policywife

As someone who works in international development for the USG, I would direct you to a similar thread (is the name worth the cost?) discussion in the "Hearing from KSG" thread. I affirm whoever said that out here in the real world they haven't seen an overwhelming favoring of candidates from the top Ivy schools. Go to a good school, work hard, get in-the-field experience (very very important), learn a language and you'll be just fine.

Definitely don't take my experience as the gold standard, but...looking over the bios of the people here where I work, only 2 went to Syracuse (one is my boss, actually!) While I don't believe that has anything to do with the quality of the school, I think it does have to do with the alumni networks here in DC. That's just my feeling, though. There's a decent-sized California contingent here as well, though this is spread out between USC, Berkeley and UCLA (with a few others in the mix: Davis, Santa Barbara, etc). The breakdown by school also has to do with the ability to get an internship your second year and, quite honestly, students who are from DC schools can easily sign up for part-time spring or fall internships (which are much, much less competitive than summer internships) which can lead nicely into full-time positions. It most certainly doesn't mean that people from out of the city can't also get internships, it's just that the reality is that spring and fall internships are much less competitive and, therefore, easier to land. But here's the real moral of the story: if you're a great student at a well known international affairs/policy/development program, with significant quant and qualitative experience AND have overseas experience (I cannot emphasize this enough), you'll be just fine. Maybe I should look into counseling programs! That would free up my job for one of you...

I would highly suggest reading KSG's page about financial aid. They very clearly lay out that people should be prepared to take on over 120,000 in debt (assuming no financial aid of course). Plus, we all know the cost of living in Boston is, well, not low. Unless you have savings, someone to work and pay for you (spouse, significant other) or are prepared to take on a lot of debt, cost is absolutely something you should think about. Additionally, while Harvard does have loan repayment programs, I believe most (if not all) only last 5 years. You're all smart, you can do the math. Whether this is helpful or not, as someone who currently works in international development for the USG in Washington, DC, you might be interested to know that our office is pretty equally made up of Princeton (how can you turn down all that money?!), Harvard, Georgetown (probably the most), SAIS and SIPA grads. In fact, I would say there's very little difference in the pay and rank of people from these schools.