MSCAPP UChicago vs QMSS+SIPA Columbia

[squirrel43]

Hey everyone, currently deciding between MSCAPP (Computational Analysis & PP) at UChicago vs a dual-degree Quantitative methods in social sciences +Masters in International Affairs at SIPA Columbia.

I’m an international student with a STEM background and I would hope to use the 3-year STEM OPT after graduating.

I have about 70k USD per year in scholarship from my home country.

Harris UChicago is also offering 25k merit scholarship, which would bring my own expenses close to 0, especially along with an on-campus job.

Columbia has (so far) not offered anything, so my home scholarship would basically just cover tuition and health insurance and I would have to pay NYC living expenses. I really love NYC as a city and prefer it vs Chicago, but I obviously don’t want to take out debt to cover COL.

I was hoping finding a job in NYC on OPT after MSCAPP would be a feasible better option, but I am aware that finding a job on OPT is going to be very rough in general.

Does this sound possible at all, and would Columbia SIPA+QMSS vs MSCAPP make any real difference to how difficult the job search will be afterwards?

Thanks and appreciate it:)