HELP! SAIS vs. Georgetown vs. Fletcher

[Joseph B]

Hey Guys,

 

What a wonderful time to be alive! Yet there are many decisions to be made!

 

 

I have been offered admission by three MA programs:

 

 

SAIS Washington DC;

Fletcher;

American University;

Georgetown's Security Studies program—though I will hear from them next week, I feel it is in the bag.

 

 

My predicament is the following. I am a non-American student whose main areas of interest are international relations and international security. I want to devote my life to academia (preferably based at the USA) but that requires a top-notch PhD. The programs I am most interested in are incidentally the most selective: Columbia, Harvard, Princeton, Chicago and Yale.

 

My question for Grad Café’s devoted followers is the following: Which of the MA programs I mentioned above would best prepare me for the PhDs admissions I mentioned beneath?

 

By now, I have realized that American admission committee’s do not focus exclusively on one item on the applicant’s CV. But since I want to walk the road towards tenure, my academic credentials will carry significant weight both for my PhD admission and my career.

 

I might be too picky, but I am troubled with the following observations:

 

- SAIS might be considered too policy- or economics-centered.

- I have the feeling that American U is sometimes held as a step beneath or not “prestigious enough”.

- Does Georgetown’s Security Studies program carry the same reputation as the MSFS/Foreign Service?

 

What do you guys think?