My friend graduated with a political science degree and wants to attend grad school for a Masters in Public Policy. He’s deciding between two schools - New School for Social Research in New York or Florida State University. He wants to study for a degree in urban policy analsysis with a specialization in social policy.
New School is offering him tons of financial aid (free tuition & stipend) plus a research assistantship. Florida State gave him less aid and more loans. New School’s ranking in social policy is #10 but overall is 40 in public affairs. FSU’s ranking is like 25 in public affairs.
He wants to know if he should choose New School (he’s suspicious because the name recognition is not great outside the Northeast but heard it has a good program) or FSU? He’s considering a Ph.D. in the future but right now he just wants to get into a Masters program.