<p>I am an International student. I have been accepted by the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown University and Cornell University without financial aid. I love G-town and the major of International Political Economy. My parents can help me to pay for the school although it is really a tough decision. But I am just thinking whether it is worthy to pay US$200,000 for the Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in G-town. Will it provides me good career opportunities in US? Will it be highly valued by Upenn or Harvard if I want to pursue graduate study in Business or Economics? How is that comparing with the Bachelor of Applied Economics and Management in Cornell University?</p>
<p>Thank you for your honest opinions and advice!</p>
<p>To get into graduate school in business or economics at UPenn or Harvard, you do not need an undergraduate degree from a university in the US. What you do need are very good grades at your college/university, good letters of recommendation from your professors at that college/university, good scores on the GRE, a good TOEFL score if your first language is not English, and a clearly written Statement of Purpose (the grad school admission essay).</p>
<p>My advice would be for you to save that money for graduate school. Study in your home country, or at a more affordable undergraduate program in the US, or at a more affordable undergraduate program in another country.</p>
<p>Graduating from a college or university in the US will not guarantee you “good career opportunities in US”. You will be able to work here for one year immediately after graduation in order to gain practical practical experience, but your chances of getting a work visa after that extension of your student visa are very slim. It is much more likely that you will just have to go home and look for work there. Do not spend $200,000 to study here if what you want to do is work here. $200,000 can pay for a really good immigration lawyer who might be much more effective.</p>
<p>Georgetown SFS is one of the handful of places where this kind of cost is justified. You simply cannot put a price tag on being able to be in a class led by the former Head of State of a major country like Poland or Spain, or former US cabiniet officers and National security advisors. If you never work a day in your life, or go to any grad school at all, these opprortunities during the four years make it worth the cost.</p>
<p>Georgetown’s econ is weak (weak research and faculty) and I really don’t think “international politcal economy” would prepare you for prestigious economics graduate schools. Econ at the graduate level at top schools are pretty hard core and quantitative for the most part. “International political economy” sounds soft to me and sounds like “economics for politicians”. GRE, prior course work, rigor of undergrad curriculum, and recommentation from faculty are major factors for admission to econ grad school. For business school, 4-5 years of experience are usually needed for top programs and by then, work experience, GMAT, recommendation from employers are way more important than where you went for college.</p>
<p>Also, <em>all</em> the government agency opportunties in DC are restricted to US citizens. So that kills 90% of good opportunites in DC for you. Go to SFS because it offers unrivaled breadth and depth in internanal relation/foreign services; but don’t go because you think it will provide you good career opporunities in the US (nothing is guaranteed esp for internationals and chance is zero for the US government until you get a US citizenship) or advantage in graduate business/economics schools.</p>
<p>As Happmom says, do not come to the US thinking you will be able to stay after graduating. This used to be far easier, but I can tell ou as an emploer it is now very unlikely.</p>
<p>Also understand that for graduate study in business at a top program, you need to work an average of 4 years after college before the will admit you.</p>
<p>Adding on to my post above, and setting it aside, in pure cost/benefit terms, Georgetown SFS sets you up for the world of top 10 business, top 14 law schools and elite social science PhDs as well as any other school that has a tuition of $200k for four years. Go to Georgetown’s placement site and you will see the admissions to the Harvards, Columbias etc. of the world in all the major post-grad areas.</p>
<p>if you love International Political Economy, then you should attend Georgetown. There are many international students at Georgetown, many in SFS. International Political Economy is not “economics for polititians”, and if you’re really interested in it, there are very few other places where you can study this. No, it’s not as econ heavy as International Economics, for example, but if you’re interested in the interplay of politics and economics in the international playing field, SFS is your choice. It can prepare you for prestigious econ graduate programs, as you do not need a full Economics or even International Economics degree to get in. </p>
<p>Don’t count on it to get you into the United States after graduation. This is getting more difficult to do. This aside, you should definitely go for it if you can afford it. It is a real privilege just to be accepted there.</p>
<p>gotta disgree with toast. Georgetown is not known as a quant school, which is what is needed if you want to go the Econ route to grad school. Cornell-Econ (not AEM) or Dartmouth would be a much better option that GU. If you are considering an MBA at HBS or Wharton, work experience is much more important than undergrad degree (at least at the top 20 level).</p>
<p>Don’t go to either school. Earn your degree internationally and apply for graduate school studies IF you still want to come here. As others have mentioned here, getting here does precious little for you to be able to stay here. Also, grad schools:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Increasingly love diversity and international students are a very positive component of that</p></li>
<li><p>Grad schools often provide funding making grad school a bargain in comparison to undergraduate education.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You’re good enough to get into Georgetown now - you’ll be good enough to get into any top grad program later while saving a bunch of money in the process. </p>
<p>As for staying here, I would love to hear your thoughts about why you want to. Where are you from? I guess the best case scenario for staying here is getting married to a U.S. citizen. And as people are getting married later and later, you may be more likely to meet someone ready for marriage in grad school than undergraduate education. Forget about a corporation getting a visa for you on a ‘special skills’ basis. Because of time and money and restrictions, corporations are only willing to take that on for senior guys, if at all.</p>
<p>I would opt for Cornell if those are your only two choices, but if the goal is to get to an MBA program you should have applied to some good publics like Berkeley, Virginia, Wisconsin, UCLA, Michigan etc. They would have been cheaper and you still would have a great shot at a grad degree at Harvard or wherever if you do well.</p>
<p>Very true, but top M.B.A. programs still want candidates with significant work experience. So, it seems likely that if our O.P. wants a Harvard or Sloan, he or she will still be heading home to get that experience.</p>
<p>You must be a kid? you CAN and MUST put a price tag on things, because, you see, you either have to PAY now, or BORROW and pay even more over time.</p>
<p>Have you ever heard of the concept of paying your bills? Sometimes (not saying you), people spend what they do not have, and then cannot make the credit card or bank payments. I guess they should have looked at the “price tag” first, because, it’s not free.</p>
<p>A good family friend of ours attended Georgetown SFS in the late 1970s and had the opportunity to take a class taught by Henry Kissinger just three or four years after he had been the second most powerful man in the world. While this person went on to a high paying professional career in law, he states that if he had to eat toasted oats for ten years after to pay off the debt, this was one of the peak experiences of his or any person’s life and worth it.</p>
<p>DunninLA - I do realize that bills must be paid, and that debt can ruin lives if the money was spent unwisely. However, I think that Georgetown’s SFS would be worth $200,000 of debt, and that such an experience would be a wise investment.</p>
<p>flyingllama – how would you know? Have you ever paid off $200,000 in debt?</p>
<p>And to expand on your thought that “debt can ruin lives if the money was spent unwisely”, debt can ruin lives if the money was spent wisely, too. Debt does not care about motivation.</p>