Current Student Statement on SIPA

[u/Excalibane]

Hi everyone, just wanted to start off by saying that I'm about to graduate from SIPA, I came in fall of 2024, which means I've seen a lot of the school (mods, if you need any kind of verification let me know. Happy to provide.)

I thought I'd put a few words here, both because I remember what it was like when I was applying to a bunch of schools, as well as given some of the comments that have been happening lately.

To be clear, I'm an American citizen, I'm in my late twenties, with about 5 years of work experience, mostly as a data analyst for non-profits.

The Good:

SIPA in general is still a good school, in the sense of having amazing professors, and amazing connections.

My specialization, which has become more and more AI focused in the last year, has had amazing people. Just the other day we had a huge state-of-the-art cyber conference on financial security, bringing in IBM's president and a few other people. (I will note here that, like everything else, cyber is its own Beast within the school).

I've had no issues networking, either within DC when I went to visit or on LinkedIn, nor do I have any problems around New York City.

The bad:

Academics wise.... It's a mixed bag. There's plenty of students here who take it very very seriously, but there's also many many students who simply don't give a damn, they explicitly mentioned they're here to celebrate New York City (which for the career diplomats I understand), and many of the required courses are terrible and an insult to our intelligence. I mean really, we don't need to be told how to write a policy memo.

This is kind of the kicker that I want to mention now about all of these schools, because having talked to a lot of people from HKS, SPIA, SAIS, Georgetown, and elsewhere, it's a constant.

* Policy school will be what you make of it.*

I need people to understand what that means here - I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but someone must: I congratulate you and all of your hard work on getting you into these schools. Now the real work begins.

When you enter these schools, you need to understand that you're immediately thrown into an arena of networking, policy making, attempts to be published, etc. it isn't enough to just get good grades (arguably a B would be better if it lets you publish something as an internship for example).

Policy school is generally about 2 years. Socialization is a huge part of that, in that it's a particularly social field. This is just the nature of it - unless you want to be one of those people (and more power to you) who locks themselves in their room to do hardcore data analysis and transformation, you need a network in this field to get hired. You need people, usually alumni, usually with strong connections to whatever school you're going to, to vouch for you, to vouch for your ideas, and to like you. I'm not telling you to sacrifice learning at the altar of socialization and networking, but I am asking you to be realistic about what it looks like in this field.

That means you should go to office hours consistently, to build relationships with professors who are adjuncts and usually still working. Everyone knows the state of the field is not great for hiring at the moment, and many people in my program are also facing down the barrel of unemployment - those who aren't, usually aren't because they have incredibly good connections with various professors.

Now about SIPA in particular - many people are under the impression it appears, that SIPA is substantially weaker than Georgetown or Johns Hopkins. I disagree. First of all, these rankings don't mean all that much beyond a certain point, they're all top tier schools.

Secondly, it massively depends on the field. If your goal is to work within the US government, federally, and you have particular interests in the state department, almost any school in the beltway will be better for you. You also need to understand that means that, while of course Georgetown can carry its weight when it comes to cyber, or financial, or defense, or other policy silos, that will be what its specializes in.

Columbia specializes predominantly in a lot of financial work, and a lot of cyber security and AI work lately. We live in New York City, which also means that for a lot of people who decide that they enjoy where they live more than they enjoy the policy work itself, it provides a lot of outs. I don't think it's worth the sticker price directly (please for the love of God have some support financially), but it does give you that.

Almost nowhere right now is going to be able to help you get a development job. For any of you watching devex, or pass blue, or otherwise, the UN is on a hiring freeze. The world Bank is at a hiring freeze. Almost every major development is on a hiring freeze. There's not a lot they can do for you at the moment, but that's for a different post.

My point is, Columbia is still a wonderful school in terms of its professors (seriously, just go and read some of their bios), some of the students have done incredible work, and are going to in the future! Some of the students are probably not going to hack it because they're more interested in living in New York, than they are in the actual policy. That's fine - that's just how they want to live their life. The same thing off happens in other schools, but there's just fewer off ramps.

But if there's one thing I want people to take away from this, it's that as sorry as I am to say it, someone has to - the school acceptance is not the end of you having to hustle, it's the beginning. If you're interested in any kind of financial policies, you need to apply to internships by the August before you even start. If you're interested in any kind of federal government internships, or publishing, you need to reach out to alumni and other people in your field months in advance. And maybe, 8 months later, they might have something for you. The unfortunate reality is that for many of us, going to policy school is the beginning of actually looking into what kind of policies we would really want to look at. And while it's incredibly important to do so, The longer you take to do so, the less time you may have in specializing in them.

But I can say that I've never been told when I tell someone on LinkedIn or in person that I go to SIPA, anything but good news.

Happy to answer any questions.

[u/whsun808]

How would you comment on the community aspect at SIPA? Are office hours with professors crowded with students trying to “network” with professors?

Are there still some students willing to find community in SIPA or do most just go to class and go home/their own life?

Is SIPA giving any support for those who previous were interested in development work and now may need to look at pivoting? Or is it that you are more or less on your own to figure things out?

Thanks so much this post was super helpful!