botbot22

Kaneisha maybe hit the nail on the head. Did my first round of apps and got accepted to 0/4. Reworked my essays and asked my recommenders to stiffen up their letters a bit, then got accepted to 3/3 the following year.

Between your desire for quant heavy coursework and hatred of the cold you're basically stating that you want to go to UCSD's GPS/IRPS.

1. There are job fairs, but those are more often campus wide. We have had the CIA come through to recruit, but I haven't seen as many private companies. The school holds pretty interesting alumni events though, which are semi job fairs where alumni are trying to help you get connected for internships and jobs. Our last alumni meeting had a series of interviews for full time (for those graduating) and internship (for those finishing their first year) positions. For your other three questions, I'm not private sector focused but can say: 2. The GPS branding is still really new, but haven't heard anyone talking about that being a necessarily bad thing in their job search. 3. From what I hear, yes, absolutely. San Diego has a lot of opportunities in certain industries, and San Francisco is kind of a hub for Asia related business. 4. I'm international politics and economics, so can't say as much about management. If I remember from our earlier career service meetings, placements are centered around San Francisco and DC, then San Diego and New York, then various Asian capitals. @beefmaster, I'm not sure what you mean about first cohort. The school just rebranded from IR/PS to GPS, and the class of 2018 will be the third wave of students to graduate officially from GPS. For those of you who are asking about prep: It's a definite must go. It's a bonding experience with your incoming class and a great refresher for getting back into the academic state of mind. It's particularly helpful in easing you into the quantitative aspects of the program. It's also the only carefree month of grad school you will ever have.

Congrats to all of you who got in! I just wrapped up my second quarter at GPS. It's a great program that is also very challenging, and has allowed me to deepen my knowledge of areas I'm familiar with while at the same time bringing me up to speed on things I never thought I would be doing (quant, as you've all already kind of figured out). For those of you who are nominated but still waiting for admission, I would say don't sweat it - it's just part of the bureaucratic process and I thus far haven't heard of anyone getting nominated then not actually accepted. Since you guys seem to be talking about funding, the bare bones is that your first year you pay out of state tuition, unless you're from California. The program helps you jump through the hoops so that you're pretty much guaranteed to have in state tuition by your second year here. The next rung of funding is that they'll offer you in state tuition your first year as a sort of discount. I did not receive a fellowship offer but from what I understand most fellowships will pay for tuition - not sure about living expenses. If you are even considering accepting I recommend you get on the housing list ASAP - housing is heavily subsidized for graduate students but the wait list can get pretty long. Since we're in the middle of acceptance season, every day seriously counts in getting a good spot on the waitlist. I ended up not getting housing until 3 months into the program. I'm glad to answer any questions if you guys have them. I'm an American from California, but don't mind asking international colleagues about international specific questions.

Yeah I gave that a quick glance but it seemed more like a bunch of plugs for work done by the program's faculty

Anyone have any reading suggestions for getting back into the academic mindset? I to get some recommendations, but will probably get stuff from a pretty diverse array of subject areas. I'm thinking about picking up Henry Kissinger's On China, and was wondering if anyone who has read it would recommend it. My short reading list consisted of Robert Gates' Duty, Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or Survival, Daniel Yergin's The Quest, and Henry Kissinger's World Order.

Hey all, Like a lot of the newcomers here at GradCafe over the last few months, I'm a recent applicant that will be enrolling in a program to get a Masters in International Affairs this fall. I've been out of Academia for about three years now, and am looking to get myself back up to speed so that I can hit the ground running when August rolls around. I'd like to ask if anyone, either incoming grads, current students, or those already underway with their careers, have book recommendations to help everyone get back into the academic mindset for the coming year. I'll start with my recent reads I'd recommend: Duty, by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. An interesting look at the inner workings of the DoD, it's interplay with foreign policy decision making, as well as decision making processes of the outgoing Bush administration and early Obama administrations. Hegemony Or Survival, by Noam Chomsky. A very Chomskyesque, highly critical treatise on modern American foreign policy. A good part of the book rehashes his views, with a smaller portion of the book feeling actually fresh. I wouldn't recommend it for someone who has already delved into Chomsky, but it's definitely a fresh and highly critical worldview for those who haven't experienced him World Order, by Henry Kissinger. A very historical analysis of international order, with a fairly systematic explanation of the emergence of the modern nation state system. Kissinger is very forward looking with most of his analysis, laying down a good part of current international problems and laying down the terrain over these problems will be navigated. The Quest, by Daniel Yergin. A very enlightening read about energy and energy security for those interested in the subject area. It's fairly cursory, and accessible for people who don't have a background in the area. Also highly entertaining and accessible. Hope to hear some good recommendations!

Quant and econ. At least they're not charging full unit price, I guess. $1600 out of pocket seems steep but $1600 in the grand scheme of loans (assuming these classes qualify) is just a drop in the bucket.

Did anyone make it to admit day?

San Diego's expensive almost everywhere, and the cheap places are typically in more beaten down neighborhoods. I don't think you can reasonably expect to bike to school unless you're in La Jolla, which is a pretty expensive area. The good news is there should be a large college population in the area so there should be a lot of availability, short term stays, sublets, etc. The school is located right off the 5 freeway, which gets pretty bad during rush hour. The neighborhoods I'm familiar with that are driving distance are: East downtown area (North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights, nearby neighborhoods): Residential housing in walking distance of hipster nightlife. Mustaches galore, along with some of the best and most interesting bars SD has to offer. Bars are more lounge and talk, artisanal food (whatever that means), craft beer galore. Downtown (Little Italy, Gaslamp): More typical downtown scene, lots of businessmen and international folk wandering on weekends, home to SD's limited club scene. More mature, night on the town type place. Beach Neighborhoods (Pacific Beach, Ocean Beach, Mission Beach): Stereotypical beach living. Each beach city has its own personality. PB is known for its sports bar, young 20s crowd, lots of college kids, with a strong Jersey Shore streak; the douchiest of the three beach cities. OB is the laid back, dog beach, burn out beach where everyone is happy and it feels like you're taking a step back in time to the 60s. Decent nightlife, but everything is low key and hole in the wall. I think OB is the cheapest of the three. MB is also very collegey, but a bit more low key than PB. MB is a nice middle ground area. Asia Town (Convoy): A decent section of town that is comprised of Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean restaurants and bars. Includes karaoke. There's a few other neighborhoods, specifically east of UCSD, but as far as I know they lack personality. You'd more or less be living in a typical suburb and would have to drive out to make it to decent nightlife.

Why doesn't anyone think they can hack it at a DC think tank?

6 months in Tokyo as a student, about 2 years on and off doing prep school work in Seoul, 1 month long class in Hong Kong. I'm probably doing a Japan regional spec and am tentatively hoping to work abroad for a few years before transitioning to a more traditional US based career.

Yeah I am a no go on fellowship as well. Letting them know I'm happy with the way they handled it though, haha. So UCSD is looking like 80k sticker price, including living costs? Then assuming you RA/TA for 5 quarters, you'd save ~$7,000 x 5 = $35,000. So the overall degree, with living costs included, will be 45k. Assuming DC privates will run you closer to 100k for degree and living costs included, so I guess the decision is getting easier the more I think about it. I'm probably going to sign up for admit day. I live 25 minutes away so there's no real reason not to.

I'm going to write them (IRPS) about funding. I don't expect to get much/any, and am hoping that their TA/RA positions are as fruitful and plentiful as many people here and elsewhere have implied, but I'll let you know what I hear. My kind of tentative and constantly changing life goal is get some experience working as a professional in one of the big 3 EA countries, then eventually transitioning to a DC based career. Being a permanent expat doesn't really appeal to me. I feel IRPS might be a little more useful for that, esp given their regional spec and language requirements. As for doing a SKY only degree, that'll look good in SK but I think you're just confining yourself to too small a geographic area. You're limiting your early employment options to basically one city (Seoul). Obviously you won't be confined there forever but it just seems to be putting too many eggs in one basket. I've lived in Seoul on and off for about 2 of the last 3 years and love it, but committing to a long term, possibly lifelong career there would make me feel too boxed in. Also, for the school ranking, IRPS has been climbing the ranks over the last few years and doesn't seem to be stopping. Even with its location its pulling #13 now, but by the time current graduates are mid career it may be higher than that.

Me, you, and Kosmosis707 all seem to be working between a DC school (specifically SIS I think) and IRPS. Are you guys at all worried about passing up the brand recognition, higher ranking, and geographic location SIS offers? It seems to be a pretty easy decision for you guys but I'm really struggling between the two.