Princeton WWS Fall 2020

[polapp20]

Dinged! Congrats to those who got it! I’m really happy for you guys and this group has been amazing! 

[policywonk12]

Got the rejection email 20 minutes back, but also relieved to hear from them, at last.

[spnfiim]

1 hour ago, polapp20 said:

Dinged! Congrats to those who got it! I’m really happy for you guys and this group has been amazing! 

I sincerely wish HKS gives you a pleasant news soon!! 

[ch442]

Congrats to everyone who got in!

I got a waitlist email a couple of hours ago. Here’s to another month or two of uncertainty!

[misterrpiketty]

Waitlisted for the MPA. Any thoughts on what the chances of getting admitted off the waitlist are? My hunch is that it'll be pretty negligible. The only people who I imagine might decline WWS could be HKS admits with substantial funding. Stressful! 

[misterrpiketty]

On 3/17/2020 at 9:57 PM, misterrpiketty said:

Waitlisted for the MPA. Any thoughts on what the chances of getting admitted off the waitlist are? My hunch is that it'll be pretty negligible. The only people who I imagine might decline WWS could be HKS admits with substantial funding. Stressful! 

bump, now that HKS results are out. Any lucky people here having an acceptance from WWS and a funded offer from HKS? 

[heidi91]

On 3/17/2020 at 12:27 PM, misterrpiketty said:

Waitlisted for the MPA. Any thoughts on what the chances of getting admitted off the waitlist are? My hunch is that it'll be pretty negligible. The only people who I imagine might decline WWS could be HKS admits with substantial funding. Stressful! 

From a current Princeton MPA - your chances are good! There are at least 10 people in our program who were from the waitlist.

[misterrpiketty]

22 hours ago, heidi91 said:

From a current Princeton MPA - your chances are good! There are at least 10 people in our program who were from the waitlist.

Thanks @heidi91 that's very encouraging  . Fingers crossed! 

[heidi91]

On 3/29/2020 at 2:11 PM, misterrpiketty said:

Thanks @heidi91 that's very encouraging  . Fingers crossed! 

I was waitlisted and got the admit call on one of the last days of April so I'm afraid you might have a little while to wait!

[pillow]

On 3/29/2020 at 2:11 PM, misterrpiketty said:

Thanks @heidi91 that's very encouraging  . Fingers crossed! 

I turned down my offer at WWS for HKS. I really hope you get in! It's an amazing program with amazing people.

[misterrpiketty]

On 4/10/2020 at 11:20 PM, pillow said:

I turned down my offer at WWS for HKS. I really hope you get in! It's an amazing program with amazing people.

many congratulations @pillow! You'll do great! Would you mind talking through your decision for my (and others) benefit? Btw I have also been admitted to the MPA/ID at HKS but facing substantial debt there so its a very tough (hypothetical) decision. 

Edited April 12, 2020 by misterrpiketty

[pillow]

5 hours ago, misterrpiketty said:

many congratulations @pillow! You'll do great! Would you mind talking through your decision for my (and others) benefit? Btw I have also been admitted to the MPA/ID at HKS but facing substantial debt there so its a very tough (hypothetical) decision. 

Sure! I was offered full funding from HKS (MPP),  and I made my decision after comparing the curriculum at both schools. My area of focus in international development is very specific, and even though I love so many things about WWS, HKS offered more electives that are directly related to my future career.

WWS offers all of its students full funding (plus additional funding for networking, internships, and language learning), a stronger core curriculum, and a more intimate and tight knit community/learning environment. Its students come in with years of work experience, and its graduates overwhelmingly go into the public sector. I consider all of these strengths. But because it’s a smaller school, it doesn’t offer as many electives as HKS. IMO, that’s the only downside of WWS. WWS staff are so responsive and have been so transparent during this challenging time. If I wasn’t interested in this narrow area of international development, I would’ve gone to WWS in a heartbeat.

I don’t know much about the MPA/ID program at HKS, but I’ve heard that it’s a very quant heavy program and comparable to the quant skills you would gain at WWS. You probably know this already but HKS is thinking about how classes will proceed in the fall. Because it’s waitlisting students who it initially rejected, I think it is expecting many students—especially students who did not receive funding and international students—to defer. The bigger question is, if classes are online, will HKS still charge full tuition? Would you be okay with taking these classes online?

Before taking out loans to pay for HKS, seriously consider what career you want after graduation. Harvard is a bigger brand abroad, but six figure debt will make it harder for you to take a job at an NGO or in the public sector. What are you specifically looking to gain from your graduate program? For me, it was strengthening my quant skills, studying the specific topics I’m interested in, and leaving with the least amount of debt possible.

Follow the funding, if you can. If you can’t, look at employment statistics, think about your future career, your projected future earnings, and how much debt you would personally be okay with. If you are taking out loans, go into your grad program with a game plan and make the most of your time.

Apologize for rambling but I hope that helped! 

Edited April 12, 2020 by pillow

[misterrpiketty]

16 hours ago, pillow said:

Sure! I was offered full funding from HKS (MPP),  and I made my decision after comparing the curriculum at both schools. My area of focus in international development is very specific, and even though I love so many things about WWS, HKS offered more electives that are directly related to my future career.

WWS offers all of its students full funding (plus additional funding for networking, internships, and language learning), a stronger core curriculum, and a more intimate and tight knit community/learning environment. Its students come in with years of work experience, and its graduates overwhelmingly go into the public sector. I consider all of these strengths. But because it’s a smaller school, it doesn’t offer as many electives as HKS. IMO, that’s the only downside of WWS. WWS staff are so responsive and have been so transparent during this challenging time. If I wasn’t interested in this narrow area of international development, I would’ve gone to WWS in a heartbeat.

I don’t know much about the MPA/ID program at HKS, but I’ve heard that it’s a very quant heavy program and comparable to the quant skills you would gain at WWS. You probably know this already but HKS is thinking about how classes will proceed in the fall. Because it’s waitlisting students who it initially rejected, I think it is expecting many students—especially students who did not receive funding and international students—to defer. The bigger question is, if classes are online, will HKS still charge full tuition? Would you be okay with taking these classes online?

Before taking out loans to pay for HKS, seriously consider what career you want after graduation. Harvard is a bigger brand abroad, but six figure debt will make it harder for you to take a job at an NGO or in the public sector. What are you specifically looking to gain from your graduate program? For me, it was strengthening my quant skills, studying the specific topics I’m interested in, and leaving with the least amount of debt possible.

Follow the funding, if you can. If you can’t, look at employment statistics, think about your future career, your projected future earnings, and how much debt you would personally be okay with. If you are taking out loans, go into your grad program with a game plan and make the most of your time.

Apologize for rambling but I hope that helped! 

Thanks @pillow. Your arguments are very compelling and I wish you the very best! Of course it helps that you had the no-debt option at both places  If I had to make the same choice, I would probably choose similarly. The main advantage of the MPA/ID to my mind is its quantitative focus - as that's what I am looking to do, options of taking classes not just across Harvard departments but at MIT too, and its international focus (this is my perception honestly - compared to WWS which seems to be a bit US focused). But having said that, WWS is a fabulous school and the community is absolutely great. My career plan is to work in the public sector, so debt is a major factor. And therefore if one considers the significant debt at Harvard vs no debt at Princeton, then I think I would choose WWS. Which is why I am here  Thanks and good luck to you!

[elkzoom]

Hi all! Waitlisted candidate here. 

Has anyone heard from admissions about getting off the waitlist? 

[Mppirgradschool]

48 minutes ago, elkzoom said:

Hi all! Waitlisted candidate here. 

Has anyone heard from admissions about getting off the waitlist? 

Based on current conditions (Covid-19, recession, travel restrictions, possible remote learning in the fall/possibly entire year), I would assume that students are going to accept their fully funded/well funded offers vs. schools that offer no $, as this is the smart, logical thing to do. Full funding is something that WWS guarantees, making it the ideal program, which makes me hesitant to think that the waitlist will be leveraged. It is possible that the last aspect, remote learning, may push people to defer for a year, but this depends on the leniency of WWS’ deferral policy. You may have more insight than me on this.

Good luck! I hope it works out for you and you get the call! WWS is a dream school that’ll give you inside track at tons of unique, meaningful public sector jobs.

 

[misterrpiketty]

Also a waitlisted candidate. Have not heard anything yet. The HKS deadline is 30th April so hoping I hear back from them either way before that. Btw 2 people on Gradcafe alone have declined their WWS offers to join HKS and Yale Jackson respectively, so there is some hope..

[Floridian2020]

Even if WWS has a lower than usual yield rate this year, do you think it's possible they'll choose not to tap into the waitlist and instead hold onto money amid financial uncertainty? Obviously, HKS is experiencing a low yield and they're going heavy off of the waitlist, but that makes sense for them given that they depend on tuition. What will WWS do?

[misterrpiketty]

It is a possibility..but I would expect that the admissions committee decided its incoming class size at the time of admissions, taking impending financial uncertainty into account. Nothing drastically different has happened since then to make them suddenly rethink holding on to their money and limiting class size.

Also, remember WWS admits thinking of deferring face very different incentives compared to other schools. If I know I can join WWS next year with full funding, I would almost certainly not want to take the risk of an online Fall semester/ full year. Everywhere else, one gives up any aid for the current year by deferring. So there's a cost involved. If WWS's deferral policy is relatively lenient, which I suspect it would be since they are a generous school in most respects, the class size could end up being really small if they don't go into the waitlist. But this is mostly hopeful conjecture  

Edited April 21, 2020 by misterrpiketty

[ch442]

Just got an email that I wasn’t accepted off of the waitlist and that the class is now full. “This year, we only made a few offers of admission from the waitlist.” Good luck to everyone wherever they end up!

Edited April 22, 2020 by ch442

[misterrpiketty]

I also got the same email. Good luck to everyone!