TimB

Thanks for the advice, It does sound like very hard work, and I'm not taking it lightly. I'm actually more concerned about my wife. I've had some experiences: backpacking in the Andes for months straight, working as a backpacking and climbing guide, etc. that I think have prepared me pretty well for isolation and grueling work, but of course I realize that I will be challenged in the Peace Corps. Let me ask: was the problem ever that you felt like you weren't doing anything? How bureaucratic is the Peace Corps? Am I going to get lectured on not wearing my uniform right continually? Are we given relatively free reign to complete our projects, or is your hand held the whole time? I've always thought of the Peace Corps as very professional, and I get that impression from volunteers' stories, but I heard the same things about Americorps which I found to be stifling and oriented towards those volunteers who were fresh out of high school (college in the Peace Corps) with little work experience or even experience managing a household. I'm not worried as much about the loneliness or work as I am about feeling I'm wasting my time in a "fake job," or US government PR campaign. I don't expect this to be an issue, but my experience with Americorps was very negative on that end. Granted, I did join Americorps through a pilot program where they waived interviews as part of the screening process, and I think my experience might not be representative. I do plan to research the various PC programs and look at their early termination rates and try to get in touch with volunteers who served in those programs before we accept. Management means a lot. I am a little worried that we'll get dinged for leaving Americorps early, but I have great references from my FEMA supervisors, was offered a full time job in the Agency, and we both went right into full time non-profit work, so I hope they'll hear our case about the specific issues we encountered with a poorly implemented new pilot program. Still, I know that retention is a big deal from the Peace Corps side of things given the investments they make. Perhaps 2 years in graduate school would give us more time to remove the "stain." Sigh, Americorps is the only place I think where you can leave a well paid job to work almost for free, get great recommendations, get offered a promotion and a supervisory spot in your organization, and then get totally disavowed when you want to move on two months early to take another job offer, even though you're getting let go anyhow. What you've said is definitely true from what I've seen. I worked for FEMA in an internship like capacity through an Americorps program, and even with a strong skill set and agency connections I couldn't even land an admin assistant job in the agency. Ironically, one of their more prestigious positions opened up on these Incident Management Action Teams (kind of a "first boots on the ground," strike force for managing disasters) and the selection process skipped over Federal status. I did get to interview, and eventually get offered that job, although I turned it down; I don't think my then fiancee was too keen on me moving us to Sacramento and than me leaving 75-90% of the year on travel work where I couldn't take her with me. However, I think things are a little different with the State Department because of the FSOT. Only about 2% of applicants make it past the test, and only about 1% make it on past the oral exam. After that it seems like preference would matter less, if it's even still taken into account. To be honest, I'm a little worried about my ability to get Top Secret clearance anyhow (I was 23 in 2011 and living in New York and Occupy Wall St. seemed like a great vehicle for financial reform); I'm sure some tweet about JP Morgan or drone strikes will come back to haunt me, so I'm not putting all my eggs in the federal basket.

Thanks, I dropped one of them a line.

Thanks for the input Calatoara! It's always good to get first hand responses. I've tried contacting a recruiter at the DC site twice, to no avail. Maybe the shutdown had something to do with it. I'll call next time instead of emailing. I can see benefits of doing either first now that I've thought more about it. If I got to PC first it will help me get into programs, if I do my master's first I'll be a better candidate for some of the more skillset oriented community and economic development projects.Whichever I do I think it'll be a great experience. My plan is to apply to Duke and NC State for now, since they are in town, and at least keep my options open while moving forward with the Peace Corps. Then in April I'll have a better idea about my odds of PC placement and which schools I can attend and for what price. Thanks again.

Best advice I can think of is to email your program and ask. In general I've always taken work experience to mean post graduate work experience. I assume a relevant internship could count as well. I wouldn't double up jobs because it wouldn't seem to line up with the amount of time you've been out of school. Also in my experience more demanding jobs almost always demand 50-70 hour work weeks at times anyhow.

Hello, So I know that I'll be reviving this thread after a long dormancy, but I hope some of you are still around. I'm applying to Sanford this fall, and I had a few questions: First, is anyone in the global or social policy specializations? These are where I want to focus most. Where do people who graduate in these specialization go on to work? Would you mind posting your GPAs and GREs and how much financial aid you received? Sorry if that's a little personal! It would just give me some peace of mind (or the opposite) to know where I stand in relation to students who've made it into the program. What sort of employment experience did you have going into the application process? I graduated with a degree in psychology; I thought I wanted to go to med school or get a PhD, so I spent my first two years out of school in a hospital. I realized what a mistake that was and how much more I care about politics and social issues. Since then I've worked for one federal agency working in policy and currently work in policy at the state level, so I do have two years of policy related work under my belt. Still I'm a little worried about my employment background. Do you think it will hurt my chances at landing good financial aid if I only apply to Duke? I live in Durham and my wife doesn't want to leave her current job for two years. I figure if I don't get into Duke I'll just stay at my current position and gain more experience while doing a public policy certificate at NC State to get a more recent academic recommendation. Still, from a negotiating standpoint it doesn't look good to have all your eggs in one basket. I'd feel pretty silly applying to another school just for bargaining purposes though lol. I think I'll like Duke. I visited once and I've taken some Coursera courses with Sanford Profs. Thanks so much for any responses, they are much appreciated!

Thanks for the responses! I got my writing back: I got a 5, or 93rd percentile. I'm a little disappointed because writing has always been my strong suit. I knew while I was writing my response that it was coming out subpar, so I think I might retake the GRE. I'm going to go with applying to the Peace Corps first. I really want to do the Peace Corps because" A. I can do it with my wife, and we will likely, although not assuredly, work together. We worked together for FEMA previously so I know that we work well together. Our dream job would be to work in the same NGO together. B. I like hands on work. I worked as a climbing and backpacking guide previously, and my main experience abroad previously was 3 months in Chile climbing in the Andes. The kind of work and level of engagement Peace Corps has is like my dream job, but alas, it's pretty hard to support a family or retire on the pay for work like that.

One thing to note about UNC though is that they have a lot of prerequisites you HAVE to take for social studies, and you NEED to have been a English major to enroll in their English program. They are very inflexible about this, at least in their emails, IDK if they would not consider you if you applied. However, as a history and poli-sci major I think you will have most if not all your bases covered. Perhaps if you are just missing one class it's not as big a deal (I was missing 5). It kind of took the wind out of my sails. I passed the Praxis social studies content handily exam without studying (took it just for my own benefit to reassure myself I wasn't woefully uneducated in the field I wanted to teach), and have a background working for state and federal government, but apparently I need to take UNC's government 101 class to qualify. It's a head scratcher.

I visited Duke's program a while back. They place a majority of their graduates in DC, quite a few with the Feds. The cost of living in Durham is quite low and Duke seems like they are pretty generous with financial aid.

Hello, Here is my situation, it's a bit complex, hence asking advice! I want to go to school for international development/international relations My soon to be wife and I also really want to do the Peace Corps together. I am wondering whether I would be better served going to grad school now, and thus making myself a better candidate for the Peace Corps, or going to the Peace Corps first, getting a language under my belt, and then applying for grad school (I only speak English, I know, typically American). Question 1: Is not speaking a second language a killer for many of these programs? I would imagine that it is pretty important to do a lot of the work in the field. I'm leaning towards waiting for to apply for school. I'd like to go to a top program, one that will afford me the chance to get right into a job after graduation. My GRE score is decent, I got a 169 on the verbal, and a 154 on the quant, I haven't gotten my writing score back yet. Part of what I'm wondering is if I should retake the GRE. On the one hand, I'm afraid I won't score in the 99th percentile again in verbal, on the other, I didn't study in the slightest (starting a new job/planning a wedding) and I think I could do much better on the math if I studied and got a tutor. I went to an inner city school where I basically slacked off and stopped taking math around 10th grade, and then avoided it all through college, so I'm sure I would benefit from a real math education anyhow. Question 2: is that quant score ok? Will it really hamstring me? I'm pretty confident in my GPA and resume aside from that. Finally, what would be a good IR/ID program for someone who likes the management/leadership/communications aspect of the work, and likes hands on work (I want to work for an NGO possibly) more than the policy analysis? Of course I don't mind working in policy, it's just not the only thing I want to do. Thanks so much!

UNC accepts about 74% of their applicants for teaching, NC State doesn't publish numbers but I imagine it's harder. Just so you know, NC State only accepts secondary teachers in the spring. Not sure about their STEM programs which are different. Duke has a small education program with a focus on graduate study. Good news is that it has lots of fellowships making the cost low, the bad news is that it is very selective for a teaching program (32% acceptance rate).