<p>I’d have to agree with Dunnin LA, I’m guessing you’ve never had a $200K loan. That would probably be impossible to pay off with even a great job in his country. In the US it would be like a small house payment. With the kind of salary one would make in a foreign service career it would probably preclude buying a home or many years, a new car or having school choice for your kids.</p>
<p>$200,000 is a TON of debt. It is unclear where you would get the $200,000 and what your other options are. Paying back $200,000 is more than many folks’ mortgage and will definitely limit your options. You have to figure out where you’d get $200,000 before you even start throwing around that Q. </p>
<p>Our mortgage was about that amount back about 20 years ago. We got a good interest rate and have above average salaries but are still paying it now, plus each of our kids’ college tuitions. We were fortunate that we are not also paying off debts on our own educations as well, unlike some of our friends who are paying off their ed loans, their rent or mortgage and their kids’ tuitions & loans; that debt load is really pretty crushing and limits options.</p>
<p>zyordfz said that his parents would be willing to help with tuition, so his debt after graduation will not even amount to 200K in the first place.</p>
<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>
<p>I’m shocked someone could spend 4 years at Princeton and believe most there are middle classs. It’s simply not true there, at an ivy or at Stanford. These schools are npw working hard to get some middle classs kids through the gates because they’ve had so few.</p>
<p>The education you stand to receive from both schools is priceless.</p>
<p>Another aspect of top federal national security jobs is that the Agencies will often foot the complete bill for graduate education for individuals identified as high potential.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your oppinions and advices, from which I have learnt a lot. The reason I hope to work in US for some years is just want to get the US$200k back, because if I go back to my country after graduation it will take me to work 15 to 20 years to earn that amount of money. Your advices really make me to have a second thought on our decision.</p>
<p>Yes, it is good to have a thorough understanding of your ability to remain in the US for one thing, since you are making assumptions based on that, it appears.</p>
<p>VM- the graduate education you describe is sometimes also on a full time, full salaried basis in which the person goes to school while on full salary. Very few companies in the private sector make that kind of commitment to even their most high potential people.</p>
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<p>You do not need full economics degree to get in but you’ll usually enough math (multiple integration calculus, linear algebra, differential equation; preferrably a course in real analysis), and preferrably a year of econometrics and intermediate macro/micro econ to be a strong candidate.</p>
<p>On the other than, this is what “international political economy” gets you:
[GU</a> - SFS - BSFS: IPEC > Requirements](<a href=“http://www3.georgetown.edu/sfs/bsfs/majors/IPEC/requirements/requirements2005.html]GU”>http://www3.georgetown.edu/sfs/bsfs/majors/IPEC/requirements/requirements2005.html)</p>
<p>Math requirement is just calculus one (for class of 20005, even a “short course in calculus”, aka calculus for dummies, is sufficient).
Even introductory macroeconomics isn’t required.</p>
<p>The course list:
[GU</a> - SFS - BSFS: IPEC > Courses](<a href=“http://views.georgetown.edu/?viewid=76&Term=08C]GU”>http://views.georgetown.edu/?viewid=76&Term=08C)
There doesn’t seem to be anything that looks hardcore. These course titles remind me of economics section not in university library but in barnes & noble.</p>
<p>In fact, I am taking a managerial economcis course and this girl who has a master in “political economy” and is working with the State department told me our text book is difficult to read. The reason? Too quantitative and too many equations when actually the equations are already presented in non-calculus and calculus versions side by side for those without any calculus background.</p>
<p>Sam Lee-Georgetown is very responsive to their students who desire to obtain a Ph.D. in economics. There is a more rigorous pure international economics major (I think the other poster alluded to this and you seemed to have missed that) and all Georgetown students who wish to pursue an Economics PhD are advised early on to take econometrics, and a second year of calculus. That is actually the beauty of the Georgetown program-you can strucutre it to whatever your career objectives are. Georgetown also recently added a program in international development with a research institute attached to it. Since your level of interest in the Georgetown program is so high you should contact the economics department. If you are still a student and want to transfer. I am sure they would accept your application.</p>
<p>That’s what I meant. The program itself doesn’t prepare you. You’ll have to do a lot of extra beyond what the program requires.</p>
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<p>This is a moot point considering the OP is international. You CANNOT get <em>any</em> job, not even a cleaning position, in any federal agency without the US citizenship.</p>
<p>I think I am a hardworking student and have enough intellectuality (I got 115 on Toefl, SAT1 2200, SATII math 800, physics 800, chemistry 800, and straight A on all my high school courses). Therefore, I believe I can keep a good undergraduate grades and meet the requirements of graduate school. In that case, how is the chance for me (an International Student) to get financial aid for econ master from the graduate schools in Ivy league members? Will a non-financial-aid applicant have more admission chance for his graduate study in Ivy league members than financial-aid applicant? If so, save the money to support graduate study in Ivy League members might be a wise choice. What do you think?</p>
<p>Graduate school admission is different from undergraduate admission. Where you apply to grad school will depend on the specific branch of economics (or whatever your field of study is) that you are interested in, and where the professors/research teams that you want to work with are. Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn may very well be at Never-heard-of-it-U. Which means that if you want to work with that person, you will apply to that university. What will matter when you complete the Ph.D. is that you worked with Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn, not the name of the place where he/she is working. Everyone in the field will know that Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn is the expert in that sub-field and that you were very fortunate to be able to study under him/her. And, getting into Dr. Expert-in-what-I-want-to-learn’s department at Never-heard-of-it-U may be even harder than getting into Dr. Not-nearly-as-expert’s department at Famous-name-U. Don’t worry just yet about where you are going to do your grad work.</p>
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<p>Er… if you’re seriously gunning for a Ph.D. in Econ, you’re pretty much going to have to do a lot of “extra beyond.”</p>
<p>What matters is that there are rigorous math courses available at Georgetown, and that one has the option to pursue advanced studies if one desires to do so.</p>
<p>^You’d do more extra at GT (assuming you can fit all that extra into your schedule while fulfilling the requirement for international political economy) than other top econ undergrad programs which require more math, more core economics classes, and possibly more econometrics.</p>
<p>zyordfz,</p>
<p>Master programs usually don’t give aids but they last about 1-2 yrs, so they are not nearly as expensive as 4-yr undergrad. PhD programs are another stories but they are also harder to get into.</p>
<p>Hi, Sam Lee,</p>
<p>Thank you for your information about aids for Master programs. But I know many Chinese students got aids for their master programs in engineering and natural science (chemistry, physics, Math, etc.). Is that because of the major? Is it very difficult to get aids for master program in social science, like Econ, internation relations, international politics?</p>
<p>^Are you sure they are not doing PhD? It’s a lot rarer to get aids for master programs. Most chinese students (from mainland/taiwan) that I met are doing PhDs, not masters. Maybe some aids if you are willing to TA some courses but it’s nothing like full-rides for PhDs.</p>
<p>There are also merit-based scholarships usually available at lower-tier schools to attract the brightest students. They are very hard to get.</p>