SAIS application for Fall 2013

[idev2013applicant]

The SAIS website says that decisions and funding will be out on the 15th. So it looks like it will be a win-win, win-lose or a lose-lose for all of us next Friday.

 

I believe this poster is referring to the information in the "Important Dates" section of the SAIS website:

http://www.sais-jhu.edu/graduate-studies/admissions-and-aid/important-dates

 

I'm wondering if the 15th is a firm date or more of a guideline.  And also, how long has that information been posted?

[waltlaa9]

I imagine the decisions will be out no later than the 15th, but could possibly be released earlier. The email I received when SAIS confirmed that my application was complete stated "All admission decisions and financial aid awards will be released online in mid-March."

[nason]

March 15 has been listed on that site for quite some time.  I took it to mean that decisions will be released no earlier/no later.  I've always appreciated that they had that date listed from the start.

[Kadisha]

March 15 has been listed on that site for quite some time.  I took it to mean that decisions will be released no earlier/no later.  I've always appreciated that they had that date listed from the start.

 

Considering that the 15th is a Friday I wouldn't be surprised at all.

[riverguide]

The Army doesn't pay me for testing for it, so I never bothered haha. 

 

A 3/3 is presently worth $300 extra a month...that's a very impressive journey, though.

 

I had to leave Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring. I was at Middlebury in Alexandria when the Egyptians crossed the Rubicon. I went to Beirut after things got pretty violent. I loved Lebanon, attended AUB and Saifi, heard Hariri speak a few times and went whitewater rafting in the Bekaa Valley. Great memories.

Edited March 5, 2013 by riverguide

[Kadisha]

A 3/3 is presently worth $300 extra a month...that's a very impressive journey, though.

 

I had to leave Egypt in the wake of the Arab Spring. I was at Middlebury in Alexandria when the Egyptians crosses the Rubicon. I went to Beirut after things got pretty violent. I loved Lebanon, attended AUB and Saifi, heard Hariri speak a few times and went whitewater rafting in the Bekaa Valley. Great memories.

 

Sounds like you've had your fair share of adventures in the Middle-East as well. Impressive resume as well.  I was in Lebanon during the 2005 revolution and in 2006 during the Israeli bombing campaign.

 

What year did you go to AUB? I have a feeling that you might have met a few friends of mine. 

[riverguide]

Most of you have probably seen this but this search engine can be used for all of the schools. Those entries with red diamonds contain scores and GPA. Roll your cursor over the diamond to see the demographics...

SAIS

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=sais

Georgetown

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=georgetown+msfs&t=a&o=

Harvard

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=harvard+kennedy&t=a&o=&pp=25

[riverguide]

 

What year did you go to AUB? I have a feeling that you might have met a few friends of mine. 

Spring 2011. AUB was a moveable feast and the cats were a great surprise. First time I saw anyone trying to herd cats, lol...for those of you reading this, AUB has their own domestic herd of cats on campus and they have free reign both inside and outside. AUB feeds them and cares for them. They're famous. Sort of like Hemingway's cats at his Key West house.

Edited March 5, 2013 by riverguide

[Kadisha]

Most of you have probably seen this but this search engine can be used for all of the schools. Those entries with red diamonds contain scores and GPA. Roll your cursor over the diamond to see the demographics...

SAIS

http://thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=sais

Georgetown

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=georgetown+msfs&t=a&o=

Harvard

http://www.thegradcafe.com/survey/index.php?q=harvard+kennedy&t=a&o=&pp=25

 

Damn... the Harvard PHD PP applicants took a beating. 

 

Spring 2011. AUB was a moveable feast and the cats were a great surprise. First time I saw anyone trying to herd cats, lol...for those of you reading this, AUB has their own domestic herd of cats on campus and they have free reign both inside and outside. AUB feeds them and cares for them. They're famous. Sort of like Hemingway's cats at his Key West house.

 

haha those cats. I was told by my friend it's cause the university president is a cat lover. I know HKS has a summer internship there if I remember correctly. I'm going to try to get in on that if I get in. Hit two birds with one stone.

[Wanderlust22]

If anyone didn't see this yet:  http://networkedblogs.com/IXKzL

 

"Day of Reckoning?" - seems a bit harsh! Like people aren't already stressed enough about this!

[Kadisha]

If anyone didn't see this yet:  http://networkedblogs.com/IXKzL

 

"Day of Reckoning?" - seems a bit harsh! Like people aren't already stressed enough about this!

 

At least they're open about it haha.

 

That blog post got me more nervous and excited at the same time.

[WakeMeUpB4UGoGo]

the bluntness of the blog is somewhat comforting to me... at least i knew ill be put out of my misery one way or the other by next week

[Revolution]

I appreciate the blunt nature of that post as well, especially saying explicitly that people's reaction will range from rage to denial.

 

What's the acceptance rate for SAIS M.A.? Is it still around 30%?

[WakeMeUpB4UGoGo]

I appreciate the blunt nature of that post as well, especially saying explicitly that people's reaction will range from rage to denial.

 

What's the acceptance rate for SAIS M.A.? Is it still around 30%?

 

i think the threads from this time last year quoted 18-20%.

 

i was doing a good job of managing my stress up until this week but now im on pins and needles. at least when i was an undergrad i still had high school and teen angst to distract me. right now all i have is cleaning my army CIF issue to distract me, and thats not going well either

[Revolution]

Is that number from a reliable source? Yowza. That's really low.

 

 

i think the threads from this time last year quoted 18-20%.

 

i was doing a good job of managing my stress up until this week but now im on pins and needles. at least when i was an undergrad i still had high school and teen angst to distract me. right now all i have is cleaning my army CIF issue to distract me, and thats not going well either

[Kadisha]

i think the threads from this time last year quoted 18-20%.

 

i was doing a good job of managing my stress up until this week but now im on pins and needles. at least when i was an undergrad i still had high school and teen angst to distract me. right now all i have is cleaning my army CIF issue to distract me, and thats not going well either

 

When do you ETS? I'm looking at the beginning of June.

 

Edit: annoyed by typo

Edited March 6, 2013 by Kadisha

[WakeMeUpB4UGoGo]

When do you ETS? I'm look at the beginning of June.

 

i am clearing CIF tomorrow but my last day before terminal leave will be march 31st. whats your MOS if you dont mind me asking? in both benning and drum i have rarely met anyone (one officer, zero enlisted) ETSing to go to graduate school, great to know im not the only one going from army to IR!

Edited March 6, 2013 by WakeMeUpB4UGoGo

[Kadisha]

i am clearing CIF tomorrow but my last day before terminal leave will be march 31st. whats your MOS if you dont mind me asking? in both benning and drum i have rarely met anyone (one officer, zero enlisted) ETSing to go to graduate school, great to know im not the only one going from army to IR!

 

My terminal leave starts on the 6th of June. Still haven't gotten it approved since I'm talking 75 days. I'm planning to be a beach bum till I have to move to where I get accepted haha. 

 

I'm an 11B. During my entire time I've only known one person (an officer) whose ETSed and gone to grad school He's at HKS right now.  

 

I'm making that GI Bill do work! Although it's too bad that SAIS's Yellow Ribbon program only contributes $2500. Better than nothing I guess, but it's a very small contribution compared to other programs.

Edited March 6, 2013 by Kadisha

[WakeMeUpB4UGoGo]

My terminal leave starts on the 6th of June. Still haven't gotten it approved since I'm talking 75 days. I'm planning to be a beach bum till I have to move to where I get accepted haha. 

 

I'm an 11B. During my entire time I've only known one person (an officer) whose ETSed and gone to grad school He's at HKS right now.  

 

I'm making that GI Bill do work! Although it's too bad that SAIS's Yellow Ribbon program only contributes $2500. Better than nothing I guess, but it's a very small contribution compared to other programs.

 

mine hasnt been approved yet either but i anticipate no problems, it got kicked back once because my OIC signed the wrong block and there was confusion over what happens to my clearance once i leave (i am a 35F master fobbit). im taking 52 days; all those skipped block leaves now seem worth it! leave is one of the things making me antsy about decisions news too; im going to be in hong kong and japan until school starts and i cant actually buy plane tickets until i know which schools accept me because i want to visit any east coast school which accepts me before deciding.

 

im having my all-day VA/GI bill brief this friday and i already plan on bombarding the briefer with questions. so far only syracuse has accepted me but the quoted cost on their website already goes over what the GI bill will give me per year, and if a DC school takes me then the cost will only go up. Elliott and SAIS are yellow ribbon but when i reached out to the veterens student associations in december they weren't that helpful tbh. maybe the large number of vets in the DC area means too many people are asking for assistance. my interaction with the NY schools (Maxwell and SIPA) were much more positive.

 

edit: one more question if youll indulge my curiosity, are you doing national guard/reserves once you get out? i am debating whether to do that or just take the extra inactive reserve years i still owe.

Edited March 6, 2013 by WakeMeUpB4UGoGo

[Kadisha]

mine hasnt been approved yet either but i anticipate no problems, it got kicked back once because my OIC signed the wrong block and there was confusion over what happens to my clearance once i leave (i am a 35F master fobbit). im taking 52 days; all those skipped block leaves now seem worth it! leave is one of the things making me antsy about decisions news too; im going to be in hong kong and japan until school starts and i cant actually buy plane tickets until i know which schools accept me because i want to visit any east coast school which accepts me before deciding.

 

im having my all-day VA/GI bill brief this friday and i already plan on bombarding the briefer with questions. so far only syracuse has accepted me but the quoted cost on their website already goes over what the GI bill will give me per year, and if a DC school takes me then the cost will only go up. Elliott and SAIS are yellow ribbon but when i reached out to the veterens student associations in december they weren't that helpful tbh. maybe the large number of vets in the DC area means too many people are asking for assistance. my interaction with the NY schools (Maxwell and SIPA) were much more positive.

 

edit: one more question if youll indulge my curiosity, are you doing national guard/reserves once you get out? i am debating whether to do that or just take the extra inactive reserve years i still owe.

 

Taking 4 day passes at a time for the last year since I got back from Afghanistan has been a pain. I haven't been able to truly relax like I've wanted to, but just like you said now it's turning out to be worth it. I doubt anything should happen to your clearance. I've got one myself, and from what I understand you keep it, and might even have to renew it if you're still within the 4 year IR commitment. I guess all of us in the military tend to become over-planner because everything is on hold right now until I find out where I'm going as well.

 

I'm going to do it and use a "friend told me" source, but according to him veterans are highly respected at Columbia. I've also personally met the VA representative when I visited last March. I can't remember her name, but she was incredibly nice. I wouldn't discount the fact that vets aren't anything special to DC schools, but we'll find out I guess.

 

I'm honestly keep it as a last resort. I'm tired of my MOS aka fighting-an-unconventional-war-in-a-conventional-setting-is-not-working, and I don't want to go through the hassle of reclassing right now. I might bite the bullet(no pun intended) and do it, if I find myself in desperate need of funding. 

[WakeMeUpB4UGoGo]

Taking 4 day passes at a time for the last year since I got back from Afghanistan has been a pain. I haven't been able to truly relax like I've wanted to, but just like you said now it's turning out to be worth it. I doubt anything should happen to your clearance. I've got one myself, and from what I understand you keep it, and might even have to renew it if you're still within the 4 year IR commitment. I guess all of us in the military tend to become over-planner because everything is on hold right now until I find out where I'm going as well.

 

I'm going to do it and use a "friend told me" source, but according to him veterans are highly respected at Columbia. I've also personally met the VA representative when I visited last March. I can't remember her name, but she was incredibly nice. I wouldn't discount the fact that vets aren't anything special to DC schools, but we'll find out I guess.

 

I'm honestly keep it as a last resort. I'm tired of my MOS aka fighting-an-unconventional-war-in-a-conventional-setting-is-not-working, and I don't want to go through the hassle of reclassing right now. I might bite the bullet(no pun intended) and do it, if I find myself in desperate need of funding. 

 

i feel you man, my buddy who has been through transition already says the reserves offered him close to an extra 5k per semester if he was willing to help out the ROTC where he is plans to do his undergrad. that sounds too good be to true to me so ill see when i go through, but an extra 5k to drill once a month might be too good to turn down if moneys a little tight.

 

i agree your friend source lol! my sister did columbia law and her boyfriend is in SIPA right now after doing Science Po in france, and he told me in his cohort there are only a handful of vets who have deployed. i spoke with some of them via email and they were much more helpful and in depth than people i contacted in DC. most of them said i was a lock to get into SIPA because i have SOCOM and ranger regiment deployments, but i didnt tell them how pathetic my GRE score was so they didnt know the full story..

 

if you do go ahead with reclassing in the future i would highly recommend any 35 series MOS that you find interesting. just that fact i have a TS + a bunch of other clearence identifiers has already opened so many doors for me both inside and outside of the army.

[Kadisha]

i feel you man, my buddy who has been through transition already says the reserves offered him close to an extra 5k per semester if he was willing to help out the ROTC where he is plans to do his undergrad. that sounds too good be to true to me so ill see when i go through, but an extra 5k to drill once a month might be too good to turn down if moneys a little tight.

 

i agree your friend source lol! my sister did columbia law and her boyfriend is in SIPA right now after doing Science Po in france, and he told me in his cohort there are only a handful of vets who have deployed. i spoke with some of them via email and they were much more helpful and in depth than people i contacted in DC. most of them said i was a lock to get into SIPA because i have SOCOM and ranger regiment deployments, but i didnt tell them how pathetic my GRE score was so they didnt know the full story..

 

if you do go ahead with reclassing in the future i would highly recommend any 35 series MOS that you find interesting. just that fact i have a TS + a bunch of other clearence identifiers has already opened so many doors for me both inside and outside of the army.

 

5k to help out with a bunch of cadets. Sounds too easy haha. Let me know how things go with you since you're way ahead of me with the ETSing. 

 

My friend himself was a 35P. He's going there for undergrad though, and apparently got a really good score on his ACT. I'm in the same boat with the GRE. Got a mediocre score of 157/170 on both sections. I'm sensing a trend here since I got a 570 on both the sections of the SAT 9 years ago (that just made me feel real old) lol. It's a long story but I work with SOCOM too. SF though. Has to do with my fluency in Arabic. I actually got my TS because I was about to reclass to 35P last year while I was in Afghanistan. They had fat bonuses. I think $40,000 for reenlisting for 4 years. The only reason I didn't was because my DLPT was expired, so they wouldn't let me reclass before I retested. Best thing that ever happened to me to be honest.

 

Either way we seem to be in the same boat. Let's hope we both make it  At least you've been accepted into one school already. I'm still waiting on all 5. 

Edited March 7, 2013 by Kadisha

[Revolution]

Actually, that 18-20% is the % of applicants who end up enrolling at SAIS, so the actual acceptance rate is higher. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 30%; I would be stunned if it's below 25%. I think HKS MPP is around 18-20%, and MPA is around 25%.

 

 

i think the threads from this time last year quoted 18-20%.

 

i was doing a good job of managing my stress up until this week but now im on pins and needles. at least when i was an undergrad i still had high school and teen angst to distract me. right now all i have is cleaning my army CIF issue to distract me, and thats not going well either

[WakeMeUpB4UGoGo]

Actually, that 18-20% is the % of applicants who end up enrolling at SAIS, so the actual acceptance rate is higher. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 30%; I would be stunned if it's below 25%. I think HKS MPP is around 18-20%, and MPA is around 25%.

 

i would be glad to be wrong about 18-20! the higher the number the better for my nerves

 

5k to help out with a bunch of cadets. Sounds too easy haha. Let me know how things go with you since you're way ahead of me with the ETSing. 

 

My friend himself was a 35P. He's going there for undergrad though, and apparently got a really good score on his ACT. I'm in the same boat with the GRE. Got a mediocre score of 157/170 on both sections. I'm sensing a trend here since I got a 570 on both the sections of the SAT 9 years ago (that just made me feel real old) lol. It's a long story but I work with SOCOM too. SF though. Has to do with my fluency in Arabic. I actually got my TS because I was about to reclass to 35P last year while I was in Afghanistan. They had fat bonuses. I think $40,000 for reenlisting for 4 years. The only reason I didn't was because my DLPT was expired, so they wouldn't let me reclass before I retested. Best thing that ever happened to me to be honest.

 

Either way we seem to be in the same boat. Let's hope we both make it  At least you've been accepted into one school already. I'm still waiting on all 5. 

 

thats what i think too, it sounds way too easy! i suspect my buddy might be confusing it with actually joining ROTC as a reserve officer.

 

what i would give for 157/170... my score was much worse than that . i took the old SAT 8 years ago and got 650/600 but obviously retained none of the math knowledge. when i was in afghanistan 2 years ago they offered me 35P as well because i speak cantonese and some mandarin; because i was going from one BEAR MOS to another they were offering 35k for a 4 year reenlistment, which basically meant a two year extension. the thought of living in montery almost swayed me but in the end i decided against it.

 

ill post again on friday about how the GI bill briefing went, if you have any questions about transition and such that i can help out with let me know! i may be angsty right now but im cautiously optimistic that next weeks decisionmaggedon will yield good news for everyone

Edited March 7, 2013 by WakeMeUpB4UGoGo

[deadhead47]

Actually, that 18-20% is the % of applicants who end up enrolling at SAIS, so the actual acceptance rate is higher. I'm pretty sure it's somewhere around 30%; I would be stunned if it's below 25%. I think HKS MPP is around 18-20%, and MPA is around 25%.

The total number of applicants for SAIS in 2011 was 1,753 and the acceptance rate was 42.16%.

 

http://www.ryugaku.com/graddb/home/data/id/38480 (sorry it's in Japanese but it's a reliable source, which has a lot of info on other programs too).