Grad School Visiting Days
After a whirlwind week of attending the New Admit Days at the Kennedy School, Columbia and Tufts, I finally made a decision. I could have just accepted Kennedy School’s offer as soon as I received it, but since I love making things more difficult for myself, I decided to visit all the schools. I loved Tufts for its small town, close-knit community feel, as well as wide selection of IR classes. The students couldn’t have been more friendly and laid back, although the arboretum-like campus started to feel more like a bubble within the bubble (Fletcher students don’t interact with the rest of Tufts because Fletcher does not share its faculty). One highlight of my visit – former celebrity figure skater Michelle Kwan, who is a current Masters of Law and Diplomacy (MALD) student, gave me a huge smile during the Open House!
I hadn’t planned on a whirlwind visit to New York City, but the amount of trash-talking directed at Columbia’s SIPA by Tufts’ current and prospect students piqued my curiosity. I was also excite about visiting S, a retired executive I met in Marshall’s class at HKS, who is using her corporate know-how to teach ethics through popular culture. I woke up at 6:45am to take the train into the city from New York City. Columbia’s Masters of International Affairs class was huge, numbering 600 and filling up an entire auditorium. We sat in tables by concentrations (I selected human rights), which didn’t reflect the incredible diversity of SIPA’s programs. I guess they didn’t want the human rights people to get scared off by the international business people! Throughout the day, everyone at Columbia emphasized the resources of the city and SIPA’s connections with the United Nations. I had the distinct feeling that the wealth of resources available in NYC might be a mixed blessing – Columbia students probably kill themselves trying to take the rigorous quantitative based curriculum, competing for research positions and doing UN internships on the side, not to mention extracurricular activities. But – I’m not going to go back to grad school with the same mindset as I did my undergrad. During my sophomore year, I took 6 classes per semester including 1 – 3 languages, worked at a 10 – 20 hour a week at a job, mentored for Big Sisters Association (I need to write another post on how I finally tracked down my Little Sister through her 4th grade teacher, who I ran into at Pearl China dimsum on Sunday) and did at least 3 extracurricular activities. In the end, I burned out, my GPA suffered and I never concentrated long enough to plan out a good senior thesis. As a chronic multitasker, I could certainly see myself being overwhelmed with the possibilities of Columbia. Nonetheless, I was impressed by SIPA’s can-do attitude towards solving the world’s problem (speaking of celebrities, Jeffrey Sachs talked about his work with one of Columbia’s many research centers – The Earth Institute – as the keynote). The atmosphere of practical idealism backed by the palpable rhythm of the city definitely appealed to me.
Near the end of the day, as I was standing on the 15th floor of the concrete-glass monstrosity that houses SIPA, I received a call that I had gotten a full tuition scholarship to the Kennedy School. Until that point, I was unable to wrap my head around the costs of graduate school. Every time I attempted to think about it, I started to feel lightheaded. So, with this scholarship, I felt extremely relieved that the decision had essentially made for me. In the end, as a friend pointed out, I probably would have chosen HKS anyways. This school has so much emotional value for my father. Honestly, it annoys me when well meaning friends tell me that I should go wherever makes me happy; any child of working class immigrant parents knows that this American concept of me me me is a bit distorted in light of all those sacrifices just to scrape up enough money for college tuition. Theoretically, no one can stop me from choosing any school I want, but the importance of the collective happiness of my family cannot be understated…especially when it comes to my family.
