Letter to Prospective Students: Reflecting on my HNC and SAIS DC Experience
Dear Prospective Student, You're trying to decide where to go for graduate school. Trust me, I understand the stress! I had to choose between nine of the top policy programs in the country. It was not an easy decision, and I didn't know what to expect from the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC) Certificate + SAIS MA(IR) program, but I got exactly what I was looking for: a top-notch education in the Chinese language, a large network across sectors, and deeper quantitative and policy writing skills. The only unforeseen circumstance was the coronavirus pandemic. But even in those uncertain times, the HNC helped along the way. Ultimately, it was up to me to make the experience everything that I wanted it to be...so I did! Here's how. I attended the HNC both before the pandemic hit the world and during, so for the first semester I lived in Nanjing and for the second I attended the HNC virtually. The city of Nanjing's moderate size (in comparison to other Chinese cities) made i...