taeyeon

Hey everyone! It's been so quiet here the last few days... I hope everyone's been enjoying their holidays, and Merry Christmas! @AAAAAAAA My friend did an exchange at CEU and attended some master's classes while there. She said it was pretty good, but personally the location doesn't appeal to me. I don't think it's at IHEID/ScPo level, but I've gotten the impression that it's a pretty good option in Europe overall. @haru_ko The pictures would be great if you can share them! I dunno if you get to see the whole campus, but I'd imagine it isn't too big. The photos I've seen of the library are definitely nice.

@Erminia_LL OMG yes! I was just checking my inbox now and nearly started freaking out haha! Seems interesting though, I might look into it once I get my heartrate back to a normal pace... @haru_ko Maybe visa requirements differ by country... I have to apply through the Beijing embassy and their requirements list TOEFL scores. But wow, you're already in Switzerland? If we all make it to IHEID, you'll need to organize the welcome party as you've been there the longest

For me, IHEID is the only school I've applied to this year. It's mostly because other universities I would consider either: 1) don't offer sufficient scholarships (I need at least 100% of tuition fee + at least partial living costs to afford a graduate education), 2) require at least 2 years of work experience, or 3) have no alternatives to TOEFL/IELTS scores. Though the lame part is, I was looking through the Swiss student visa requirements and you have to have a TOEFL score anyway... It'd be great if I make it into IHEID, because compared to larger universities in English-speaking countries, smaller campuses like this are easier to navigate and administration procedures are much simpler. But if not, I have a wider selection of schools I want to apply to next year. Though I nearly get a headache just thinking of all the papers a US or Canadian university would require!

@su_nayana and @AAAAAAAA, you guys don't need to take my observations so seriously! I just find it interesting to check for any updates to the page, considering I visit it several times a day out of boredom (and also because it's become a reflexive habit). Speaking of updates, there's a notice that IHEID will be on break from 12/19 to 1/3... so looks like @El pichichi's insistence that we'd get answers by 12/16 was incorrect. Now to wait for another month... how exciting, haha. @AndrewM Nice of you to join us! Did you apply by the early deadline or regular? And @unagi, good job with submitting your app! And I'd say "under academic review" sounds like the decisive stage alright, so best of luck!

From browsing last year's threads, I got the impression that several people waitlisted in December/January were given acceptances in March. Saw nothing about rejections, but maybe those who were rejected just didn't post about it. But yeah, I agree that emailing IHEID would be the best way to go about it

Hmm, I thought maybe waitlist notifications for May is for those who applied for the regular deadlines. So for instance, if you were waitlisted during early application notifications on January, you'd get your final answer by March... and for regular applications, you'd receive a waitlist notification on March and know your final status by May?

Wow, so much going on here! So like all the others, my recommendation letters section is still there. I just think maybe the coding doesn't let it disappear or something... And speaking of coding (because apparently I love playing detective), has this white divider line always been there? I did some more poking around and see a hidden section marked "Invoice", with fields like 'Payments' and 'Download.' Is this a good sign or is it just general updates to the page overall? Am I being perceptive or overly analytical? Let's find out next week if what El pichichi said was true @Maeva Hiya! Glad you joined in on the discussions. Let us lament together over the vast unfairness of the French grading system... and let us hope they definitely take everything @haru_ko said into consideration. @Erminia_LL It's always a conundrum trying to figure out who gets awarded early admission. I'd say the filling up 50% of spots for all majors equally is a good theory. I also don't think being waitlisted until March necessarily means you're not good enough, but maybe they pick the exceptional/unique students first, then keep the good/average students until the next round since they can't be sure how many more applications will roll in by mid-January. Eh, who knows.

@su_nayana It was mostly people taking turns asking questions of personal interest, or asking recommendations for things like MIA vs. MIRPS. I just remember hearing reassuring answers about the likelihood of getting a scholarship. As for the 6.0 grade scale... I guess we'll know when we get there! I remember the French grading system was a pain. You had to get 10/20 to pass, but barely scraping by with 11 in some classes was already considered good, and getting something like 17/20 meant you were a certified genius. The only way you could get a full 20 was if all your homework, assignments, and exams were composed of multiple-choice questions... and even then they'll round down to 19.5 because "nothing is ever perfect" So if there's a similar concept behind it, I wouldn't be surprised if a C-average was considered decent.

@su_nayana Did the documents only disappear now? Wow, that's both exciting and nerve-wracking! As it was for me back... whenever mine disappeared, though I've already gotten used to it by now. Am I the only one who still checks the follow-up section everyday (several times)? I usually do that during what would be European office hours, but then I found myself doing that on the weekends and I was just like... woah, chill @ myself, haha! @AAAAAAAA I'm glad you got the pre-registration fee confirmation in writing, makes me much calmer about things. Though about that web capture... I'm pretty sure they just hadn't updated last year's information? Maybe? Cause the PDF for general conditions is definitely the old one. Oh well, I feel like we're playing detective enough as it is. When I saw so many new replies suddenly I wondered if someone already got notified or something And I remember that merit vs. need document too! I remember thinking I'd probably fit way up there on need-basis cause let's just say for someone from my country, the GDP per capita is like half of IHEID's tuition fees. @unagi I hope the reference letter things work out! You could always make an international call to inquire if you think waiting for an e-mail response would be too slow. Speaking of which, I don't suppose anywhere here has reached out to any professors or department members... I've always had people give me conflicting advice on that. It can either serve you very well, or make you seem like a complete nuisance/kiss-up. Wondering now if I should've contacted someone beforehand, but ah well. Attending one live-chat session and getting some answers was good enough for me

It's on the General Conditions as found on the Applications 2016-2017 page, aka that document we should've all read thoroughly before submitting our application This was not the case last year for sure, because I downloaded the 2015-2016 during the summer and assumed it would mostly be the same. A few days before I submitted my app though, I found this year's version and noticed the requirement for pre-registration fees. And yes, I do agree it would be reckless... hopefully this won't be as strict a requirement for students who applied for a scholarship? Who knows. And I'd like to know @El pichichi's sources too. I do feel both excited and anxious wondering what my decision could be, and honestly if it's a rejection I just want to get it over with already, haha! If not... well, that's a completely different story.

@shirley_xie Nah, my username/photo is of Taeyeon from Girls' Generation Maybe if we make it to IHEID my real nationality will be revealed, haha! Did anyone else's uploaded materials disappear from the follow-up section? All I see now are the "Correspondence/Comment/Recommendations" sections. All these subtle changes...

Yeah, isn't December 16 last year's date? Though I'm really crossing my fingers for some sort of response before the mid-January deadline, cause how IHEID expects students to get an offer on/around January 15 and already pay a pre-registration fee of one grand by January 30th is beyond me... @shirley_xie Hehe I'm actually not Korean, just a K-pop enthusiast. But good luck to yours too! And everyone else's as well

Also pretty happy to see us all becoming more chatty too It's become a habit of mine lately to check the application follow-up page everyday and this forum, alongside all my emails. @haru_ko I also leaned towards why I want to study at the Graduate Institute/Geneva as well in my motivation letter. After all it's the only school I'm even applying to right now, what with my lack of work experience. And I understand @unagi's frustration with having to constantly sell yourself too. But the funny thing is we'll have to constantly ~sell~ ourselves to a lot of people in our lifetime, whether it's employers, acquaintances, friends, family... I like to think this is good practice for the future, hah. @shirley_xie I've also noticed the "Conditions" field and I think you're probably right about those who are about to graduate. I even looked at the page code out of curiosity and noticed there's a few hidden fields, like up to 4 conditions, extra conditions by the Application Committee, housing application field and whatnot. Wonder if I'll ever get to have those fields visible for me!

@AAAAAAAA What do you mean by "graduating after two years of undergrad"? I think otherwise your background sounds fine. It helps to be from a different, more practical field and going into humanities since you'll have the perspective of both. Also this whole time I've been working on the assumption that IHEID is a lot like Sciences Po - I have a lot of friends at ScPo who went straight from bachelor's to master's with little more than their summer internships for work experience, and that's perfectly normal. Most of the master's students have only worked for around a year, give or take. @haru_ko You've been there? I'm jealous, I wish I could've went and had a look around campus myself. My motivation letter was just a lot of rambling and now I wish I read through IHEID's Globe before I wrote it! I'm sure all of you are interested in seeing this: a motivation letter by someone who got accepted to MIA (page 30). Her lifestory sounds incredible, and before any of you get all nervous, I'm sure that this was an exceptional one rather than the norm Those like @unagi should use this example to their advantage. Next time I'll do waaay more poking around on the site and around the internet before I submit a barely-complete application.

Haha it's also the only school I applied to! But I looked through all those people's profiles before as well, when I was researching IHEID this summer. Though I don't even come near some of their qualifications, I majored in IR and did a lot of academic extracurriculars related to IR. My GPA's a decent 3.6 and I'm working in my field since graduating this summer, so I figured I have as good a shot as any and applied Don't underestimate yourself! Obviously the person with the superior qualifications you quoted just didn't appeal to the school for some mysterious reason. Sometimes it's something as little as not demonstrating enough interest in the school itself makes the difference between an acceptance and a rejection... Also, re: earlier talks of scholarship dates - on the application follow up page, it says "Scholarship (decision available in March)." It's definitely March, so they can send out scholarship decisions along with regular deadline notifications. I'm just wondering what to do in case I get accepted (*knocks on wood*) and have to pay the 1,000CHF pre-registration fee.

Same! I've been checking the follow up module at least like twice a day (purely out of boredom) and just saw that now. For someone who applied exactly on the deadline, that's a bit... scary... haha! Has everyone's status changed to that? Dang, now I'm gonna get all antsy.

No idea about the number of people accepted, but I know last year they informed applicants of decisions in late-December. But I also saw that last year, everything from early admissions to scholarship decisions were delayed by a few days/a week and I have a feeling they extended the date to mid-January so they won't be in that situation again. Isn't the thread already moved to 'Waiting it out'? I don't think you need to worry about it now.

Whew, thanks Erminia! I've been paranoid all this time for nothing Just saw the status is changed to "application received: complete." I was so sure they were gonna demand more documents, especially regarding proof of studies in English. All I have there are my transcripts for grades 6-10 in the US and an undergrad semester at Sciences Po (with some awful marks). Back to the waiting game now!

Su_nayana, fingers crossed! Hargun, I hope that is the case! My professors did tell me that, but I thought maybe there was just a 1 week window for referees to submit letters... not considering the actual 11/15 deadline. The good part is all my materials are finally complete. Guess now we wait for January. (This should be fun...)

Su_nayana, my SOP also ended up at 790 words! Highfive for barely making the word limit Hey Erminia, that was a pretty great idea to have access to the follow-up section. Was anyone else a bit confused by the way the application form was set up? I asked my referees for their reference letters ages before I paid my application fee and actually had access to the reference section... also trying to get some of my pdfs to below 2MB was a struggle Anyways, my application is in as of last night but this morning I woke up and saw one of my reference letters still hasn't been submitted! Oh the horror... if it's uploaded on the 16th, do you guys think that would still qualify me for making early admission deadlines or nah?

Heya! I'm just gonna randomly butt in while you guys discuss the universities/cities and mention that I too am applying to IHEID! Probably going for either MIA or MIRPS. I see that some people have already applied... I feel so behind already! Best of luck to everyone with their applications

Hey guys! I'm also planning on applying, though I'm unsure if I can make the early registration deadline. I've been perusing online since summer for any and all information relevant to IHEID, so what I've gathered from there so far about your inquiries is that: 1. The most important part about the letter of recommendation is that it should be from someone who knows you in an academic capacity. A professor of IR or similar fields would be more relevant than say, a language or mathematics professor. Beyond that I assume regular LOR standards apply. 2. All scholarship decisions are sent out in March, and I think it's a combination of need/merit based. 3. Nope, no GRE scores necessary! Otherwise I'd be freaking out about preparing for that right now I get the impression that European universities don't really require GRE scores, with the exception of the UK (though if you do have good ones, it probably won't hurt!) ^ In fact I'm even thinking of forgoing the TOEFL and submitting proof of past schooling in English, because paying $180 for a test to prove that I know a language I've spoken for 10 years is... ridiculous at best. I've briefly studied at Sciences Po before (license, not master's) and my application was accepted sans TOEFL or SAT scores, so I'm hoping for the same from IHEID as I'm on a tight budget. 4. Yes, let me join in on all the nervousness! Haha. I haven't even started drafting my SoP yet so this shall be interesting.