop their spots to take wait list offers, and then the schools they abandon will in turn go to their wait lists... and so on, until each school is at yield, runs out the wait list, or starts the semester. My question: I'm seriously tempted to put myself on the MSFS wait list. I'm accepted outright at SAIS, HKS, SIPA and Fletcher. Am I just being too much a perfectionist? I really do think it's my #1 (don't worry, not mailing the letter until I've done visit days at the other four - I could well allow myself to fall in love with one of them, I suppose.)

Fellowships are supposed to be doled out April 3, so while need-based aid might still be available to WL, I'm pretty sure everything will have been distributed before they even begin looking at it. This is only my speculation based on the chronological order of these things - no more sophisticated analysis involved. I would so take that. I don't know what my K school aid will be yet (see above), but I'd love to be in DC and yet neither SAIS nor Elliott have really charmed me yet. That, and Georgetown just felt right when I visited a couple of years ago. Accursed wait list!

Well yeah, but then this forum would become quite the marketplace - "I'll give you my HKS if you'll give me your MSFS with aid package." Can you imagine the chaos?

Oh, I wish. Are aid packages included?

Trade you.

Your letter almost certainly will be there today. I'm in Queens and got mine on Saturday (just in time to have one really, really bummed day before K School finally cheered me up).

Which Georgetown program - Walsh or GPPI?

I don't think so - I was rejected two years ago.

IN! This more than makes up for the sorrow of the MSFS waitlist. And for those asking, the email came at 6:10 EST - just didn't make it to posting here right away.

Is anyone else planning to try and make it to that trio of admit days (April 13, 14, 15)? I'd love to plan for company on the Chinatown bus. Alternately, if you can't make it to any of these but have specific questions about the MALD, MA - Int'l Affairs or MA - Int'l Policy programs, let me know - I'll take good notes.

I'd say that while SIPA is somewhat better-regarded, the difference is far, far too small to be worth so much money - UNLESS there's a specific program you feel strongly about (they are different programs in many ways, after all). Visit both and make sure that you won't end up with buyer's remorse wondering if SIPA could have somehow given you more (it's funny how human imagination can ruin even the best of deals in situations like this), then go with Elliott.

Well, the postal service moves pretty quickly. I'm holding my wait list notification...now to figure out what to do next.

I got that letter from Tufts two years ago. Since then, I've spent six months on language studies abroad and a year and a half working. I didn't retake the GRE (and didn't pick up any formal certificate or grades from the language school), kept one recommender - and this year I got accepted there (and at SIPA, where I didn't apply in the previous round). When schools send those letters, they mean it, so don't lose hope.

It's not your fault we're all neurotic here... thanks for letting us know! (Now to see how fast the DC-NY postal link is...)

You do realize that the rest of us will ALL be sitting out stalking the postman tomorrow now, right?

In! No word on funding; also no word on if I got into the capped Int'l Politics or my second-choice concentration. Hmm...

Your guys are really hanging in there (just watch out - after 30 minutes of hell, even Oklahoma has been known to fall apart completely... )

I think the language classes themselves might be through other colleges at GW, but I know that 1) they are available and 2) they do not count towards your degree credits, so you will need to fit them in on top of everything else.