OregonGal

I would check with the school admissions office, because while a lot will take self-reported scores for the application they want you to verify those scores upon acceptance--which you can't past the 5 year limit with ETS. Also, I would think that schools might be hesitant because those scores aren't a good gauge of your current ability (as measured by multiple choice, anyways) but rather are a gauge of your ability 5 years ago.

Let us know your impressions of the campus and the lectures! I'd especially love to know more about the lecture formats/what you can see about the relationships between faculty and students. The admissions officer I met at the DC session is also putting me in contact with a current 1st year student, so I'll forward along any info gleaned from her as well.

This is my understanding of the IBR plan with the caveat that I am not an expert on loans, government loan programs, financial aid, etc. This is just what I think I know from my experience going through this process In general, the federal government allows you to pay off the principal of your loan at an accelerated rate whenever you choose, thus reducing the amount of interest you pay and, potentially, the term length of your loan. They do not apply a penalty to forward payment, but I believe you have to specify if you're making future payments in advance (like giving them a year's worth of loan payments in a sort of annual installment vs monthly installment) or if you're paying down the principal. AFAIK, that scenario does not change if you enter an income-based or income-contingent plan. Of course, when you pay down the principal it has an outsize effect because that reduces the compounding of the interest, so if you have the ability to do so and your student debt is your most expensive kind (7% rate vs 3% on your home loan, for example) it's in your best interest to pay it down as quickly as you are able. The standard loan is a 10-year, 120-payment loan; a standard consolidation loan is a 30-year term loan; neither takes into account any variables like income. It calculates how much you need to pay to pay off your loan in X installments, and you have to pay that amount. Nice and straight-forward. The difference between that and the IBR plan, besides the 300-payment term (25 years) is that income-based repayment is just that--income based. It's designed for those who are either have a significant amount of debt, are planning on a low-income career, or both. You are eligible for the plan if your payments under IBR (where they calculate a percentage of your take-home pay with adjustments for household size) are less than your payments under the standard 10-year plan (they won't be if you only have $20K in debt, but will be if you have $100K). You submit your tax returns every year so they can recalculate your monthly payment, but it will never be higher than what that 10-year payment amount--it remains your cap. The plan caps your monthly payment at a certain percentage of income over the federal poverty limit or that 10-year plan amount, whichever is lower. So, let's say for example after your MA you go into the PeaceCorps, and therefore your "full time salary" is below that income floor: your monthly payment would be $0. However, you have some money set aside and don't like to see that debt stacking up--you could overpay by putting in even $25/month and put it towards your debt principal. Then, after PeaceCorps you go consult with a major firm and start making 6 figures very quickly (you can dream, right?). Your income tax return would reflect that, which in turn would alter your monthly payment to that capped amount. End up having 5 kids? You won't be choosing between buying diapers and paying your student loans, because IBR takes household size into account. Now, when I calculated out the IBR plan it turned out that at a certain income amount, remaining single, I would pay off my amount in less than 300 payments because I was paying at the capped amount the entire way through. At a lower income, however, I wouldn't pay off the loan entirely and the remaining balance of interest would be forgiven after 300 payments, if I chose not to go for PSLF and have it forgiven after 120 payments. Here's the link to the IBR FAQ if you want to read through their explanation, but I think I've summed it up pretty thoroughly here. Fairly complicated, but I think that at the levels of debt MA IR/PP candidates tend to accrue it's definitely worth enrolling in because it allows you more flexibility to take that lower-paying job if you want to; you don't have to choose the soul-sucking job in order to pay your bills.

Hi all, I'm currently deciding between going to grad school in the fall with no financial aid, or getting a job for a year and re-applying. This year, with lackluster GPA, strong GRE, moderate but not great experience, and (hopefully) strong LOR and SOP I got into UCSD IR/PS and waitlisted at SAIS. I'm debating whether it's worth it to try and get more experience under my belt, since I am still on the young end of the grad school student spectrum (2 years below average at the schools I've been applying to). My main hesitation is that even in DC it's not a great job market, and I would want to get a position directly in the IR field vs on the fringes/intersecting with it like the rest of my work experience so I don't feel like I'm in a holding pattern. It's tempting to go the 'safe' route of knowing where I'll be for the next two years, but also tempting to wait and roll the dice again for a school with more 'brand' recognition (my boss has told me that in NPO/public sector that label matters less, but then again she's an HKS grad so I think her perspective might be a little skewed). Has anyone here gone that route of waiting a year and re-applying? How do you think that affected your admissions offers or your decision? Do you think it was a net positive or would you go back and take that first offer? Conversely, has anyone here strongly considered that route and gone to grad school, and how do you feel about that decision now? Any insight would be very helpful--I'm very torn between the two routes right now.

Denver's appeal probably depends on your interests. I haven't spent much time in CO, but I have friend who spends his summers outside Colorado Springs. If you like outdoors recreation--hiking, ski/snowboarding, etc--then CO is great for that. I think you'd need a car to get around, but I could be completely wrong about that since I haven't spent time there outside the airport. There may not be great college ball but if you had a car you could go watch the Air Force team in CO Springs, and if you're willing to pay the prices you could go see Peyton Manning play at the Mile High Stadium for the Broncos. I don't know about the availability of internships in Syracuse vs Denver; you might want to check Idealist listings as a gauge for how many are being advertised in each place. In general I don't think about Denver as being very international but I guess as United's hub there might be a lot of international business connections.

I think that from the financial perspective you need to look at what the cumulative cost would be. Depending on how you frugally you live SAIS COA is $55-60K/yr, and when you include $15K/yr in fellowships then your debt burden will be around $90K ($60K-15K *2). SIPA is $70-75K/yr, so that makes its debt burden $90K-$100K. Since the fellowships just even the playing field, I think that you should look at the academic/life perspective a bit more and base your decision off that. You say you like the programs equally; well, what specifically do you like about these programs and what do you think will be enhanced by the area you live in? If you like the World Bank, you might want to head for DC and SAIS. If you like the UN or a major NYC-based NGO, you might want SIPA. You might like the idea of being on a campus vs a satellite location (I've been to SAIS; the JHU DC location is a couple of buildings, no campus feel to it). Do you see a faculty member at either school you'd love to take a class from? I would strongly suggest getting in touch with each school and asking to be put in contact with a current student that you can talk to about these factors. Since they've offered you merit aid, they ought to be pretty accomodating (congrats on that by the way; I've heard getting money from SIPA is like squeezing juice from a stone).

I am still debating whether to accept the only offer I got vs working another year... I may not wait until April 15 but I don't think I'll decide before the end of this week.

@urbanrenewalprogram I would urge you to think about your desired career trajectory after graduate school--specifically, is private sector where you want to end up or would you prefer ending up working for a public/501c3? Research the kinds of organizations you would prefer to work for. What kind of help (if any) do they offer with paying off loans? How much do you expect to be making entry-level at these organizations? Would your employer be PSLF-eligible? The reason I want you to think about these questions is because I definitely had issues when I crunched the numbers and realized I was staring at potentially $100-120K in debt for two years of school, after I managed to stay below $20K for 4 years of undergrad. I also had issues with the concept of depending on the government to forgive my debt, even though I am 99% sure I will be working for a PSLF-eligible organization after graduate school. However, after crunching the numbers with figuring out my take-home pay I was a little more okay with it. Is it a ton of money? Definitely. However, if I went private-sector I would be making enough money to cover the standard repayment plan. If I go public/NPO like I expect to, the PSLF program literature specifically encourages people to take out the IBR plan--which would have me, at $40K/yr salary, paying essentially the same I do now on 1/6 of the debt on a standard 10-year plan. By the time I hit 10 years, I would have more than paid the equivalent of the loan principal which is what makes me okay with the program--personally, I'm comfortable with the government essentially converting my 25-year loan to a 10-year interest free/very low interest loan, but not comfortable with not paying back at least the principal of the loan I took out. I am currently facing the exact same dilemma as you, though unfortunately not at as amazing an opportunity as HKS. I'm trying to decide between going to UCSD IR/PS or working a year or two, saving up money and re-applying to get into a more 'name-brand' school like SAIS. One of the pros for me of graduate school are that it would lack uncertainty: I would know where I was going to be for the next two years, and that it would (theoretically) help me further my career ambitions and upward mobility. One of my worries about waiting and re-applying is that I don't have an amazing career opportunity lined up, and while I'm fairly confident I can find a position in the DC area somewhat relevant to my interests, I feel that if I do work and try again I would need a great position that would really enhance my resume, and that's a bit harder. Even with that there's no guarantee I would fare better in the application pool next time, or get any financial aid, fellowships, etc. I am really tempted to just take the guaranteed path and go with it.

http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/recentChangesSA.jsp Totally lame, I know Also, for your calculations to come about incorporating undergraduate debt and calculating take home pay--I used the loan consolidation calculator and a tax withholdings calculator to figure out those amounts--the tax calculator I found was for small business owners/self-employed so it calculated federal, state, Medicare and SSI withholding.

Re: subsidized Stafford loans... last I heard they've phased those out for graduate/professional degree students. They're only subsidizing undergraduate debt.

Ok, so after attending the DC admitted students session, here's a few impressions: I walked in 90% sure I wasn't going to grad school next year; now I'm much more torn and mostly on the financial basis. My main concern with UCSD is the location, and the event really showcased the strength of their career services to mitigate that distance. The admitted students session was a short presentation/Q&A with an admissions officer and a recent alum. There were only 3 of us at the session, so while we didn't overall have a ton of questions we did have a lot of opportunity to ask them. After that we went down to a mixer with alumni and current students, followed by a dinner (which I was unable to stay for) headlined by the dean of IR/PS. The main thing that impressed me about the networking/mixer session is the turnout and the format. Apparently, over UCSD's spring break they take a trip to DC with 15-20 current students, to help them with connecting with potential employers/internships or informational interviews. The mixer/dinner had not only those students, but 50-60 alumni in the DC area. When you're talking about a west coast school that graduates 125-150 people a year, that's a pretty good indication of an active alumni base to help you along your path. For example, the alumni sitting in on the admissions session said she'd helped connect at least two UCSD grads with jobs at the World Bank in the last 18 months she'd been employed by them. Besides the generic presentation for the admit session, of which a lot of the information could be found on the website, a few things stuck out: a) the vast majority of the incoming class is required/strongly recommended to attend the summer prep session in August. The admissions officer said that with recent classes, they'd found that the "recommended" students tended not to attend the boot camp and subsequently struggled in class, so they are encouraging somewhere around 90% of the incoming MA students to attend. That makes me feel better about being sent to summer school 35% of the students at IR/PS have a TA-ship or similar (grader, etc). Those positions offer full tuition remission if you are at 10 hours+ a week, plus a pretty decent hourly wage ($12-15/hr). Even if that doesn't include out of state tuition fees, that can knock a significant amount off even in the first year where they don't want you TA-ing your first quarter. c) Internship funding. I'd seen them highlight that they offer grants for people taking unpaid internships, but assumed that funding was fairly limited. However, they've secured enough funding that the admissions officer pretty much guaranteed that as long as you do your part in sourcing the internship by their April deadline, they will give you pretty decent funding--she said a couple thousand for within the US depending on the area (presumably pro-rated by living costs so you get less if you intern in Minnesota vs NYC), and potentially a bit more for overseas internships (presumably because of travel costs). One detractor for me was the idea of finding summer housing and funding an unpaid internship in DC/NYC; if I can get a significant portion to all of those costs covered, plus get Career Services to help me find that internship, that takes away a lot of the detractors of a west coast school.

@Rose1 Actually, according to my research that's not quite how it works. The PSLF program applies to federal loans; however, you can probably cover the costs beyond the Direct (Stafford) loan with Graduate PLUS loans--also from the government. That's because as long as the PLUS loans are in your name (as opposed to the Parent PLUS loans, in the name of your parents) you can consolidate them with other federal Direct loans, and that consolidation loan is PSLF eligible. Grad PLUS loans cover total COA above Direct loans, and I don't think you can max those out. The downside is that they have a higher interest rate (7.9% currently) so when you consolidate with a 6.8% smaller loan your interest ends up around 7.2% for the consolidated loan. I linked earlier to my spreadsheet covering cost comparisons; the second tab of that spreadsheet is a breakdown of repayment costs over various periods and at various incomes. The caveat is that those are only available to US citizens AFAIK; however, the gist is that the government is moving away from private student loans backed by the government, and towards supplying those loans directly since they're assuming the risk for the loans anyways.

@Seaking Remember, they give merit aid to around the top 25% of the class, and when you're talking about these kinds of self-screening programs (if you don't think you have the stats to get in/sincere interest in the career, you don't apply) I would imagine there's not a great deal of difference between the first quartile and second quartile of applicants. Or at least, that's what I'm telling myself anyways!

Also, though I guess this won't matter as much if you're just taking short trips in it and won't need it to last 10 years, when you're thinking about costs also consider insurance and gas. There are a lot of calculators out there for insurance and taxes, and keep the expected mpg of the car in mind--a car that has 20 mpg vs 35 mpg will cost you a LOT in the long run with today's gas prices.

For all those with questions about living costs in the DC area--sorry, I've been away from the comp on a mini-cation (and came back to news I didn't get funding from UCSD >.<) My breakdown of costs is based on my current living situation, in the suburb of Silver Spring. I am in a 3-bedroom apartment, 5 minute walk to Silver Spring Metro, 5 minute walk to a bus line that takes me direct downtown to my Americorps placement. We pay less than $2000 a month for an older apartment, including utilities, in a large well-managed complex in a safe neighborhood. That monthly number has my current cellphone/internet/cable costs. It is not at all a hypothetical--believe me, I know how expensive DC can be from my housing search when I first moved here. If I went to SAIS, it'd be 25 minutes away by bus which is perfectly fine by me. @state_school'12--I didn't count in interest aggregation on my first sheet, of costs comparisons, though I did include loan fees. My repayment calculator includes interest, I'm fairly sure, though I'll double-check that. As it is, just based on how much interest I accrued on my unsubsidized undergrad loans...In the grand scheme of a $100K+ education it's just a rounding error. @msn--this may sound a bit callous but... I don't really factor distance from family & friends anymore into my job/school decisions. That's a luxury not often afforded when they don't live in a hub for IR organizations, and a career in IR or the Foreign Service will mean getting used to living a long ways away from family. So far I've managed to go home every Christmas, but that record won't hold forever. As it is, I've yet to find an IR position (other than an unpaid internship) locally, so each of my jobs has taken me across the country (or the Pacific) from my family. Do I miss seeing my family and friends, or regret missing out on important events in their lives? Of course, but I knew that this was the trade-off for an international career.

Sigh... No aid for me in the e-mail I got coming back from my mini-cation today. I'll still go to the UCSD admitted students session in DC but I'm 90% sure I'm going to be trying again next year.

Including take-home pay is a good idea to gauge the monthly impact on finances! I believe I shall steal that idea. As it is, right now my estimates are worst-case with (hopefully) overly pessimistic tuition inflation rates, though I should perhaps include a line-item for the expenses of a 3-month unpaid intenrship that requires relocation to DC.

I don't object to spending a weekend in La Jolla... I object to spending a couple hundred dollars I don't have to spend a weekend in La Jolla

It's nice that they're offering to subsidize, but $300 doesn't even cover airfare let alone a hotel. I will be making my decision sight unseen, but I have a friend attending UCSD so I'm not potentially accepting with no knowledge of the place.

Thanks for the praise guys--really though, this is what I did to make myself a little less freaked out by the big numbers schools were throwing around. Also, I've updated the UCSD numbers a bit--the format on their financial aid page had me double-counting the school fee, so instead of being slightly more than JHU the first year it's slightly less. After reading an article about how CA public schools have been trending with tuition hikes the last few years (yay reduced public funds, not) I've adjusted those estimates to 15% increases year-to-year. For those who are interested in the loan breakdown, there's now a second tab which shows how I came up with my numbers and the estimated monthly payments through the various plans. I've just opened up the spreadsheet for view; if you want to you can download the spreadsheet or copy it to your own GDocs account.

I would second all of those who suggested work experience. If you have held a lot of internships, have foreign language experience, spent significant time overseas etc like M. OverAchiever up there then you definitely have a lot of "relevant" experience already. However, if you're like the majority of us, you don't have all that on your resume and need to build it up a bit. I'll give you myself as an example. I graduated in the bleak job market of 2009, but I had a plan to gain the experience I needed for graduate school. I didn't apply straight out of undergrad because I had a sub-par GPA (3.2 overall, though 3.5+ within my majors and my last two years), no relevant work, and only 3 months of international experience. Since then, within the constraints of the job market, I've tried to target specific skills/experiences to help me a) confirm that working in the international affairs field is what I want to do long-term, hone in on what sub-field I want to focus on and c) make me marketable for grad school as well as post-grad employment. My first job was a 1-year contract as an ESL teacher. Glamorous? No. Obviously relevant? No again. However, it was international experience without the buffer of school or a lot of Americans around, working directly with the local community in a region relevant to my professional interests. My goal was to prove to myself that I could live without that buffer, as professionals in our field are likely to do. My second position was as an unpaid intern with an international policy organization in my hometown. That position helped me build up my marketable office skills as well as my IR/non-profit experience in a way that will play well into a job as a Public Affairs officer in the Foreign Service or similar position. Finally, my current position as an Americorps member lets me demonstrate my program management/evaluation skills, has me working with the flipside of international affairs (immigrant/international communities w/in US) and has strong brand recognition. Even with all that I didn't get into my top schools, and may continue on with this plan of working to showcase or develop skills in order to apply again next year. Also, beyond building up my resume and skill-set each position I've taken has really helped me refine my goals and confirm that this is what I want to do with my life--essential before taking on a massive amount of debt, and also essential for crafting a strong SOP and targeting the right schools for your interests.

I take the employment stats with an extremely large grain of salt, because as far as I know those are all self-reported. As in, X amount of people copped to not having a job, but what actual percentage is that of the graduating class? There's usually no category listed of "non-reporting", and stats are usually percentage-based with no mention of number of respondents--they're designed to showcase what sectors/firms their graduates enter into, without revealing how many of them are still looking for work. They're a decent metric for looking at the focus of school curricula (grads tend to go private/NPO/public) but not for employment rates. For the OP, most of the questions I had thought of and a lot that I hadn't are covered by your list--I'm very impressed! I would also ask: 1. What support is there for internships? Do schools directly arrange internships or keep a clearinghouse? Are there scholarships available for summer internships? 2. How do you find the student community? Are graduate student clubs/orgs active? Do you interact with your cohort much outside of class socially? Do you have the time for a social life? 3. How often do you find yourself in a class with undergraduates (excluding language classes)? Do you feel that detracts from the experience, or did the professor manage the balance well? How did they keep the course challenging for graduate students? 4. How many students leave graduate school without finishing? Do you keep statistics on why they don't finish? 5. How many 2nd-year funding opportunities are there? What percentage of your students work on campus as TA/research assistants?

Based on what I've seen people wear at GWU open house etc, jeans might be ok; I'd aim for business casual/officewear, in between jeans and suits. Khaki capris or a casual skirt would also work, since it sounds like you may be female

I would also weigh the benefits of going to Harvard vs UW Jackson in terms of your career prospects, alumni connections, etc. FWIW I think that Boston living expenses won't necessarily be anywhere close to $20K a year, especially if you have a roommate. Even if it comes to taking out $20K a year in loans, I'd consider Harvard worth it especially with 2nd year funding opportunities that might come along.

When I talked to them last, they said that it was still in committee. The admin I talked to refused to give an ETA because "if I say the end of March, you'll all start calling then"... which doesn't give me high hopes. However, she did say that she hoped they'd be out sooner than that, she just didn't want to give us a specific timeline.