Deciding between graduate schools - Georgetown MSFS or Yale MEM

[Undecided_Grad]

Hello everyone! I am in an incredibly fortunate to be in a position where I have to make a tough decision. I need to decide whether to attend Georgetown MSFS with a concentration in Science, Technology, and International Affairs, or attend Yale and earn a Master of Environmental Management. I am hoping to eventually serve as a FSO for USAID, but would be open to other FSO opportunities. Ideally my career as an FSO would have an international environmental focus and I’m very interested in sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation internationally. I’m having a hard time comparing the programs, as they are fairly different.

 

Ignoring for just a moment other aspects, such as on campus experience, funding, etc., is anyone familiar with these programs and can please provide some guidance on what might serve me best for my career?

 

Thank you so much for your help!

Edited April 7, 2022 by Undecided_Grad

[GradSchoolGrad]

On 4/6/2022 at 11:06 PM, Undecided_Grad said:

Hello everyone! I am in an incredibly fortunate to be in a position where I have to make a tough decision. I need to decide whether to attend Georgetown MSFS with a concentration in Science, Technology, and International Affairs, or attend Yale and earn a Master of Environmental Management. I am hoping to eventually serve as a FSO for USAID, but would be open to other FSO opportunities. Ideally my career as an FSO would have an international environmental focus and I’m very interested in sustainable development and climate change adaptation and mitigation internationally. I’m having a hard time comparing the programs, as they are fairly different.

 

Ignoring for just a moment other aspects, such as on campus experience, funding, etc., is anyone familiar with these programs and can please provide some guidance on what might serve me best for my career?

 

Thank you so much for your help!

So ultimately, this is about what you care about more. Georgetown is tops for international, but only very recently has educational material focused on sustainability - and a lot of it is in the business school (but you can take classes there and do projects there). If you want to go international with the understanding that you might shoot for sustainability, but very realistically get sidetracked to the needs of the government, Georgetown MSFS makes sense for you. 

Yale MEM is obviously tops for sustainability, but only a small small cohort of people focus on it via an IR lens. If you want greater flexibility in the sustainability space, Yale MEM makes sense for you.

Also, please keep in mind, granted an FSO role might take your background in mind, you are generalist no matter what. I know people with a science background who essentially got told to plan a party because they needed someone in that role. Also, as you can imagine, how much the US government cares about sustainability varies by office. Granted, there are lots of sustainability offices, in certain administrations, those people go elsewhere.