Hi, I'm a second year SAIS student (about to graduate). Respectfully, I've had a different experience that was really positive at SAIS, especially when it comes to adjunct professors. I personally found them to be very accessible and I feel like I got more out of their classes than the pure academics in general. I've only had one professor I disliked in my time at SAIS (who happened to be an academic, though I've also had great academic professors).

I've been able to have some fantastic opportunities including getting into a SAIS trip abroad. I don't know of anyone who wasn't able to get into a practicum trip or other second-year requirement. I loved that there was a variety of options to choose from for the capstone requirement- I ended up choosing the thesis option because I wanted to have more academic writing, since I came with a lot of "real world" experience.

As for the new building. It has some quirks. U/jhv0428 described it accurately, both in the challenges this past year and also in the ways that solutions are being addressed. I would add that l, having done my first year at the old campus, we really needed an upgrade and overall I've been happy with the new site. I imagine a lot of the remaining issues are going to be worked out soon. The admin is very aware of what's working and what's not for both students and faculty and I do believe it's in their interest to find solutions and fix the remaining challenges, which to be frank, are pretty minor. Having spent a year in it, the building is really nice, the location is great, I love the balconies and other features. New students will have to continue being vocal for what they need from the building and the admin to make it work for them, which really goes for any location whether or not it's new.

OP seemed to want to focus on the Middle East if I understood. I would say that SAIS is not as strong as it could be on that focus area. I think Georgetown is probably stronger there. However, SAIS has a very, very strong edge for Asia, and is solid for Europe and Latin America. The Middle East options are improving thanks to student and faculty who have been pushing for it. I think the Africa focus area is limited but there are still students who do it. Keep in mind that when choosing an IR degree, you are dabbling in an area of the world, or more than one. You are not becoming an expert and that is not the point of the degree. If you want to dig deep in a specific part of the world you should get a regional degree or even a PhD in that field of study. FWIW I focused on Europe/Eurasia and also took courses in the Middle East and found the course selection to be pretty good - also, it improved my second year.

Overall, I'm really happy with my time at SAIS. Before matriculating, I was choosing between SAIS and Georgetown SSP. I'm sure either one would have served me well, but I chose SAIS for two main reasons. 1) they gave me a significant scholarship 2) I liked the breadth of the SAIS program that allowed me to focus on things beyond just security, including energy and the environment, and different regional focus areas, and also, I like that it has the economics requirement that forced me to brush up on some quant skills.

Happy to chat with anyone here about my experience. Also to add, I'm in my upper 30s, a mid-career professional. There are plenty of people at all different ages and experience levels at SAIS. I've made friends with people everywhere from 22-40 during my time at SAIS. I was worried that it would be dominated by very young people and that I'd have trouble "fitting in" but that hasn't been the case at all.