ir_ma

@phdhopeful27 Congrats! Was it an invitation to the doctoral weekend or an interview with your POI?

Thank you for your opinion @monocle Never really gave a serious thought about work experiences since many of my friends here went straight to masters programs in the States. But your opinion does definitely give me a heads up. Also, I'm more interested in the general international affairs rather than public admin. (Not sure if this makes any difference on how much work experience will be valued during the evaluation process.)

I've tried to convert my school's gpa scale into U.S. GPA with Woodrow Wilson calculator, and it appears that my GPA is 3.48 when converted. Does anyone know how reliable this is?? Also, i didn't mention it, but I want to apply for master programs.

Hi. I'm a South Korean, and I'm currently in my final year of undergrad in one of the top 3 schools in Seoul, South Korea. My scores for the first GRE attempt were V160, Q155, W4.0. My GPA is weaker than my GRE scores, which is currently a 3.2. An excuse that I give myself is that I've lived abroad (Thailand) for more than half of my life, so it took me quite a while to get used to the competitive education system in Korea. I've been struggling for my first 3 years of undergrad, but I've been getting all As for my senior year. I've had work experiences as an intern in several NGOs based in Seoul and am currently an intern at an academic journal. To add some more information about myself, I consider myself a bilingual (Korean and English); speak fair Thai and a little bit of French (hoping to finish A2 before sending my applications). The schools that I want give a shot for 2017 spring or fall are Boston University, George Washington, Johns Hopkins SAIS, NYU, Columbia SIPA, Georgetown, and Princeton.I know that these are very vague information about myself but the questions that I want to ask you guys are: 1. How competitive am I with my current profile? 2. If I improve my GRE scores for my second attempt (maybe by max 5 points?), will they help cover up my low GPA? 3. Based on my profile, which other IR programs would you recommend? Thanks guys