polisciphd

You have to remember that ivy does not mean that it is a top program, only that it happens to belong to the same sports conference that a couple of other very good schools do. Just because they play against each other, doesn't mean their academics are on par.

So I got back from my trip to UIUC a couple of days ago and I wanted to share some thoughts. One, the 400 miles of cornfields in every direction was staggering. Second, the fact that there is this little city stuck out in the middle of those cornfields is pretty crazy. I was actually surprised how urban the campus feels, esp. when compared to the schools in the south. I did go at a really crappy time of year, everything was still dead from the winter, but the pictures I saw of the campus in spring and fall looked beautiful. Also, as someone from the SEC, the quaintness of memorial stadium was amusing, in fact I drove right past it the first night I was there and never noticed. Kind of hard to do that with Bryant-Denny and its 95k seats. The faculty was extremely happy to have me there. They were energetic, engaging, and very impressive. I will seriously consider going there. Oh, and the food. The food was AMAZING. There is a greek restaurant called Papa George's that has the best lamb I have ever had, didn't even know that it could taste like that. And an even better place called Alexander's, where you cook your own steak in the middle of the restaurant, was KILLER. The most tender beef I have ever had. I could eat there every day. Everyone told me that the beef in the midwest was the best in the world, I sure believe it now.

So I got back from my trip to UIUC a couple of days ago and I wanted to share some thoughts. One, the 400 miles of cornfields in every direction was staggering. Second, the fact that there is this little city stuck out in the middle of those cornfields is pretty crazy. I was actually surprised how urban the campus feels, esp. when compared to the schools in the south. I did go at a really crappy time of year, everything was still dead from the winter, but the pictures I saw of the campus in spring and fall looked beautiful. Also, as someone from the SEC, the quaintness of memorial stadium was amusing, in fact I drove right past it the first night I was there and never noticed. Kind of hard to do that with Bryant-Denny and its 95k seats. The faculty was extremely happy to have me there. They were energetic, engaging, and very impressive. I will seriously consider going there. Oh, and the food. The food was AMAZING. There is a greek restaurant called Papa George's that has the best lamb I have ever had, didn't even know that it could taste like that. And an even better place called Alexander's, where you cook your own steak in the middle of the restaurant, was KILLER. The most tender beef I have ever had. I could eat there every day. Everyone told me that the beef in the midwest was the best in the world, I sure believe it now.

I apologize for a making a gross generalization regarding Mr. Chicago and conservativism, I kind of lump him in with all the other hawk nutjobs in the maybe if I come up with enough stupid ideas one of them will make me famous policy influencing world.

Yeah, never could figure out that 18 top 25 schools thing, must not do quantitative stuff at realist's school. And how did he/she ever get the requisite 750 q GRE score required to get in to the top 20 schools?

I didn't say that I like him or that I think he is at all sane, what I said was that if you are right wing/conservative in nature, I myself are as liberal as they come and think that he is a nutjob, but that is just my politics talking.

Thank god that I slid in under the top 25 barrier, only three spots higher and I would be screwed (not counting the fact that UIUC is only in the top 25 on one of the major surveys USNWR, so I am choosing to ignore the other ones).

Sorry, think you misunderstood me. Mearshimer is at U Chicago, I am going to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)...

I agree, MIT would be the top choice in my book, in large part because you can actually concentrate in security studies as a field, instead of doing it within IR as most other schools do. Columbia is up there too, they have some strong faculty in security studies. If you are right-leaning/conservative, you can't go wrong with Mearshimer at U Chicago. I am heading to Illinois in the fall, they are the only grad school in the top 25 that routinely offers more three or more graduate seminars on war, plus they inherited J. David Singer's Correlates of War project and they have ACDIS, a center for arms control and disarmament studies.

Way to go guys!

Neither of those schools are known for NE Asian security, so I don't think that it would make much difference. If you wanted to go to a school that was a NE Asia powerhouse, you should have looked at Berkeley, UCSD, Michigan, or even UW. But, having said that, just because a school isn't "known" for a particular subject, doesn't mean you can't research and write about it yourself. Both schools have great placement records and very solid IR faculty. I would go with which place you feel more comfortable, ie the midwest vs. the west coast.

I applied to IU but was not accepted. I can tell you that they have a very strong program, usually ranked between 20 and 25 in most polls. They do have some good IR faculty, but I have been told that their strength is in comparative, esp. if you are doing Asia-related stuff. The campus is beautiful, one of the nicest I have seen.

As an ESIA alumn, I am probably biased towards GW, but I would much rather live in DC than in Mass. Plus, if you are planning on working while in school, you can't beat DC for internships and connections in the policy world.

I am heading up to UIUC this weekend for a visit. Anyone suggest places to eat and/or things to do while I am there? Will be there for four days...

Man, as we say in the deep south, yall sure can beat a dead horse...

I think you meant that the wait "hath" gotten to lenin

Classes change all the time there to keep up with what is going on in the world, so I couldn't tell you without seeing the schedule. However, if you want to tell me what classes you are considering and more importantly who is teaching them, I might be able to help. I can say that for your first semester, if you are in the SPS program, you should probably take International Security Politics first, is the "groundwork" class for the rest of your degree. You could also take Defense Policy/Program Analysis, is a briskly moving class with a good instructor (Bruce Powers) and will get you into the swing of grad work. As far as skills go, I really enjoyed negotiating skills, wargaming and simulations, and a skill class on the national security council (which amb. Inderfurth taught on a semi-recurring basis).

It seems like I received my aid report from GW in early May

THAT ROCKS!!! GO IRISH!!!

I knew of one person who was doing a dual MA in International Affairs and MBA, and one person who was doing an MA SPS and Law degree, and both worked 30+ hours a week while I was there. As far as finding work goes, if people make policy around your subject, any subject, then there are jobs to be had in DC, you just have to find them. Working as an intern or co-op for the govt. is always a good way to go, I would look at NIH, USAID, State in general, etc. Start looking and applying NOW though, DO NOT WAIT until you get there to start looking. The best way is to hit the ground running with both a job and classes your first semester. Lisa Stephenson in the career office is Fantastic, she is great at her job and will be your best friend if you let her, I still talk to her once a month by email four years after graduating. Congrats again on your acceptance...

I worked full time for the entirety of my MA, and it only took me an extra summer to graduate. I would recommend taking maybe 7 hours your first semester, two regular classes and 1 skills class, to gauge how much work you can handle. If you do well, you might want to bump it up for the spring. The current director, Jo Spears, is terribly nice, and the faculty there are first class. As far as how many people are in a similar situation, I would say that not many in my cohort had children, but probably a good 1/3 were married and/or getting married and 90% worked full time or close to full time jobs.

Not so much. I can tell you that their Political Science Phd program is very good, especially for Latin American Studies, so by correlation, I would imagine that if you are focusing on L.A. Pitt would be good. However, if you are doing straight IR, then one of the schools in DC would be better.

Have you checked wolverine access to see if they posted a decision on your application?

Georgetown and SAIS like to put down ESIA folks, but you will find that their placements for graduate students are pretty much identical to GW. Plus, ESIA's facilities are far superior, newer buildings (Gtown in particular), an actual campus as opposed to a building (SAIS), which means student centers, gymnasiums, etc. Another big plus in my mind was the ability to work a job while going to the Elliott School, as all classes begin after 5pm, so you can get internships while you are taking classes. (State dept. is right across the street from the Elliott School building) As far as rankings go, ESIA was ranked #7 by Foreign Policy magazine, so you are not talking a whole lot of difference in ranking.

Hi guys, I wanted to pass along that I went to the Elliott School for my masters degree in security studies a few years ago, as well as working there full time as the program assistant for the SPS program, so if anyone has any questions about ESIA, please feel free to post and I will do my best to answer them. So I can help both from a student perspective and an employee/advising perspective. Congrats to everyone who has been accepted. The Elliott School was a wonderful experience, as was living in DC.