OregonGal

Also, did anyone else get told they are required to attend the summer prep program at UCSD? I got my official snail-mail packet yesterday and found out I'd have to either take coursework between now and September (not really feasible with my job hours) or go to the prep program and lose ALL my vacation (last day of contract is 31 July; program starts August 6 and ends 5 days before graduate orientation).

I don't know about Riverdale Park or Columbia Heights, but Takoma Park is a nice safe neighborhood with a Metro station, which I believe is on the same line as Gallaudet. The downside, if you're younger or like a decent nightlife, is that it's very much a family-oriented neighborhood. Not much in the way of restaurants, bars, etc--you have to take the Metro into DC for all that.

Has anyone heard back from UCSD on funding? The wait is really getting annoying, and I do not like the idea of potentially hearing back on funding and only having a week to make a decision and send them $500. I would call them again, but I think the poor secretary can recognize my number by now.

When I've talked to current students/alumni about tracks they've said that the functional tracks are generally better than the regional tracks if you don't plan on being a regional specialist, since they focus more on toolbox/processes/background while regionals really try to make you an expert on that specific area. That being said, I suggest you take a look at the curriculums for the tracks and see how much crossover there is with the IDEV concentration (i.e. IDEV has you take X, Y, Z; Security Studies has you take Y and Global Theory has you take X and Z). Also, what aspects of IDEV appeal most to you and can you find those aspects in the other programs?

I second the others in checking what is mandatory to report, because I highly doubt they run criminal background checks on every applicant to check for misdemeanors; my impression of the SOP is that if it comes out that you didn't report a mandatory item they just kick you out of school. If there is the "optional Essay 3/other comments" you might consider commenting on it, especially if you want to cover your bases.

My interpretation is that when schools have 2nd year students re-apply for funding, or have 2nd-year only fellowships/scholarships (which most of them do), it's because they can better gauge your academic merits once you're at the school. Say you're one of those people who doesn't test well, and so didn't get a merit fellowship though you got in on the strength of your SOP/WE/LOR. Well, when you've cultivated a great relationship with your professors, are contributing every day in class and writing academic-journal level essays, they feel a lot more comfortable giving you a substantial fellowship for your second year. First-year fellowships are for people who knock their applications out of the park; second-year fellowships are for those who excel once at the school. Now, as for the debate about costs of attendance--I encourage everyone to really dig deeply into the numbers at each school. For example, I've been accepted to UC San Diego IR/PS (waiting on funding, damn them) and wait-listed at Johns Hopkins SAIS. You'd think, just looking at the school names, that UC San Diego would be much more affordable; it's a state school, it's not in DC, etc. However, once I crunched the numbers there's a slightly different story there. UC San Diego is a little more expensive for the first year, and for the second year it is cheaper but not by tens of thousands. I've actually laid out the costs in a google spreadsheet, which you are all more than welcome to look at. Since all the numbers up at schools right now are not for the next academic year, I was very pessimistic in my estimates of how much COA would go up (10% per year). I think it's well worth the time to dig into the COA numbers; for me, I managed to shave a few thousand off of JHU-SAIS by inputting my current numbers (I live in the suburbs outside of DC so I have a good gauge of living costs). Even more, I figured out what the price difference is between the two schools, and how truly expensive even a state school can be without financial aid. For me, the bottom line comes down to a few options: if I get significant funding from UCSD, pack up for the West Coast; if I don't, decline and wait to hear from JHU-SAIS while job-hunting in DC; if I get middling funding from UCSD, think hard about whether I really want to go to a non-DC, middling but not elite reputation school in order to save $30,000 on my loans. Now, as to whether that $30,000 of savings is worth it--well, that's when you dig out student loan calculators and statistics on your ideal job sector. Grad PLUS loans are currently a fixed 7.9% rate, which is what you would top off your costs with after funding and the max $20,000 in Stafford loans at 6.8%; you can go to the Direct Loan site and plug in your debt (COA - funding - $20,000 @ 7.9%, plus $20,000 @ 6.8) and your timeline (10 yrs? 25?) to figure out your monthly payments. Can you comfortably cover that, plus existing debt, in the job you realistically think you can attain? Private-sector-aimed students can potentially cover higher loan payments than NPO/public sector students; however, if you're okay with having the government forgive part of your loans and think the program will be around in 10 years, NPO/public sector professionals can enroll in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (make 120 payments while employed by a 501©3 or public agency, and have the government wipe the slate clean on the rest of the debt). As I think you can tell from all the numbers I'm throwing around, I'm trying to make my decision as rationally as possible and take a good hard look at the kind of debt I'll be taking on. This is actually because I didn't really think as hard as I should have about it when I applied to grad school; I chose my schools by curriculum, reputation and my interactions with their respective staff and alumni. Now that I have to think about funding (or lack thereof) and am no longer in my daydream of "of course I'll get aid!" I need to take all of that emotion out, and evaluate whether it's really feasible for me to go to grad school right now or if I should look for a job, boost my credentials, put aside some funds and re-apply next admissions cycle.

For those wondering about whether any of those who have already received decisions were IFP applicants... I applied to IFP and heard back from SIPA on the first day of rollout with a general rejection. Good luck!

Putting my own two cents in on the GPA vs GRE vs WE/SOP weighting at SIPA... I don't think the reliance on WE over academics is as clear-cut as some are making it out to be, though that may just be sour grapes on my part. I had a low-to-middling undergrad GPA but strong work experience and LORs (including the head of dept at my undergrad) and got my rejection letter this morning. I know some have speculated about them holding back on decisions where people were up for funding; that may mean the rejected people with higher GPAs were unsuitable for other reasons and therefore the first tossed into the pile. Also, when I checked the survey the sample size for SIPA was what, 5 people including grades and scores? A bit small to be drawing conclusions. Still, at least it's going to show that they aren't putting in a GPA cutoff for the admissions pool for those who are still waiting.

Congrats on PSU! I used to work a few blocks away from their campus in case you have questions about the area.

Update on the waitlist process: I called the SAIS admissions office this morning to try and get a clearer timeline of the process. Those who are waitlisted have until May 1 to tell SAIS if they want to stay in the waitlist pool. This pool is unranked, and after May 1 the admissions committee reconvenes to determine who will be given a late offer, once they know how many open slots there are for the fall class. Waitlist offers do not include any merit-based financial aid. The reason that the confirmation page says that the decisions could go out as late as June or July is presumably because you might be in a second wave of waitlist admits, or because of the timing of when the ad-com reconvenes--the admin I talked to on the phone said they start the process "after spring" which might mean after the end of spring term (i.e. mid to late May).

@Coloradical--I just called SAIS admissions and got clarification on the waitlist. Basically, the waitlist is a secondary pool of applicants. AFTER MAY 1, once they know how many open slots are available in the Fall 2012 class, they will go through the waitlist pool and select people to offer slots to. That's why they say that you might not get a response until June or July--if you aren't in the first group off the waitlist, but not all of them accept and there are still slots open, you might get an offer in the 2nd wave of waitlist offers. You need to respond by May 1 in order to retain your spot in the waitlist pool, so they aren't in the position of selecting someone who has accepted another school's offer. However, for us this means that we won't find out if we're off waitlist before we have to decide whether to attend another school and at that point, you get into the murky situation of potentially de-committing at a school in order to attend another one.

I just got my e-mail... not accepted

DECISIONS UP! ... and I'm waitlisted. Sigh.

Sigh....false alarm I guess?

Second-hand hearsay via another forum thread says they'll be rolling out in order of submittal... which means that on the deadline people like me get ulcers when the admit thread heats up >.<

True but that means the "admit" rate is higher, since they are counting on not everyone accepting admission, so the % you can calculate is actually a conservative estimate of your chances--which I'd prefer over a more optimistic number. As for SAIS stats--this is straight from their admissions page: For SIPA:

Hmm sorry I was thinking of SIPA and GWU ESIA which do list the number of applicants vs the size of the matriculated class; however, both of those range around 17-18% with much smaller class sizes compared to the 600 at SAIS so I would assume the rates are comparable.

According to previous years' stats, 15-18%.

@Clay Made--Actually, if you look down the thread page a bit there's a discussion on UCSD where I shared my thoughts @fenderpete--there are definitely people out there who would incure $50k+. For me, $25k/yr is worth it in a way that $75k/yr is not. It also depends on the relative strengths of the programs and their prestige, and what monetary values you can place on them. If I got significant funding at UCSD, for example, but found out I got into JHU-SAIS with enough funding to make costs only $25k/yr, I would go for JHU-SAIS. Name brand, alumni connections, and location in DC so I could get an academic-year DC internship would be worth that extra money to me. When I applied to expensive schools I thought hard about my price tolerance, because I was realistic about my funding chances, and $25k/yr is not over that limit for me.

Indeed! Too bad I can't go on break yet; this thread plus my venti iced coffee have me absolutely useless for work

@MYRNIST--when I was talking to a current student at ESIA about funding, she said that it really varied by department within the school because each department has its own pool of dedicated funds (presumably from grants/foundations/alumni) so if you're applying to a different track than the people who have gotten notifications, that might be why you haven't heard yet. @disintegrate @wantgrad--I definitely agree with needing to look at the total cost package. For example, if I get into SIPA with no funding it's a hard choice, because $150k in debt for total cost of attendance for two years (can't forget to include housing/living costs in that calculation!) is a lot of money. You have to look at projected earnings, estimated monthly loan payment (including undergrad debt), etc to see if the math adds up. Pretty sure that at the very least, the Direct Loan site has a student debt calculator so you can see what your monthly payment will be like. One thing to remember is that your federal loan debt can be forgiven after 10 years in NGO/gov't work so if you're planning to go into the Foreign Service etc, and are willing to bet that the PSLF program will be around in a decade, you can write off half your loan payments when calculating affordability (and enroll in the Income-Based Repayment plan to make sure you don't starve). However, I need to double-check and make sure that Grad PLUS counts for PSLF eligibility.

While I do think you should speak to motivation, if only so they know you're not trying to sit out the bad jobs market, I think that flowery language just makes sure that admissions knows you're spraying perfume on BS Also, I hate how useless SIPA's blog is. Really, I do not need to know the top 5 male/female names. Just give me my admissions decision!

I'll be attending the info session but may not go to the networking--I have plans for that evening, not sure how the timing will work out.

The IR/PS info session is on March 29--I got the e-mail two days before I got my admit decision.

In at UCSD IR/PS... out at Elliott... and the wait for my last two schools, and my financial aid package for UCSD, is giving me an ulcer.