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Thanks so much for the reply. True, I'm burnt out. I guess I'm interested in pursuing more higher education because it's all I've ever really known and what I had originally planned to do. And the interest is still there. It's tough moving away from that after doing it for so long and being unsure of what else to do. Like you said with the job market being tough it's hard to find opportunities, so in a sense academia has always felt like a kind of safe haven.

My short list at the moment (of programs that include a terminal masters degree) is: University of Oregon University of Virginia Boston College Penn State University of Nebraska Those would hopefully serve as a stepping stone to a PhD, or at least open up another opportunity in the political realm if I decide that academia isn't really for me. My MA in International Affairs was from a mid size state school and the program itself was relatively new, so the opportunities and connections just don't exist at the moment.

Thanks. Will definitely have to get my quant score up a good bit to even think about that program though. I've focused on theory and foreign policy, so I've had very basic research methods experience thus far. I have heard mixed opinions on the quant emphasis of American Politics. I thought it was more a specific program sort of thing, not necessarily everywhere across the board.

Thanks for the reply. I can't say I'm too excited about economics, and it hasn't been the focus of much of my work so far. My verbal on the GRE was also significantly better than my quant, so it probably wouldn't be a very good fit for me anyways. 164V/152Q. I did get a 5 on the writing portion, but I've heard that really doesn't hold much water.

Unfortunately that is correct. Which is why I'm looking at possibly doing another masters program and performing significantly better this time around.

I finished my master's in international affairs last semester. That's on top of a criminal justice bachelor's. My original plan was to continue on in the academic world, get a PhD, and teach. Problem is I'm fairly burnt out after finishing my master's, and have been trying to find something else to do for a while as I consider whether a PhD is really right for me. I had a medical issue which made things tough for me for a little while and definitely made my GPA less than optimal (ended up with a 3.0), so I don't even feel too confident at the moment about my PhD admission prospects. One of my advisors suggested enrolling in a terminal masters program for political science, and then hopefully doing significantly better that my previous issues have been resolved, and seeing how I felt about the PhD at that point. Has anyone here taken a path like that? Is getting two masters even the slightest bit common? That said, I don't know what the heck else to do or what I'm even looking for. Instructor positions are very limited from what I've been able to find, and looking for a job in the private or non profit sectors has been a crap shoot. It's overwhelming since my original plans didn't work out and I didn't have much of a backup. It's very frustrating feeling useless and unproductive having nothing to work on after having worked so hard on getting my masters. Maybe some burn out is normal, maybe I'm screwed, I dunno. I was a TA for a year, enjoyed it very much, and while the IA masters was interesting enough, I still have a strong affinity for US politics. Any advice of what to look for or where to look would be greatly appreciated.