Career Decision...NOW!

[gradfeegalore]

I'm at a fork in the road right now with my career and I think the grad school I choose will pretty much determine the rest of my life. They are two COMPLETELY different fields, both of which I would love doing (reasons listed below). Your thoughts?

1. NYU Wagner - MPA Health Program (#3 Ranked in the Country)

Not only would living in NYC be great but with this program I can really get good policy/quantitative experience which I can use in a legislative career. I think this program and degree gives me the flexibility to do everything helping craft legislation, policies, and campaigning. I want to get involved with policy making and politics and this would provide me a great footing initially in the NYC level and all the way up to the federal level. Additionally, Health Policy is going to be big so its not like I'll be studying something stale and unnecessary.

2. Georgetown SFS - Masters in Russian and Eastern European Studies (Arguable the #1 Ranked)

I absolutely love Russia and the language. I was a Russian major in college and absolutely loved it as well as studied aboard. I would love to work in International Relations policy dealing with Russian and Eastern Europe and would love to travel. It's a pretty prestigious program. My only downside is that I'm not too big of a fan on DC.

Your thoughts!?

THANKS!

[ChrisC]

Georgetown. You used 'love' four times in that paragraph That's a fantastic program. Good luck with your decision!

[flit]

wow... those are two very different paths... good luck with whichever you choose

[teaganc]

Georgetown. You used 'love' four times in that paragraph That's a fantastic program. Good luck with your decision!

This. DC's not that bad, and you can leave after your MA anyway.

[MaximKat]

This. DC's not that bad, and you can leave after your MA anyway.

Hey-hey-hey! What happened to straight-up no-advice decisions? Or now, when tomorrow has come and you have conquered the world (at least you planned to), you are going to set new rules and leave all doubtful minds without desired help?

[liszt85]

2. Georgetown SFS - Masters in Russian and Eastern European Studies (Arguable the #1 Ranked)

I absolutely love Russia and the language. I was a Russian major in college and absolutely loved it as well as studied aboard. I would love to work in International Relations policy dealing with Russian and Eastern Europe and would love to travel. It's a pretty prestigious program. My only downside is that I'm not too big of a fan on DC.

Your thoughts!?

I'm going to tell you what I think YOUR thoughts are about this. I think you prefer Georgetown (there's passion in your description about Georgetown that is not quite there in the other) and I think since that's the case, you should opt for Georgetown

[Stories]

I'm a pragmatic person. So my vote is for the professional degree in the MPA. Just my $.2

[gradfeegalore]

I'm a pragmatic person. So my vote is for the professional degree in the MPA. Just my $.2

AHH - that's totally what's nagging at the back of my head. I can see myself being happy with the MPA and with the Russian Studies both, but more with Russian studies.

What do most people do with a Masters in Regional Studies - goodness I should have done my research before I applied to the ONE non MPA/MPP program out of all my other 4 MPA/MPP programs.

[ChrisC]

Think tanks, gov't, press, going on to to doctoral programs, lots of things. GT's program is neat because it's really versatile, and you can start any one of a number of slavic/central asian languages as well as Russian. I'm sure NYU's program is great as well though, that's a tough call. PM me if you want!

[teaganc]

Hey-hey-hey! What happened to straight-up no-advice decisions? Or now, when tomorrow has come and you have conquered the world (at least you planned to), you are going to set new rules and leave all doubtful minds without desired help?

I know, right? Just wait until Decision Monkey rules the world.

But seriously. Someone already went with the "Georgetown." approach, so I had to do something. And sometimes I give advice, not decisions, like when people PM me--if they've taken the time to seek out Decision Monkey, I can take the time to write a few sentences.