SIPA MPA 2018

[RM25]

In as well! I had applied for the 5th of February deadline and was cognizant of the fact that I am not applying for funding. However now that I have been accepted is there any scope of making a case for yourself by writing a letter to the admissions committee or is that something that is not entertained. Secondly, can you change your concentration after enrolling? I find it surprising that they mentioned the specialization and concentration both on the acceptance letter - does that mean you are bound to that? Thanks

 

Congratulations to all those who got an offer! 

Edited March 9, 2018 by RM25

[yellina122]

I knew I was in back in January (I did the early admit), but just found out I got partial funding! Super excited about it, as this is my first choice

[apply2017]

Anybody know about the status for the international fellows program?

[mpa-applicant]

5 minutes ago, RM25 said:

In as well! I had applied for the 5th of February deadline and was cognizant of the fact that I am not applying for funding. However now that I have been accepted is there any scope of making a case for yourself by writing a letter to the admissions committee or is that something that is not entertained. Secondly, can you change your concentration after enrolling? I find it surprising that they mentioned the specialization and concentration both on the acceptance letter - does that mean you are bound to that? Thanks

 

Congratulations to all those who got an offer! 

yes you can change the concentration they mentioned it during info sessions and a student confirmed when I had a discussion with her

[subtle]

Accepted to MIA, 79k funding -- congrats everybody!

[anmanya]

In! So delighted! Congrats to everyone!

[xxx1232]

I was admitted in the early action with partial funding. I had also applied for other sources of funding from the Columbia University (not directly from SIPA, like the International Fellows Program) and I was expecting to see the results the same day as the regular decisions were released. I have not seen any change in my application status though. Should I assume that I have been rejected?

[mpa-applicant]

39 minutes ago, subtle said:

Accepted to MIA, 79k funding -- congrats everybody!

thats a lot

Congrats! You must have a very strong profile

[luckylily]

I got in as well. No funding though. 

[JournalismApplicant]

Sorry I made a wrong predition too, but I'm happy that the results come earlier than I expected lol

In with no funding. A little bit surprising, I was expecting a small amount of money at least

[ruchi857]

Hi.

I have got acceptances to one year program and two year program. Now that's great news for me and days of confusion deciding what is a better path - one year MPA-EPM or two year MPA. However the admit letter mentions that I would hear about aid in few days. Does that mean I wont get a heavy duty cut on the tuition? Congrats to all of you in this forum and look forward to interaction in coming days. Congrats to the ones who got a tuition waiver or scholarship

[trang]

Accepted to MPA with 72k funding. I was early admitted in Dec but only found out about the funding today. 

[MoE'd]

I just got admitted into the MPA program. Was so happy, but most likely letting it go for Duke Sanford. However, I'd like to know if any of you guys would do the same? Choose Sanford over SIPA. Please let me know...

[PoliSciGuy00]

Hi Everyone,

Congrats to all that got in.  I was also accepted to SIPA, but with no scholarship money..  That said, I have two questions and was wondering if anyone had any thoughts/experience that could be helpful. 

I’ve been offered some funding at GW, and while it isn’t much, it still makes the program roughly 20K less expensive each year than SIPA.  Would it be worthwhile to contact SIPA and ask if they’d be willing to give me some funding?    

Additionally, looking at the SIPA admissions blog and GradCafe, it seems SIPA is more generous with funding for second year students.  Can anyone attest to this?

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

[Tk2356]

Hi, @Mr_Spock2018. I would definitely try to leverage the GW offer into something from SIPA. 

**EDITED TO AVOID MISUNDERSTANDINGS**  Per the SIPA funding page, it sounds like 2nd year funding will be more competitive than previous years. 

@MoE'd, are you still leaning towards Sanford?

 

I'm curious where the program ranks for the rest of you. There hasn't seemed to be as much SIPA-related chatter compared to years past. 

Edited March 12, 2018 by Tk2356

[wittgensteinsbladder]

10 minutes ago, Tk2356 said:

students who receive above a 3.4 in their first semester receive some sort of funding for the second year.

Is there any sort of documentation that discusses this? I listened to the finaid webinar and don't remember this.

[Tk2356]

It appears that their funding methods changed last year... as in, acquiring 2nd year funding will be more difficult than previous years. 

 

https://sipa.columbia.edu/admissions/financial-aid/sipa-and-columbia-university-funding

"Beginning with students entering in Spring 2017 or later, SIPA is implementing a new process for allocating scholarships. This also applies to students who initially enrolled prior to Spring 2017, but have not been enrolled continuously and fulltime, and who will be in their second year in 2018-19 or later.

In the past, a scholarship-like tuition credit from SIPA was “bundled” with salary payments for Teaching Assistant (TA), Reader, Program Assistant-faculty, Program Assistant-administrative (PA), and Course Assistant (CA) positions. This put significant pressure on the assistantship allocation process and led to concerns from students, faculty, and staff. Responding to these concerns, the new process “unbundles” the tuition credit from the salary support for TA, Reader, PA, and CA. 

Scholarship offers made at the time of the admission offer have been increased. It is important to emphasize that the overall level of student aid did not change. What changed are the timing of fellowship decisions, the salaries associated with different positions, and some aspects of the process for deciding who is offered financial aid. These changes will provide students with greater certainty at the time of admission about the level of fellowship support they will receive, and improve their ability to plan for financing their SIPA education."

[Tk2356]

18 minutes ago, wittgensteinsbladder said:

Is there any sort of documentation that discusses this? I listened to the finaid webinar and don't remember this.

My apologies --- I was repeating what applied to previous years. I edited my previous post to avoid spreading misinformation. 

[MoE'd]

@Tk2356 yes I am still leaning towards Sanford due to personal reasons and location preference. However, I am still waiting to hear from their MPP program; I am on their waiting list. I am admitted to into their MIDP program though. However I prefer Duke MPP over Columbia MPA, and Columbia MPA over Duke MIDP (Program wise). 

[yellina122]

On 3/12/2018 at 5:54 PM, Tk2356 said:

I'm curious where the program ranks for the rest of you. There hasn't seemed to be as much SIPA-related chatter compared to years past. 

 

SIPA is my number one by far and away!

It's different for everyone. For me, SIPA is the only school that offers coursework, research opportunities, and potential internship connections specific to my interests. I'm looking to advocate for people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations in a policy-centered role either at an advocacy org or in municipal govt; and I'm especially interested in voter advocacy and rights. There aren't a lot of schools with faculty working in this area, but SIPA is one of them!

Not to mention: My best friend is already at Columbia doing her MPH, and nearly my entire family lives in Queens and Long Island. I'll be able to live for free- in Queens, and see my family whenever I want, which has been difficult in the last ~8 years of living in Boston. 

The whole thing has been pretty serendipitous  If WWS throws me a curveball and admits me that would give me pause, but otherwise I know I'd be happy at SIPA next year.

[nycpolicy]

Hi all, I have also been admitted to the MPA but unfortunately with no funding. How are you all navigating aid negotiation? Is their check back form posted on another thread the only way to go about it?

[xxx1232]

I was wondering if someone has ever heard about rearranging a scholarship. I mean, I believe that all the scholarship awarded by SIPA are split in equal parts between the two academic years. Would it be ok to request an antecipation of the second year's funding (receiving, for example, 75% of it in the first year)?

Edited March 24, 2018 by xxx1232

[luckylily]

I spoke to someone from admissions last week and was able to clarify some things about their new funding process. While it's sort of stated in their blog post, the staff member that I talked to confirmed that SIPA will no longer offer tuition credit for assistantships. I took this to mean that the funding that you get your first year is pretty accurate on the amount of aid you can expect from SIPA throughout the whole program. 

[nycpolicy]

On 26/03/2018 at 12:18 PM, luckylily said:

I spoke to someone from admissions last week and was able to clarify some things about their new funding process. While it's sort of stated in their blog post, the staff member that I talked to confirmed that SIPA will no longer offer tuition credit for assistantships. I took this to mean that the funding that you get your first year is pretty accurate on the amount of aid you can expect from SIPA throughout the whole program. 

If I am understanding this correctly, it is very scary..I haven't received any aid from SIPA and was relying on assistantships to pull me through. Are they now saying that assistants will not get paid at all? 

[luckylily]

11 hours ago, nycpolicy said:

If I am understanding this correctly, it is very scary..I haven't received any aid from SIPA and was relying on assistantships to pull me through. Are they now saying that assistants will not get paid at all? 

From my understanding, you will still receive a salary for your work, but you will not receive additional tuition credits. 

Taken from their website:

"Beginning in 2018-19, assistantship salaries per semester will be as follows:

Teaching Assistant (TA): $12,000;

Reader, Program Assistant-faculty, Program Assistant-administrative (PA): $6,000

Course Assistant (CA): $3,000"