My Coluumbia Trip on April 15th

I recommend any newly admitted student to really attend the SIPA Open House for new class of students. SIPA open house took place on April 15th. I had chance to meet lot of new prospective students, existing students, Alumini and ofcourse get to listen to various concentration pitches by the respective Concentration directors.

Morning session started at 8.30 outside the conference room with the continental breakfast, that you typically get at any best westin hotel. Well it was little more than. I introduced myself to many new students, most of them from the concentration that I am interested in, which is Economic and Political Development(EPD). EPD happens to be the biggest concentration of all, at least that's what I heard. Anyway, it is amazing to see the diversity among the new students. I think there were students from nearly 78 countries. Gosh! my chance to learn about the world history. Some of the students whom I was talking to were from Brazil, Ghana, India - which incidentally also happens to be my country. One of them, as I recall, is a Political Science major from Berkeley. And ofcourse, I had whatsoever no knowledge of political science other than reading Political sections in Popular magazines and NYT. One of them had a Philosphy Major in his undergrad. Again. Philosphy is something that I have never done. It was bit overwhelming for me with a science background to be meeting people from humanities. What else can I expect when my course of study that I am writing now is more on humanities than sciences. Hmm! But to my liking I did meet engineers, more specifically software engineers, like me. I felt the immediate connection with them, but anyway I tended to mix up with others and to know their backgrounds.

Inside the conference hall, all students are made to sit in groups by their respective concentrations around Circular tables. One girl whose name slips me now, is currently working at United Nations - an organization i have very very high regard - Somewhere in my mind I was thinking that I might one day be able to work for UN. Who knows?

Anyway, morning session started with various Department Heads talking impassionately why students should join their concentration. They spoke very eloquently convincing many of us to do more than 1 or 2 concentrations. Well, your truly, did ask that question after their speeches were over. I wanted to know whether I can do both EPD and International Economic Policy along with few courses in Environmental Studies. Answer was Yes, it's possible to do two concentrations after carefully selecting the courses.

Later on after the sesssion, one of the current SIPA students sat with us around the Circular table. He gave us valuable insights about the student life at SIPA. At no point during his time at our table did he regret his decision to join SIPA. He sounded excuberant as such many others where were there. I wonder whether any student who does regret joining SIPA will show at a event like this. But anyway, the point was is that this guy, whose last name matches with one of the great amercan author's who is born in St. Paul, is happy being there at SIPA. He seem to think that SIPA is better than SAIS and other schools. He mentioned networking is a great plus at SIPA as it's essentially in the back yard of United Nations. He said there are atleast one event every day that he could attend and his problem is that he doesn't have time to do all the things.
He shared one of the moments in his class, wherein his instructor was stopped by a phone ring from none other than Kofi to discuss the ongoing crisis in Kenya at that time and the instructor couldn't talk to him as she is in the middle of the class... But he did mention one of the biggest and main concerns i.e., tution fee and SIPA's stinginess to give more scholarships. He said though that almost all the students who apply for 2nd year assistantship will get it as long as they get more than 3.2 GPA. Gosh! we didn't have to pay $60,000 per year.

Of all the great things that we heard about SIPA, tuition fee is the biggest hindrance and a deal breaker for lot of students. One can't expect jobs that will pay like that for MBA grads. It might take years before one could pay the loan money. I did speak about this with an Alumni student who is currently working in Micro Finance Department in New York. He said that it's not a big issue with the loan amount. He said that he doesn't even think about it. He said it will just becomes part of life and it won't be of any burden when one is paying it over years. He is probably true, but it does stand as great wall of burden, giving me sleepless nights over the risk that is involved with it. But then I have to come in terms with it and try to justify it to my satisfaction and much against my own natural inclination.

During afternoon, I had choice of attending one among simultaneous sessions that were happening. I choose to attend one from the career and student loans and a discussion with SiPA Alumni. Career session was pretty much what SIPA had it in their web page. They have impressive figures on employment. They claim it is better than other schools and Columbia brand helps a lot.

Alumni Session took place in SiPA building on the top floor with Manhatten Skyline view. Alumni again didn't have any regrets with their education at SIPA. They boosted on much they were able to learn during their student years. They really did good job answering all our questions in a upbeat positive note about SIPA. They said that Alumni Network is really big and often very helpful in finding jobs. I vaguely recall, that one of the friends of the Presenter is a Financial Minister of a country. All of them expressed tremendous job satisfaction that they get from working in jobs that help the poor and needed.

Alumni session ended with evening beer social with seniors. Room was crowded and everyone were chatting with every other person. It was interesting get-to-know-each-other sessions. I had a long with chat with one of the newly admitted students. She has a very interesting background. She lived in many countries and can speak many languages.

Few things that I got out of this day-long event is
1. Tution is a burden for almost every student at siPA. And everyone's common take on it is to let it go.
2. Renting an apartment in Manhatten is a pain in the neck, but most of us would get a apartment for $1000 or less depending on how many people I am willing to share the apartment.
3. EPD is a good concentration, but International Financial Policy is one that pays a lot more.
4. Students have life after school although SIPA does keep them very busy.
5. Bar tending seem to be a high paying job in SIPA?
6. International student loan from CITI Bank is better than the one from Access Group. But only problem is CITI bank needs a U.S Citizen to back the loan and it will save nearly $25,000 in a year. I don't know how it is going to be true as currently Access group seem to be giving better loan interest than CITI bank. Anyway, I couldn't get anyone to back up my loan with CITI Bank for me including my own sister who is a U.S Citizen. I don't blame her.
7. Start looking for apartment from July mid-week.
8. One can expect some kind of assistantship in 2nd year.
9. Job prospects are good but can't expect Business school salaries. We are at SIPA for some good reason other than money.
10. Professors are awesome and classes are little crowded in the first year.
11. Lot more choices to do one's area of interest.

List goes on but these are somethings that I remember after 45 days from the time of the event.
I come out of the orientation with an idea that my decision to pursue MIA at SIPA is good idea, provided I can tolerate the onslaught of loan payments for rest of my life.