And the winner is....

Arizona State University

I finally made my decision, and will be heading down to Phoenix later this summer to begin the MPA program at ASU. They have a really good program, and gave me an offer I couldn't resist. I was offered the Marvin Andrews Fellowship. This includes full tuition, a paid internship each year of the program, and funding to attend ICMA conference. It's really is a great deal. The fact that I am getting paid to study at a university, and not have to take out $50,000 in student loans is great.

The other contender through all this was Syracuse University. They also have a great program, but it cost $50,0000 a year and after doing the math, not only would we be paying a large some of money each month, depending on the interest rate, and length of the loan we would be paying back $56,000- $73,000 of just interest. Yuck.

So there you have it, good things are happening. We'll be sure to keep you posted.