GSPIA vs. Maxwell vs. SIS

[Mitstopher]

Hey y'all.

I've been admitted into 4 programs, and I'm looking at 3 of those: the MPIA in Security & Intelligence Studies at the U. of Pittsburgh's GSPIA, the MAIR at Syracuse's Maxwell School, and the MAIA: U.S. Foreign Policy at American's SIS.

In my mind, each school has something going for it that is really preventing me from making a decision. Maxwell's degree can be completed in the least amount of time, plus an internship is part of the curriculum. Similarly at Pitt, an internship is part of the curriculum, plus Pitt has offered me almost complete funding in merit scholarships. Both Maxwell and GSPIA have research centers on European affairs, which is pretty much my geographical focus. Lastly, American is in DC where internships at government agencies or government-related firms could presumably be more easily had.

Can anyone give me any insight into these programs? I've seen the rankings and they don't affect me much. Costs aren't too big of a factor for me, but of course, getting an MA with little or even no debt is an opportunity that is difficult to pass up.

Thanks in advance.

[chojnacm]

Hey, I am in a similar situation. Like you, I too received a merit fellowship at GSPIA, and after much contemplation, I have made my decision to go to Pitt. GSPIA is offering me basically a free degree (at the most, I will have to take loans out for housing and living expenses, which amount to half of those in DC), while at SIS and GWU, I'm getting no funding. I think that GSPIA's MPIA looks really interesting, and like you said, ratings don't mean that much, as they are largely the product of institutional biases and politics. I have a feeling that if GSPIA would be located in the heart of DC, their ratings would be right below, if not match GWU and SIS. In any case, before I made my final decision, I spoke with my academic advisors and parents who are both in the higher education business as well as students and administrators at the two aforementioned schools, and so far, the general consensus is that I should "take the money and run." Indeed, I feel that GSPIA is doing everything to attract me, while the other schools, especially GWU seem to only highlight "how wonderful they are," in light of their DC location and better ratings. Indeed, location and better ratings might be a plus, but ultimately you have to ask yourself whether your education will be significantly better. My conclusion is no. Not to sound cliche, but I think that I could really thrive at GSPIA, as they recognized my potential and gave me money. At SIS and GWU, I would have a financial noose over my neck, as I would have to worry everyday about how I would pay off my skyrocketing debt in the aftermath of graduation. As people much wiser than me said, graduate school is just as much about making smart financial decisions as it is about improving your credentials and expanding you intellectual premise. Ultimately, I feel that at GSPIA I have nothing to lose if they are offering me money, while at GWU and SIS, I would have to be working part-time/full time to defray the massive burdens of tuition, with no guarantee that I would land a better job in the end. I'm just graduating from undergrad this May, and the prospect of my undergrad debt combined with graduate loans seems like a terrible, financial cost to bear, only for me to say that I went to the "higher-rated" school. By going to GSPIA, I will remain financially solvent, while at the same time keeping my options open, especially if I want to pursue other degrees in the future whether that would be going onto a PhD or a law degree. Furthermore, GSPIA, in connection with Korbel and Maxwell, runs the DC center in Washington, where you can take classes in the fall of your second year, get a great internship, and expand your network. You must remember that half of GSPIA's alumni live in DC, and many of them work for the exact same institutions that GWU and SIS graduates work at. Study abroad wise, I can, for example, go to Brussels in the summer to research the EU and intern or utilize any other of GSPIA's partnerships to expand upon my degree. Whatever I do, GSPIA seems to be offering me many possibilities, a lot of which don't differ from the opportunities of GWU and SIS. At the same time, I am financially secure, to an extent at least that I'm expanding my skills and avoiding the terrible job market for the next two years, without piling up mountains of debt. This is as best of a package as I could have asked for, and I think it would be pretty foolish on my part to pass it up. Anyway, I'm speaking from my point of view. If finances are less of an issue for you, then perhaps you can weigh your options differently, but from your description, GSPIA seems like the best deal for you as well.

Edited March 31, 2010 by chojnacm

[Mitstopher]

Hi chojnacm, thanks for your thorough response! By any chance are you going to the Preview GSPIA event on April 9th? I'll be there.

I definitely hear you on GSPIA recognizing potential. By way of that, and depending on the cohort size, I feel like I'd get a lot more individualized attention from the faculty. I'm not sure how big the incoming cohort at SIS will be, but I do know that American is the largest in my list of schools. Syracuse will have a cohort of around 100, so I'd be likely to get individualized attention there as well.

One thing that I've gathered is that SIS seems to be the most "traditional" in the academic sense, that is, students must complete a thesis and take a comprehensive exam. I'm not frightened by either of these options (having a long, well-researched paper in my name is an enticing option), but I can't help but wonder just how theoretical the US Foreign Policy program will be. I haven't encountered any sort of professional skills courses on the SIS website (aside from quantitative methodology, which every school requires), whereas both Pitt and Syracuse offer professionally-oriented degrees as well as research centers. That way, I'd be able to complement professional skills with substantive research.

Do you know if GSPIA allows students to design their own study-abroad programs? Although I've been focusing on Western European politics, I've taken an interest in Balkan affairs and Turkey as of recently and would like to spend some time in those areas.

[chojnacm]

Yep, I will be there. I just registered today. I don't know about the study abroad, but as I said the Brussels program looks pretty neat. I have been on a number of study abroads during my junior year. I actually went to the Balkans in the fall of 09 and to Germany in the spring of 2010. I think Brussels would really nicely compliment my prior experiences. And I fully agree with you about the individualized attention. I have a feeling that at SIS and GWU, it would be much more impersonal. As I understand, American is the biggest IA school in the country, and so their classes must be bigger than GSPIA's which has a faculty-student ratio of 1:12.

[Affirmed]

Hi chojnacm, thanks for your thorough response! By any chance are you going to the Preview GSPIA event on April 9th? I'll be there.

I definitely hear you on GSPIA recognizing potential. By way of that, and depending on the cohort size, I feel like I'd get a lot more individualized attention from the faculty. I'm not sure how big the incoming cohort at SIS will be, but I do know that American is the largest in my list of schools. Syracuse will have a cohort of around 100, so I'd be likely to get individualized attention there as well.

One thing that I've gathered is that SIS seems to be the most "traditional" in the academic sense, that is, students must complete a thesis and take a comprehensive exam. I'm not frightened by either of these options (having a long, well-researched paper in my name is an enticing option), but I can't help but wonder just how theoretical the US Foreign Policy program will be. I haven't encountered any sort of professional skills courses on the SIS website (aside from quantitative methodology, which every school requires), whereas both Pitt and Syracuse offer professionally-oriented degrees as well as research centers. That way, I'd be able to complement professional skills with substantive research.

Do you know if GSPIA allows students to design their own study-abroad programs? Although I've been focusing on Western European politics, I've taken an interest in Balkan affairs and Turkey as of recently and would like to spend some time in those areas.

For your info, I know that Maxwell IR students have an opportunity of taking classes for one term in Bogazici University which is the best university of Turkey.

[Mitstopher]

For your info, I know that Maxwell IR students have an opportunity of taking classes for one term in Bogazici University which is the best university of Turkey.

Hi Affirmed! Thanks for the info; I was made aware of this partnership during my visit to Maxwell. This partnership is a huge plus for Maxwell in my book, because, like I said, I'm interested in studying Turkey while in graduate school.

[Minerva473]

Hi Affirmed! Thanks for the info; I was made aware of this partnership during my visit to Maxwell. This partnership is a huge plus for Maxwell in my book, because, like I said, I'm interested in studying Turkey while in graduate school.

How did you find the visit to Maxwell? I'm not able to visit so it would be really useful to hear your impressions.

[Affirmed]

How did you find the visit to Maxwell? I'm not able to visit so it would be really useful to hear your impressions.

It would be great for me, too. Could you share your experiences about both Maxwell School and Syracuse as a city?

By the way, Minerva473, my problem about admission was solved. Thank you for your opinions.

[Mitstopher]

Okay, here are my impressions of Syracuse University.

CITY

Coming from Philadelphia, Syracuse isn’t much of acity to me, but it’s a city nonetheless. There is a defined downtown area, and a bus system runs all over. The university sits on a hill and is surrounded by the city. Off campus housing was located to the north, east and southeast of the campus; instead of high-rise apartment buildings, it seemed like most of the off-campus housingwas houses that had been broken up into apartments. A friend of mine lives southeast of the campus, and we wentto dinner at a little Mexican food place. It was a cool, quiet little area, but then again it was a rainy Sunday evening. There are morerestaurants, small food stores, and a music theater as well. As for the downtown area, I didn’t getto explore it all that much because of time constraints, but there were a lotof restaurants, shops, and a few museums as well (such as the Erie Canal Museum).

CAMPUS

If you’ve ever been to State College, Pennsylvania, then Syracuse will look a little familiar. Though not nearly as large as Penn State, it has a similar character. Just north of the campus is a strip of eateries (Jimmy John’s, Pita Pit, etc) as well as Syracuse apparel stores. There are a few banks, a gym and some more apartment buildings aswell. There is a main thoroughfare; I think it was called University Ave. The architecture is really cool; The Hall of Languages apparently inspired the Addams Family house. The music building looks really cool; it has a huge spire. Maxwell and Eggers, the buildings where we’d spend most of our time, are connected. Eggers houses the IR program office,the “Academic Village” (a study area/hangout spot for IR program students), classrooms anda small cafeteria. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot going on the day I was there, but then again it was relatively early on Monday morning when I visited the campus. It’s also very…uh…orange.

IR STAFF

Some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met in mylife. I wasn’t able to attend the Welcome Weekend because of work constraints, so they let me come up and checkout the program on my own. It waskind of last-minute, but they were totally accommodating in setting me up withsome current students to talk to as well as a class to visit. I also got to talk with an admissions rep for about 30 mins and she cheerfully answered all my questions.

CLASS

I visited an Evaluation of International Programs class, one of the "signature courses". It was kind of a statistical analysis class; the kind of thing where you look at charts with yesor no questions, where yes has a value of “1” and no has a value of “0.” You’ve probably seen this kind of stuffin your upper-level undergraduate courses. The professor seemed like a cool dude, and he had actually worked at the UN for 30 years, so right there you can see that there is theory alongside practice. What I liked is that he kept reminding students why they are doing these kinds of evaluations. He told the story of Grameen Bank, and how using this kind of evaluation they were able to find out that women had an almost-100% payback rate of microloans. It’s easy to lose purpose when you’re faced with a bunch of numbers.

OTHER

I also spoke with a professor who was a directorat the Moynihan Institute, Maxwell’s research center. She was very helpful with giving me advice on internships and study abroad (i.e. the fact that I can go to Bogazici University). Furthermore, there are research opportunities given out as work study initially, but there are also competitions open to student applicants, so not receiving financial does NOT preclude you from researching with a professor or at the Moynihan Institute.

OVERALL

I got a fantastic vibe from Syracuse. What struck me is that they really, really strive to compensate for being an IR program not located in Washington, DC. I think I saw 3 ambassadors onthe list of their faculty. The opportunities are all there, and there is a helpful crew to complement. I can see how one would be put off by the grey, rainy weather (and I’ve heard the winters are rough), but at least in my case having gone to Penn State, the weather doesn’t really affect me that much.

If you have any specific questions I’ll do my bestto answer them. I hope myimpressions helped you all!

Edited April 2, 2010 by Mitstopher

[Minerva473]

Thanks Mistopher, that's very helpful!

Edited April 4, 2010 by Minerva473