Latecommer

I hold a Master degree on public policy from an American university in the Middle East and I am interested in Middle East politics. I published some articles on American outlets and right now work on authoring a book and publishing my Master thesis. My initial plans to settle in DC area to work in the foreign policy/IR sector didn't materialize so I'm living in Texas. I am thinking of applying to a IR Master degree in DC as a way to advance my career (not sure of funding chances). Anybody there can advice me if that is a feasible plan or not? and if it is, what programs are better for me? I have a big family and have a health mobility issue (resulting in getting tired easily). As per my merits, I work as a freelance political risk analyst. Arabic is my native language and have experience working in international firms plus some freelance translation. One friend suggested I go to live in DC (leaving family in Texas) for like 6 months to explore job/volunteer potential over there. I'm not sure if that suits me as it would be a financial burden with high uncertain outcome.

Thank you Arm457 for starting this as I have been waiting for for long time. I plan to research the Shia Islam religious institutions in Iraq. The major challenging is that I am not finding faculty who focus on that topic . Most related faculty are Iranians interested on the cultural Iranian side of Shi'ism. the only good fit I found so far is Yitzhak Nakash (and so I plan to apply to Brandeis). I applied to Georgetown's Islamic studies PhD but I don't expect much out of it. My weaknesses are: low GRE, odd background. My strengths (or so I thought) are: native Arabic speaker, a Master degree from the American Univ in Cairo with 3.7 GPA, few publications on ME politics. I may end up trying again next year. I feel I am weak in department politics (academic fit and POIs) so I built my Georgetown's SOP without fully research their program. I am also applying to Arizona, Cornell, U. of Washington and Brandeis. I hope somebody can help advice me on how to approach Arizona and the other departments in terms of POI and SOP.

Sorry, Mpolat, I'm replying without an answer but just wanted to say that you are not alone in that boat. I have no idea on my chances to be admitted by Georgetown. I am an Arab living in the US and also applying to the Arab & Islamic studies of which the deadline is too close, Dec 15! I finished Arabic classes, along with others, in an Islamic seminary but the problem is that the learning system there is unofficial that they do not provide transcripts. I don't know if my high grades in Arabic in high school is counted (or even reportable). Your GRE scores are better than mine but I don't have to take TOEFL as I have a master of public policy from an English-speaking institution with a 3.7 GPA. According to their website, Georgetown mentions that there is no minimum GRE score as they consider the whole application as there may be strengths that make up for the low GRE scores, although I am not sure how that would work. Hope somebody from Georgetown can address our concerns.