Visit to Johns Hopkins SAIS in DC

灵感女孩UID: 2224424

So the second stop of my spring break graduate school visiting tour is Johns Hopkins SAIS in DC. I have exchanged a few emails with the Bologna director Nelson Graves and when I mentioned that I would visit DC this weekend, he suggested that I see the admission director Sidney Jackson in DC. I thought I'd write an entry to people interested in SAIS, either Bologna or DC.

SAIS DC campus:
Literally, there are only three buildings, but they are in a very very good location in DC, the Dupont Circle, on Massachusetts avenue. This street is filled with think tanks - The Brookings Institution, Carnegie Endowment, Peterson Institute for International Economics, to name a few, and a bunch of embassies including the Australian embassy and the Indonesian embassy. It is a very nice social area according to some current students. Lots of bars and restaurants around for people to chill after work/school.

SAIS students:
The one guy I met from Lebanon (he's a graduate assistant working for the admission office) was really nice. He showed me around the classrooms, libraries, and offices etc. However, he told me most SAIS students are cold in general - they have clear career goals coming to this place, and they are very competitive. So yes, according to thegradcafe as well, SAIS students are sometimes obnoxiously pretentious. He told me that students care more about their careers/internships/jobs than making friends, which makes sense, because SAIS is a professional school helping people to make connection and get jobs.

Admission director Sidney Jackson:
I wrote him an email a day ago before my visit, and he responded to my email very promptly and agreed to meet me for half an hour. He was very friendly and helpful in terms of introducing their program and answering my questions. I had a good time chatting with him. He confirmed my impression that SAIS is indeed very very quant-heavy, and that you need to pass a certain number of econ exams, or take like 6 econ classes. He advised me to attend the pre-term, either in DC or in Bologna to fresh up math and econ, and maybe take a few exemption exams so that I could take higher-level econ during the fall semester. He again emphasized their advantage of having 3 campuses across the globe, etc.

The Bologna Program:
The Lebanese guy strongly recommended doing the Bologna program. He told me he felt like he learnt a lot more in Bologna than in DC. However, the European professors are hard and generally don't give very good grades. Now in his second year in DC looking back, he said it is the best combination to do one year at each place - he wouldn't do 2 years at Bologna nor would he do 2 years in DC. Again, the student body - he said the community at Bologna is very close-kit and they are gangs when they return to DC. The DC students are indifferent and care about their own business, so they're not really a community. He did say that there might be more opportunities in DC networking and searching for internships. However, all his friends from Bologna found internships for the summer, with some working in Europe, such as for the OECD or the EU, and some working in the US. He himself since he had 5 years of previous working experience and a network, he did not need to look for new opportunities. He's going to work on a book with someone from the Freedom House, a connection he established prior to coming to SAIS.

So overall I enjoyed my short visit to SAIS (about 2 hours altogether) and had a good time chatting to the admission director and the current student. If a generous financial aid comes from SAIS, I will definitely take the advantage and go to Bologna. Otherwise it'll still be a tough choice between SAIS and SIPA. Hope this helps.

eileenkingjoyUID: 2815845

谢谢分享！能亲自去学校看看就是好，比纯听学校的一面之词要全面好多。对于你说的Bologna的学生更团结我觉得真的很可贵啊，因为我本身不是特别争强好胜的人，两年都在D.C.应该会吃不消……之前看了你的SAIS面经觉得稳操胜券，希望你能拿到钱啊~

天灯UID: 3042043

我觉得这program不错 一年italy一年DC很爽 还能去俩地方

Z_YUID: 3003857

谢谢你的分享。对于DC学生的看法我也有所耳闻，他们非常的business-minded，这也是我有些犹豫SAIS的地方。

我四月正好要去美国一趟，到时候也去看看。

谢谢你的分享，祝你拿到意大利的那个项目。

灵感女孩UID: 2224424

谢谢分享！能亲自去学校看看就是好，比纯听学校的一面之词要全面好多。对于你说的Bologna的学生更团结我觉得真的很可贵啊，因为我本身不是特别争强好胜的人，两年都在D.C.应该会吃不消……之前看了你的SAIS面经觉得稳 ...
eileenkingjoy 发表于 2011-3-30 07:58

Hey have u decided to go to Bologna? Yeah the guy I talked to really recommended it after returning from Italy. He also told me that it is NOT true that the DC campus is more hard-working coz he said he barely slept in Bologna!

灵感女孩UID: 2224424

谢谢你的分享。对于DC学生的看法我也有所耳闻，他们非常的business-minded，这也是我有些犹豫SAIS的地方。

我四月正好要去美国一趟，到时候也去看看。

谢谢你的分享，祝你拿到意大利的那个项目。
Z_Y 发表于 2011-3-30 16:14

Thanks! Both campuses have advantages and disadvantages but DC is probably a better place to network just more competitive!

vency2233UID: 2761050

谢谢你的分享，我很同意灵感女孩说的，各学校都各自有自己的优势吧，关键还是看自己以后发展的方向。
希望我们都能梦想成真，加油：）