antipas

Mpp, why exactly do you find this to be totally unethical? I'm not doing this, but I can certainly see the poster's logic in doing so if money could be a decisive factor one way or another. Just wondering

For what it's worth, I'd say you made a smart decision. Having to pay back over 100K in debt (with interest) is, like it or not, going to have a very real impact on your life, and probably your career, that I would think outweigh the pluses hands down. Your other two choices sound much better.

LBJ's most recent Dean was tabbed tabbed as Deputy Secretary of State... each of the three schools has very reputable policymakers, not just Maryland, and each of the schools lands graduates in D.C. To the original poster, if you want to intern at the above agencies or any other DC-based organization during the school year, obviously Maryland is the only school where this is a possibility (you probably shouldn't need anyone to tell you this by now). Of course, based on the list of schools in your sig, it doesn't seem like D.C. location is one of your prime considerations, given that Georgetown/GW/American aren't even on that list. I know CBO at least has summer internships which you can apply for from any of the above. My personal take is that LBJ and Maryland are pretty on par academically, and Georgia too really. Georgia seems a tad more focused on administration than policy analysis for my preference, but that's just my personal impression based on looking through what their graduates were doing career-wise. In terms of fun areas to attend school in, Austin and Athens would both be preferable to College Park, but I don't know how much that matters. That being said, your ultimate career interests and money might be the tiebreaker, in which case I wouldn't fault you for choosing the best deal in UGA or the second best in Maryland. If you're pretty set on working for the agencies you mentioned, then maybe Maryland wins out for the networking opps.

If you don't care about the D.C. network, I think you answered your own question with respect to Georgetown. Duke is a better school than Maryland, and has a measurably lower cost of living to negate some of that cost difference. You can always make trips up to D.C. to see Congress in session, this is hardly a consideration I'd take into account in deciding upon a school. Go to Duke