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Green Star

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Everything posted by Green Star

  1. Still no word. Hopefully on Monday.
  2. To those still waiting, I talked to the admissions office today and was able to get some good answers. They said that they have two notification cycles which means all applicants are not notified at the same time. The first cycle was sent out early last week and I was told that the second is going to be sent out by Wednesday. Hopefully those who have not yet been contacted will know of their decision by the end of this week. Good luck!
  3. I'm wondering if there are different procedures for US vs. intl students. I was told by the SSP Admissions staff that they can't notify by email only by letters. I found this to be the case with other universities as well. I was accepted into other spring programs and all of them sent letters; I didn't receive any emails until after the letters. Either way it is frustrating because I need to know as soon as possible.
  4. That's rather annoying. I have priority deadlines coming up for other programs and need to know about SSP soon or I could possibly lose my place. Guess I'll just have to wait it out.
  5. Have you heard back from SSP yet? I applied for spring as well and still haven't received any notification. I've already received notification from the other schools I applied to.
  6. I'm scheduled to take the GRE in 5 weeks and need some advice on how master the analogies and antonyms. I busted my butt all summer long to get my math score up and on most practice tests I get nearly all of the reading comprehension and sentence completion questions right.....................but the analogies/antonyms are killing me!! I was wondering if anyone had any tricks or study guides on how to get these things down? For whatever reason, even when I know the vocabulary involved, I just cannot make the necessary connections to get the correct answer. It's rather frustrating as my failure in these two areas is really pulling my score down.
  7. I'm in the same boat as everyone else. I got the Princeton and Kaplan books and made a ton of flash cards with problems, formulas, etc. on them. My goal is to just learn how to solve the problems and get a respectable score. Lucky for me I'm not getting an MA in anything remotely related to math, but I'd still like to get the score to a decent level.
  8. I was wondering what everyone's opinions would be on going to a MA IR program that was ranked lower, or in a lower tier, than my undergrad was. I went to what is probably considered one of the best IR schools in the country (was ranked as a top 5 undergrad IR school by Foreign Policy) and don't know whether or not it would be a good move to go down to a lower ranked program. Personally, I don't think that school by school rankings carry much merit but I do believe that there are definitely varying tiers of universities. I don't want to come across as being an elitist snob, but I'm curious as to how people think going form an elite school to a less prestigious one wold look professionally and/or for pursuing a future JD or PhD?
  9. Language choice would mainly depend upon what region of the world you're planning to focus on. Here's what I would recommend based on region: Latin America - Spanish Europe - French Africa - French Middle East - Arabic SW Asia - Pashto/Dari East Asia - Mandarin Russia/Former Soviet Republics - Russian Again, it really depends what region you intend to focus on. If you're unsure then I would personally go with French as it is used by large number of international organizations as an official language. Also, you already have a background in Spanish so it wouldn't take too much effort to re-learn it in the future if needed.
  10. To be brief, I think you should stay put at GW and try and find a 20-30 hour/week internship even if it is at the entry level. While GW is not considered a top tier school it is nonetheless a very fine academic institution with a very strong reputation, especially in DC. I used to work in DC and can tell you that the vast majority of positions are about knowing somebody or having some type of alumni/social connection so I would strongly recommend doing an internship so you can begin building a base of associates. You shouldn't feel pressured to finding a "real" job but I think it would be a good idea to get an internship at a think tank or policy group so you can get a feel for how things operate in the city. If you are, however, dead set are re-applying to better schools I think you should wait a couple of years and build up some solid experience. Why? Assuming you ditched GW and began your job search today you probably wouldn't start your first day of work until September, assuming you were hired sometime in the next 2-3 weeks, so if you sent in your applications for grad school in November-December then you'd only have a mere 3 months of work experience. In my opinion I don't think that really adds anything to your application package that would guarantee admittance.
  11. I appreciate the advice everyone has offered. I know alot of times with decisions such as this I get stuck in my own head debating the same issues back and forth so it's nice to hear some other opinions. I'm going to have a chance to meet the candidate on Monday andexplain my situation to him to see what he feels is the best route to go; I'm hoping that will help me in making the decision easier.
  12. Thanks for the advice. I think I speak for a lot of folks out there when I say that it's very comforting to know that us sub 4.0-Rhodes Scholar-8 languages type of folks have a shot at getting into some of the elite programs out there. I think that due to the extremely competitive nature of our chosen field of study we all assume that we have to have the perfect resume/background. I too would like to know when/where you finished undergrad and what your degree was in?
  13. Hey everybody, I've been looking through this forum for several days and have been quite impressed with the material so I decided to make my first posting. I'll be applying to some top IR programs for fall 2010 and wanted to get some outside opinion about what experience would be best for my application; working as a staffer on a congressional campaign or doing an internship at a think tank in DC. I've been out of undergrad for 2 years, of which 1.5 were spent working in int'l law research and .5 spent doing language study overseas. Below I've listed some of the pros/cons of each. Campaign Pros: I believe in the candidate, would get some valuable campaign experience, would get to meet many important people in my area, would be paid position and would probably have a job in waiting should the candidate be elected. Campaign Cons: Not directly related to my field of interest (IR/security studies), won't be in DC (I'm one of the few who likes the city) and isn't necessarily that unique of an experience in regards to applications. Internship Pros: Related to security studies, lots of interaction with foreign policy professionals and scholars, highly respected institution and located in DC. Cons: Internship and not a "professional" position, unpaid and will be one of many interns. I'd really love to hear everyone's opinions and/or advice on the matter, or if anyone has experience working on campaign or DC internship that they'd like to share. At the moment I'm leaning towards the campaign position because of how involved in the process I'd be as opposed to the internship where I'd be one of many people in the same position. With that said, the internship is much more focused upon subjects that I truly enjoy and think I would learn a great deal there. Thanks for the help!!
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