Month: March 2019

Uncategorized

To DC or not to DC, that always seems to be the question

Daniel Birdsall

With admissions decisions now available from Fletcher and most peer institutions, an annual theme is beginning to bubble up in our conversations with many admitted applicants. The importance of location in the decision-making process varies some from applicant to applicant, but nearly all candidates will at some point read, hear, or otherwise come across the conventional wisdom that one simply must go to school in Washington, DC to have a chance at achieving career goals in any number of sectors. Let’s examine this a bit.

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Uncategorized

2019 D-Prize winner

Daniel Birdsall

Back in October, I mentioned the Fletcher D-Prize (formally the “Fletcher D-Prize Poverty Venture Solutions Competition,” if you’re not into the whole brevity thing). Administered by the Institute for Business in the Global Context (IBGC), the D-Prize awards up to $30,000 for a social entrepreneurship proposal to combat poverty in the developing world. It’s one of the coolest things at Fletcher, in my view.

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Our Alumni

Fletcher on Broadway

Daniel Birdsall

I wrote not too long ago about some recent publications by Fletcher faculty and alumni, and just stumbled upon a unique addendum to that post. With occasional exception, most Fletcher authors tend to focus on policy-related work, or at least lean heavily toward non-fiction. Not so with alumnus Christopher Demos-Brown, whose play American Son recently concluded its Broadway run.

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Admissions Tips

The deal with the waitlist

Daniel Birdsall

Recently I made a relatively brief mention of the waitlist in discussing all the types of admissions decisions our applicants receive. The waitlist tends to generate a lot of questions, and I figured it would be worthwhile to dig into it a bit more. The unavoidable truth is that the waitlist involves waiting, and waiting means uncertainty. So, while I’ll do my best to answer some of the most common waitlist questions, prepare yourself for the fact that many answers come down to some version of a non-committal “maybe” or “it depends.”

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General Admissions News

Some reassurance from an old friend

Daniel Birdsall

I had the great pleasure of catching up with my former colleague, blog mentor, and friend Jessica the other day. To long time readers who miss her voice here, I’m happy to report she’s doing very well, and misses you all, too. Among the many things we chatted about was the ongoing scandal in the undergrad admissions process at several major US institutions, and Jessica was kind enough to blogify her thoughts on the subject.

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Admissions Tips

A few details on scholarships

Daniel Birdsall

Scholarship funding is on many applicants’ minds around this time of year, for good reason. I’ve written recently about the importance of working on a broad-based financial plan, and most applicants hope that scholarship funding will make up as large a part of that plan as possible. Each year the release of admissions decisions triggers a deluge of requests for scholarship reconsideration and increased funding, and I figured a bit of detail on how our process works (and more specifically, why it works the way it does) could be helpful.

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Admissions Tips

Making your financial plan

Daniel Birdsall

With the bulk of this year’s admissions decisions recently released, it’s time to be thinking about a financial strategy for grad school. Our hope, in fact, is that applicants planning on fall 2019 enrollment have already been working on this for some time, at least conceptually. Pointing out that U.S. higher education is a significant investment is as obvious as noting that Samuel L. Jackson wasn’t pulling for Green Book to win Best Picture. As such, it’s crucial to think expansively about potential sources of funding.

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Uncategorized

Who says grad school is all work?

Daniel Birdsall

Spring break is still over a week away, and the weather of late certainly hasn’t indicated that winter is leaving anytime soon, but that hasn’t stopped Fletcher students from taking a study break to make the best of our latest round of snow. This fellow showed up outside of Ginn Library this week, ready with a flimsy high five and general good cheer for passers-by, and even sporting a dash of Fletcher orange.

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