Gov2School

The benefit to picking an APSIA member or affiliated school is that you know that the program meets a certain set of standards for professional education in international affairs. And APSIA, like NASPAA, doesn't just randomly come up with standards, they work with schools and employers to try to figure out what are the skills that are needed for international affairs professionals, and then examine their members in that light. So that doesn't mean you absolutely have to stay away from a program that's not in APSIA, but you should just know that it hasn't been as closely evaluated as some of the other programs. All of the top professional international affairs programs are APSIA members, but that doesn't mean that there aren't good programs that are outside of APSIA. Also, there could be lots of reasons why a school isn't in APSIA, for example, if it doesn't see itself as a professional program, but more of a liberal arts international affairs program, it may not apply to join an association of professional schools of international affairs. As for the New School, it's a young program at a school that's much better known for art, drama, and design than public policy or international affairs. So the downsides to that are you won't have as large of an alumni network (they just haven't graduated as many students as Columbia or NYU), they may not have as many resources since they haven't been around long enough to build a big donor base, and the curriculum may just not be as mature as at other places. It's definitely not very qualitatively rigorous if you look at what they require. The upsides are you probably have a lot more flexibility, whereas the programs at some of the more established schools can have more requirements. And if you already have an established professional network and/or a lot of experience, then it may not matter as much that you go to a school that can connect you to a strong network. And if you have a lot of professional experience, it doesn't matter as much if you go to a "well known" school.

If education policy is your interest/focus then the more experience you have in that, the better. If you don't plan to continue with education or education-related work in the future then it may not make a difference.

GWU is located in a very expensive part of DC. But keep in mind that DC has an excellent subway system and a pretty good bus system, so it's possible to live in less expensive areas and still commute to campus. The WMATA website has a trip finder application, where you can put in your starting address and your destination and it will show you how you would get there using public transport, how long it would take, and how much it would cost.

As unc says, the process varies a lot school to school. Most schools have an option to request deferral when you reply to their admissions offer. Then you usually have to upload a letter explaining why you want to defer, and the school adjudicates it and gets back to you with a decision. Some schools make it easy, others make it harder. At HKS for example, you can defer, but you have to reapply for financial aid the winter before you enroll (and you lose any aid that they may have offered you initially), so you're taking a risk. You might get offered money again, you might not. Many schools have similar policies, it's easy to defer, but you have to reapply for aid. SIPA's policy is more strict, if you defer you can lose all fellowship money and you aren't allowed to reapply for financial aid in the winter. They encourage you to instead decline your offer and re-apply, they look very favorably on reapplicants and you can re-apply for aid at that time. WWS lets you defer without impacting your financial aid. It can also vary depending on what type of scholarship you get awarded, as certain scholarships can have specific strings attached that would make it impossible to defer, while others could be deferrable. Some schools have these policies posted on their sites, but for most it's very unclear, so you just have to email or call the admissions office and ask (or ask at an admissions event). Don't worry about them putting a black mark against you, they understand that situations change and you're well within your rights to know what your options are. Once I got my offers I immediately started contacting schools to find out what their policies were and how a deferral would impact me, and they were all very helpful. Just keep in mind that they want you to be deferring for a legitimate reason, like pursuing a professional opportunity, and not just because you got cold feet.

A graduate certificate may help, though as you say it's impossible to predict if you'll get accepted or not. It's helpful to put yourself in the shoes of the admission committee. You have X number of slots to give out, and you want to be sure to give them to people who are not only outstanding applicants, but who also have the skills (including study skills) and experience to do well in a very rigorous program. So if you did well in undergrad, that suggests to them you have the academic and study skills to do well in a tough grad program. They don't want to go through the bother of accepting you just to have you fail out, after all. So taking the graduate certificate program gives them another data point to judge you by. In that sense, it certainly can't hurt. I chose to take a night class in statistics when i was applying because I hadn't taken math since high school and my GRE quant score was so-so. I wanted to have some further evidence that I could do math, even if I hadn't in a while. I do think this helped my applications and got me over the hump to getting accepted. But I also had a very strong GPA. So doing well in your graduate certificate will similarly provide them with some further evidence that you can do well at school, even if you didn't in undergrad. Whether that's enough to offset your low GPA is a question only the committee can answer and it will depend on how strongly you make your argument. Also, take full advantage of the "optional essay" that most of the applications have, where you can explain things that you think the committee may find concerning. That's going to be your place to make your pitch that while you didn't do well in undergrad for X, Y, Z reason (immaturity, lack of focus, whatever), you've since then pulled things together by doing A, B, C, and you're certain you'll do well in their program because of A, B, C. It would also be helpful to consider which college professor you'll ask to write you a recommendation, it would help a lot if you could have someone endorse you as a student for one of your reccs.

Previous Schools (Name, type, or tier): Top 20 LAC Previous Degrees and GPAs: B.A., Political Science, 3.8 GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): V 169/99th, Q 153 /55th, W 5.0/93rd Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): 5 years, highly relevant government work experience, but in entry-level positions Math/Econ Background: Intro Macro/Micro in college (took intro Micro pass/fail), one Stats class at a night school that I took the fall I applied Foreign Language Background (if applicable to your program): a little French and Arabic from college, but not fluent in anything and very little opportunity to practice since leaving undergrad Intended Field of Study in Grad School: Middle East foreign policy/national security issues Long Term Professional Goals: Leadership positions on foreign policy/national security issues. Schools Applied to & Results: Applied: SIPA, WWS, HKS, Georgetown MSFS, and Tufts MALD. Accepted at all five. Very big fellowship at SIPA, $22k/year at Tufts, full tuition plus stipend at WWS. No $$ at HKS, but since I knew I wanted to defer I did not apply for some fellowships that I might have been eligible to receive. No $$ at Georgetown (and they required a Microecon and a language course before I could enroll). Ultimate Decision & Why: WWS. While the offer from SIPA was huge and completely unexpected, after visiting my top three (HKS, SIPA, and WWS), it was clear where I really belonged. The SIPA fellowship made it a tight race between SIPA and WWS, but in the end I liked that WWS students were a little older and more experienced (about 20% of the SIPA entering class is right out of undergrad). I also decided that while WWS is a smaller program and doesn't offer the same huge variety of coursework, the smaller size would also mean a lot more personal attention (not just for classes, but also career services, extracurricular activities, etc). Plus, after attending admitted students day, I felt that a lot of my concerns about the size of WWS were put to rest. I'm confident I can pursue my interests there, even without 50,000 courses to choose from. Advice for Future Applicants: As others have said, take your time and start early. I was surprised how time consuming the application process was, and I'm glad I set myself an initial deadline to finish everything by Thanksgiving. Also, take advantage of suggestions/resources available to give you an idea of what the admissions teams are looking for. READ THE SCHOOLS' BLOGS, they often have useful tips that are universally applicable. HKS' admission blog was really helpful when I was writing my personal statement, because their posts on personal statements spelled out clearly what they did/didn't want. Also, if you are working, don't be afraid to enlist the assistance of coworkers and supervisors. I was very open with them about my plans and they gave me some of the best advice and guidance. They even allowed me to leave early one day per week so I could take my stats class. Don't feel that you have to keep it a secret that you're applying. You'll need all the support you can get. Think seriously about all of the little costs involved in attendance that can really add up, beyond tuition. Housing, food, transportation to/from school, transportation to/from internships (and housing/food at internships), definitely research what support schools provide in these areas. All of that can add up to another big loan (I appreciated that WWS provides a lot of support for activities like internships and business travel, one of the reasons I picked them). My biggest piece of advice is that you shouldn't be afraid to wait. Going straight from undergrad to a professional masters program doesn't necessarily convey a benefit in the job market. Take your time to work and explore your field before committing yourself financially. That will help a lot in determining where you want to focus your applications (I ended up applying to schools that were well represented in the places that I've worked). It will also give you a more clear story to tell. Given my thin quant background and low quant GRE scores, I was pessimistic about my chances for acceptance and fellowships. But because I had a lot of job experience, I was able to write specific, detailed, relevant personal statements and garner strong letters of recc. I think that really helped me when it came to both admission and scholarship offers.

It's kind of a broad interest, if only because the world of conflict and security jobs that center around the Middle East is itself quite broad. You could focus on Israel/Palestine, focus on resource security, focus on human security/displacement, focus on Turkey, the Gulf, North Africa, and have any number of specific focuses within that. You could work for the government, or for a nonprofit, or for a think tank. You could do analysis, public affairs, consulting. Conflict resolution is itself a really broad field. All I'm saying is that there are lots of roads you can take, and spending some time working in the related field can help narrow your thinking about what you want to do and which degree would most help you do that (and from which schools). If you're a PCV, you already have a leg up on a lot of people looking for jobs in this field in DC especially, so it's a great time to assess your options.

Wolfie is correct. It has nothing to do with the University of Sydney being a bad school (it's obviously a great university, though I have no opinion about how strong its international affairs faculty is), but if you go to grad school there you won't be able to build professional contacts in the US, or do internships with US organizations, or gain experience in the US field. If you already have a strong professional network and extensive experience then it doesn't matter so much, but if you don't, then it will be harder to get a job back in the US without a strong network. People tend to like to hire people who have worked for them before or who have worked for people or organizations that they know. That's true in pretty much every field, not just international affairs. No one hires anyone just because of their degree. It's the combination of degree, experience, skills and oftentimes personal connections that help you land the position. So if you're serious about wanting a career in international affairs (though it seems like your interests are still very broad?), you should be strategic about your graduate program. Unless you can afford to go back to grad school as many times as you want.

Well, MPA/MPP/MIA type programs require students to do internships over the summer. And Georgetown, SAIS, American, GW, etc are very career oriented. One of the great things about going to those schools in fact is you can intern at institutions in DC while you're in school, so you can be building professional contacts and experience while you study. New York is good for that as well, especially if you want to try to intern at the UN or other similar international organizations. But if I had to pick a program that's strong in international security and regional studies in New York, the first that pops to mind is the MIA at SIPA. It seems like the goals and interests you've articulated so far are extremely broad. You might benefit from taking some time off to work in the field before going to grad school. That could give you a better sense of what the professional environment is like and help focus what you're looking for. That in turn will give you a good sense of what the essential elements of your future grad program will be. Also, many of the top programs like to see strong work experience before they'll accept you.

It depends on what your career goals are (and where you hoped to be located). If you're an American and you want to eventually work in America or for American organizations, U.S. employers will be confused about why you went to the University of Sydney unless there's some strongly compelling reason like your spouse had to move to Australia, or you're an Australian citizen, or you wanted to study Asian-Pacific security issues in the Asia Pacific region. If your goal is to work for governments or programs in Australia and/or Asia after graduation, studying in that hemisphere could help you get your foot in the door.

it doesn't have to be a DC program (though not sure what you mean by tame? New School seems like a pretty standard program to me). What I'm really saying is that when I think about Masters degree programs with strong reputations in either Middle East area studies or conflict resolution, neither the New School nor Herzliya comes to mind. Doesn't mean they're bad programs, but if money is a concern to you, you could find programs that offer what you want that are either cheaper or more likely to give you financial aid.

Just flag, though I'm sure you also know this, Fletcher students can also take classes at Harvard, just as HKS students can take classes at Fletcher.

You should email the admissions office or read the post on the HKS admissions blog about the Wait List.

Sorry, I seem to keep stealing in here, but I can tell you the answer to this question is: YES, it's a good idea to take these. As you move up in your foreign service career, you will manage more and more people (in fact, managing people is a critical thing to do to get promoted). You will probably also have to manage budgets. No matter what your cone is, if you're good at your job you'll end up managing at least a small staff. If you're really good at your job, you'll be managing a large bureau or eventually an embassy, and you'll be responsible for all the personnel, financial, and budgetary decisions that go along with that. You'll of course be working on your policy issues, but you'll also be the person they blame if the money runs out before the end of the fiscal year, or if they can't get anything done because all your employees are despondent and unmotivated or your organizational structure is moribund. To give you an example, while many Assistant Secretaries and Ambassadors are political appointees, almost all of the "number 2" people in bureaus or at embassies are FSOs. And it's those Principal Deputy Assistant Secretaries or Deputy Chiefs of Mission who are responsible for the day to day running of bureaus and embassies. They have to make decisions, or make recommendations to their boss, about budgeting, employee morale, hiring/firing, organizational structuring, and project management for hundreds of people and sometimes many millions of dollars. Most of the people in these posts are not management coned, these are the kind of jobs that officers of all cones aspire to, because they're the stepping stones to being considered for an Ambassadorship or higher. The way the Foreign Service is set up, no one is supposed to get promoted unless they are a good manager (of course, like all things, the system is not perfect), and management is critically important to your career. In my opinion, no matter what your cone is, human capital management and communication (written and oral) are THE critical functional skills of a successful FSO. At first you'll just manage yourself and your assigned portfolio, but over time you'll become responsible for lots of people and possibly lots of money. Anything you can do to train for that in advance will be very helpful to you, I promise.

At the State Department, weapons proliferation issues are handled by the offices under the Undersecretary for Arms Control and International Security, and most of those bureaus are staffed by Civil Servants (not exclusively, but primarily). The US Missions to international organizations like ASEAN, UNESCO, the UN, EU, AU, The Hague, etc function like embassies so they're staffed by Foreign Service Officers and Locally Employed Staff. However, if you joined the Foreign Service you wouldn't be able to make a career out of just working at international organizations (you could always try for a job at the organizations themselves, rather than representing the US to those organizations). There are civil servants that work in the International Organizations bureau at main State in DC, but not sure how many.

Yeah, it does seem odd that you're just looking at those schools. These days, almost every school has a program in international security or conflict resolution and at most schools you can do Middle East regional studies. If cost is a major concern, you should think about spreading your net more widely, including applying to schools that are a) cheaper and b )where you stand a chance of getting some grant-based funding. It might be great to do a summer abroad at Herzilya, if Israel is your specific country of focus.

Well, keep in mind that they're full time students with demanding courseloads. So while this is the most important decision in your life right now, they may have other priorities. I wouldn't take it personally, but if it's been several days maybe send a friendly reminder.

You definitely shouldn't be shy about at least talking to schools about matching your offer, if you feel strongly about attending that particular school. The worst they can say is no, and then you're no worse off than you are right now.

Just got an email from the financial aid team. Looks like we'll get notified about our financial aid awards next week with emails directly from our assigned financial aid counselors.

The best place to get feedback on your chances is probably in the chances thread that's pinned to the top of the main forum page.

Yes, definitely check with the school, don't just assume you'll lose the funding. Every school has their own deferral policy, and some are specific to the type of scholarship you receive. If you defer at SIPA, for instance, you lose all consideration for fellowship funding, meaning that if you're accepted for Fall 2014, but defer to Fall 2015, you won't be reconsidered for fellowships during winter/spring 2015. You have to apply all over again if you want to be considered for funding (though they make the reapplication process pretty easy and you don't have to resubmit all materials). But at Harvard, you are able to reapply for funding the winter before you enroll if you defer, so while you lose your original funding offer, you get a second bite at the apple (no guarantee you'd get the same funding, but you can try). Other schools let you keep your funding even if you defer. Don't be afraid to call or email and make your case. At least they can tell you what the rules are, and then that can help you make your decision.

If you haven't already read it, the Harvard Kennedy School Admissions Blog (which is excellent) did a whole series on the different categories, including what it means to be waitlisted. You might find some useful info there.

Before I even started applying for programs, I decided that I wasn't going to try to have any kind of professional job while attending school. Keeping my current job would be out of the question anyway (the hours are not flexible to accommodate a full time student) and trying to work during the day/go to school at night just seemed like I wouldn't really have time to do either thing well. Plus I'm looking forward to the chance to live someplace else and experience something new. Of course, you have to decide what works with your individual financial picture will allow. So with that in mind, I'm only really considering schools where I'm getting funding or where I could support myself on loans without a crippling debt burden. I've been lucky to get a few offers. I will probably try to work as a teaching assistant or some other school related job my second year. I may try to look for a babysitting/tutoring/restaurant type job once I have a sense of my expenses and my schedule. In the meantime I'm basically just doing what all the schools advise on their blogs: cutting down on other debt (especially credit card debt) and saving as much as possible. If I defer, that will give me more time to save as well. A few friends currently in grad school already advised me that outside of any aid or loans I should try to build up a small nest egg that I can rely on right at the start of the school year, when you might have a lot of incidental expenses.

So I'm currently employed in a field/job that I love and I've been lucky to have a good career thus far. I faced a similar dilemma when I decided to go back for my MPA, especially because I already had a good career going and I didn't want to lose touch with my network while I was away at school for two years. I was reaching a point however where I felt like I was hitting a wall in terms of my growth prospects. When I was ready to move on to my next job, the kinds of things I was being offered (which would have thrilled me to the core when I was coming out of undergrad) were no longer the jobs that I wanted. I was too experienced, and they were too similar to the job I already had. I wanted to be challenged, to grow, and to move forward in my career. But the problem was, the jobs that I wanted, that I felt I had the experience to do, I wasn't being considered for because I didn't have a Masters degree. So for me, getting an MPA is a little bit like hitting the reset button. It gives me chance to get out of the career track I've been in for a while, take a break, and then come back ready to compete for those next level jobs. Of course, as soon as I made the decision to do the MPA I got offered a new job that I do love, so I'm trying to defer for a year so I can stay a bit longer. My biggest piece of advice would be to consider the people who are one or two levels above you. If you're an assistant, look at the directors or the chiefs of staff. What kind of degree/background do they have? When you see positions similar to theirs advertised, what kind of degrees are asked for? I also found it really helpful to just have honest discussions with my chief of staff and my bosses about my future grad school plans. They were all very receptive and supportive. They had good perspective about what they did/wished they did/didn't do. Seek out the people at your work who you think are the most competent or have the jobs you find the most interesting (even if they're senior people) and ask them for 15 min of their time to talk about how they got to where they are. That kind of information can be really powerful. Another important thing is to think less about salary and more about growth potential. This is something that Sheryl Sandberg wrote about in Lean In that I found really relevant, women especially (you may not be female, I think this still applies) tend to focus more on security and less on growth opportunities, which can limit their ability to advance. There is a certain amount of risk in leaving to get a degree, but it may be better to take that risk then find yourself working the same job/same kinds of jobs for several more years. Especially if you can balance out some of the risk with institutional funding.

Accepted, but with no funding and would need to take a Microeconomics and a language class before I could enroll, so chose to decline the offer. Waitlisters, hope one of you gets my spot!