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LoopyLex

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  1. LoopyLex
    This is entirely dependent on the class. Most classes (if they have exams) schedule them for the last day of the class rather than during exam period. Some have take home exams that have to be handed in my the end of the exam period. A few will just schedule exams on their own during the exam period. Most classes don't have exams at all, except for the required classes which seem to like them more due to larger class sizes (we had a take home exam for law, no exam for statistics, a multiple choice in-class final for research methods, and an in-class multiple-choice / short answer for policy). Most of the economics classes also have final exams, but these vary by format and when they are scheduled.
  2. LoopyLex
    These can be hard to predict year by year, so not all of them have online info (some of these we just get pdfs to apply for!) Basically, every year different organizations get in touch with NPSIA and ask for students to apply to their programs. This year, there was a (fully paid) trip to Japan for a week in December, a 4-5 day (cheap) trip down to Washington to participate in some IR events, a week long leadership conference in the UK and another for two weeks in Thailand (or somewhere near there, I don't quite remember, nor how much it cost or if it was covered). Many of these opportunities aren't specifically limited to NPSIA students, but we get them forwarded to us by the admin staff from those who organize these events because they know NPSIA produces some great students. So we get a bit of a leg up over the general competition due to the name of the program. Here's the website on the UK trip: https://www.britishcouncil.org/future-leaders-connect. And that 6 month UN internship I believe I mentioned before: http://unac.org/unac-projects/international-internships/ Basically, we get e-mails every day alerting us to opportunities sent in by professors, fellow students, or alumni. So different opportunities pop up all the time every year.
  3. LoopyLex
    I can't really speak to GPSIA opportunities. It looks like that program involves unpaid internships with some financial support from what I've read. NPSIA usually has one or two paid positions at embassies pop up per semester (there were two in Spain for this summer that required applicants speak fluent Spanish), but no specific internship program for embassy work. There is an internship program you can take advantage of in the winter of your first year though, and the placements vary all over Ottawa. Some are within the federal government, others with corporations, and some with not for profits. NPSIA is set up so students have 6 semester to complete your degree. If you take co-op, you get an extra semester added (so a max of 8 semester to complete your degree). Typically, most students do their first co-op in their third semester (summer of their first year). You can choose to have summers off though, and do co-op in the fall/winter of the next year, take classes in the following summer/fall and graduate at the end of the fall. Basically, there's a lot of flexibility in how you can complete the program. I do recommend doing co-op over the summer though, since funding can get a little weird if you do co-op over the fall/winter instead (in terms of part-time and having to push TA positions back).
  4. LoopyLex
    You have the option of taking classes outside of NPSIA as well, if you're interested in some of the EURUS stuff. Quite a few NPSIA classes are European orientated as well! That would be economics of conflict, which I unfortunately haven't heard too much about. It seems right now the econ for defense and security is the most difficult (he likes to throw math at us) while the others are a bit more basic in their math load and more theory based. Just about all of us history/poli/psyc/english folks get through it though, it just takes more commitment if you're shooting for a higher grade. There are load of international opportunities. A few of my friends went to Japan for a week or so (fully paid for) through an amazing program here. There's some UN internships they're pushing on us right now, as well as I believe some sort of Taiwan thing going on? Honestly, it all starts to become a muddled mess because we get SO MANY E-MAILS about various opportunities. I don't know anyone personally who's done an exchange, just because of the commitment to organizing that while also trying to do co-op/research paper/thesis can be difficult. Most people try to take advantage for the shorter international opportunities. Although, interestingly enough, there was a co-op position in Madrid this year working out of an embassy! So you can sort of double up co-op with international experience if you get lucky. It seems NPSIA still inches ahead over GPSIA when it comes to jobs. A few students were discussing the other day how their employers told them that they actively seek out NPSIA students over others. If you're looking for work in the federal government, I really don't think any other program compares. The alumni network is just so huge, and people recognize the program as quality that it gives us a leg up over GPSIA who is just now getting really into the co-op game.
  5. LoopyLex
    They toss you anywhere they think you have some sense of what you're doing, haha. I have a history/poli sci background and they stuck me in a third year law/history course. If you fill out that you're interested in history classes, they'll likely snag you for that department, since there's not a ton of history graduate students compared to undergraduates. I have a few friends who ended up with oddball bird classes to TA as well. While most masters students come to NPSIA looking for professional experience, there is still a lot of opportunity if you're interested in research. NPSIA offers both a research paper and thesis option (and you can choose to complete both the research paper AND do co-op if you want, which many students take advantage of). I do hear Munk is better known for academics though, so if you're looking to do a PhD that might be better (though NPSIA also offers an accelerated PhD program). Don't worry too much about this. You only have to take 3 courses in your designation (and a specific econ class). After that, you're free to go wherever you want! So if you want to do loads of specific policy classes, you're free to. You can also e-mail / call about changing the designation if it is a big deal for you, but it can be difficult once the more in demand designations fill up. Typically, they aim for around 100-120ish. Sometimes this ends up higher due to more people accepting in first round than expected (as was the case with this year). RAships are usually not a whole ton of commitment, (a friend of mine just puts together newspaper articles and some details about them in an excel document for her prof, haha) but do provide a great chance to connect with a professor and gain research experience to put on a resume. GPSIA is a great program too though. Like I've mentioned previously, the big differences appear to be on language requirements and economics/statistics requirements. GPSIA is more heavy on French (NPSIA lets you choose whatever second language you want) and NPSIA just ADORES torturing its students with more advanced econ and requiring introductory statistics. I find it a question of what scares you more: taking a masters class in French, or taking a masters class in economics? Although depending on your steam, the econ classes vary in difficulty. If that helps with your decision making at all! Congratulations to all those who were accepted, and cheers for those still waiting to hear back. I am about to bother for anyone who has questions on the program (or wants to be convinced of NPSIA over GPSIA or Munk....I may have biases).
  6. LoopyLex
    There haven't been many NGOs (if any) posted to the co-op board as of this year that I've seen. This does change each year though. There was one job for a corporation doing aid work in their philanthropy department, but that's about it as of now. The issue is that NGOs typically don't have the budget to pay for a full time co-op student. However, you may get opportunities to work with them through the internship program that goes on in the winter term. I'm currently interning at Mines Action Canada, which does work lobbying against non-discriminate weapons. The internship is a good chance to get an opportunity at a place that otherwise couldn't afford you, but you also don't get paid and its only once a week. Full-time job prospects increase from what I've heard from second years and alumni. They call NPSIA alumni the NPSIA mafia in Ottawa, cause they're everywhere, haha. Many people move into full time positions right after they graduate, because the co-op they did likes them and keeps them on. Someone who has finished the program could likely speak better to this. Lots of people work part-time. I know a few nuts that do full time. If you're only taking three classes, this comes out to a whopping 10 hours of class a week (9 hours of lectures, 1 hour of tutorial). The workload for each class varies, but so long as you keep on top of it, it never gets too overwhelming. I definitely think it's manageable. Looks like registration was in late June this year. As for when courses become available to search, I don't know if there's a set date for that. I would likely think sometime in May.
  7. LoopyLex
    I'm really not too sure. Might be worthwhile to call and get an actual answer from a real person, haha. I just have what I'm attempting to read from Carleton Central...it's a bit of a confusing mess. The 0.25 courses run for 6 weeks. So you'll do two of them in one semester, one after the other. You'll always have 3 classes in each of the first two semesters and will ultimately complete 8 classes worth 3 credits (4 0.5s and 4 0.25s). You do end up taking way more classes in first year, because the expectation is that second year most people are doing co-op. Then you have the next 2-4 semesters to get the remaining 2 credits. More semesters are needed if you go the co-op route, less if you just do course work. You basically get to chose whether you want to be designated as part time or full time during co-op semesters. You'd likely be better off talking someone with Carleton for details about how that works, since I'm currently trying to figure it out myself. I could be super off on my assessment of Munk, I never applied there, haha, just heard things from others. So I'd probably ignore my thoughts on Munk. Very few people at NPSIA go the academic route. I know all of 3 who are doing the research essay, and none who are doing a thesis. Just about everyone is participating in co-op though.
  8. LoopyLex
    Yep! There were folks who were still finishing up econ related stuff at the start of the semester. They're fairly lenient on this. They just want it to be done before you start the required econ class in second semester. The one advantage to having econ done early though is that you can register for classes before everyone else, since the system won't let you register automatically if you haven't completed econ. Instead, you have to send things in manually. Checking my student account right now, Fall/Winter was 11, 134.16 as a full time student taking 3 master's level classes a semester (the max allowed) and a language class, although I don't think costs change at all if you take a language class. Most students take at least 5 semesters to graduate, especially if you're planning co-op. Things get tricky if you do co-op though. You're only allowed to take one class, and can choose to be either part time or full time. At part time, its around 1.6k for the summer. At full, its over 4k. Basically, depending on how you've gotten your funding changes whether you should go to part-time or full time during the co-op terms. I'm planning on part-time for this summer and fall (so around 3k + co-op fees at 1k) and then full time again in the winter to keep funding and take three classes. So it should end up costing me around 20k from start to finish. I ultimately will end up making money though because of funding and co-op, which is great! Also, you're not allowed to TA/RA when on a co-op term unfortunately. However, the average amount made for a co-op is something like 10-12k, so that makes up for the funding lost. Hope that makes sense and helps a bit. NPSIA is more work force based. Munk from my understanding is more academic still. I'd suggest finding the Munk forum and asking there, I believe there's a current Munk student who's been answering questions about it. Personally, I think the facilities and faculty are of similar quality. I like NPSIA more because 1) way, way, way cheaper. Munk is obscenely expensive. So unless you have some real savings, rich parents, or are willing to go into debt, I'd avoid it. They're pretty notorious for giving out little funding compared to GPSIA and NPSIA as well, and 2) Ottawa advantage. Toronto is huge and all, but Ottawa is still THE government town. There's a lot of work opportunities here during and after your degree. As always, I'm about if anyone has questions, just tag me and I'll appear.
  9. LoopyLex
    I believe it does include JD/MA applicants, but don't quote me on that. They should. Carleton is running the risk of a strike this Monday with a lot of the administrative and technical staff, so this could cause some delays. Not too sure how much the process has been/could be impacted though. They don't really like to give definitive dates and the like, haha. And oh man, we are LUCKY these are not like med school applications. My poor sister is doing that right now and she has to wait until May for first round invites, and had her application in by October.
  10. LoopyLex
    I'm not really an expert on this subject as a domestic student. As far as I know, there's no set number accepted for either category of student, they focus primarily on the overall quality of the student. That being said, we don't usually get a ton of international students applying. Anyways, word around the school is that all first round offers have been sent out, or at the very least are being finalized with funding details. I know that won't be great news for all of you, but do remember that second round offers may be coming around as people make their final decisions.
  11. LoopyLex
    Try and be patient and wait. Last year, all of the first round offers were out within about a week or two from each other. Some people just got news of their funding before others, but it will come within the next few days. If you got an unofficial e-mail, you've already been accepted, don't worry on that front.
  12. LoopyLex
    No problem, it keeps the ladies in the office happy cause they have less calls, haha. As far as I know, they don't disclose where anyone is on the waiting list. Considering that no official acceptance letters have come out yet, I would probably hold off for now. I know it's hell to wait, but everyone should know somewhat where there standing is in the next few weeks. There's a lot of different routes for you to meet the language requirement! You can either prove you have a background in it (classes in undergraduate, immersion, etc) or take an intermediate level class and pass with a 70 or higher. There used to be just a general test you could try and pass for multiple languages, but the company that did it went under. Right now, you can also take a 5 month long online course for French (pretty sure it's just Rosetta Stone!) and if you pass the final test that counts. They're working on figuring out a new testing/learning option for other languages as well, but if you're planning on living in Canada, it doesn't make much sense to learn another language aside from French. I'm from Northern Ontario, so never really got much in terms of second language training. Right now, I'm taking lower intermediate French to help improve my grammar and the basics, and then am planning on taking the online option this summer. While challenging to learn and language, take masters level classes, and be involved elsewhere, the language component is not as daunting as I originally felt it was. EDIT: Also, I know you're all probably sick of hearing about Duolingo...but Duolingo. I put in 10 minutes or so everyday over the summer since I was worried about my French, and it helped me to get into lower intermediate rather than just beginner. Other free language software is out there too if you're super worried about the language component and want to get a head start.
  13. LoopyLex
    Everyone who meets the requirements for co-op can do it. So I believe you have to have completed a set number of classes (1 credit worth for the first, 3 for the second) as well as the required quarter classes. For the second co-op you also have to have completed your econ requirement. You should be done all of these after your first two semesters, so most people do back to back co-ops over the summer and the fall. You also have to have good standing in the program. Since everyone can apply to do co-op, the competition is pretty fierce, as most people come here because of co-op. It's up to each student to apply to jobs, go to interviews, etc. There's no guarantee you'll get a co-op, since it's up to students to put the effort in, but I believe the summer success rate is around 90-95%, and the fall and winter placements are at 100%. Hope that helps! Also, I'm not an expert on GPSIA, but I believe they require you to take a class in French, whereas NPSIA just requires you to have 'proficiency' in a second language of your choice. NPSIA seems to have a bit more of an interest in economics/stats (GPSIA requires you to take a more general econ, while NPSIA makes you take an econ class specific to your field designation). There's also no requirement in NPSIA to do a major research paper like there is in GPSIA, but you still can choose to do a research paper as well as co-op. Don't know if that helps you with making a decision!
  14. LoopyLex
    Yep. Field designation, stream, specialization, etc. all mean the same thing. The form for ‘field designation’ should have been the only thing you filled out to indicate what you want to ‘specialize’ in at NPSIA.
  15. LoopyLex
    Just wanted to add to this. I know a few people who ended up with their second choice. It does depend on how popular your first choice is that year. The intelligence stream last year was the most popular, and as a result some people got their second choice, which was usually security and defence. There's so much overlap though between a lot of the streams that don't be too worried if you don't get a specific designation or not. You only have to take 1.5 credits that fit in that field anyways (and the econ course), after that you're free to take whatever interests you. I don't know of anyone who didn't get at least their second choice though! If I remember right, the field designations showed up on Carleton Central before getting official acceptance.
  16. LoopyLex
    Nice to see they got invites out so early this year! Official offers with funding started rolling out anywhere from 1-2 weeks after the unofficial ones last year. Most of the TA/RA offers came out in the first batch I found, but there were some exceptions as always. I’ll make a recommendation for those who are certain they’re coming to NPSIA: make up a class of 2020 Facebook group! We used that over the summer to connect with other students and find possible roommates. Helps make the move to Ottawa less daunting! It also becomes a great place when you start to share events and ask questions about class (and post memes about statistics...). If anyone has questions about the program, classes, or about the city itself, please don’t hesitate to ask! Be seeing some of you in class next September.
  17. LoopyLex
    Last year, no second round offers went out. They had more people accept first round than they were planning on admitting (Munk was super cheap with funding packages, so I know a lot of people went with NPSIA because of that). It doesn't always seem to be that way, but generally there are very few second round offers from my understanding. So if you have the extra money you can give it a shot, but your odds are likely not the best.
  18. LoopyLex
    Heya folks. Just a heads up in advance, because I know you'll all start worrying about this soon (it sure got to me last year). Don't go panicking and start bothering the poor office if your status hasn't changed, or is behind others. I don't think there's any rhyme or reason in how they do it. Personally, my status didn't change from 'preliminary review required' until two weeks after most others did, and after that it didn't ever change to any of the other steps until after I got an informal invite (although many others had their statuses change). They're not super concerned about updating them to each step, since it's a lot of extra time that could just go in to making decisions quicker. So long as you haven't gotten a 'declined' don't go panicking. These things are not an actual indicator 100% of where you are in the process, and just because someone is ahead of you in it, doesn't mean you're not going to get an invite. As always, if you have questions, feel free to bother me.
  19. LoopyLex
    Good luck to you all! You should! I think they're aiming for an earlier date because otherwise those who applied get antsy and start bothering the admin a bunch. (we sure did last year, oops). I've got friends throughout the program who have connections with faculty and other staff, so these sorts of details come out, and I'm also involved and have heard similar from staff. Figured I'd let you all know so you're not bombing the office with the same questions about when you'll hear back. That poor office is drowning this time of year. This is when they are planning to have them out for though. Doesn't mean it's guaranteed, so don't come after me with pitchforks if it's March 1st and you haven't heard back yet.
  20. LoopyLex
    ^seconding that! I also went from my undergraduate right to NPSIA. Might be a bit more of a pain if it's a distance to mail, but so long as you send it as soon as all your final grades are known, you shouldn't have any problems.
  21. LoopyLex
    I believe so long as you get your application in before the first deadline, you will be considered in the first round which will come out in February. To be honest, I don't know of anyone who got in after sending their application in after that deadline. There is usually around 450-550 applicants in a cycle, and they send out around 150 invites for a little more than 100 spots. So second round invites are usually quite rare. @Delidas Oh believe me, it was terrible. They had a really mixed up process too, where many of the applications didn't change what stage they were on. Mine was stuck on 'review in progress' from February till the day I received an informal invite. Didn't actually change to any of the other possible statuses, haha. Hopefully this year they'll be a little more considerate for all of your hearts.
  22. LoopyLex
    Just a little piece of news you all might be interested in: it looks like they will be trying to get acceptances out by the third week of February this year. So you all won't have to wait till March like we did last year.
  23. LoopyLex
    I know of one who did her degree in neuroscience, and another that did a science degree in psychology. So yes! There's a lot of variety and someone from virtually every background. While I'd say 80% do come from a international affairs/political science background, it is by no means a requirement.
  24. LoopyLex
    As far as I know, there's no set number of TAships given out specifically to NPSIA. Rather, the likelihood you'll snag one seems to be based on what your background is in. I did my undergrad in political science/history and ended up TAing a LAW/HIST class. There aren't a lot of MA or PhD students in history at Carleton, so they have to find TAs for these classes in other departments such as NPSIA. Basically, if you have a background in something where the number of undergrads significantly outweighs the number of MA or PhD students, you're more likely to snag a TAship. Since a lot of students have international affairs/conflict/policy etc. backgrounds, they're less likely to be given a TAship simply because there are not a lot of similar undergraduate classes. As a result, every year the number of NPSIA folk who get a TAship varies significantly. I know this year a significant number got either a TA or RA position than other years (maybe 40%? Many people I talked to actually declined the TA/RA offer because they already had other work or got funding elsewhere), but that could be because they had more students accepted from a variety of backgrounds. When we were asked how many students had a TA/RAship in our orientation, the fellow asking seemed very surprised by how many of us had one. Apparently in other years its been closer to 10-20%. Hope that helps!
  25. LoopyLex
    Hi everyone! I'm a current NPSIA student and was in your shoes last year. Had some nice folks help me out then who were already in the program, and wanted to keep up that trend! If you have any questions about things, I might be able to answer! (I know our office is ridiculously busy this time of year so you might not be getting much for responses, haha). I'm also currently on the NPSIA Student Association and am a TA, so I can answer questions on those topics as well. Feel free to message me. Good luck to you all!
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