JMO

A question of prestige. I would go with the full ride, since you're still going to be paying 15K at Georgetown a year, which will then add to the 30K you already have, not considering living expenses in DC, which easily will be around 24K a year...add all that up and you will have around 80K in debt from grad school and 30K from undergrad.

Bump

People shouldn't take Revolution too seriously, or they simply are taking themselves too seriously.

Why is this getting derailed. I am looking for some valid answers, I mean he already defied all odds by getting into pretty much every school he applied to. Let alone full funding, I wonder how much further he can push it. I hope someone on here gets to meet him, he is really funny guy, and just goes around without a care in the world, doing whatever he wants. I remember him telling about his ambitions and giving me his application package to look over and I was thinking to myself...SAIS...no way dude. I told him to put more emphasis on SIS and Elliot since that is more logical, even University of Maryland (he wants to stay in DC). I don't know what his funding was for SIPA, but he made it seem like little, I think around 10K a year or so.

Ha, are his stats that bad. I do wonder what he got in his GRE. Schools are strange in how they give out money. Like why did Elliot give you 15K and SAIS 20K, considering one is clearly better than the other. You continue to see that in his board too, like someone gets a full ride to SAIS but doesn't get anything from SIS or Gtown, and you are thinking...what is going on.

To be honest, I think my friend should take his. I am surprised he even got money and/or got in to most of these programs. HIs undergrad GPA was a 3.0 in Politics, then got a Msc in Finance and had a 2.9 GPA. He is Iraqi though and grew in Baghdad until 2002, when him and his family relocated to Beirut. Perhaps his colorful background is what got him in. DOn't know his GRE scores, but I think he did well. He speaks a bunch of languages, but had no experience in IR, worked in Finance till now (he is 29). Sometimes I wonder how they hand out money, but I was pretty happy for him and think he should go ahead and accept SIS. Good program for DC, and he doesn't have to spend any money.

Smart man...turn down 500K job, to take out loans, then go to b-school, to accept job paying 160K. The Logic of a Snob

He is getting an MA, and to a certain extent I agree with you, but I do know people that got out of SAIS making 80 to 90K, which is quite good if you are 100K in debt. It is a risk, but the fact is that he is more likely to get a well paying consulting gig out of SAIS than SIS, but it is not guaranteed and if he ends up struggling then it will be quite problematic. OVerall, I would also advise people to go for the money, but prestige is the reason why we apply to all these ritzy schools.

LSAT is for lawyers. HE doesn't want to become a lawyer, and let's be serious, with how saturated the legal economy is and the difficulty of getting into a top 10 school, I think this is an illogical post.

Oh man, that is even a tougher situation than my buddy. It's always a tough one, when you have to leave your significant other for a year. The biggest worry for him is giving up on the reputation of SAIS to attend SIS. I know he wants DC, just because location is half the placement battle and he is originally from Bowie. I really would not want to be stuck in both your shoes, it's always a tough question and then if something goes wrong in the future, you will ask yourself...what if.

A friend of mine recently applied to all three, (I think Elliot as well). He got into SIS, full scholarship etc, but did not get any funding from SAIS and minimal from SIPA. I don't know how to advise him, but when do you think that taking the money is worth it. In either program he is going to be well over 100K in debt, considering living expenses in NYC and DC. He is currently leaning towards SIS, but the reputation is lacking compared to SAIS and SIPA. Just wondering what the general consensus is, money or the reputation. I told him that in this economy, especially seeing other MA students struggle to get jobs even after graduating from SAIS and Gtown, he may want to go for the money.

What do you mean by trying for. I think you have to get into the law school and for that you need to take the LSAT. Getting into Columbia Law is way more competitive than getting into SIPA. MBA/MIA is more logical as, law is already three years and you can't really use your MIA once you graduate law school. For an MBA, the MIA can teach you important skills, especially certain economics courses taught at SIPA as well was learning about emerging markets and risk analysis. Also, if you want to do dual MBA/MIA, you also will have to get into the MBA prgram, which, again, is more competitive than SIPA.

I was talking about the dual MBA/MIA recipients, for which there are quite a few. I was just using the attorney as an example that they don't distinguish between just MIA recipients and the ones that received dual degrees. I also like to add that I go to SIPA, and am not making this up.

Yeah, it can be manipulative. I am actually at SIPA, and not so many end up doing banking and finance, some go into consulting and what you really learn about are emerging markets, but overall you are not going to end up working for Morgan Stanley. Although some students do end up getting cushy finance jobs, they usually had a similar job previously and were not teaching english in south korea. Something to think about. Overall it's a great program and it's such a diverse class as well. You will spend the next 20 years paying back the debt you incur, but it is well worth it.

While they do publish pretty detailed statistics, they do not distinguish between the recipient of just the MIA or the Dual MIA/MBA or MIA/JD degree. Which is why you see so much Finance and Banking, you can even see some people employed as attorneys.