Rising

Well, this is a choice for you to make. I am in the field of interdisciplinary/social sciences, so in my case rankings do matter... People tend to underestimate them (or overestimate them), however, downplaying the importance of a school's overall reputation is not particularly smart (in my opinion). When previously I mentioned that I was accepted to universities X and Y, I was referring to Oxford and Yale. From the start I have wanted to attend Yale because their program is far superior than Oxford's and Yale is right there up on the top along Harvard in the rankings. So it was a win-win situation for me. I did not have to choose between higher ranking and program fit as you do. As I said, I am not familiar with the trends in your field, however, I would assume that for engineers rankings might not be as important as they are in the field of social sciences for instance. Once again, this is my take on this, I am sure that there are people who would not agree with me. And most importantly, studying is supposed to be fun and it can only be fun, if you like what you study. Same thing as when you work. So.. to answer your question: If I were you I think I would choose Pitt over UCLA. If you like both programs equally and they are slightly different in terms of content, then I would encourage you to go for UCLA, but this is not the case as far as I understand?

Obviously you are in a very tough position. My field of study is not even remotely connected to what you are interested in, but I would suggest for you to contact Pitt and ask for an extension. Hopefully by the time the new deadline expires, you will have the final decision from USC. Another thing you can do is contact USC and ask them, if it is possible to speed up the process a bit. For instance, I was admitted to X university and was waiting to hear from Y, but just like in your case, the deadline was quickly approaching, so I contact the department administration at Y and politely explained to them what is the problem. I received their final decision just a day later and a week before everyone else applying to the same program at Y. Once again, I am in a field, which is not even remotely related to yours, but I doubt there's big difference in the admission processes.

I see, well, you might find this thread useful: Most schools offer Ukrainian classes, it is an enormous country and studying Ukrainian became quite topical in the past 3 years. So you should not have problems with that no matter which of the above you choose. I applied for Fall 2016 and as far as I know, all of them offer Ukrainian classes. You might want to look at Stanford, though. Their program is 1 year (unlike most of the others in this field) and they do take a sociocultural perspective. There are also some great programs outside US. For instance, Oxford and Leiden have very good experts in this field and they both emphasize heavily on the cultural aspect.

It really depends on what your research interests and professional ambitions are. Without knowing any details about your preferences, the usual suspects I'd say. Harvard, Yale, Stanford and Columbia have amazing programs in European (East) and Russian Studies. Although you should keep in mind that those programs are very different from each other and you should find the one that best fits your academic goals. Some focus more on the social sciences (such as Yale) and others focus more on the humanities (such as Stanford from what I've heard). Apart from those schools, I've heard that WIsconsin, Illinois and Georgetown also offer great regional courses. I really cannot be any more specific without knowing more about you and your interests.

Thank you for your comments. I will just have to rely on external scholarship + loan then! Hopefully I get one.

Thanks for sharing your experience, kbui. Apparently they do offer funding to some applicants but I was wondering whether someone has received funding after being previously refused.

Hello everyone, Recently I was admitted to Yale and I am planning on accepting their offer. However, there's one problem, they offer no funding. It is a MA degree and in the letter it is written: "Master of Arts students do not as a rule receive tuition assistance or fellowships. I hope, nevertheless, that you will accept our offer of admission to the Graduate School". I am applying to several external scholarships and I believe the prospects are promising, however, I was hoping for at least some $ from Yale. I come from a middle-income country and any $ I can get would help me and my family immensely. Would it be rude to send an e-mail and ask, if they can offer at least some funding? Would it make any difference? How do I phrase it, so it doesn't come out impolite? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Didi87, Did you check the following topic?:

Excuse me, but since when 3.5-3.6 GPA is considered to be "gravely low"??? Statistically speaking your GPA is high. It's definitely above average. To answer your question: No, a major GPA of 3.9 and CGPA of 3.6 cannot possibly be a "nail in the coffin". No matter what program you apply for.

Hi HanaSad, I am not entirely sure what is it that you are asking. If you are concerned about the gap between your graduation and application for grad school, some universities actually encourage students to take some time off (working or interning) before they apply for graduate programs. I am not familiar with IHEID's admission procedure and requirements but I am absolutely sure that taking time off will NOT be regarded as something negative and will NOT hurt your chances for admission. By the way, 2:1 is equivalent to 3.2-3.7. It depends on the grading scale, of course. Overall, from the information you have provided, I think you stand a decent chance and should definitely apply. Good luck!

Hi, I am in the same boat as you. I am planning on submitting my application for the same program on Jan 20. In my opinion, you are a very competitive candidate. Your GPA is slightly above the minimum requirement for this course, so no problems there. You have spent some time at Oxford, so they do know you. I think your chances look pretty good actually. Just out of curiosity, have you applied to any university in the US? With your profile, I think you might be able to get in most (not to say all) of the Russian/Eastern European programs.

Hello everyone, I was hoping that someone would be willing to comment on my SoP draft. I am an international applicant and there is no one else I could ask for this. My field is regional studies, however, I would appreciate feedback from students/graduates of any field. Please drop me a message or reply here and I will send you the draft. Thank you.

Hello speechbeach, I am not an expert in your field nor in the admission procedures, however, if it would make you feel better, I am applying to Harvard with a mediocre V/Q/AWA scores. I realize my GRE scores are not very impressive but I am confident that there's more than that. I am confident that the admission committee will be able to appreciate the rest of my application. Every person has strong sides, just try to highlight yours. =) I am sorry if this post is a bit vague, I hope someone from your field will be able to share his views on this and will be more helpful than me. Good luck and try to remain optimistic!

Hi everyone, This is the response I received from one of my potential LOR writers. "Thanks for your mail. And great to hear that you have such ambitious plans for your master. However, I think you should approach a professor to add more weight to your application, as I am not playing a very important role in academia being a mere tutor." She has PhD in the field I am applying for. Yes, she is a tutor but I believe tutors in Europe play slightly different role. They provide small group tutorials to supplement the students' instruction from professors. Is this a delicate way to say that she does not want to write a LOR for me or she really means it that I should find someone else (I didn't really plan a back-up plan for this)? Should I try to persuade her?

They know what they are doing. Provide them with your SOP, CV, transcript and program details. This is usually what they ask for. Good luck!

"What makes a good LOR" depends on the admission committee I guess. I'd say a combination of what you mentioned + a sense of connection between you and the professor. A simple "he got A in my class" might not be as effective in persuading the adcom as an elaborate analysis of your strengths. Good luck!

Your verbal score is quite high the second time. Go for it, if you ask me. Don't stress too much about the AW. The admission committee will probably understand that not everyone can write under pressure.

I made up my mind! I will take GRE once again in the end of November. I have to focus on the verbal part, what free resources (verbs or reading strategies) would you guys recommend? I have gone over Magoosh's verb lists already. Thanks.

You might want to have some time between the moment you receive your AWA score and the deadline. If this will be your first time taking GRE, you don't really have to choose between your scores but if it is a re-take, then you might wanna leave some time for deciding which scores to send. I'd say sometime in December, if it's possible. Good luck!

Thank you for your advice, greMS15. I just e-mailed them. Guess it's better to be sure. =)

Thanks for your reply, sjoh197, No, I am not planning on taking TOEFL. My bachelor was taught entirely in English. I might give it one more try in the end of the month. I am still not sure. Will sleep on it and decide tomorrow. I would really like to get 160, so I could feel more secure in my application. Hopefully I am capable of achieving that...

Hi everyone, i am in the train on my way back from my 2nd GRE. 155V, 154Q this time (147V, 151Q, 5.0 AW first time) and I also expect quite good AW score on this one as well. I studied really hard for the past 2 months. I mainly focused on the V part (studied for the Q for only 2 days or so) and this is the result... quite discouraging, huh? :/ I am not a native speaker and I find it extremely difficult to memorize thousands of words. I did partially succeed in this, however, I was hoping for little higher score. I am applying to some of the top schools in the US (not the most competitive programs they offer but still need a good score..). In addition, I find writing essays much easier than taking tests. It might be "lame" to attribute my low scores to this but... I generally don't do well on tests. I have time to take GRE for 1 more time in the end of this month. I am just not confident that I will score higher on the V part. I think I can easily score higher on the Q but its the Verbal part that I need the most. The average of the accepted students in the program I am most interested in is 162V. I think this is just not achievable in my situation. I might be wrong, though, I did improve a lot from my first attempt but this time the challenge will be much bigger.. To make matters even worse, in the beginning I was hoping that good GRE score could balance my not-so-stellar GPA.. P.S. Will the fact that I am not a native speaker make the admission committee look more favorably upon my score?

An update on this topic: After weeks of trying to talk to someone from university, who knows about these stuff, I was finally forwarded to the study abroad coordinator. She told me that we don't have strict "minor/major structure". Therefore, it is up to my interpretation whether I'll write International Studies or Eurasian Studies as my major. This is not very helpful as you can imagine. I am worried that it might be considered as some kind of fraud by the admission committee, if I pick for major field one of them and they think that it should be the other. Thus, I decided to include both (Major field: International Studies and Eurasian Affairs). Is this common in the US? What would be your opinion on this? I am really confused and stressed about it. Any help would be greatly appreciated... Thank you.

Thank you for your reply! I don't see any "minor" box for filling in my application, where I could possibly include the Eurasian Studies. I have "Major field", "Major GPA" and "GPA". Problem here is that I have no idea how to calculate my "Major GPA", if my major field is International Studies. I had no "international studies" class...

Hi everyone, I am preparing my application for some US programs in Eurasian (Eastern Euroean, Russian and Central Asian) Studies. What I am struggling with is the "major" part of the application. We don't have majors in the Netherlands or at least where I study. My university says that they are not familiar with the US system and they cannot help me with this. I will try to provide you with as much information as possible, so hopefully someone could help me find out what is my major and what courses to include in the calculation of my major GPA. My undergraduate degree says "Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in International Studies". I study global courses such as IR theory, comparative politics, international security, economics, however, some of my classes were Eurasian ones (Eurasian politics, economics, culture, history, Russian language). It is my region (in this case it is a geographical region but it could be theoretical field, etc) of specialization. I didn't choose it. Well, I did choose this specific region instead of the others but I had to choose one region, so it is not something "bonus" or "extracurricular". It is essential part of my bachelor program. Isn't that what "major" is? At least this is how I (an outsider to the system) understand it. In addition, the courses in most semesters, which are worth most credits were the Eurasian ones (namely the Russian language). If we assume that Eurasian Studies is my major, which I strongly hope to be the case, my major GPA would be calculated by summing up the grades for all regional courses and dividing them by their number. Is this correct? However, if Eurasian Studies is not my "major", which courses do I include in the calculation of my major GPA? I would really appreciate it, if anyone could help me out with this! Thanks!