BB84

Oh and anyone reading this forum considering applying next year should know to apply as early as possible to LSE because they do rolling admissions. Their application opened far and away the earliest of any school that I applied to (mid-October), so I applied there first. It was actually a good, light application (1 essay of 1,000 - 1,500 words) to get the ball rolling and force me to put together my personal statement, 70% of which I re-used for other applications. I applied in mid-October and heard back just after new years, so it was a good 11-12 weeks before they replied.

The sense I got from a friend of mine who finished the program is that they do view it as a 'legitimate' masters, so to speak. This is in spite of it being a masters from outside of the United States and it being shorter. I am referring to the MSc masters which is one year, but obviously two years is even stronger. Many friends of mine found work in the US no problem after doing a masters at LSE. A very good friend went to work for the British embassy in DC and is now at Google in Mountain View, CA. My sense is that it would be very unlikely to run across someone in government administration / non-profit / international organization / foreign service / etc. anywhere in the world who has NOT heard of LSE. I made sure to do this kind of asking around before applying, as I am an American citizen and could end up back there after my masters. However, I am not yet sure where it is I would like to live following the masters, so having a name on my resume that is recognized across the world is very important to me. This is why LSE and Harvard were my top choices. As Harvard is not offering any money and I have a full ride to LSE, I will very likely end up enrolling at the latter.

I just received word as well. All I was offered was a bunch of loans, which is surprising and disappointing. Just a bit of info on attempting to negotiate/extract more money: I sent them a lengthy email yesterday noting that I wanted to pursue a career in a developing country government (in other words that I will make little money after school) and that I have the following offers: Tufts Fletcher School - 27K Columbia SIPA - 25K LSE - British government Chevening Scholarship (covers tuition, cost of living, visa, airfare, you name it and they cover it) I followed up over the phone to make sure they received it and informed that they do not consider what other schools offer when making their financial aid decisions. Basically echoes what Greendiplomat mentioned and what they say numerous times on their site - no way. I might still give it a shot and will let others know if I find out anything substantive. Hard to believe that someone gets a full ride at Princeton and not a thing from HKS. Guess what they say about it being a crapshoot is spot on.