reddog

Read your post, and although I have no experience in your field whatsoever.. I just want to say, although I do not know you particularly well , I am proud of you for choosing for yourself. I've had the same struggles during my undergraduate, and after 3 years of internships and a completed master study I am finally able to say I have found my place in the 'right area of study'. So good luck!

I think they do! You could consider it 'relevant academic written work'.

Also working on my application for IHEID. I am applying to the MDev. I'm curious to know what you guys' backgrounds are, if not in development studies already. I am coming from Public Health/Global Health and the biomedical sciences. Also, it's not explicitly mentioned, but do you think IHEID would mind if my CV is Europass format? Some universities or employers require it, others absolutely loathe it and they'd rather have a 2-page. I'm also wondering if I should apply for the scholarship; it's not really common in my country to have one, so I am fairly new to the whole process. I have collected quite some savings and I could supplement it with a loan. Ofcourse it would always be nice not to have to lend money, but I'm just really apprensive of the scholarship application process. So I'm in doubt.

Personally I'd recommend the MSc Global Health at McMaster University, or at its partner uni Maastricht University. I am extremely biased to Maastricht myself, having just graduated from there

I decided to start this thread because I am having a hard time explaining my academic background in my applications for universities abroad and I need some help. Here is the thing, I am from a country that does not place restrictions or entry requirements on graduate programs. The reason is that, before the Ba/Ma –structure, bachelor and master were considered one degree. As a result, a graduate degree is not a luxury but companies (almost always) expect applicants to have it. So I guess that is nice. However, the downside of our education system is that we are practically pushed already in high school to make choices that will restrict us in picking an undergrad degree. For me, I chose the natural sciences because that is what everyone around me did as well. Not having much clue what to do after, I continued with them during my undergrad, and the result is a BSc in biomedical sciences. However, I did not like the career prospects at all (basically, laboratory or doctor), and I have been working extremely hard ever since to push my academic career towards the social sciences. My undergrad GPA is low (2.45), largely due to lack of motivation and feeling of loss of identity :). I have done plenty of internships and extra courses, not to increase my chances but for myself to find out what I really want with my life. So, after a couple of internships I finally found an awesome MSc in Global Health, for which I was accepted because I was extremely motivated. Btw, this also shows in my GPA (3.9). During the program I was excited and frustrated at the same time, because we were looking at interesting case studies in development, but only from the health paradigm. It made me want to work in development in general and not just in health development. But I don't want to be held back by ‘specialist’ MSc when I look for jobs, and this is the reason why I want to do a second master degree in international development. And, because a 2nd degree is not subsidized by my government anymore, it is cheaper to do this abroad. But I am really overwhelmed by all the grade restrictions and scores that required. Grades have never been that important, the emphasis was always on motivation. So although I consider myself a good student and my country's university system considers me a good student, I feel some sort of mistranslation when I look at programs abroad, especially in the UK. My grades are mistranslated, because our grade system cannot be linearly converted with the UK or US system. Our grade system goes from 1 to 10, but 9 and 10 are practically never given due to the Calvinistic notion that “nobody is perfect but God”. Therefore, an 8 can already be considered a 4.0 but, I have found that this is often misunderstood. Also, although a 2,45 seems low, a 6,5 (which my grade actually is) is actually considered quite reasonable. Also, I noticed that the curriculum I took during my undergraduate degree is not necessarily the same as the curriculum of a biomed undergrad in the UK. Our undergraduate programs are already quite specialized and they teach us many skills (writing an article, project proposal, grant proposal, statistics, research methods, etc) that in the UK aren't really dealth with until graduate level. This is also misunderstood. The fact that our undergrad degrees are so specialized also makes it very hard to switch. The fact that I did switch from an undergrad in natural sciences to an social science/anthropologic-based graduate degree is the result of very hard work on my part. and something that I am quite proud of. However I don't know how to make this clear. Basically, I wrote this to vent, but also to ask for advice. I feel like I am unjustly considered a weak applicant just because of these cultural differences and I don’t know how to make clear that I am actually a strong applicant and more than capable of finishing their program with success. I could ofcourse write this in a motivation letter but I am worried that would make a) the letter way too long considering I would also have to include my actual motivation, and b ) I am worried it would seem like I am just making a bunch of excuses. Also, if they make the first cut based on grades alone I am screwed regardless of my motivation letter. Maybe I am being overly pessimistic, maybe not. But I would be very interested in your views, especially if you offer possible solutions Thanks!

Hi everyone! I am still in the process of determining where I will eventually apply. It will be my 2nd master degree, so I am a little bit more picky than I was the first time. So far I have narrowed it down to: IHEID - Development Studies King's College - Conflict, Security and Development University of Amsterdam - International Development Uppsala Universitet - Humanitarian Action and Conflicts I have also looked at the University of Edinburgh, but to be frank I was quite disappointed with the quality of the programme when I compare it to my first master degree. I visited the open day, and my overall impression was that there is quite a vertical relationship between students and teachers. I am not keen on that, I think by now I am old enough to be treated as an equal academic partner (as I have been used to throughout my university studies). Furthermore they seem to expect quite a lot from applicants compared to what their programme offers in return with regard to extracurricular opportunities. I am now wondering if this hierarchy between student and professor is a normal thing in the UK? Can anyone share some light on this? Because it would definitely influence my decision. I actually read similar things about IHEID, so I am also curious about any experiences there.