StyLeD

FWIW I asked a good friend of mine who did USP for 2 semesters and switched to EPD, and he said that the USP program is primarily domestic due to the brand name professors that draw student interest. However, he also said it's really easy to pick USP-related classes with an int'l focus, so my impression is that there's enough classes within SIPA and outside of it - you can take any elective after all - where you won't feel as constrained as you would in a smaller school at, say, Tufts.

Sorry, I didn't participate in any of the tech/policy initiatives and none of my classes overlapped with that of the USP folks. Your best bet for student feedback would be to reach out to USP-SIPA students on LinkedIn and see what they have to say. All I know is that the USP concentration population is very small compared to the rest of SIPA. I did do a search in our internship database which turned up 31 results for USP (as opposed to 90 for EPD) - a good mix of domestic and international, but international students tended to pick up international internships. Everyone else seemed to pursue local opportunities. Seems like if you're international, you won't have trouble finding an internship at a NY office of an int'l development bank or something like that, but if you're domestic looking for int'l internship experience, you're out of luck.

Glad to help! I've got way too much time before I start work, so ask away. PA positions are pretty relaxing, you're pretty much a glorified federal work study student (at least I was). Although, I heard that they're redoing the PA programs so my info might be outdated. Most TA positions require a ton of work, as you're often grading midterm papers, holding recitations once a week (~2 hours), and holding office hours once a week (~2 hours). And that's only the front-end work that we students see. I'm sure TAs also work with the course announcement system, posting updates to syllabi, correcting assignment dates, answering pressing questions, etc. But it's a great resume-booster, as you can definitely say you were in the top 10% of the class (probably closer to top 5%) and that you both learned and taught the material. Also will secure you a solid recommendation, I'm sure. I entered through government sponsorship, and it was only until my 2nd year that I decided to forgo the job security in favor of private sector work. So, my first year was really relaxed. Most people try and get their core courses out of the way, which also gives you the best chance of getting a TA-ship. If that's you, then your first semester will be pretty tough - my recommendation is to not overwhelm yourself with more than two quantitative classes. My social circle at SIPA was tied to my culture and my profession. I met people from other schools through the professional student organization, which was very valuable - one thing I wish I did more was meet people from other schools (especially, for me, the business school). It was a good balance. I went to about one social event a week, and I studied with people from both groups. In my last semester, I met 3-4 times a week with people similarly interested in private sector work. I still stay in touch with those students. ______ As for the domestic focus of SIPA, all of the quantitative professors will approach the class from a US perspective. This is good. There's also enough professors to go around where you can graduate having taken courses from professors who only specialize in US policy. These professors will have local roots - so you can expect policy courses taught by former mayors, NY-based nonprofit executive directors, etc. Just keep in mind that the more important the professor, the less present they'll be in the classroom. Also, the professors are all quite stereotypical in their research focus. If a professor is teaching about political development and studied in and is from some part of Latin America, you can be sure that the class will be very Latin America-focused. You'll have two weeks to pick the classes that suit you best, although there's so many students the interesting functional courses are often filled by 2nd year students first. If you tailor your first semester to selecting core courses taught by professors who've worked where you want to work, then you'll be golden. tSIPA doesn't have a concentration or specialization specifically targeting nonprofits, but their functional specializations are cross-industry (gender, advanced statistics, management, etc.) They also have a core management course on non-profit organizations taught by a great professor, that may interest you. For details on courses in, say, nonprofit management, search using this http://www.columbia.edu/cu/bulletin/uwb/ (school-wide) and http://bulletin.columbia.edu/sipa/course-search/ (SIPA-specific). Just type in something like "spring 2018 nonprofit" and you'll get a better understanding of the classes you might expect. One of the big draws of Columbia is that you can take courses from other schools, either as an elective or as a core replacement. Gives you a bit a flexibility in your schedule. If you want to get a better understanding of SIPA from someone who shares your interests, your best bet would be to go on LinkedIn and do a search for SIPA alum at nonprofits you want to work at in 2 years. We're usually pretty good as responding. One more thing of note: SIPA's MPA program places regionally, so their municipal/state/federal career postings will be either international, NY-based, or East Coast-based. Their nonprofits will similarly either be international or local.

Good to know you have housing sorted out. That's one of the major costs of living in New York. As far as assistantships go, the $20k ones require a lot of preparation and planning - you need to take the courses you want to TA as early as possible to maximize your chances of getting interviews the first semester of your 2nd year. You also need to take courses that you absolutely know you will do well in, and they should be courses you would've already taken always regardless of your interest in TAing. If there is such a course, then by all means, take it. If not, then don't expect to receive a TAship your 2nd year. That being said, it's not hard to get a Program Assistantship with one of the offices/institutes your 2nd year. They provide around $6000-$10000 in funding and are much easier to get than TAships - there's no grade requirement, for instance. I conducted a SIPA student survey in New York a few months ago and one of the challenges of commuting was missing out on night life, since most of the big social events are held in the evening. Key word being social; if you're interested in academic events, they're held throughout the day and you should be able to have a healthy work-life balance. Career services are TERRIBLE. My god, I could go on for days about how useless the career services office is. I'm going to go on a rant. Let me distill my displeasure in a couple bullet points: They did not help at all in securing my current job. (disclaimer: SIPA is very reputable for int'l development, but my career goals were different) They hold information sessions, but the companies that come to SIPA fall into four categories: top-tier int'l development (World Bank, IMF, Dalberg, UNICEF, UN); state/federal jobs (New York Transit; DOE, DOS, military); int'l/regional private (Goldman Sacs, JP Morgan, BAH, MBB/Big 4 consulting-global (NOT domestic; SIPA is not a target or even semi-target school)); and various nonprofits, some big and some small. My industry was underrepresented and views SIPA with some disdain. SIPA is so international that the career options often exclude domestic students from applying, which is incredibly frustrating. Their career advisers are god-awful (disclaimer: they have 3 or 4 advisers. I've visited two of them and people have complained to me about the other two) I actually went to one of their advisers seeking advice (I have a federal background and was trying to transition to private with no hard skills) and they pretty much accused me of trying to secure a job guarantee out of them when I was merely looking for a rough roadmap to follow and some anecdotal evidence from past students. At my undergraduate institution, the alumni-career services network was strong, and the advisers would put me in touch with recent alumni who were always willing to help. At SIPA, the advisers are unwilling (unable?) to provide you with connections. They will tell you everyone is different and that there's no concrete path they can provide, which IMO is just their way of sidestepping their own incompetence. If they were to read this post, the first thing they would think of would be, "Why is STyLeD misguided and wrong?" not "How might we improve our services to address StyLeD's concerns?" You could probably replace the worst adviser with Google Home and expect the same level of empathy and advice. They limit you to three visits a semester. Thankfully, after the first visit you won't want to use the other two visits. They have a poor reputation in some career fields. Let's just say that alumni in certain industries have expressed frustration to me when trying to organize information sessions or recruiting events through the career center. For instance, if I were an alumna interesting in advertising a job requiring a federal security clearance, I would submit the necessary paperwork and check back a month later only to find that 80% of applications are from foreign students who have no shot at, and should have been precluded from, even applying. From a recruiting standpoint, this drives down the success rate of recruiting (instead of, say, successfully hiring 1 in 20, now you report hiring 1 in 100, 80 of whom should not have even applied). Then, in my (alumna's) company, my superiors would report that SIPA is not worth the effort of sifting through clearly unqualified candidates. SIPA then loses its "target" status and the company no longer recruits there. This is a hypothetical situation with some basis in reality. My advice would be to treat SIPA's career services as an automated job postings system with no human interaction. Perhaps the one good thing about career services is that 9/10 fellow students you meet will also have had a terrible experience with them as well, so it's a great way to bond (I guess that means you'll have to visit a career adviser at least once...). Speaking of, your colleagues at SIPA will be hundreds of times better than the career center at helping you obtain your career goals. If you're an intelligent, down-to-earth team player, you will make friends and they will want to help you. SIPA's various industry-specific student groups really help to bring together like-minded individuals. It's how I obtained both my summer internship and post-grad job. I want to reiterate that I am a domestic student with no interest in international development. If I were an international student interested in doing M&E work for the UN or World Bank, I would be much happier with the career options - particularly the quality of companies that recruit on campus - but equally unhappy with the quality of advice and bureaucratic limitations of career services. tl;dr I'm grateful to SIPA for giving me the alumni network and contacts I have today, but I did so without the help of the career center.

Just from speaking with people in my cohort, I do believe the MPA cohort is bigger than than the MIA. The MIA program may be older, but I think people find it more practical these days to have MPA on their resume over MIA. Personally, I'm an MIA graduate but, at least for the next 6 years or so, I wish I did an MPA. People have no idea what an MIA program is, and that can hurt you if you're trying to enter any sector other than int'l development/politics. OTOH, the MIA degree is quite unique and can give you a leg up if you're committed to an international career.

Sure thing - that's a great question! The program tuition page on SIPA's website is quite accurate. $160-$170k over two years sounds about right. I had a $15,000/year SIPA scholarship, a $20,000 external scholarship, and a $10,000 program assistantship to offset some of the costs. Still, I'm graduating with a low six-figures in debt, which is scary but manageable. The number that they like to throw out - something like most students get an assistantship in their 2nd year - is pretty disingenuous. They include people that get funding for only one semester (like me), as well as people that get only partial funding (something like $5,000 only). Then they exclude people who don't even apply, which is how they got to their very nice number. In my experience, the only way to get a TA position is to take the professor's course that first year and get an A. Core courses like Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Quantitative Analysis, Accounting will have the most TA positions available, but you'd have to get an A, and A's are only given out to the top 10%~ or so of the class. It's for the most part a meritocracy - the TAs clearly deserved the grade they got, and they're very good at the subject they got hired for. Though they do a little affirmative action when selecting TAs; every major course will always have at least 1 Chinese TA due to the huge number of Chinese students at SIPA. I would say the median amount you can "expect" to get (assuming you try really hard to get funding the second year) is $7,500-$10,000. Don't expect the $20,000 TA-ships unless you're a goddess/god at economics, accounting, statistical modeling, etc or unless you take a first-semester course offered yearly, do well in it, and the professor likes you.

Glad to give back! 1. Part-time jobs: Yes. I worked two part-time jobs, actually, as a graphic designer for a NYC-based nonprofit and a program assistant for one of SIPA's centers. I worked a total of ~20 hours and spent ~10 hours on student clubs and such. So it's definitely doable for the first three semesters - during your capstone semester, the capstone class will take up a huge chunk of time, so budget for that. BUT if you want to aim for a 3.8+ and you're not a naturally gifted student, it'll be a bit hard since, as I mentioned in my previous comment, SIPA grades on a curve and it's quite difficult to get an A half-assedly. 2. Vibe: There's a TON of student clubs at SIPA, some of them are functional (UN, M&E, etc.) and others are regional (Latin America, Southeast Asia, China, etc.). There's also a pretty active student government and concentration-specific events (for EPD, Human Rights, IFEP, etc.) However, it's a little intimidating to cross-mingle - Latin American students tend to revert to their native tongues during class breaks, and the Chinese/Japanese/Korean students do the same. You'll learn a lot about why and how other people are at/got into SIPA, though. Many students are government-sponsored and thus care less grades. Very diverse, so it depends. 3. Time out of class: Again, it depends - most people are not doing research (as in statistics-heavy research methodology). A lot of people are working to pay off school, lots of after-class parties and social gatherings, many people intern - especially at the UN, and lots of people join clubs as well. Most people do at least two of the four things I mentioned. Whatever you want/plan to do, you're guaranteed to find someone else doing something similar. In my second year, a lot of people were looking for jobs together as well. It was a great way to stay motivated and chat about exit opportunities. Let me know if you'd like further clarification.

Hope this helps: 1. As a general policy, SIPA grades on a curve. This means that it's incredibly difficult to get an A or a C. Most people fall in the B to B+ range. If you want an A, you'll have to try really, really hard. If you want to fail, you'll have to try really, really hard as well. Classes vary widely. The core classes are extremely useful. The professors who teach those courses have taught them for many, many years. The schedule is as hectic as you want it to be, depending on what grade you want. Courses are usually held M-Th, with most classes on Tuesday/Wednesday. Friday is sort of a "rest day", but that just means review sessions, group work, recitations, etc. are all held that day. 2. First-year students can opt-in on student housing, but student housing is year-round...so if you're planning on interning elsewhere, you'll likely have to forgo student housing or sublease it. Pricing options are between ~900 and ~2000, so lots of diversity. Check out the I-House if you want a really diverse living experience. Living in NYC is stupidly expensive, I paid $1100 to live in a room the size of a large walk-in closet (I could stretch my arms wide and almost touch both sides of the room) with 3 other people. This was on 116th. I moved to The Arbor afterwards - I lived in a luxury apartment with 2 other people for $1300/month, BUT it was in the Bronx. A shuttle was provided both ways, but the commute was ~25 minutes. I had a friend who moved with his boyfriend to New Jersey, paying $2200 together. However, there's a toll booth that charges $10 or so for the car - that drives up the budget. It's something to consider though. 3. Not sure about int'l student loan, sorry. I'm domestic.

Congratulations everyone! I recently graduated from SIPA in December and will be starting work in February. Feel free to AMA about SIPA.

I counted six typos in one of my SOPs and still got accepted, so I'll second the notion that spelling mistakes will not end your application.

In terms of admissions, yes. But I would be wary of applying for safeties just for the sake of being accepted somewhere; graduate school is a significant financial commitment, and you should only apply to schools you would be happy attending.

For $$$ reasons, it may be better that it isn't. Unless you have a comparable offer, then there is no reason to decline the internship. You're not really listing your choices; in a vacuum everybody will tell you that an internship is better than none.

I'm assuming the internship is either in New York or D.C., so the only concern is whether the experience is worth spending upwards of $3,000-$5,000 for a summer placement. If the internship is in the same department as your dream job, then go for it. If your school has a decent endowment, they will often have money set aside for unpaid internships in a relevant field.

Refer to this website for a ranking of top Master's programs. SAIS + All the Ivy league programs require strong quantitative skills. Their curriculums are econ heavy. Can't really give you more information unless you list your work experience, research, and honors. Top 10 is easy, but for most Master's programs in IR, the hard part is getting funding.

Whoops! Forgot to mention in the post that I did apply for spring. It's under "Application Season" <--- thataway

In the social sciences (academia), literature reviews make up only one portion of what constitutes standard academic research. Such papers typically have sections that examine an interesting question, fill a gap in existing scholarship, and follow the scientific method. Unlike the hard sciences, however, it is possible to conduct top-tier research without resorting to quantitative analysis, or working with programs like Q, STATA, and SPSS. Most undergraduate research is conducted on a qualitative level, either through case studies, discourse analysis, ethnography, etc. There are many ways you can conduct research in this field. The lit review is arguably the least "research-intensive" section of a research paper. It shapes the conceptual framework within which you will conduct your analysis and present your findings. What you will be doing next semester - posing a question, forming a hypothesis, and gathering data - aligns more closely with what many consider significant research experience. Outside of academia, the definition for "research" is a bit more broad. An op-ed or feature piece published by the Wall Street Journal, for example, may be more valued than a paper published in an undergraduate journal. Likewise, there are reports on social welfare, urban migration, and cross-cultural communication produced by think tanks and research institutions which may not contain a methodology or quantitative evidence. These reports will be well-cited but may be published separately in academia, or in primers/monthly booklets issued to subscribers. All are valued as relevant experience. In fact, in the professional world, such experience may be more valuable than academic research. I would be seriously impressed by any undergraduate that has produced work for the Congressional Research Service, for example. Anyone with more experience publishing in the field may feel free to chime in. My experience is based off several methods courses on polysci/IR I took as an undergrad, op-eds/presentations published in newspapers, and feedback from my professors. ________________ tl;dr: It depends on the context. In academia, research is more inclusive and follows a template. Outside of academia, research is much more broad. Your proposed project will count as research, so long as you actually do some original work outside of the lit review.

It's quite expensive, yes. @kbui, you seem to have been competitive for past scholarships and can apply for things like SOROS, Pickering/Rangel to help allay some of the costs. Some lesser-known programs are incredibly generous. I don't think Denver Korbel has ever had a Pickering fellow, and programs such as Middlebury's Institute of Int'l Studies at Monterey will provide significant aid to fellowship recipients. Columbia SIPA will provide partial matches as well. You should contact the Fulbright/Boren offices to see whether or not there are similar "unofficial" deals offered to your cohort. In general, going 100k+ in debt is never a good idea unless you have a job waiting for you. When calculating my own expenses, I promised myself not to take loans beyond what I expected to make in salary for my first year.

Best of luck to everyone in this thread applying for Fall 2016 IR programs! And especially to anyone considering SIPA I just received my university email & ID today. My parents are already clamoring for t-shirts and sweatshirts; they never asked me for university sportswear during my undergrad. Hm ): ): ):

Red Rum.

If you'd like a second (or third) look, feel free to message me.

I did it for the Spring 2016 application season. Tufts has several grad interns that help interview students, and occasionally an actual staff member will help out. This was the first time they allowed interviews by Skype, instead of requiring a campus visit. Unfortunately, my Skype interview didn't work, so we switched to an interview by phone. It's a standard interview that pretty much repeats word for word the questions asked on your Statement of Purpose. Why you chose Tufts, what programs will help you excel, how you think you can contribute, what things you've done to help you prepare for grad school, what you plan on doing after completing your M.A., etc. I think it's an opportunity for the Office of Admissions to get a better sense of the person behind the computer, if you will. Keep in mind that they will only have a copy of your resume, which you need to send before the interview. Perhaps the most important benefit of the interview was that they briefly saw that I took the time to prepare and dress up in formal wear, and that I got to speak 1:1 with a graduate student already enrolled at Tufts. The questions they asked were surprisingly straightforward. I left thinking I spent too much rehearsing my responses to potential questions/concerns on my resume, none of which they asked. ________ Facts aside, they sure picked the wrong person to interview me. It was his first semester at Tufts, so he knew little to nothing about Tufts I couldn't find on Gradcafe or in a quick purview of their website. My area of interest is in the Asia-Pacific and maritime territorial issues; my interviewer was an international student who spoke passable English and studied migration (I think) in Germany. Outside of a cursory knowledge of the issues currently happening with the EU and refugees from Syria, I had no questions to ask about his specific work and he had no insight on professors that I should target. He couldn't even answer basic lifestyle questions like, "Where is the best place on/off campus to study?", let alone more nuanced questions about the Fletcher Neptunes (a student group committed to maritime studies). We had some difficulty communicating, especially with Skype breaking down, and it left me with a worse impression of Tufts (These are the students Fletcher has talking to applicants???). I think Gradcafe dashed my expectations, given Tufts' reputation as a close and personable program on this forum. Tufts did everything as advertised - wrote a nice letter, followed up with me after acceptance, and allowed a 1:1 interview, but it all seemed a bit formulaic. In their supposedly personal letter of congratulations, the person who sent me an email wrote to commend me my 3-month temp job experience working as an *afterschool tutor* instead of my research internships at two think tanks in D.C., or my internship with the Department of State? It's like they didn't even care to look at my SOP or why I was applying.

While not ideal, the situation you're describing is not quite "the last minute." I've submitted application materials less than 10 days before the deadline; I was admonished by one of my professors, but the other said nothing, and my internship supervisor was very understanding. Obviously, I have no idea if it affected their LORs, but unless you have a history of tardiness at worst they will include a brief line mentioning the issue. There's nothing you can do about that now. If you have your materials written and ready to submit, then I would recommend you state in your email (or better yet, in person) that, if the professor is willing to write you a LOR, you are prepared to send him or her your portfolio including resume/SOP/additional materials the next day. This will give your professor 3 weeks to write the first recommendation, which (at least in my field) is standard for most LOR requests. It would also be helpful to attach a separate list of the top reasons why you want to go to that school and/or why you believe you are a good fit. This will make the task a little less daunting. Be very clear on how many schools you are applying to, their deadlines, and the specific graduate programs. Finally, make sure you come across as apologetic yet not overly self-critical. Acknowledge the short timeline, explain that was because of personal reasons (whether s/he believes you is out of your control), and move on to the actual request.

@internationalaffiars88 I think you are over-stressing your first undergraduate results. From your GRE scores, work experience, and second undergraduate scores, I think you will be a strong candidate, provided you craft a compelling SOP and secure three solid LORs. Columbia SIPA is not an exceptionally difficult school to get into (around a 40% acceptance rate per semester), but that's because (according to general consensus) it gives less financial aid than the average graduate IR program. As a result, I imagine that many admitted candidates choose not to attend SIPA because they cannot afford 100k+ in student loan debt. Cast a wide net to catch the richest fish, I suppose. If you have enough saved to attend regardless of aid, then you can rest easy. If, however, you would like to be considered for 1st-year or 2-year funding, I would focus on raising your GPA at Rutgers and acing the GREs. Several students in Fall 2015 received 70k+ packages, which I imagine can only happen if you are truly a stellar applicant. I think you've demonstrated enough maturity and personal growth to be competitive for aid - perhaps not 70k+, but something to show you're a cut above the other accepted students. Do a lot of research into which combination of specialization and concentration would best assist you moving forward. Answer the prompt, and make sure you talk about why you want to apply to SIPA, and why right now. You have the background and the scores. All you have to do is make sure you come across as mature and focused in your SOP and LORs.

I think it is just fine. I was in a similar situation - I interned 20 hours a week for 3 months at a think tank and developed a close relationship with my supervisor. He helped write me a strong enough recommendation to get me into all the programs I applied to. What helped was that I was asked to do extra work even after the internship ended. Your situation is perhaps even better than mine; you probably work 40 hours a week and were assigned more substantive tasks. You'll be fine.

Hello, Thanks for sharing your insight on SIPA and its various concentration and specializations. I apologize for the long post, but I applied for Spring 2016 and have to make a tough decision between SIPA and Georgetown SSP. I've jotted some of the more pressing questions: _________________________________ 1. I've looked through Gradcafe's threads on SIPA admissions from 2010-2014, and it seems that there is an overall negative tone in how SIPA is described - the large core class sizes, significant because of SIPA's large degree requirements, SIPA's reputation as a degree mill due to lack of 1st-year funding, the poor career services, and the difficulty of forming close relations with distinguished professors due to difficult and brief office hours How would you address these issues? I myself would not be asking these questions if I did not think that most of them are unsubstantiated. I'm interested in hearing your opinion. 2. I've been using this list to prepare for funding via a second-year assistantship. As a first-year, what should I prioritize if I want to maximize my chances of receiving a TA position? 3. How intellectually challenging are most SIPA courses? I understand that the MIA is a terminal degree, but I do not want to spend 2 years acquiring professional skills - I want a good balance of theory and practical experience. 4. I will definitely be pursuing International Security Policy as a Concentration, but I'm struggling between two Specializations: Management and Regional Studies (Asia Pacific). Do you have any experience with either, and could you tell me a little bit about them? 5. I'm several years removed from studying my last language, and I would like to take language courses without using up my electives. Is there any feasible way to do this? 6. This is a purely subjective question, but how active and accepting are SIPA students? Are they typically friendly and engaging, or do they form cliques based on gender, income level, perceived intelligence, and so on? 7. A random question - do you live in the International House? If you do, is paying the exorbitant price worth the accessibility and student environment? _________________________________ Thanks again! Sorry if I overwhelmed you with questions. Feel free to ignore questions you don't know or feel comfortable answering.