Economics: Georgetown vs BGSE

[Johnnie_Walker]

Hi everybody, I am from Europe and am going to start a graduate program in Economics this coming fall. My interests are Development, Micro (especially Income Inequalities) and Financial Development. So far I have received several admission offers, with Georgetown University and Barcelona GSE being objectively the best universities I have heard back from (even if I was also admitted into Bocconi PhD program, but already rejected it due to personal reasons). I have only few days to make a definitive decision (BGSE wants me to reply only by next Monday!), so now I desperately need your help in order to choose the best option between these two universities.

 

Georgetown allows me to enter directly into their PhD program, whereas BGSE forces me to attend their 2-year Master first(which very likely leads to 3 consequent years in which you exclusively do research and finally earn their doctorate degree). In some rankings Georgetown dominates BGSE, while the opposite is true in other rankings. For this reason, I would not rely too much on academic standing to prefer one to the other (or am I wrong?).

Finally, both of such offers are unfunded. I know this means I am into a quite hard situation, but fortunately I think to be able to manage my first year of study thanks to my finances (I have been working for 1 year just to fund my future first year of Master/PhD). Once in one of these two universities, I will really commit myself to study hard so as to (hopefully) get some financial support from 2° year on.

 

I have not a clue about how Washington and Barcelone are, since I have visited none of them so far. I know Georgetown could maybe be better in placing me more easily into international institutions (like World Bank, International Monetary Fund and central banks), which represent my dream destination. Nevertheless, some of last BGSE Master and PhD graduates are now working in such institutions, so perhaps this is not a real point of distinction.

Any information/advice is really welcome! Thanks in advance.