Second Master's Degree or Apply Directly to the Foreign Service?

[mfafiction2019]

Hi everyone, I've already made a few posts on GradCafe about Phds in Sociology or Anthropology, but now that I'm thinking about it more, I'm not so sure I want to pursue a career in academia. I am almost finished with my current master's degree program in Anthropology (all I need to do is write/defend my thesis). However, this is a master's degree from a non-US/UK institution (very well-regarded in the region; my thesis director did her PhD in the US and is someone who is very well known/well regarded in the field, at least in the region), so I was wondering if I needed to do another Masters degree in the US (either in Latin American Studies, since my first master's degree will be from a Latin American institution) or in Public Policy--or a combined MA in Latin American Studies/MPP, like the one that UT has), in order to have a graduate degree from a US institution (if that matters...I'm not sure that it does, but I sort of get the sense that it does). My ultimate goal at this point is to enter the Foreign Service (I plan on applying for the consular career track), which everyone says should always be a plan B as opposed to a plan A, and I know that on paper, the Foreign Service doesn't require any advanced degrees, but I've read that the pay is higher for those who have a masters degree. 

Thanks in advance for any and all advice and comments!!

(I'm posting this in the interdisciplinary studies section because the degree I'm considering applying for next year--fall 2018--is Latin American Studies, but if I need to post it in the MPP section, I will)

ETA: if I pursue the MA in Latin American Studies in the US, I plan on focusing on a different country/somewhat different themes than the ones I did my first master's degree in, so it wouldn't be like a repeat of what I did abroad.

Edited July 29, 2017 by nywnorb120191

[bakedmanapua]

Hello @nywnorb120191! I don't have any help for you from direct personal experience, but both of my parents did what it sounds like you are hoping to do, if I'm understanding you correctly. This would have been in the 80s and 90s, of course, so things may have changed. My dad (an American) did his M.Phil. at Oxford before joining the foreign service in the late 80s, and it didn't seem to have been an issue that he didn't have a graduate degree from a US institution. 

I don't know the details on pay and such, and things could have changed, but it has been historically possible to apply from an overseas graduate institution.