I’ve applied to several MA programs in international relations, and I’d love some pointers from people who anything about the following schools:
Johns Hopkins SAIS
George Washington U (The Elliott School)
American U (School of International Service)
The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (International Policy and Development)
I’ve already been accepted into MIIS and they’ve offered a free Summer language program at the Middlebury campus in VT as well as a (small) scholarship grant, which is attractive to me because I don’t have a working knowledge of Mandarin, the language I’m interested in, and MIIS’s focus on language learning seems to be unmatched by other schools. The thing that worries me is that MIIS doesn’t have the prestige of the other schools in DC, not to mention that DC is obviously far richer in job/networking/internship opportunities than Monterey. For what it’s worth, my interests are in China-Taiwan relations, and I’m not super interested in development.
Assuming I get into at least one of the DC schools, which school is the best? I’m confident that I’ll get in, but I’m not confident that I’ll receive any merit-based aid like I did at MIIS (meaning I’ll likely go into a larger amount of debt).