dyavrom

i suggest reading this:

would like to bump this to hear any more thoughts...similarly im from California going to SAIS. curious about the sorts of opportunities available on the west coast.

you should ask each school that you plan to do that. some allow it, some dont.

i remember you pick if you want to be in IDEV or not. apart from that im not 100% sure... IDEV is the only concentration you cant freely enter or switch into though, you need to be accepted to go in.

USC gives great fin aid too, your stats would get you a hefty scholarship there

Anyone have any experiences with free stats courses floating around the web or in print? I need to refresh on stats to waive out of it for SAIS and I want to get that done before school starts. The lessons required to learn are: Basic Probability Theory; Mathematical Expectation and Moments; Calculation of Sample Statistics and Measures of Central Tendency; Distribution Theory; Hypothesis Testing and Confidence Intervals; Expectation, Variance, Covariance. i checked out Khan academy, but couldn't find anything else. Im hoping for something that is NOT graded and I can do at my own pace. thank youu

i was in a similar position, with all the schools you mentioned plus USC. had same exact logical reasoning between schools (marketability of MPP vs MA in IR), personally wanted to stay in Cali (im from here) and job prospects. although at the time of applying, UCLA was my dream school, I soon realized that to do the sort of work I want to do (IR field) UCLA or even USC wasn't the right fit. even with the intl policy track, the job prospects from UCLA seems more ngo/non profit based locally than anything else. but here's the thing, the only work experience I had was as a photojournalist, so getting an MPP then planning to work in IR without any work exp seemed impossible. but for someone with WB experience for 4 years, I think getting a MPP might be a great idea, then find work some really good work in CA. now if you wanted to move back to DC, might not make much sense. most importantly, what do you want to do afterwards? are you leaning towards IR type jobs, cause if so its much slimmer in LA. if not, then UCLA is a great program with great job prospects in the LA area. feel free to PM me if you have any questions

whoaa weird argument here. if you want to do intro, thats fine. if you don't, then good for you. just take a stats course and be done with it.

oh yeah, and admissions said that you can change your concentration anytime during your first year. second year you have to get it approved So whatever you decide now wont matter toooooo much

just my two cents from talking to a few alumni: One alum told me that international law and organizations is very weak, disorganized and has little to zero funding with limited events. Same with conflict management. Also Strategic Studies is really conservative/military. Another alum that currently works for the Bank told me that Euro Studies was great, but very theory based and more like studying euro history than anything else. Most agree that the regional concentrations are the best, especially LASP and the asia ones. Personally, I sat in the ERE luncheon and got a good vibe from it. Seemed like a really well developed concentration, plenty of field trip/study abroad stuff, they had $ in the dept for proposed abroad trips etc. During the open house, the faculty were saying that the concentration doesn't matter as much, and it doesn't really pigeon hole you into a job. They also suggested following the concentration you are most interested studying as opposed to strategically choosing the one you feel would get you a job. As for myself, not 100% sure yet. I want to go and take as many econ/quant courses as I can, so ideally id do a concentration that would allow me to do that. I know the LASP offers a bunch with their emerging markets specialization, but I dunno how well it would fit with me as I am planning to take farsi as my language req.

USC gave a info sheet at the open house discussing this. They said its not meant to promote one program or the other, just that these were popular with incoming students. I just uploaded the link here for you to check out. http://i.imgur.com/lj9ddyP.jpg?1 unfortunately I cannot help futher as although I was in the same position as you, i declined USC. best of luck

i emailed USC 4 times and got no reply. They emailed me a few days ago saying my application has been withdrawn. good thing im going to SAIS anyway haha

i know USC has the Deans Merit Scholarship that can either cover 1/2 OR full tuition, nothing about living stipend though. that's pretty common knowledge though so you prob knew that already. here is the list of their scholarships/fellowships for the MPP program. http://priceschool.usc.edu/students/financial-aid/masters-opportunities/ i recall UCLA having quite a few scholarship/fellowships as well, but I dont know whether they offered a living stipend as well. i can dig up that info if you think you'll need it. also you can work as a TA, do research or intern with USC to get money to pay for your housing.

i dunno, im considering paying sticker price for SAIS. if I do itll be heavily taking advantage of the IBR program. ill end up paying more in the long run, but knowing ill be in the field I want, doing the sort of intl dev work I want (vs public policy at USC) makes it worthwhile...i hope

you can always apply for the income based repayment program. most likely will reduce your payments to $500-$700 for 25 years given your income stays constant at around 60k.