tairos

The school is in the greater NYC area (much as College Park is in the greater DC area without actually being in DC), so it's not exactly geographically isolated. I did apply to a couple of DC schools for this reason however, even though having been in and out of that place for years I'm sort of partial to a change in locale. I didn't really start the thread to talk specifically about myself, but my primary interest is in security, particularly the non-profit and private sector sides of it (federal hiring seems too slow to focus on right now). I am a current military reservist moving (hopefully soon) into a career field with a high profile and ops tempo, so I expect to gain experience and connections in that sector over time. It also means that I will perhaps one day be counted as a protected minority of sorts, though I don't know that actual combat veteran status will ever be in the cards for various reasons. Because of the glacial speed of the military bureaucracy, I have a good deal of time to kill before heading to training, so I figured that this would be a good time to get most of my masters done. International affairs is a tough field even in relatively propitious times, so the prospects are never really per se good unless you make it to the 'god-tier' programs (and rumor has it, not even necessarily then). All you can hope for is a fighting chance, and a reasonable fallback plan. That's why an NYC school could be good -- (non contracting) private sector ties.

I take it that you'd classify SHU as a "borderline school" (per the other thread). Other programs at that level at least are widely known and are featured in that (no doubt somewhat dubious) FP magazine ranking table. SHU's program makes me more nervous than the rest because it's not ranked there (or anywhere), while the university as a whole is sort of a nonentity. Clearly, the Diplomacy school is by far their most elite program, similar to SIS at American but without an institutional peer like SIS has in SPA. But how many employers know that? The vast majority of my information about the program comes from this website, after all. But I'm mostly thinking out loud. Your opinion seems measured and sensible to me.

My primary interest is security, which I understand is one of the more difficult and brand-conscious fields to break into. However I'm also a current reservist, so I expect/hope that my military experience will eventually supersede the pedigree of my degree. Having that background as an equalizer is honestly main reason I'm even considering attempting this path without elite credentials though, so the calculus may be different for others.

It seems like it's been awhile since there's been a thread dedicated to this, and there's still not too much third party information out there on it. Does anyone who's gone there or who otherwise has inside information care to share anything? From what I've gathered, the quality of the instruction is near-universally lauded. But I'm concerned that won't necessarily translate into positive economic outcomes for graduates. Their (apparently) unique partnership with the United Nations is interesting, but getting hired by the U.N. as an American is well known to be a nearly impossible feat, so I'm not sure how useful that actually is. And their curriculum strikes me as skewing much more towards the traditional and theoretical side of IR than the practical technical and methodological stuff that many schools now emphasize and that employers apparently want.

Does anyone have any experience with this? Yes, it's clearly a cash cow, but that's true of a very great many terminal master's (and for that matter, bachelor's) programs. But as someone who's been out of undergrad for years now and has little (although non-zero) professional luck since, this looks like it could be potentially helpful. If I combine this with the internship I've acquired this fall and whatever I get during the program, I should have ample sources of letter writers, which has been the main spoiler on me going back to school thus far. My academic record could also use a boost, since my undergrad record was undistinguished to say the least (although not disqualifying).