WhiteIR

Hi all, Current NPSIA student here. NPSIA's reputation for preparing you for a government job is 100% true. The way the courses are structured, the assignments that are expected, the readings chosen...everything is done with the purpose of enabling you to be a successful civil servant. The school also makes it very easy to acquire great internships in the Winter term so that you are ready for the more competitive summer jobs. Most first-year students who I have spoken to have been successful in gaining meaningful employment for this summer (though it is not universal). However, NPSIA's strength is also its weakness - there is few coverage on private or non-profit sectors. Another downside is that the school now accepts more students than it did in the past, and has not added more classes or hired more professors to keep up with the student increase, leading to higher class sizes. Some classes are HUGE - Required INS tutorials have 35 students, and lecture has over 100 students. Many classes have more students than seminar-style undergrad classes. And it appears that this large-classes trend will continue in the coming years.(from my uninformed point of view, it appears that the school is trying to make money by taking more students' tuition but not spending it on more profs/classes?) Overall, I have enjoyed my time here and i am 100% glad that chose NPSIA over Munk and Balsillie. However, it is definitely not for everyone. Hope this helps some of you make your grad school decision!

congrats, guys!

several posts back we were discussing the 5k TAships vs. the 10k TAships. I just found out that it's because there are "half" TA positions, which essentially offer half the number of hours as the full TA positions. The reason for splitting some positions into "half" is in order to offer more funding to more people.

i will be refusing my offer tomorrow. good luck to everyone on the waiting list!

i would think that the only people who would submit their application before the fall semester is over are people who already finished their undergrad and therefore already have all their grades on their transcript

theres so many good schools out there that it's hard to say what could be a good "second choice" to NPSIA. i think it would mostly depend on what each student's personal interests are. personally, im giving serious consideration to Balsillie right now. They offer the best funding packages, give great fellowships to a lot of students, have good connections for research internships/placements, and have some guaranteed spots for a UN internship. The crappy connections to government sector turn me off though.

i havent decided yet but balsillie is definitely a top contender. im going to take the next few days to think it through. im really thrown off by these admissions committees. i dont know how i was offered admission to some programs above some other applicants with much higher stats than me. i also dont know why Munk and GSPIA offered me no funding whatsoever, yet npsia offered me 15k in scholarships, and balsillie offered me a CIGI fellowship (15k) plus scholarships. These admissions committees almost seem very arbitrary at times!!!!

they're still sending out acceptances for balsillie! i just got mine right now!

thanks for the response, IRbuff! i guess ill be calling munk to inquire about my letter

has anyone received their acceptance letter in the mail yet?

It seems like most of us have only received an email. has anyone received an official letter of acceptance?

Speaking of Balsillie, has anyone gotten into that program yet? Leeu, aside from IGOs, does the school have other strong aspects?

i agree with everyone's opinion that Munk is quickly rising in reputation. With the high quality of research going on and with the business connections ever expanding, munk's reputation may likely surpass npsia soon. However, as of 2015, munk's career opportunities are still no better than npsia's. i agree 100% with Kamins0d. i met up with a professor from Munk and the way she compared npsia and Munk was essentially like this: if you're searching for connections to land a position with the federal government then npsia will meet your goals. if you're looking to gain analytic and academic skills that will give you the potential to even "change the world" then Munk is the school for you. Just as Kamins0d said, Munk is a high-risk, high-reward sort of school. Edit: when i say "career opportunities" i mean typical international affairs/government career opportunities. if one is talking about more non-traditional jobs then Munk is just as good, if not better than npsia.

admitted into gspia without any scholarships. admited into npsia with 15k in scholarships. lol easy decision there....

a critique that i've heard about Munk that it follows an interdisciplinary ie. "generalist" approach to education. this reason why some people may see this as a weakness is because students learn a little bit about everything but not a significant amount about anything. In other words, the program can generally prepare you for most jobs in IR, but does not make you a specialist in any particular field. Depending on who you speak with, this may be either a weakness or a strength.