SIPA Early Application Thread

[nycpolicy]

Hi @StyLeD I'm applying for regular decision in a couple of days. Can you please tell me which cohort is bigger, the MIA or MPA? As per the statistics here :https://sipa.columbia.edu/careers/employment-statistics/miampa-employment-statistics-year the MPA program admits substantially more students, but I read on past Grad Cafe forums that the MIA is the older and larger program. Perhaps the statistics above are counting the 2 year MPA and non-2 year MPA student numbers? 

Also, 

[yellina122]

15 hours ago, StyLeD said:

Glad to give back! 

1. Part-time jobs: Yes. I worked two part-time jobs, actually, as a graphic designer for a NYC-based nonprofit and a program assistant for one of SIPA's centers. I worked a total of ~20 hours and spent ~10 hours on student clubs and such. So it's definitely doable for the first three semesters - during your capstone semester, the capstone class will take up a huge chunk of time, so budget for that. BUT if you want to aim for a 3.8+ and you're not a naturally gifted student, it'll be a bit hard since, as I mentioned in my previous comment, SIPA grades on a curve and it's quite difficult to get an A half-assedly. 

1

Thanks so much for the response!

It's actually a huge relief to hear that maintaining a part-time job is feasible. I have housing sorted out (family in NYC) so as long as I can pay for the basic cost of living stuff month to month, then I'm ok with paying back a chunk of student debt later on. Taking out a private loan to deal with cost of living would suck big time haha. It also seems from your other responses that vying for those second-year assistantships/fellowships for $$$ isn't necessarily worth straining myself for - time might better be spent working to help pay for school and make some connections rather than bending over backward for straight A's.

Speaking of housing- do many students live outside of Manhattan? I'll definitely be in Queens, but I wonder if I'll be missing out at all not living close to campus. The commute doesn't bother me much but if I'd be out of the loop from my classmates it might sway me to try to find something closer given I can afford it.

Oooh, also, what are the career services like? Did SIPA make a difference in helping you secure your new job? Help you find your summer internship?

[StyLeD]

On 1/1/2018 at 12:33 PM, aaprabhakar said:

Hi @StyLeD I'm applying for regular decision in a couple of days. Can you please tell me which cohort is bigger, the MIA or MPA? As per the statistics here :https://sipa.columbia.edu/careers/employment-statistics/miampa-employment-statistics-year the MPA program admits substantially more students, but I read on past Grad Cafe forums that the MIA is the older and larger program. Perhaps the statistics above are counting the 2 year MPA and non-2 year MPA student numbers? 

Also, 

Just from speaking with people in my cohort, I do believe the MPA cohort is bigger than than the MIA. The MIA program may be older, but I think people find it more practical these days to have MPA on their resume over MIA. Personally, I'm an MIA graduate but, at least for the next 6 years or so, I wish I did an MPA. People have no idea what an MIA program is, and that can hurt you if you're trying to enter any sector other than int'l development/politics. OTOH, the MIA degree is quite unique and can give you a leg up if you're committed to an international career. 

[StyLeD]

On 1/1/2018 at 5:32 PM, yellina122 said:

Thanks so much for the response!

It's actually a huge relief to hear that maintaining a part-time job is feasible. I have housing sorted out (family in NYC) so as long as I can pay for the basic cost of living stuff month to month, then I'm ok with paying back a chunk of student debt later on. Taking out a private loan to deal with cost of living would suck big time haha. It also seems from your other responses that vying for those second-year assistantships/fellowships for $$$ isn't necessarily worth straining myself for - time might better be spent working to help pay for school and make some connections rather than bending over backward for straight A's.

Speaking of housing- do many students live outside of Manhattan? I'll definitely be in Queens, but I wonder if I'll be missing out at all not living close to campus. The commute doesn't bother me much but if I'd be out of the loop from my classmates it might sway me to try to find something closer given I can afford it.

Oooh, also, what are the career services like? Did SIPA make a difference in helping you secure your new job? Help you find your summer internship?

Good to know you have housing sorted out. That's one of the major costs of living in New York. As far as assistantships go, the $20k ones require a lot of preparation and planning - you need to take the courses you want to TA as early as possible to maximize your chances of getting interviews the first semester of your 2nd year. You also need to take courses that you absolutely know you will do well in, and they should be courses you would've already taken always regardless of your interest in TAing. If there is such a course, then by all means, take it. If not, then don't expect to receive a TAship your 2nd year.

That being said, it's not hard to get a Program Assistantship with one of the offices/institutes your 2nd year. They provide around $6000-$10000 in funding and are much easier to get than TAships - there's no grade requirement, for instance. 

I conducted a SIPA student survey in New York a few months ago and one of the challenges of commuting was missing out on night life, since most of the big social events are held in the evening. Key word being social; if you're interested in academic events, they're held throughout the day and you should be able to have a healthy work-life balance. 

Career services are TERRIBLE. My god, I could go on for days about how useless the career services office is. I'm going to go on a rant. Let me distill my displeasure in a couple bullet points: 

• They did not help at all in securing my current job. (disclaimer: SIPA is very reputable for int'l development, but my career goals were different) They hold information sessions, but the companies that come to SIPA fall into four categories: top-tier int'l development (World Bank, IMF, Dalberg, UNICEF, UN); state/federal jobs (New York Transit; DOE, DOS, military); int'l/regional private (Goldman Sacs, JP Morgan, BAH, MBB/Big 4 consulting-global (NOT domestic; SIPA is not a target or even semi-target school)); and various nonprofits, some big and some small. My industry was underrepresented and views SIPA with some disdain. SIPA is so international that the career options often exclude domestic students from applying, which is incredibly frustrating. 
• Their career advisers are god-awful (disclaimer: they have 3 or 4 advisers. I've visited two of them and people have complained to me about the other two) I actually went to one of their advisers seeking advice (I have a federal background and was trying to transition to private with no hard skills) and they pretty much accused me of trying to secure a job guarantee out of them when I was merely looking for a rough roadmap to follow and some anecdotal evidence from past students. At my undergraduate institution, the alumni-career services network was strong, and the advisers would put me in touch with recent alumni who were always willing to help. At SIPA, the advisers are unwilling (unable?) to provide you with connections. They will tell you everyone is different and that there's no concrete path they can provide, which IMO is just their way of sidestepping their own incompetence. If they were to read this post, the first thing they would think of would be, "Why is STyLeD misguided and wrong?" not "How might we improve our services to address StyLeD's concerns?" You could probably replace the worst adviser with Google Home and expect the same level of empathy and advice. 
• They limit you to three visits a semester. Thankfully, after the first visit you won't want to use the other two visits.  
• They have a poor reputation in some career fields. Let's just say that alumni in certain industries have expressed frustration to me when trying to organize information sessions or recruiting events through the career center. For instance, if I were an alumna interesting in advertising a job requiring a federal security clearance, I would submit the necessary paperwork and check back a month later only to find that 80% of applications are from foreign students who have no shot at, and should have been precluded from, even applying. From a recruiting standpoint, this drives down the success rate of recruiting (instead of, say, successfully hiring 1 in 20, now you report hiring 1 in 100, 80 of whom should not have even applied). Then, in my (alumna's) company, my superiors would report that SIPA is not worth the effort of sifting through clearly unqualified candidates. SIPA then loses its "target" status and the company no longer recruits there. This is a hypothetical situation with some basis in reality. 

My advice would be to treat SIPA's career services as an automated job postings system with no human interaction. Perhaps the one good thing about career services is that 9/10 fellow students you meet will also have had a terrible experience with them as well, so it's a great way to bond (I guess that means you'll have to visit a career adviser at least once...).

Speaking of, your colleagues at SIPA will be hundreds of times better than the career center at helping you obtain your career goals. If you're an intelligent, down-to-earth team player, you will make friends and they will want to help you. SIPA's various industry-specific student groups really help to bring together like-minded individuals. It's how I obtained both my summer internship and post-grad job. 

I want to reiterate that I am a domestic student with no interest in international development. If I were an international student interested in doing M&E work for the UN or World Bank, I would be much happier with the career options - particularly the quality of companies that recruit on campus - but equally unhappy with the quality of advice and bureaucratic limitations of career services. 

tl;dr I'm grateful to SIPA for giving me the alumni network and contacts I have today, but I did so without the help of the career center. 

Edited January 5, 2018 by StyLeD

[yellina122]

10 hours ago, StyLeD said:

Good to know you have housing sorted out. That's one of the major costs of living in New York. As far as assistantships go, the $20k ones require a lot of preparation and planning - you need to take the courses you want to TA as early as possible to maximize your chances of getting interviews the first semester of your 2nd year. You also need to take courses that you absolutely know you will do well in, and they should be courses you would've already taken always regardless of your interest in TAing. If there is such a course, then by all means, take it. If not, then don't expect to receive a TAship your 2nd year.

That being said, it's not hard to get a Program Assistantship with one of the offices/institutes your 2nd year. They provide around $6000-$10000 in funding and are much easier to get than TAships - there's no grade requirement, for instance. 

I conducted a SIPA student survey in New York a few months ago and one of the challenges of commuting was missing out on night life, since most of the big social events are held in the evening. Key word being social; if you're interested in academic events, they're held throughout the day and you should be able to have a healthy work-life balance. 

9

Thank you again for a very thoughtful response! I've read some of the articles on The Morningside Post and it seems like being a TA can be pretty stressful and time-consuming, whereas a program assistantship is less so and the work itself has the potential to take less mental bandwidth. Though the $$$ is double so that's a big consideration. Can you share anything about the experiences of folks you know who have been TAs vs Program Assistants?

As for the commute, I do worry about the FOMO, but I'm also pretty lucky to have a close friend currently in the MPH program who lives in Morningside Heights. Hopefully, her place can be my "home base" for days when I want to do all the social events. How was it finding your niche at SIPA? Was the first semester filled with as much social anxiety as most folks' first semester of undergrad? I'd hope that people would have more in common considering they're all there to study something similar, but who knows!

The fact that career services are terrible is disappointing but also not that surprising. Career services at my undergrad also offered zero assistance in helping me find internships or jobs. It's nice to hear that the alumni network and classmates make up for it, though, as long as you're willing to put in the man-hours.

As a domestic student who is also only interested in domestic policy work (advocacy in the nonprofit arena or in municipal government), I'd love to hear more about your experiences in the domestic policy area at SIPA- classes, professors, student clubs, etc. SIPA Admissions always has that whole "we do domestic policy too!" as part of their talking points, but I'd love to hear your take on how true that really is, whether it could be a deterrent.

 

Again, thank you so much for your input! It is incredibly helpful.

[StyLeD]

6 hours ago, yellina122 said:

Thank you again for a very thoughtful response! I've read some of the articles on The Morningside Post and it seems like being a TA can be pretty stressful and time-consuming, whereas a program assistantship is less so and the work itself has the potential to take less mental bandwidth. Though the $$$ is double so that's a big consideration. Can you share anything about the experiences of folks you know who have been TAs vs Program Assistants?

As for the commute, I do worry about the FOMO, but I'm also pretty lucky to have a close friend currently in the MPH program who lives in Morningside Heights. Hopefully, her place can be my "home base" for days when I want to do all the social events. How was it finding your niche at SIPA? Was the first semester filled with as much social anxiety as most folks' first semester of undergrad? I'd hope that people would have more in common considering they're all there to study something similar, but who knows!

The fact that career services are terrible is disappointing but also not that surprising. Career services at my undergrad also offered zero assistance in helping me find internships or jobs. It's nice to hear that the alumni network and classmates make up for it, though, as long as you're willing to put in the man-hours.

As a domestic student who is also only interested in domestic policy work (advocacy in the nonprofit arena or in municipal government), I'd love to hear more about your experiences in the domestic policy area at SIPA- classes, professors, student clubs, etc. SIPA Admissions always has that whole "we do domestic policy too!" as part of their talking points, but I'd love to hear your take on how true that really is, whether it could be a deterrent.

 

Again, thank you so much for your input! It is incredibly helpful.

Glad to help! I've got way too much time before I start work, so ask away. 

PA positions are pretty relaxing, you're pretty much a glorified federal work study student (at least I was). Although, I heard that they're redoing the PA programs so my info might be outdated. 

Most TA positions require a ton of work, as you're often grading midterm papers, holding recitations once a week (~2 hours), and holding office hours once a week (~2 hours). And that's only the front-end work that we students see. I'm sure TAs also work with the course announcement system, posting updates to syllabi, correcting assignment dates, answering pressing questions, etc. But it's a great resume-booster, as you can definitely say you were in the top 10% of the class (probably closer to top 5%) and that you both learned and taught the material. Also will secure you a solid recommendation, I'm sure. 

I entered through government sponsorship, and it was only until my 2nd year that I decided to forgo the job security in favor of private sector work. So, my first year was really relaxed. Most people try and get their core courses out of the way, which also gives you the best chance of getting a TA-ship. If that's you, then your first semester will be pretty tough - my recommendation is to not overwhelm yourself with more than two quantitative classes. 

My social circle at SIPA was tied to my culture and my profession. I met people from other schools through the professional student organization, which was very valuable - one thing I wish I did more was meet people from other schools (especially, for me, the business school). It was a good balance. I went to about one social event a week, and I studied with people from both groups. In my last semester, I met 3-4 times a week with people similarly interested in private sector work. I still stay in touch with those students. 

______

As for the domestic focus of SIPA, all of the quantitative professors will approach the class from a US perspective. This is good. There's also enough professors to go around where you can graduate having taken courses from professors who only specialize in US policy. These professors will have local roots - so you can expect policy courses taught by former mayors, NY-based nonprofit executive directors, etc. Just keep in mind that the more important the professor, the less present they'll be in the classroom. Also, the professors are all quite stereotypical in their research focus. If a professor is teaching about political development and studied in and is from some part of Latin America, you can be sure that the class will be very Latin America-focused. You'll have two weeks to pick the classes that suit you best, although there's so many students the interesting functional courses are often filled by 2nd year students first. If you tailor your first semester to selecting core courses taught by professors who've worked where you want to work, then you'll be golden.

tSIPA doesn't have a concentration or specialization specifically targeting nonprofits, but their functional specializations are cross-industry (gender, advanced statistics, management, etc.) They also have a core management course on non-profit organizations taught by a great professor, that may interest you. For details on courses in, say, nonprofit management, search using this http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/ (school-wide) and http://bulletin.columbia.edu/sipa/course-search/ (SIPA-specific). Just type in something like "spring 2018 nonprofit" and you'll get a better understanding of the classes you might expect. One of the big draws of Columbia is that you can take courses from other schools, either as an elective or as a core replacement. Gives you a bit a flexibility in your schedule. 

If you want to get a better understanding of SIPA from someone who shares your interests, your best bet would be to go on LinkedIn and do a search for SIPA alum at nonprofits you want to work at in 2 years. We're usually pretty good as responding. 

One more thing of note: SIPA's MPA program places regionally, so their municipal/state/federal career postings will be either international, NY-based, or East Coast-based. Their nonprofits will similarly either be international or local.

Edited January 5, 2018 by StyLeD

[jxw]

HI @StyLeD,

Thanks for the very detailed and helpful information! Hope you don't mind that I have a few questions to add:

1. Did you participate in any of the tech and policy activities in SIPA, or have you heard anything about them? I'm a product manager for big data tools and am hoping to leverage these skills in international development. SIPA's programme is attractive to me because of its focus on tech, big data, and innovation. I'd love to learn more about that from your perspective, or from one of your cohort.

2. My concentration (as of now) is Urban and Social Policy. How much of a focus is domestic vs international for this concentration? When I was browsing the course offerings, I saw many more domestic-related courses, but I'm more interested in international.

Thanks!

Edited January 16, 2018 by jxw

[StyLeD]

On 1/15/2018 at 7:50 PM, jxw said:

HI @StyLeD,

Thanks for the very detailed and helpful information! Hope you don't mind that I have a few questions to add:

1. Did you participate in any of the tech and policy activities in SIPA, or have you heard anything about them? I'm a product manager for big data tools and am hoping to leverage these skills in international development. SIPA's programme is attractive to me because of its focus on tech, big data, and innovation. I'd love to learn more about that from your perspective, or from one of your cohort.

2. My concentration (as of now) is Urban and Social Policy. How much of a focus is domestic vs international for this concentration? When I was browsing the course offerings, I saw many more domestic-related courses, but I'm more interested in international.

Thanks!

Sorry, I didn't participate in any of the tech/policy initiatives and none of my classes overlapped with that of the USP folks. Your best bet for student feedback would be to reach out to USP-SIPA students on LinkedIn and see what they have to say. All I know is that the USP concentration population is very small compared to the rest of SIPA. I did do a search in our internship database which turned up 31 results for USP (as opposed to 90 for EPD) - a good mix of domestic and international, but international students tended to pick up international internships. Everyone else seemed to pursue local opportunities. Seems like if you're international, you won't have trouble finding an internship at a NY office of an int'l development bank or something like that, but if you're domestic looking for int'l internship experience, you're out of luck. 

[jxw]

Thanks, @StyLeD--I'll reach out to people on LinkedIn then.

[StyLeD]

12 hours ago, jxw said:

Thanks, @StyLeD--I'll reach out to people on LinkedIn then.

FWIW I asked a good friend of mine who did USP for 2 semesters and switched to EPD, and he said that the USP program is primarily domestic due to the brand name professors that draw student interest. However, he also said it's really easy to pick USP-related classes with an int'l focus, so my impression is that there's enough classes within SIPA and outside of it - you can take any elective after all - where you won't feel as constrained as you would in a smaller school at, say, Tufts.

Edited January 18, 2018 by StyLeD

[Prester John]

Have you guys started negotiating for increase in financial aid?

[maria24]

Hello! I applied for the regular Jan 15 deadline (MPA-ESP), and got wait listed. Is it safe to assume that even if an acceptance comes later, there won't be a fellowship offer? Thanks for you input!

[lackey]

I got in EA but nothing about a scholly. Should we assume no funding? I heard we will find out either way in March...

[yellina122]

Most fellowships and financial aid decisions have not been made yet, per the emails they've sent and conversations with admissions/financial aid folks at SIPA. We will all hear officially mid-March. I'm going to save any negotiating until then

[lackey]

Awesome, thanks! Just wanted to double check.

[Prester John]

Yeah. That makes sense! Thanks for the feedback guys...

[oitaylor19]

I applied for the Columbia MPA-ESP and submitted it for the January 15th deadline, and just found out last night (Jan 31) that I got in! I also got a fellowship amount, work study, and information about loans re: my fafsa.

[maria24]

17 minutes ago, oitaylor19 said:

I applied for the Columbia MPA-ESP and submitted it for the January 15th deadline, and just found out last night (Jan 31) that I got in! I also got a fellowship amount, work study, and information about loans re: my fafsa.

First off, congrats! Did you submit your FAFSA already then? When I called the financial aid office a while ago they said to submit after being admitted (and it's been a while since I did FAFSA for undergrad so I honestly don't remember when it's usually done)

[anmanya]

Any idea when can one expect to hear from SIPA? For all those who applied for the Jan 5th deadline?

[maria24]

5 hours ago, anmanya said:

Any idea when can one expect to hear from SIPA? For all those who applied for the Jan 5th deadline?

http://admissionsblog.sipa.columbia.edu/2015/12/03/when-youll-receive-your-admission-decision/

On the admissions blog they posted an "admissions timeline". Hopefully that helps! 

[Tk2356]

I have what I feel is a silly question, so I wanted to ask here initially before/instead of the admissions office. Thanks in advance!

On the SIPA application, there were two questions addressing fellowships: "I would like to be considered for fellowships" and "I would like to be considered for merit fellowships." Since I didn't consider myself a strong applicant for any fellowships, I answered no to both questions. 

Does this in any way disqualify me from receiving (non-fellowship) funding from the program? 

[yellina122]

14 minutes ago, Tk2356 said:

I have what I feel is a silly question, so I wanted to ask here initially before/instead of the admissions office. Thanks in advance!

On the SIPA application, there were two questions addressing fellowships: "I would like to be considered for fellowships" and "I would like to be considered for merit fellowships." Since I didn't consider myself a strong applicant for any fellowships, I answered no to both questions. 

Does this in any way disqualify me from receiving (non-fellowship) funding from the program? 

Hey there. I am by no means an expert, but I'm fairly certain that answering "no" will only exclude you from receiving fellowship funding. You'll still be eligible to receive scholarships and other need-based and merit-based aid as long as you submitted your FAFSA.

[Tk2356]

Hi @yellina122, thanks for the quick response 

Is submitting FAFSA necessary to receive a standard scholarship from the program?   I received a small scholarship from Harris without it, and I assumed SIPA would be the same. 

As an aside, I know that first year SIPA funding is rare, but I'd hate to miss out on being in contention due to user error!  

Thanks again.

[yellina122]

@Tk2356 FAFSA isn't necessary for merit-based aid ( I don't think) but it's definitely necessary for any need-based aid. I'm also fairly certain it's required. It doesn't take super long to fill out, so I highly recommend you submit it if you can!

[Tk2356]

@yellina122  Wonderful advice! Thanks again