<p>From my understanding, SAIS, SIPA, and SFS are arguably the top schools for IR master's degrees for people looking at a future as professionals (as opposed to academics). I'm specifically interested in an international/economic development concentration. If anyone has any insight on these programs, specifically concerning their international development concentrations, and how they compare, that would be really helpful. Thanks.</p>
<p>SAIS is renowned for its economics emphasis, but their IDev program is really designed for people who already work in the field. SIPA is probably equally good and also has the benefit of larger size, although the program gets a bad rap on a lot of the boards because there seems to be a lot of bureaucracy (at least on the admin side of things.) I don't know too much about SFS, though.</p>
<p>Also, I'm sure a lot depends on the region you want to focus on or if you just want to do a general development concentration.</p>