UMNdude
-
Posts
15 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by UMNdude
-
-
i totally see the allure of going to GWU, since they fund and provide you with the DC experience. Georgetown, though...just not worth it without the funding.
As for me, I've had the DC experience twice now, and definitely feel I'm better studying politics from a safe distance.
Re: DC experience...DAMN STRAIGHT! I hear ya.
-
Ha, maybe they are calling in alphabetical order? I'm CLAWING at hope.
-
I am an IR theory guy. So maybe I'm lucky? Sigh.
-
I got a call from the graduate director.
That makes me sad. But, congrats!
-
Yo, to the person who indicated he or she was accepted to UMN, did you call or did they call you?
-
This goes out to the other person who was admitted to UMass-Amherst and posted on the Results page...shoot me a message so we can chat.
-
I completely agree that this is the mentality embraced by the academy.
But I would argue that the world has already been interpreted ad naseum, and furthermore the discipline seeks its players to interpret within the same confines, the same theories, etc. The result, generally, is neither new interpretation nor change.
Nonetheless, it is true that most academics want their jobs to be simply to think, interpret, and write. OK, but then what? It is expected that policymakers and the "doers" of the world will then read all the academics' musings and find ways to incorporate them into practice. This simply rarely happens. So, either we rag on the policymakers to be better educated and ask that they be able to perfectly interpret and apply "our brilliance" or we realize that we're only accomplishing half our job. Very well---our job is indeed to think. But that is only part of it. Who better to apply the grand theories than the people who created them? In other words, when will academics take the next step and ask themselves how their theories etc. could be applied... really?
The world is full of people who can point to this or that and say "This is wrong, it shouldn't be like this" but the real question is how you can take that truism and change the reality of the future. I believe in the potential of the academy to respond to the world not as an observer, but as a participant.
Actually, as a "policymaker" and member of the US Intelligence Community, all academics need to do is think, interpret, and write. It is little known or recognized, but policymakers do read musings and incorporate them into practice. Many times a year, intel agencies hold conferences inviting scholars from all over to present. Often the direction of study and focus are solely shaped by the academy. One intel agency, for example, has recently established an entire division devoted to incorporating social constructivist methodology into US strategic thinking. It is quite awesome. Additionally, this division looks at how realist thought influenced decisions during the Cold War and how we can alter direction post Cold War.
But, I hate working in the community so that's why I am going to become a professor. :-)
-
Thank god for therapy and chemistry! It has curbed my concerns, but I am still CRAZY!
Reduce the pills a little, just got into UMass-Amherst.
-
Thank god for therapy and chemistry! It has curbed my concerns, but I am still CRAZY!
-
Anyone hear from UMN PolSci Dept if recommendations have been submitted to the grad school? (because the grad school allegedly does the notifying 1 week after recommendations are submitted from dept) Or is the painful silence mean that the forecast is slightly cloudy with a chance of doom?
Just followed up with Grad School. They checked my application (which was terrifying) and said that it appears applications are still with the department. The man with whom I spoke said that the email will provide us our pin and password (assume it is the same as our application pin and pass) when we can log in to see the results.
I am putting all my hopes, wishes, dreams, rainbows and cupcakes into this school. It is my ticket to escape life in Washington, DC.
-
Anyone hear from UMN PolSci Dept if recommendations have been submitted to the grad school? (because the grad school allegedly does the notifying 1 week after recommendations are submitted from dept) Or is the painful silence mean that the forecast is slightly cloudy with a chance of doom?
-
JFC! Save for UIUC, how did I manage to apply to all the slow-ass-to-reply schools! Of course, I did. My blood pressure and nerves are sky high that I'm about to birth a penguin.
-
I used my MA to enter into the intelligence community in DC working within the DoD, then shifted to private industry and now I am a national security consultant.
-
I never received that email. I did get a rejection email on Feb. 7. Was that any help?
University of Minnesota
in Political Science Forum
Posted
Alright, it looks as though people are hearing from the department via phone calls, but it looks as if Americanists are being tapped. Now, I know that this year they've decided to start building up their American Politics side, but I fear that is all they have accepted.
Feedback people, I need feedback.