<p>Does anybody know about the SAIS program in Nanjing?</p>
<p>They have both an MA and a 1 year certificate program there. At the end you get your degree from SAIS. The average student debt is the same, whether you go to the Washington DC campus or the Nanjing campus: $70,000. The certificate is maybe about a third that.</p>
<p>According to my calculations, this means $10,000 per year in student loan payments for 10 years. I worked my way through undergrad, speak a few languages and have a couple years of international work experience. Would the MA provide a bigger advantage over the certificate? What if for some erraneous reason I can't pass a background check? Do you think the MA has any salt outside of government?</p>
<p>Spending 70k on a degree is completely nuts. Maybe a top law or medical program, but that’s about it. How many people come out of SAIS making over 75k a year? And for those that do not, how long does it take to get there? You could go to a cheaper, slightly lesser known school for your MBA and only owe half of that… and a MBA will most likely get your over 75k / yr. a lot quicker than a MA degree.
$800 a month in student loans for the next decade is financial Russian roulette.
As for grad certificates, something in which I am very interested in, I believe the jury is still out on their usefulness… very dependent on the program/school.
Just my opinion.</p>
<p>The bulk of the educational value is in the certificate. The MA adds a thesis, which is certainly useful, but it does not add that much more real value. It seems the extra payment would be for the title of MA. </p>
<p>A masters can be necessary in government, multilateral organizations, and a lot of subsidiary organizations that you would find in Washington. But in consulting, multinational corporations, finance, or anything outside of Washington it does not seem like employers would recognize the MA to carry more value than the certificate, besides the slight additional value of reseach experience writing the thesis. The certificate would certainly be valuable in the private sector, but, as far as my research goes, they would all prefer an MBA on top of the certificate rather than an MA (except maybe market research??). Or without the MBA, the MA would only be slightly more valuable than the certificate.</p>
<p>Is there any reason to get an MA, if I don’t work in Washington?</p>
<p>I’m interested in the certificate program as well, though I’m also shooting for an eventual master’s. I’m hoping to use the year in Nanjing as a “springboard” toward grad school admissions, since many schools like SAIS and SFS practically require work experience. I’m nearing the end of undergrad now and would like to go to grad school sooner than later, though chances of getting into SAIS/SFS/etc straight from undergrad seem to be slim, hence I’m hoping a year of Nanjing could work towards my benefit. </p>
<p>What do people think of doing the certificate first as groundwork for grad school admissions? I’m not sure how grad schools would consider the Nanjing certificate during admissions, either positively or negatively – especially for SAIS, since I’d have done the yearlong certificate but still be seeking their 2-year degree back in DC.</p>
<p>(PS - If you’re wondering why I would pay for the year-long certificate in addition to/before a 2-year degree, it’s because I think I’ll be able to get a fellowship for it. But the fellowship only covers non-degree programs, hence not going for the MA in Nanjing. I’d have to find a second funding source for a MA back in the US, but I figure I should work on gaining admissions first, which I’m hoping the certificate might help with?)</p>
<p>Paough - while a SAIS student would be able to answer SAIS-specific questions better than I would, I’d still like to touch upon a few of your points.</p>
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<p>I don’t quite understand why you would think otherwise. A graduate degree is a graduate degree; jobs which require graduate degrees wouldn’t take a certificate as a substitute. In my experience (IR grad admissions work, work experience, etc), certificates do not carry the same weight as MAs (or their equivalents) - certificates are often either offered to employees by their employers as a way to gain additional skills/knowledge/language ability in their field or are used as “groundwork” for graduate admissions, like df2 pointed out. The SAIS Nanjing certificate seems to be quite different in terms of course requirements and structure from the SAIS MA. I would not say the two are equal in the eyes of employers, unless (as previously mentioned) an employer specifically wanted an employee to complete a certain certificate program and didn’t want to pay for an entire MA (or didn’t feel the MA would work best for the specific goals they set before the employee in question). People transitioning into IR (or IR-related jobs) from other fields would probably find the certificate to be a better fit, but most candidates like that are mid-career professionals who want to pick up a few classes and develop their expertise in a new area.</p>
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<li>Consulting and analytical jobs would certainly place more weight on an MA over a certificate in candidate searches. An MBA would definitely be more valuable for jobs in finance, but if finance is what you’re interested in, just go for the finance degree (or a finance/MBA/what have you with an international focus). IR degrees are typically a different kettle of fish altogether.</li>
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