Cornell07

We generally get about 3 per year at Yale out of our 22-26 person classes.

Mine was something about cotton subsidies vs. Sub-Saharan Africa, especially their impact on terrorism and the role of China. It was good enough for SAIS. I mainly wrote it to show that I knew something about economic issues, despite being a state security guy who usually deals with balance of power, nukes, terrorists, and so forth.

Woo hoo! I just got accepted for my State Department summer internship at the Regional Security office at the embassy in Rome!!!

At Yale, we can apply for dual degree programs once we here. Getting into the law school is pretty difficult and tacks on two extra years. The b-school, on the other hand, seems to be easier to get into (usually one or two people end up doing the MA-MBA degree per class) and it only requires one extra year.

All I know is that Andrew Bacevich teaches at BU. Not much to go on there, I know, but it is something!

*sigh* I miss Ithaca... In other news, Cornell is considering founding a proper school of public policy: http://cornellsun.com/section/news/content/2009/12/02/social-sciences-task-force-calls-new-school-public-policy .

As you seem to be aware, you would be on the less competitive end of the application pool and you can clearly see what your strengths (foreign language, volunteerism) and weaknesses (little work experience, below average GRE scores) are. If I had a place a bet, I'd say you'd need to either improve your GRE score or get some more work experience to have a decent chance. For example, like you, I had a year at a law firm (int'l corporate finance law) plus some time doing volunteer work (unpaid Obama for America staffer, helping advise my college's debate team) and decent foreign language skills (4 semesters in college, plus some use in my professional life), but I also had 630V, 770Q, 5W GRE scores plus a 3.6 from a top-tier undergrad. I do not think I was the most competitive applicant and that most of my peers have significantly more work experience than I do. This is probably also why I did not get any funding. So, you maaaaay get it, but you almost certainly will get no funding. If that second issue would keep you from coming, ask yourself if you think it is worth your time and money to apply.

Quickie response: nine years of working experience should give you a lot of leeway with adcoms regarding your otherwise less-than-competitive GPA.

Here at Yale, you'd fit right in with a background like that. You have plenty of relevant work experience necessary to start a masters program. My advise for our program (though it is generally true of most applications) is to put down a reasonably specific issue that you want to study further in grad school and that there are professors/classes/programs at the school that can enrich your understanding of that issue. Being specific makes for a much stronger application. Don't worry if you aren't completely committed to that topic; you are not tied down to it and can absolutely change once you get here, should you desire.

*bump* for old time's sake.

Blanket response for such questions: check out this thread --

Plenty of people get in with backgrounds in teaching (Teach for America, high schools etc.) or research (e.g. think tanks, institutes). For example, I think someone on this board last year taught in a public high school in LA for ~7 years and then got into HKS.

More work experience always makes a stronger application.

Judyblume, I'll be honest and say that without any professional or internship experience, you will probably not get into Yale. I believe only one person (maybe two) in our cohort has zero working experience, but she had a number of impressive undergraduate internships, whereas everyone else has been out of school for at least a year (maybe 2-3 have only one year of post-college experience and my perception is that 3 years of real world experience is just a little below the median). I would strongly recommend taking some time to get some real world work experience to 1) refine your professional\academic goals, 2) make yourself a more interesting candidate, and 3) give yourself a shot a better schools\funding. Sorry to be such a downer!

Policy: I think we really have a lot of choice about whether we want to do policy memos or academic research papers or are forced to do both in many classes. US foreign policy had a crisis simulation that required a policy memo as well as some essay based exams. The intro course that everyone takes requires a weekly short essay or policy memo. Grand Strategy requires a few essays and a Marshall Brief and "murder board". Econ: Take two econ classes, pre-approved by the program director. You can take more advanced stuff if you have an extensive background coming in (for example, a couple people are taking a Bob Shiller course) or you take essentially introduction to the international economic system. They can tailor the courses you need to take to your experience. Academic: Regarding int'l/military security (my focus), you take broad survey courses like Grand Strategy with Paul Kennedy and John Gaddis or US Foreign Policy or more specific topics like Terrorism in the Poli Sci dept, War and Religion with Tony Blair in the Div School. Size: I cannot give a great estimate of how many people here are foreign, in my year we have students from Belarus, England, South Korea and last year's I know has students from England, Canada, Japan, Belgium to name a few off the top of my head. Location: I'll be honest and say that New Haven is not a great town. The biggest plus is our proximity to NYC (about 1.5 hours by train). Some people will take an internship on Fridays in the city and commute. So, if the UN is your thing, that may be something to consider.

Check out from last year and compare yourself to those candidates.

Academic v. policy seems to me to refer to the type of preparation that you get. Academics need to be able to write lengthy research papers, newspaper and journal articles, have a background in theory, and may or may not need to understand statistical analysis, depending on your field. Professionals primarily need to be able to write policy memos, have a marginal, if any interest in theory, and need a lot of statistics. The far ends of the spectrum are programs like SIPA & GW on the pure policy end and Chicago & LSE on the academic side. I knocked theory before I took a class on it here at Yale. Though I would probably never want to do pure theory, it is very useful for me to understand the different schema for framing policy situations and why we have certain fundamental assumptions about international relations. Yale, I think is a good mix of both. At the end, I can say that I will be prepared for either a policy job (e.g. government, political risk management, politics etc.) or an academic path (i.e. PhD or think tank). Next fall, I'll be weighing three directions: a PhD in Government, foreign service, or politics (e.g. another campaign or The Hill). The first one I only want to do if I can get into a funded, top-notch program (e.g. Harvard, Stanford, Yale), the second one is a long shot for anyone (and I could still do it after a PhD), and there will always be openings in the third. SAIS's MA is absolutely seen as a "real" and respected masters within the policy community. Some will knock it for a being a haven for neocons and an incestuous breeding ground for world bankers and commerce dept officials, but no one will say that it is not "real." No real thoughts about what the rest of the world thinks about SAIS, but I can say that their profs certainly are published frequently in all the mainstream policy journals.

Well, I picked Yale over SAIS last year and wasn't interested in applying to SIPA. I can try to give some helpful insight. So, the biggest questions are in what field will you be working after graduation and what sort of experience in grad school are you looking for (math? policy? research? interaction with profs? etc.)

Rewrite, digest, rewrite, digest, and rewrite again is one of the best ways to put out the best personal statement. Writing about academic and professional subjects is often very straightforward; writing about yourself is finding that tiny area of appearing confident and successful that is between coming off like a pompous jerk or an ill-prepared, head-in-the-clouds neophyte. Just looking at my latest "personal statement", it knocks the socks off of what I wrote a year ago. (Can we not edit posts after a few hours anymore???)

When you get to grad school, it never really ends. At the moment I am writing three personal statements: one for a trip to China and two for the storied Grand Strategy seminar (WSJ article). Of course, I've already written a couple internship applications and, next fall, odds are good that I'll be taking more standardized tests (FSO examination) and writing more personal statements (PhD programs, perhaps?). Good luck, all! Try giving yourselves a deadline of, say, December 1 to have your rough draft of your personal statements ready. It feels crummy when you send off that first app and you realize that there was so much more (or a least so much of a better way) to write about yourself. You should have asked all of your LOR writers by now as one or more will be ungodly slow to get anything in on time.

I concur. If you've been out a significantly long time, your Academic LORs mean almost nothing for most of these programs -- now, a more academically oriented school like Yale might have an issue, of course, but we are far more the exception than the rule.

As an alum of this forum, just wait until March to start biting people's heads off. You'll understand.

Here's a quick comment from our website for the Yale MA IR program: What type of jobs do students get when they graduate? Reflecting their diverse interests, MA graduates go in many directions upon graduation. Public service remains a popular choice, with students (both U.S. and international) entering agencies involved with international development, foreign policy, trade, and security and defense. The private sector - primarily financial services firms and consulting companies - draws those graduates with strong quantitative skills. Many graduates also pursue careers in the nonprofit sector. Some of the employers that attracted the Class of 2009 include: US Army, US Embassy, US Department of State (Foreign Service Officer), Government of Georgia (Foreign Policy Advisor), Yale Office of Legal Council, Noble Energy, Booz Allen Hamilton, Crado Consulting, Federal Bureau of Investigation, The Avascent Group. Within 6 months, last year, we had a 100% employment rate for the MA graduates pool. With only 22-ish graduates per year and a sizable portion who pursue further education, that list of sample employers obviously won't be very long. I also could have sworn a couple people joined the CIA...

At Yale, for my MA program, there are no A/B/C/D/F grades, only Honors, High Pass, Pass, and Fail. Everyone needs to get during the two year program at least two Honors to graduate and one more Honors for every Pass. One could say that the grades are roughly equivalent to H = A, HP = B, P = C, F = F, but even that varies significantly from professor to professor. Only 2 or 3 students in the past 10 years have received all H's, but only 3 or so have been asked not to return for their second year due to poor grades. A major incentive for getting top grades is to be one of the few people who will be reconsidered for funding for their second year. I just wonder what the heck will happen when I apply to PhD programs next fall...

SAIS