<p>Georgetown is a full need school so it is highly unlikley that anyone would ever carry $200K of debt. A more typical scenario is the family who makes say $180k with a second kid in college that the need formulas indicate has the capacity to pay something like 30K per year. For these folks the decision to take on say 30 or 40K of debt from the 4 years comes to bear. In my opinion, that kind of debt is not worth the cost for all except a handful of schools. The kind of school that is worth that kind of money puts Heads of State, and cabinet members in your classrooms, and gives as the other poster says a clear route to top 10 MBA, top 14 law schools and elite Ph.Ds. Georgetown SFS passes this rigorous test in my view.</p>
<p>Also, there is a huge myth that people in the foreign service or the CIA or the NSA don’t get paid well. Not true at all. You can easily be making six figures in your 30s (even late 20s) and all these jobs come with inflation-adjusted pensions that total close to seven figures. The Thrift plan match is 5% and doesn’t ever get cut because of a recession.The allowances for going abroad are large. Mortgage loans can be obtained from federal credit unions for a fraction of the closing costs people pay for conventional loans. Getting hired for one of these elite jobs is extraordinarily difficult but Georgetown SFS has an incredible record of success in getting people placed. The starting salary is relatively low but as anyone who has been out in the real world will tell you, starting pay is not nearly as important as career pay and capital accumulation over time. Since the Fortune 500 has eliminated defined benefit pensions, these goovernment jobs are now real gems.</p>