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Re: costs. Most schools offer waivers for the app fee. I know it's yet another form/hassle to deal with, but having taken out a 2nd job to pay for my 1st round of apps (result: 2/3 tuition waiver to my preferred MA program), I would encourage anyone without personal wealth to apply for the waivers.

Or a PhD/JD, there's good funding for that at UChicago and Yale

The New School also has a nice MA in Politics for those with strong interests in political theory and ethnography. Columbia also offers an MA in political science and more professional MAs through SIPA - The School of International and Public Affairs. And to the Korbel booster: if the Bush administration and the Iraq war was good enough for Condoleeza, then it's good enough for you too!

Hey, just a quick question for the forum. In applying to PhD programs which types of internships will benefit your application in any meaningful way. I'm thinking here of internships at: think tanks, academic journals, NGOs, govt. bodies, editorial/journalism, etc. Anyone have Search Committee level insight on this? Thanks

I don't know about Pitt's connections but I doubt they could be stronger than the schools in DC. So that's Hopkins SAIS, Georgetown, and American. Of course Harvard's Kennedy School is top flight, along with Princeton's Wilson school. Maybe look into SIPA at Columbia or even GPIA at New School if you want to be closer to the UN.

Minnesota, Northwestern, Johns Hopkins, New School, Yale. Not too familiar with the UC system, but look at Santa Cruz, Berkeley, San Diego, Davis, and Irvine.

In 2010 I was admitted to 3 MAs and waitlited/dropped off of a good Ph.D.program. I took one of the MAs with a healthy tuition waiver. I'm ready to apply again in a year or two, hindsight's always 20/20.

Thank you Helix for this great question. I'm sure that the answer is available with some due diligence, however I'd love to hear others thoughts. If I may, I'd like to also open the discussion to good comparative departments in the second tier in general. And Helix, no doubt you've heard it before, but perhaps you should look at schools that have asian studies departments or a strong asian component in related disciplines like anthropology or economics. Also, are any Canadian programs strong in asian studies, maybe UBC?

Qual/Theory friendly places where you can still get placed out of: Yale, Berkeley, Stanford, Northwestern, Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Duke. Then down a tier there's: UC-Santa Cruz, New School, Boston College, Emory I'm sure I'm forgetting places, but listen, here's what you need to do. Figure out who you'd like to study with and then go there, it's that simple. Read around your interests, see where the debates that you're interested in are happening and then go there.

If i'm in a terminal MA looking to apply to PhDs would being an officer of the graduate students association make any impact on my application to PhD programs? The association is for both MA and PhD students. Just thought it might make a difference because this shows that I care about a healthy cohort/program/department. Our association has a voice on proposing and approving new hires, we suggest courses and adjuncts, organize field seminar schedules. It's not like we're making banners for homecoming here. What about organizing committees for conferences, does that send a positive signal? Or does all of this just display poor time management/lack of seriousness?

IR Theory is definitely not a subfield, but it's all good. I think Patrick Thaddeus Jackson at American is great though, he looks at IR from a Philosophy of Science perspective, and he has great podcasts too. American isn't a top program, but that could work to your advantage, as he's till quite young and definitely taking on students.

Yes, Friday the 16th an official email will come with mail out to follow on Toronto MAs, you head it here fist folks

I emailed to find out about my Toronto status. Official MA admits go out on Friday with more info on funding etc.

I also got the Minnesota letter, no PhD for me. I did, however get into the Toronto MA about 20 min. after the Minnesota letter came through. So now the decision is New School (1/2 tuition) MA vs. McGill MA vs. Toronto MA tough, tough, tough

OMG April 15 is nigh. I'm officially going with NSSR (with 1/2 tuition) MA over McGill MA. I'm on the waitlist at Toronto MA, and if that comes through, I'll go there. Otherwise this would go in the 100% post.

Just emailed Toronto - All MA waitlisters should hear in the next couple of days Anyone heard from Minnesota waitlist or Columbia MAO?

^ PhD or MA?

I'd agree with him, Madison is a great department (wish I was accepted) but in reference to your handle, unlike Fiefel, you should not go west :-)

^ It was always forthcoming, I just wanted the intro to stand alone. New School - MA - 1/2 Tuition vs. McGill - MA - Financial Aid info forthcoming I'm a theory applicant and my interests are very broad and include: Tocqueville/Democratic Citizenship, Ideology and Culture, and Analytical Marxism/Critical Theory. I think this makes NSSR a better fit, and ultimately I think I'll choose the less expensive option. My aim is to come out of this MA in with a good shot at a top-5 PhD program and minimal debt (though some is ok, I didn't pay for undergrad).

Apologies if this topic exists already, I didn't see it on the first 2 pages of topics. A lot of us have mulitiple acceptances and are having a hard time figuring out which school to go to. Since some of us have better researched some schools (and may have insider info) than others, I thought it would be nice to have a place to present these tough decisions to the Greek Chorus that is the internet and see if any insight can help fellow applicants. It would probably be best to mention in addition to the schools themselves - funding/financial aid, type of program (MA (1 vs. 2 year), MPhil, PhD, DPhil, etc.), academic interests, and advisors at he schools that you particularly have your eye on.

To anyone wondering about UofT or McGill MAs. I just posted some info about them in the results page. ^^ I mean the results Forum

Let's see, I emailed Stephanie Scognamiglio to see if she could push me along the right track, but that shouldn't be necessary! They told me to check Minerva (McGill's online portal) and a decision had been made on my online application. A letter should be arriving at my house "any day now" detailing the terms etc. Also! News from an email with Louis Tentsos in Toronto: "The initial decisions for the first “round” of the MA admissions have gone out already... It’s going to come down to how many students in the first round accept their offer of admission...We’ve requested all our students with offers to respond by April 8th, hopefully by the following week we’ll have a better understanding of how much room there is." Further, my advice to anyone still waiting would be to go ahead and email the department, it's brought me nothing but courteous, pleasant responses. Good luck!

I'll go ahead and claim the NSSR MA and McGill MA acceptances, what a day! PS, as has already been mentioned on this board: vacations are a great way to ease the pressure. This is where I was last weekend: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/arts/music/24monterrey.html

Hey, I too have been happily observing the lack of discussion of the NSSR. I got a survey from their admissions chair which included a note that said that a round of decisions would go out 3/10 with more to follow. I applied MA, so I'm not sure if that applies to everyone or not.

yes