oriole

Woooooo!!!

While your analogy is apt and funny it's also making me slightly panic about my future aaaaaa any chance the current UK government will change its visa policies to be more flexible for foreign students?? (lol extremely unlikely but one can always hope..)

Daunting and depressing indeed! But based on my research it seems like there's a tiny bit more of a leeway for int'l students who just finished school in the UK - http://www.ukcisa.org.uk/International-Students/The-next-stage/Working-after-your-studies/Employment-Tier-2/Resident-Labour-Market-Test-and-exemptions/ Resident Labour Market Test (RLMT) In order to pass the resident labour market test, an employer must have advertised the job in an appropriate way for the sector and be able to show that no suitably skilled settled worker can do the job. The Home Office decides where the employer must advertise the job, for how long, and the information that must be included in the advertisement Exemptions from the RLMT Students You are also exempt from the resident labour market test, qualify for the new entrant wage and you can apply in the UK if you meet all of the following requirements: you have or were most recently granted student immigration permission (this includes Tier 4 leave and student, Student Union sabbatical officer and postgraduate doctor or dentist leave under the Rules that preceded Tier 4) you have completed at least 12 months of study in the UK towards a UK PhD, or you have completed and passed a UK recognised Bachelor's or Master's degree or a UK Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) or Professional Graduate Diploma of Education (PGDE) – if you do not have your certificate, you can submit other evidence (academic transcript or reference) that must meet the requirements in the Tier 2 Policy Guidance you studied this course at a UK recognised or listed body or at an institution that holds a Tier 4 sponsor licence (and that is still on the register of Tier 4 sponsors on the date on which you obtain your qualification) you studied this course during your most recent period of immigration permission (leave) or during a period of continuous leave that includes this most most recent period of leave you carried out your study or research for this course when you had immigration permission that did not prevent you from studying or carrying out research in the UK Although your job is exempt from the resident labour market test, it must meet the skills level and the minimum wage level and you must meet the English language requirement and the maintenance requirement. ----- So my understanding is employers don't have to prove that there was no suitable UK national to take on the job if you just finished university in the UK. BUT the fact still remains that it's extremely difficult and unlikely to be able to land such a job straight out of school - UK, why won't you let us int'l folks stick around for a few more months? Sigh..I wonder what the visa regulations are for int'l students in the UK to work in other EU countries..

No problem! LSE has its pluses but it's definitely not the best fit for everyone so it's always good to weigh all the pros and cons. I was also very surprised to see people like you, Mickun and swissfrog rejected but you all have other great options so I'm sure everyone will go on to do great things! I'm assuming you'll be heading off to SciPo then?

That just means you have that something extra special! And I don't think you need to worry about LSE, it seems like IHEID is being much more selective than other comparative schools this year so if you got into IHEID you're a shoo-in for LSE! They just like to take their sweet time sending out responses to applications.

I'm so sorry to hear that. See this is what I was talking about - you were one of the people here with an extremely strong profile so I'm really flabbergasted to see this. I know it stings and these words are rather meaningless but you've already been accepted to two amazing schools so try to take heart in that at least (but I know this is much easier said than done from personal experience).

Also, very very surprised to see some people here that were rejected from IHEID. It seems like people with extremely strong profiles were rejected -not even put on the waiting list- so I guess they're being particularly stringent with their standards this year around. Ah well, you all seem to have (or will have very soon) other very promising options so let's try not to get too dejected!

For those who are still considering LSE, I thought I'd share some details on LSE that I got from colleagues who did their master's there (bear in mind these are only the opinions of 3 people who were in the int'l development department so it's not reflective of every student's experience): Faculty: Found them to be amazing - very knowledgeable and approachable Classes: Mandatory lectures are large (~40-60 people) but they’re broken up into seminar classes (1.5 hrs/wk) which are smaller, around 10-12 people (led by PhD TAs). Non-mandatory classes are smaller as well. Options to submit optional essays for feedback Courses comprehensive enough and packed in a lot of information so that you do acquire great deal of knowledge even though the program’s short Lots of dissertation support provided through advisor and seminars Consultancy projects: Those with good groups had very valuable, useful experiences but those with bad groups didn’t – so it’s hit and miss Students: wide range of backgrounds, perspectives – many mid-career. Very stimulating environmen Found reputation of school extremely helpful when applying/interviewing to jobs Cons Campus is always crowded The program doesn’t allow you to do very in-depth research (since you only have to write a 10,000 word dissertation) – would be a con if you’re planning on doing your PhD in the future etc. Jobs pay very minimal wages in London (or are unpaid internships) Career services are okay but pretty focused on jobs in the EU which leaves out non-EU people In the end it seems like your experience really depends on how much you put into it – the faculty members are very engaged but you need to make the effort to approach them, and there are plenty of extracurricular activities available if you’re interested too. Overall they said they don't regret any of it and say that it was a worthwhile investments for their future. (Not that every LSE alumni would feel this way of course, I've read some horror stories as well so it's always good to keep in mind both sides!)

Yikes, I woke up this morning to see all this email mess - I guess one pro of living in North America is it was all "fixed" by the time I got up so I never got my hopes up (I saw the corrected, refused email first). Soo a rejection from IHEID for me! I was actually surprised since I always thought LSE would be much tougher to get in than IHEID (just based on IHEID's acceptance rate of ~30% vs. LSE's ~13% for my program although their acceptance rate would be much higher than their intake rate) but it seems like IHEID has been extremely selective this year. Best of luck to everyone, I can't believe they messed up the emails in such a major way..but for those of you who haven't heard back yet I think this is a great sign!!

My thoughts exactly..I wish they would reject me already so I can move on and start planning for the future, at this point being stuck in "Under consideration" limbo is much worse than being rejected (I applied in October so it's been a lot of waiting for me lol).

Finally some good news for us first-rounders - Congratulations!!!!! What a great selection of schools you have to choose from! I especially like the part in your signature where it says "Rejections - None :D" lol

Bahaha "endless limbo of dwindling hope" perfectly describes my current sentiments!! I have to say the French wine and cheese are very tempting - I would make that the focus of my personal statement for Sciences Po Very good points re: rejections/acceptances..we'll just have to wait it out and see what happens!

I didn't apply to Sciences Po because I heard that they place extra emphasis on your GPA (and mine aren't stellar - not bad but not fantastic either) but you guys are making me wish that I had, it seems like a very solid program! But I noticed Sciences Po Paris and IHEID have an exchange agreement so for those of you trying to decide between the two, you could just go on exchange to the other school and have the best of both worlds (sort of)

Yeah it seems odd that there's been no news at all today - hopefully this means an onslaught of acceptances in the coming days rather than rejections! It's a bit worrying though that there hasn't been anyone rejected yet (since this could mean they'll be sending out the rejections at the end) but aaaa I need to stop speculating because this is getting ridiculous!

I hate to speculate like this but I wonder if IHEID is sending out the acceptances first and then the rejections later this time around..ah well, at least we won't have to refresh our emails every 2 minutes (or is that just me) over the weekend since there won't be any updates!

Congrats to you all!!! Good to know at least some people are getting back positive responses and IHEID isn't sitting on their hands doing nothing lol I heard back from LSE around 8-9 weeks after I got the fourth email - the process seems to be taking a bit longer now though, my friend who applied a couple of weeks after me still has yet to hear back and it's been around 10 weeks for her.

I got into the Development Management program! And yourself? It seems like a solid program (plus the global reputation of LSE, as superficial as it is) so even if I don't get into IHEID I still have another great option to choose from so at least there's that. I can't imagine having to wait that long, I would've passed out from the anticipation and lack of oxygen by now if I had to wait until April!

Lol this is exactly what happened to me - I saw the "We are happy to..." and I was like "Oh god this is the moment" and then nope, just an email telling us to stop crashing their servers lol At this point I'm trying to convince myself that I don't care about IHEID anymore and am fully committed to going to LSE (to stop myself from going crazy over the waiting)..

I promised myself that I'd stay away from anything IHEID-related since the waiting was driving me crazy and yet here I am again lol.. I'm sure many of you have already seen these but I thought the masters forum and career survey that IHEID's student association did had pretty interesting information:: http://mygisa.ch/blog/2013/12/11/careersurvey/ http://mygisa.ch/blog/2013/11/05/gisa-issues-masters-forum-report/ A couple of points: - Students have complained that class sizes are big, often with 60 people/class. There are concerns that the student population will continue to grow, exacerbating this problem - Career services are apparently not bad but not great either - very understaffed, not much assistance in finding jobs/internships. I think a lot of grad schools have similar issues in terms of class size (I've heard of LSE having big, impersonal classes as well) and career services though so these aren't unique to IHEID. Just some things to think about while we check the application tracker every 2 minutes! (I'm surprised the system hasn't crashed yet haha)

According to k_angie's very helpful posts from when she attended the online information session in January (sorry I don't know how to directly quote her posts): "I got to know that these guys received some 400 applications for interdisciplinary programmes. Out of those 60 of them were admitted while 180 deferred and others refused. They have 60 seats in MDev and MIA programmes. Like approx!" So I guess around 30 seats are left for each for MDEV and MIA!

I can't believe I found such incorrect information online haha, I guess I was confused by the different rules and policies they've had throughout the years. But this is really great to keep in mind! Thank you for tracking down all the information!

Just like you I'm extremely torn all over the place - one day I think LSE would be best since it's shorter and I can hit the ground running to look for jobs sooner, and the next day I think IHEID would be best since it's longer and has an internship component. Based on my very rough calculations total costs are going to come up to about the same so I don't even know at this point. I think one strike against LSE is the UK's very unflexible visa regulations - after you've completed your degree it's impossible to stay back and look for jobs and very difficult for employers to hire foreigners, which is a big drawback for me since I'm interested in looking for employment in Europe. I'm not sure what Swiss visa rules are like though, I should really look into that. Best of luck in your funding search!! I know what a frustrating process it can be. Edit: Upon some brief research it looks like Switzerland has similar visa requirements for students in that you need to leave immediately after completing your studies unless someone's hired you and can sponsor your work visa. It makes sense but that's too bad (for me).

I just had a look at the MPA page - yikes at the tuition costs, and I thought Dev. Management was bad! Fingers crossed for you that you get funding!

Thank you! Yeah it is a bit discouraging to go through list after list of scholarships that I'm not eligible for but I really need to keep searching, there's gotta be something out there. If it weren't for the funding issue I'm really not sure where I would go at this point. I think I'm leaning towards IHEID since I feel like a 2-year program would give me a more comprehensive education but the pure global prestige that LSE has is a huge pull as well. A small, sick part of me hopes that I don't get into IHEID because that will at least make my decision much easier (but the rational part of me would be devastated lol). You seem to have an extremely strong profile so I don't think you'll have any problem getting into IHEID. I don't envy the dilemma that you'll face when you'll have to choose from 3 such amazing schools! Also I used to think LSE would be tougher to get into than IHEID based on the admission stats I've seen but now I'm not sure of anything lol.

On a less nervewracking note, I just got an offer for MSc Development Management at LSE (but no funding so I can't really afford to attend unfortunately). Fingers crossed that IHEID is more generous with their scholarships (assuming I get in, that is)! I totally feel you all on the ridiculous amount of anxiety and anticipation for the IHEID results.