MPA, SSP, MPIA, MPAff- Help with alphabet soup!!!

Graduate School
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<p>First off, thank you for taking time to read my post. I am a graduating senior from an ACC school with a pretty solid reputation for academics. As an undergraduate I had two majors- political science and history. I recently decided not to go to law school for several reasons- cost, and once you actually become a lawyer you spend 80 hours a week at work. Now I'm not lazy, I just want to be able to spend time with my family once I have one. Anyway, that is either here nor there. My dream job would be working for the federal government in an area dealing with international relations or security policy. With this in mind, I have decided to apply to top schools that offer MPIAs, MPAs, SSP, and MPAffs. The one caveat for the MPA and MPAff schools is that if I were to go to one I'd want to them to offer a focus in international affairs. I will be applying for Fall 2010 and I will be taking the GRE at the end of this summer. My GPA is a 3.84, and I know I can count on solid rec letters. </p>

<p>Any ideas on what schools I should consider?</p>

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<p>FP Magazine’s top 20 list should give you a good idea of where to start your search for IR programs, though I’m not sure how much work experience you have, so some of them may be long shots. Programs to look into include (but are not limited to) SAIS, Georgetown, GW, American, Denver and Pitt - all offer international security (or security-related foreign policy) in one form or another. One thing I’d recommend you refine is the type of program you’re looking for - while many tend to conflate MPPs/MPAs with IR degrees, they’re two distinct types of degrees and the required/elective courses for both types should give you a good idea of the differences between the fields/schools.</p>