angikuni

Just to be open with my bias--I am a second-year Goldman student and don't have any first-hand experience with the Kennedy School.
 
While it's true that the Kennedy School definitely has a branding advantage over the Goldman School, GSPP has opened many doors for me personally. I've been able get very substantive experience in DC (I interned on a Congressional committee last summer and fall and will be working at OMB this upcoming summer). In both instances, my coworkers and bosses expressed very high regard for Berkeley (though it was never really clear to me if they meant the university or Goldman itself). It's true that most GSPP'ers stay in California, but I think there is some selection bias at work. A number of my classmates were California residents before school--meaning GSPP was essentially free compared to other policy schools--and the rest of us out-of-staters quickly discover how nice northern California and the Bay Area is once we get here.
 
But if you put the work in, there is no shortage of opportunities in DC. While, it sometimes felt like I could have spit in any direction in DC and hit a HKS grad, GSPP does have a small, but mighty alumni network. The silver lining of GSPP's small size is that our alumni are very responsive. Every single alumnus I reached out to in DC met with me, introduced me to other important people, offered advice throughout various application processes, and, in general, has been very generous with their time. 
 
Now the following are just anecdotes, so please take them with huge grains of salt, but I have had several friends and coworkers who graduated the Kennedy School tell me that it is possible to sort of elide some of the harder quantitative content at HKS. That's not really an option at GSPP. The core curriculum is going to force you to wrangle with statistics, OLS, and more complicated forms of econometric analysis. But, like I said, those are just second-hand anecdotes, and Goldman is also far from perfect curriculum-wise.
 
Then there is the issue of cost, which has more than anything else to do with your individual preferences. My HKS friends took out 100K in debt at 6.8%. I am going to be able to come out of Goldman with less than half of that amount. (I've worked every semester to qualify for fee remissions). Is my degree less prestigious? Yeah, it is. But I have a lot of great career options, as well as the luxury of taking a lower paying job that I believe in instead of having to take a more lucrative private-sector job to pay off my debts.
 
(And if you're real concern is acquiring the "keys to power," apply to law school. You'll save yourself a lot of grief). 

I can sell you some "keys to power" too if you want.

Let me guess: you have zero work experience.

Get work experience. 

Healthy discussion so far. In my case, I'm heading to Duke for an MEM (if you're not familiar, it's basically an environmental MPP).
 
In addition to the debt you may accumulate, try simply typing out what you'll get for your money. Is it literally just the degree (e.g. some coursework and not much else)? How many resources does the program have that can enhance your career prospects, marketability, and network? I'm quite pleased with how my money will be spent (roughly 65-70K after a decent funding package), as I'll be able to make it go a long way -- but that isn't the case for every program.
 
Further, your starting salary isn't going to be your permanent salary. If you chose to work in the public sector, PSLF and IBR might be plausible. It's hard to recommend them with absolute certainty given the machinations of the government, but it's in effect now and hopefully will remain so.
 
vincehoward: MPPs and similar degrees are still professional degrees. JDs don't confer an automatic ability to practice law, the bar exam does. And I'm sure you know the state of the legal market and the insane costs of law school. MDs are a much larger investment than our degree choices and a wholly different field. I also wouldn't put the MBA on a pedestal, either: there's been plenty of discussion regarding the utility of it and, frankly, MBAs are running around everywhere.

The reason there's no advice is because there isn't that much to say. You applied to a bunch of non-IR focused schools. Yet you want to not just do IR, but a quite specific branch of IR. Unsurprisingly, your options are not very good.

Goldman and UCLA are not IR-focused. LBJ is a solid school for US applicants, but has about zero name recognition in China. If you can do CMU DC track, that might be the best since it's a legit IR program with the DC networking factor, but they are not particularly known for transnational security issues or Asian Studies.

If you feel like re-applying next year for programs more in line with your interests... Georgetown, Elliott, Tufts, etc. all have good classes and faculty for transnational security issues, into which trafficking and immigration would fall. They also have enough China specific classes that you could probably carve out a curriculum focusing on your preferred topic (trafficking/immigration + China). SAIS has an amazing Asian Studies program, check them out as well.