Should I stay or should I go

[carrotflowers]

Disclaimer: originally posted on Urch, but did not get too many responses. Hope folks around here will be more helpful.

I have a FB scholarship, and have been accepted with full funding to UMD-CP, Cornell, and UT-Austin for an MPP. I also just got a job as a consultant at the IADB in my country, and am getting really good work experience.

When I applied for the FB, I had the Harvard MPA-ID in mind. However, I missed the application deadline.

Now my boss is an MPA-ID graduate, and has said he'd recommend me and that as long as I get a good GRE I'm a shoe-in. Ultimately what I want to do is secure a staff position at IDB, the WB, UN, ILO and the like, doing policy-oriented research.

Going on the FB to Maryland would mean I'd be close to DC, and so potentially work my way in to the IDB or WB through an internship or something. But unless I get a job at one of those, I'd have to come back to my country for 2 years (this is true regardless of the school), and job prospects here are basically nil except for government or consulting for IO's (which I've already been doing for almost 4 years). I don't really know what the career prospects in IO's are for the other two schools.

So I have to decide whether to take the Fulbright and go this year to one of the three MPP's wherein I got accepted (not crazy about the curriculum in any of them), or hold my horses 'til next year so I can have a shot at my ideal program (the MPA-ID) or an acceptable substitute (a decent Econ PhD).

All your thoughts are appreciated, specially since I have to decide by the end of next week.

[Overtherainbow]

Going on the FB to Maryland would mean I'd be close to DC, and so potentially work my way in to the IDB or WB through an internship or something. But unless I get a job at one of those, I'd have to come back to my country for 2 years (this is true regardless of the school), and job prospects here are basically nil except for government or consulting for IO's (which I've already been doing for almost 4 years).

If you accept Fulbright scholarship, you will have to go back to your home country after you finish your degree in any case. (Unless you go on to the PhD, in which case you would still have to fulfill your 2-year residence requirement after you get your PhD). The purpose of scholarships such as Fulbright (for international students) is to ensure that they use the skills aquired in the US to help their home countries.

I don't really know much about MPPs, but it is my impression that MPP and Econ PhD are not equivalent degrees. The backgrounds you need to have to be accepted into those are probably different. You'll need work experience (which you seem to have) for MPP, but not for Econ PhD, for which you'll need appropriate Econ coursework.