<p>Got that e-mail too…ACCEPTED! I’m too excited. No funding info either, but I think that stuff comes in the mail.</p>
<p>Congratulations!!! I still haven’t heard yet…now I’m getting anxious…</p>
<p>I read earlier that you were accepted to Fletcher. Do you think you’ll choose Yale over Tufts?</p>
<p>Yay, Rory! Glad to hear it. I looked over the list of IR students there the other day-- they’re intimidatingly awesome. What a great opportunity.</p>
<p>Congratulations to everyone on your acceptances! I didn’t apply to Yale, but I hear it is one of the best programs for IR theory. </p>
<p>I have been anxiously waiting for a decision from Columbia SIPA, and what came into my email box today? A note from Georgetown saying that I was accepted into the MSFS program! It looks like I need to keep waiting for Columbia, but I am very excited about Georgetown. Scholarship information comes in the mail, so I will have to wait for that. While scholarships and financial aid will play a large role in my ultimate decision, now that I have been accepted to two schools, I need to start comparing MSFS at Georgetown with MALD at Fletcher.</p>
<p>Congratulations. =)</p>
<p>If you have any questions about MSFS, I’m a first-year there. So fire away.</p>
<p>Thanks, Volscio.</p>
<p>I have read a lot about all of the schools that I have applied to, although I am currently working abroad, so I am not able to visit any of them. There are a lot of mixed reviews on the MSFS program, so I would really appreciate your prospective. Some of the rankings put SFS right up there at number one or number two for masters programs in international affairs. At the same time, there also seems to be a large group of people, including people on this forum, who see SFS as a significant step below programs at SAIS, Columbia SIPA and Fletcher. As a MSFS student, what is your opinion on this?</p>
<p>I don’t know exactly how the programs stack up against each other, but my impression would be that they’re all extremely challenging and flexible towards letting you study what you are most interested in. You can’t really lose with any of them.</p>
<p>I love MSFS because it’s much smaller than the others. My professors are brilliant. In my required classes last semester, I had a prof who was working at the Fed, one who used to be senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisors, and one who was the director for Asian affairs for the National Security Council. This semester I’m taking classes with our Yahoo! fellow visiting from the FCC, a social entrepreneurship specialist, and a high-level USAID foreign service officer.</p>
<p>And that is the norm, having experienced practitioners who are also great academics. I see this as a function of being based in DC as opposed to other cities, since the primary institutions for policymakers are in DC.</p>
<p>I work in an office that has interns from SAIS but is mainly MSFS grads/students. SAIS and MSFS students cross paths a lot. My MSFS friends are working at State, Treasury, USAID, Face the Nation, you name it.</p>
<p>I know a couple SIPA grads who now live in DC – perhaps NYC and DC will be the major locations you will shuttle between in your career.</p>
<p>I don’t know any Fletcher people at all. I am not sure where they go. I know quite a lot of people who were Tufts undergrads and now MSFS students and again, they are intellectual powerhouses.</p>
<p>That was all mainly anecdotal. But I believe you just can’t undervalue the importance of living in DC for most career paths. This is where the policymakers live and work.</p>
<p>I would discount a lot of what you read on this board because a lot of it comes from people only applying to grad school. Furthermore, last year there was a lot of SAIS and Fletcher hype, this year it’s a lot of SIPA hype. They’re all top-notch programs. Open houses can be nice but sort of seductive and misleading. I visited MSFS and SAIS during the application process and really loved SAIS’s info sessions. But for me personally, now I wouldn’t want to go to SAIS. I love having a full campus, walking down to M Street and the Potomac (not that SAIS at Dupont Circle isn’t great!), and living in a rowhouse 5 minutes north of the campus instead of in an apartment somewhere else in DC.</p>
<p>Sorry I can’t help you more with Fletcher vs. MSFS.</p>
<p>Volscio, thanks for the insight, I really appreciate it. I completely agree that all of the schools that I mentioned are great, and ultimately it very well may come down to which school can give me the best scholarship/ fellowship/ financial package. For me, two of the biggest draws to MSFS program are the small program size and the amazing faculty. Of course the location in DC is also key. I did my undergraduate studies at GWU, so I fully understand the benefits of being in the District. </p>
<p>One concern that I have about the MSFS program is that grad students have to share the SFS with undergrads. At all of the other schools that I applied to, the IR schools are exclusively for grad study. Has this been an issue for you at all?</p>
<p>Does anyone know if Yale has an open house/admitted students day for IR admitees?</p>
<p>You don’t have any classes with undergrads at MSFS/SSP/GPP unless you take courses outside the grad school programs. For instance, the social entrepreneurship class I’m taking is open to everyone in the SFS (undergrad and grad). You could also take basic regional/history classes if you want and those will have undergrads. I’m in second-year Arabic as a refresher and there’s two other grad students and 4 undergrads.</p>
<p>But you can conceivably take all your classes in the MSFS program without going out into any of the other departments. In my case, I have a bit of an odd curriculum which means I take more courses with people from other departments.</p>
<p>All this is good – sometimes I learn more by talking to the other departments than just sticking with my own. I don’t know how SAIS students deal with the issue of homogenization.</p>
<p>Rory, I haven’t heard anything about an open house in African Studies, at least. I might take the train up sometime in the next couple of weeks to talk to people and see a lecture or something. I have a question about financial aid, though … I’ve completed the FAFSA and applied for a fellowship, but at what point are we told if we’re getting any funding, and when should I fill out the graduate financial aid forms?</p>