kdav

If you skim through the rest of her blog, apparently she's a graduated PhD student from the institution who accepted a role in the admissions office post-graduation. ...Wow.

I just... don't have any words. http://feministconservative.wordpress.com/2012/06/08/my-first-week-of-work/ What school does this woman work for, and do they have any idea of the blatant discrimination and prejudices going on in their admissions office? For the record, I'm female and believe in well-rounded applicants too, but this is just altogether ridiculous!!!

There are a whole host of us over in the "Waiting it Out" forum who will be attending NPSIA at Carleton in the fall. Good luck with your move!

Ah, thanks for the heads up, CC! That's good to know. Has she gotten back to anyone about the cluster revamp at all yet?

Are any of you guys going to the NPSIA Spring Fling that Skip posted about a page back? I'm planning on attending - would be fun to put a few other faces to names!

I don't believe so, I think you just have to accept the offer in Carleton Central. Usually places make it pretty clear if they need money from you haha, and I haven't seen any indication. Undergrads don't have to, so I don't expect we'd have to...!

Pros: Program is a perfect fit for what I want to study Student/alumni community Networking opportunities Conferences and talks offered Location Prestige of the program Cons: Funding - or total lack thereof (for me...!) I'm a little nervous about going back to school full-time after having been in the workforce for three years, but I'm also really looking forward to it! Hope that helps!

Congratulations on your decision - it's exciting to have something tangible to look forward to in the fall! We may well eventually cross paths. All the best in Cowtown! I'll be jealous of the chinooks in the winter haha.

Nice, congrats @rmrda! @iamnicole, hopefully you find out soon and will be joining us, as well! @Blake091, sorry to hear you're most likely not going to be in Ottawa in the fall, but based on the other thread, it seems like UofC would be great fit for you. Funding makes a huge difference, too!

To be determined later in the week, per Blake091's communications with Tabbatha haha. Hi, though! We'll be in the same cluster.

@Blake091, did you ever end up hearing anything back about those cluster changes?

Congrats, everyone! Progress haha! (Also, too funny - we've managed to be 3 posts away from being a "hot topic". Quite a busy crowd, we are!)

Having lived a number of years in both Calgary and Ottawa (and being from neither town), I have to say that city-wise alone, I much prefer Ottawa. NPSIA's reputation precedes it, and from a number of students in the program, it appears that there are plenty of conference and other opportunitites there. That being said, U of C is no slouch program-wise, and $18k is nothing to sneeze at... If you're thinking you'd like to go more the academic route anyways, I'd say take the money. For someone going into strategic studies or international affairs, a bit of travel experience is always an asset, no? Gotta get out of your comfort zone! I'd love to put a face to the name and start at NPSIA with you and the other familiar names on the board in September, but I'd be tempted to say that UofC is the better fit based on the information you provided...

Congrats on the letter and funding! Not sure what the scholarship average is. No TAing for me - unfortunately in business (my field pre-NPSIA), undergrads TA the undergrads and PhDs TA the masters students. TA opportunities will vary depending on what your background is, as they have to need TAs in that department for it to work. I don't know how big RAing is in the field... They weren't mentioned on the website. Although I'm not much more use than that for the program until all of us get more details, I have a fair bit of experience in Ottawa, so if anyone has questions, feel free to let get in touch and I'll try to answer as best I can!

Thanks, Blake! Super curious. It seems like all of us are in different ones so far, so it's interesting getting a sense of the new world order, so to speak haha. @rmrda - Mine did too... Probably still does... Hahaha, whatever, all of us are going through the same thing! Best wishes for speedy results.

Thanks! Sadly I was admitted with no funding. Ah well, it'll be worth it!

Yes, there was e-mail notifying me. I hope they get to your application ASAP! The waiting is brutal.

Last status change. "Decision made by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs: Application Approved". Aaaaaaaaand I've accepted. Finally! Hope to see all of you there in September! Wishing you nothing but the best with speedy and positive results!

Another update for you guys in the line of statuses to expect... At some point between leaving work and getting home, my application status changed to "Review in progress by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs". I'm hoping that since I got allocated a cluster today while it said "Review in progress by department" that all the details are now ironed out, and the official offer will come out from the FGPA shortly! What a drawn out process... Looking forward to final results (...and really curious to know what the new clusters they came up with are...)!

@Rumcajs, Perhaps I'm completely naive, I actually didn't reach out to a single professor there if it makes you feel better. I gleaned all my information from various websites in determining fit and spoke with a past student after I'd applied. My first contact with the professors will be once I'm actually in! I didn't know that reaching out to POIs was a big thing until I started reading these boards, and am still not entirely sure that it's something a lot of people do at NPSIA - perhaps that's something the others can speak more towards!

Tough to say, iamnicole... I think Tabbatha and Norean try to respond as soon as they have available information, so fingers crossed that you find out (positively!) soon!

Maybe either the FGPA just decided to create their own new clusters this year haha. This is driving significant curiosity. Sounds like that could be a really interesting stream though, Blake091, even if we aren't sure what it is exactly haha!

Since I check Carleton Central compulsively to see what the admission offer details are, I noticed another change that some of you may have, too! In the "Application Details" tab, I now have a specialization allocated (International Development Policy - ...not sure that that's a cluster. Did they take my top two and combine International Dimensions of Development and International Trade Policy?). It may be of interest if that's happened to any of the rest of you, too! Here's hoping the official offer details come out soon haha... I want to know what my standard of living is going to be for the next year!

Wow, a semester at Sciences Po? That'd be amazing! NPSIA only really lists two schools in DC and Japan on their approved exchange list, so I didn't think they often approved other exchanges. Congratulations!

There's always a number of different study spaces available on campus, and how much time is spent there tends to vary by student, I find. Some love to do all their work on campus, and others prefer working from home or coffee shops where possible. It's often easier to facilitate group meetings on campus. Departments usually have their own graduate study space available too, which I believe NPSIA does in the beautiful new River building. The library is still under construction right now, but current estimates have it done around August 2013, and it's been extensively renovated to provide about double the prior study area and natural light (the whole front is all glass). I was on campus earlier this week to participate in an accounting panel for the business school actually, and it's quite beautiful!