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PeaceDoc

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  1. I would not say this is totally out of line, though. Certainly not in my dept/univ. Incoming students are often surprised at how long the bureaucratic machine takes to get moving. I sure was. It was mid October before I saw a paycheck.
  2. In my own limited experience, unfortunately for you, I tend to agree with this. Some departments explicitly state in their FAQ pages how many hours they will allow to transfer, etc., but I've never seen one which allowed for more than perhaps a single years worth of credits. My own dept has turned away student MA credits when admitting into the PhD program. If you find a dept, let us know. I would be interested.
  3. You need to consider this *very* seriously. A phd takes years. In your instance, years at an expensive school in an expensive place (DC/Vir/Mar). Most people will tell you to defer from attending unfunded, and there is merit in the warning. There is pretty good research to the fact that those going to grad school will never make up the financial time/ground lost had they foregone grad school and simply taken a job. If you take out loans, you're setting yourself up for a long road to anywhere secure. This all depends, however, on your own financial situation. If you're minted, there are no worries, although it would be nice to be funded. If you need to take loans for all things considered; tuition, housing, general living, you should probably consider other options. Finally, you might consider this as well; funding offers typically go to the depts most desired students. If you go into it without funding there is little to guarantee you that there will ever be funding in the future.
  4. I think the question is interesting, and worthy of discussion, but is largely unaddressable as there are no definitive statistics on admission, etc. Over the last few decades, enrollment in college has increased dramatically. A college degree is worth something less than it was in earlier times and a high school diploma is bupkis, thus students tend to reach for more schooling. Concurrently, enrollment and competition for admittance into grad schools has increased. Now, regardless of what any prospective adviser or faculty member tells you, the increase in undergrad enrollment increases the need for grad students to assist with departmental affairs, more so that does the demand for PhDs on the market. Thus students are admitted not with the expectation that they have something to contribute, but that they can serve some purpose logistically. Personally, I feel that over time the number of individuals competing for jobs increases more quickly than does the number of jobs. From my personal experience, you have a tremendous weeding out process going on here. Given the length of the track you have laid out; from school applications to tt job, there are extremely few which ultimately make it. My current dept admits 10-12 per year, and probably gets ~120 applications (please note the difference between 'accepts' and 'admits' before arguing this percentage is overly stringent). The next step, time and attrition in grad school, does not get addressed often enough. Again I'll use my dept as an example, which consistently has had something in the area of 60% washout per cohort. By washout I mean the following; 1) they cannot handle the workload, 2) they leave because their outside life moves on, 3) they fail field exams, 4) they cannot finish their dissertation, 5) they switch to a masters only program. So, of those who originally start, we're talking about 3-4 completing their phd, and this is probably a high estimate. Mind you, I'm in a fairly well regarded dept. The dept places these 3-4 students well, but not all in tt. Many go to research positions or lac's. Competition for tt jobs is pretty fierce, and as you all may have noticed in applying to grad school, it can be something of a crap-shoot. Unfortunately a paper file cannot encapsulate a person's contribution, and many qualified applicants are trashed while others are given consideration. Anyway... this is a long, convoluted, and wholly unsatisfactory way of saying that there is a not an ideal job for everyone, everywhere. If you have the statistics I'm sure there is an opening for some education journal pubs. However, those who manage to survive their programs can do alright in some capacity. You cant simply expect that a phd will open a door for you at your personal "Harvard on the Hill."
  5. This is absolutely true. My institution requires every student to take two sections of intro American government. That's *a lot* of kids, and requires manymany instructors. This, while only those kids who specialize in a particular subfield of the political science discipline are required to take intro to comparative/ir/etc. There will always be a need for someone to teach constitutional law and intro American, whereas ir/comparative classes tend to be taught in larger or more well heeled institutions. When one considers this, it's odd there are not more judicial scholars than there are. My own observation is that post 9-11 international politics became much more visible to the general public. As a consequence, interest and enrollment in those undergrad classes, and as a grad student specialization, has gone up (we actually have statistics on class enrollment for the former). While I have only my own observation on this next note, I've also noticed that many students who begin grad school as IR majors end up finishing in comparative. I've been at two grad institutions, one for MA and another for PhD, and IR has been immensely popular at both, but that interest seems to change over time for a couple of reasons. One, because their interests are, in fact, largely regional (e.g., an interest in international terrorism can quickly turn to regional study of the Middle East or of development in general). Two, not to be snide, but many students who go to grad school on a fleeting interest fade quickly. Attrition for phd students in my dept and others I'm familiar with is over 60% from enrollment to completion. Just because one likes to read the World Politics section of the NYT does not mean one wants to plow through a dataset of 250k dyads and learn some ridiculous modeling technique. IR, while intriguing, somewhat sexy, and accessible to the public through media, is probably subject to more misunderstanding by incoming students than any other.
  6. I lived in LBK for six years and would move back today. It's a good sized town. Large enough that you have anything you will ever want in terms of shopping/restaurants/stuff to do, but not so big that you deal with excessive people/traffic. The town has a great college atmosphere, and they genuinely love Tech. The school makes up roughly 35,000 of the towns 200,000, so it's quiet in the summers. It's a little geographically isolated, so if you want lakes, mountains, etc., it takes some minor travel. There is good hunting if you're into that sort of thing. In my day we used to go out to an abandoned airport and race cars. Falls and football season are the best; mild weather and enthusiastic fans. Speaking of weather, ^ is largely correct. It's mild to warm year round, and rains in the spring with chances nasty weather. Growth is in the south side of town, circa 98th street, and is where most of the nicer homes/shops are. It's the far side from the university but still only ten minutes away. Students tend to live closer to the university (tech terrece, apts, etc). In the last ten years they've done much construction around Tech with new apts and businesses (they even tore down old neighborhoods to do so). Per the dry county issue, LBK is a bastion of social conservatism, and that they are just now allowing alcohol should give you an image. You can buy beer in town now, but no, the bars are no less empty. I drop into town some weekends to see friends, and my fav bar (Cricket's) is still packed. Chimy's and the margarita revolution also press on. In my days in LBK they also had a good music scene. Not comparable to other more well known cities, but bars regularly have small bands, and concerts were quite common. I saw Chevelle, Pearl Jam, Seether, Fuel, Shinedown, FlyLeaf, Korn, Revolution Smile, Rob Zombie, Taproot, Three Days Grace, Blue October.... *breath*... Static X, Cross Canadian Ragweed, Pat Green, to name a few while I was there. I don't know if they still get these bigger bands, but I do still see the smaller local bands when I go back. Per other things to do, they have nice bowling alleys, movie theatres, etc., just like any other place. Lubbock does have a nice symphony. And if you want pizza, go to One Guys. I truly loved it in LBK. As did many of my friends. Are you going to grad school there? Dept?
  7. Just as a note, from one who has had the opportunity to sit in on committee meetings and job talks for candidates from both... The name and pending degree from either school will get you an academic interview just about anywhere you can think up. Once you're in the door, however, you have to show up. What you should realize is that these schools tend to get above grade students, and provide above grade educations. As such, once you go on the market, expectations from receiving institutions are high. We've been happily surprised, and disappointed with candidates from both. As such, I've seen them both hired, and turned away. Good surprises come from bright students who have much to contribute, and disappointments have come in vein of, "If this person got admitted to A, every student at B-Z also should have." When you're talking about ranking schools like Stanford, Michigan, Harvard, etc... get your butt through the door, and don't rest on your laurels. Obviously one may fit better than another, yaddayadda... regardless, you'll have all of the tools in the world at your disposal, including yourself. Take advantage of them. Rankings matter, but they won't secure you a job.
  8. For my own edification, are you leaning towards one of the programs you've been accepted to? What is your area of interest? I know students and faculty and two of those programs in one substantive research area. Perhaps we could chat.
  9. Not to bust a bubble, I know letters and notifications can historically go out sooner rather than later... but for real: http://www.yale.edu/polisci/resources/docs/AdmissionsFAQ.pdf ...says March. Relax. Go have some ice cream.
  10. Consider first, how archaic shaving is. You're scraping a blade across your skin... *eeish* It hurts me, and thus I shave rarely, and incrementally. Perhaps once every two weeks, perhaps once every two months. This may say something about me, but I also get bored very easily. Thus I enjoy mixing it up. Over the past year I've had a clean shave, stubble, full beard (twice), and both a Chevron (Go Bandit!!) and Handlebar stache. Go with the flow and relax. You're in grad school to think and learn, not to impress people with your rugged comic-esc jawline. Someday you may be in a job which does not permit you to wear your facial hair as you see fit.
  11. I absolutely don't want to sound like I'm preaching (I wanted East Coast when I applied as well -- didn't get it), but there is a rampant saying where I grew up (South West) that may help rest your soul: "If you're smart enough to get into Stanford you're not dumb enough to turn them down." While this doesn't mean you would be dumb for turning them down if you get into H/Y/P/C, take solace. If Stanford is your only choice, you'll be fine.
  12. To expand ^... Word is that is was temporarily suspended given financial problems. Quite a few depts which I am aware of were forced to change admissions this year given the economic environment.
  13. Hey Pete. One of the issues for you, is as ^ noted, that if you want to do qually policy work you have a few outstanding choices (those you listed), and then your choices drop off rather quickly. This happens also, in that you are limiting yourself geographically. I would suggest you perhaps give Pittsburgh GSPIA a look. Great school, lots of options for approach, and an active internship program. Cheers.
  14. Hey Pete. The list is good, but quite elite with only minor exceptions. For your sake you may want to consider some schools (hate to say this) of lower pedigree. While it's difficult to say if programs will shrink in the coming year, one thing we can say fairly certainly is that they won't get easier to get into. Give yourself some "backup" schools. Going the other direction per high-end schools to consider, Tufts and JH are in the same general area and offer very decent qualitative policy programs. Just options. Also, I would think about removing Notre Dame from the list. Not solely because it is not really in your geographic region of interest, but they are notoriously hard to get into and quite frankly, aren't that strong of an IR/Security program. The new Institute is appealing and it's growing, but is not quite at the level it should be just yet. Cheers.
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