not singing Kumbaya in July

The SIPA Admissions & Financial Aid Office is still under repairs (see earlier post) and so our tiny team has been temporarily jammed into the outer office space of two shared faculty offices on the 8th Floor of the International Affairs Building.  At first glance when you step off the elevators, you’re not sure if you’re in the right place — we appear to be a call center of sorts (the opposite of our warm and fuzzy group) in the middle of a construction site (see photo).  However, you will still be greeted with warmth if you come by, although you probably will not hear us singing our version of Kumbaya –the Director of Financial Aid has banned us from singing while we are all sitting in close quarters; but we will share our Insomnia cookies or pastries from the Hungarian Pastry Shop (if there are any left).

So where is this going…   Just to keep you in the loop of what’s to come… We’re still making sure all our incoming students are happy and getting all the necessary information needed to prepare them for their arrival on campus for Orientation in a month .  We have set up a couple of community groups and updating the Welcome site — there has been a lot of chatter, which is always a good sign of people’s engagement and excitement.  We are also in the process of putting together our 2014 program applications; the spring MIA/MPA application will be available by late-August and the application for the MIA/ MPA/ MPA DP fall term will be available in early September.  In addition to the already planned fall trips we will make to meet you on the road at various graduate school fairs and APSIA forums, we are arranging times for you to come visit us in New York through class visits (will be offered beginning in late September after our students have settled into their classes), information sessions, and SIPA-sponsored events.

If you are thinking about graduate school, you should use this summer to research various schools and programs (because not all programs are the same — within a school there may be a few — at SIPA, we have seven), definitely invest time into searching for scholarships (every dollar helps) and you would hate to learn later you missed the deadline to apply.  We will continue to post information about fellowships opportunities that we hear about too.  And of course, plan your fall visits; make sure a stop at SIPA is on your travel itinerary — if we don’t have cookies, we’ll definitely offer you a good karma lollipop and some sound advice  :).