Mitstopher

Sorry it took me so long to reply. I didn't really use PSU's career services office, but they do have an entire building and staff devoted to helping student find jobs and internships. You can set up mock interviews, have your resume read and reviewed, etc. Anyone at any school within Penn State University can use the career services office. I'd recommend looking into the political science department, since the SIA is so new. I hope this helps!

Hi. I also got a very nice offer from GSPIA but am still considering my options. I will be attending the open house on Friday, though.

'sup. I went to PSU for undergrad. PSU's School of International Affairs is brand new...I think its first semester was Fall 2009 (I graduated in May 2008 and it hadn't opened yet). If it's any help, I can answer any questions you might have about the regular political science department. I think there is some faculty overlap between the PLSC department and the SIA.

Okay, here are my impressions of Syracuse University. CITY Coming from Philadelphia, Syracuse isn’t much of acity to me, but it’s a city nonetheless. There is a defined downtown area, and a bus system runs all over. The university sits on a hill and is surrounded by the city. Off campus housing was located to the north, east and southeast of the campus; instead of high-rise apartment buildings, it seemed like most of the off-campus housingwas houses that had been broken up into apartments. A friend of mine lives southeast of the campus, and we wentto dinner at a little Mexican food place. It was a cool, quiet little area, but then again it was a rainy Sunday evening. There are morerestaurants, small food stores, and a music theater as well. As for the downtown area, I didn’t getto explore it all that much because of time constraints, but there were a lotof restaurants, shops, and a few museums as well (such as the Erie Canal Museum). CAMPUS If you’ve ever been to State College, Pennsylvania, then Syracuse will look a little familiar. Though not nearly as large as Penn State, it has a similar character. Just north of the campus is a strip of eateries (Jimmy John’s, Pita Pit, etc) as well as Syracuse apparel stores. There are a few banks, a gym and some more apartment buildings aswell. There is a main thoroughfare; I think it was called University Ave. The architecture is really cool; The Hall of Languages apparently inspired the Addams Family house. The music building looks really cool; it has a huge spire. Maxwell and Eggers, the buildings where we’d spend most of our time, are connected. Eggers houses the IR program office,the “Academic Village” (a study area/hangout spot for IR program students), classrooms anda small cafeteria. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot going on the day I was there, but then again it was relatively early on Monday morning when I visited the campus. It’s also very…uh…orange. IR STAFF Some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met in mylife. I wasn’t able to attend the Welcome Weekend because of work constraints, so they let me come up and checkout the program on my own. It waskind of last-minute, but they were totally accommodating in setting me up withsome current students to talk to as well as a class to visit. I also got to talk with an admissions rep for about 30 mins and she cheerfully answered all my questions. CLASS I visited an Evaluation of International Programs class, one of the "signature courses". It was kind of a statistical analysis class; the kind of thing where you look at charts with yesor no questions, where yes has a value of “1” and no has a value of “0.” You’ve probably seen this kind of stuffin your upper-level undergraduate courses. The professor seemed like a cool dude, and he had actually worked at the UN for 30 years, so right there you can see that there is theory alongside practice. What I liked is that he kept reminding students why they are doing these kinds of evaluations. He told the story of Grameen Bank, and how using this kind of evaluation they were able to find out that women had an almost-100% payback rate of microloans. It’s easy to lose purpose when you’re faced with a bunch of numbers. OTHER I also spoke with a professor who was a directorat the Moynihan Institute, Maxwell’s research center. She was very helpful with giving me advice on internships and study abroad (i.e. the fact that I can go to Bogazici University). Furthermore, there are research opportunities given out as work study initially, but there are also competitions open to student applicants, so not receiving financial does NOT preclude you from researching with a professor or at the Moynihan Institute. OVERALL I got a fantastic vibe from Syracuse. What struck me is that they really, really strive to compensate for being an IR program not located in Washington, DC. I think I saw 3 ambassadors onthe list of their faculty. The opportunities are all there, and there is a helpful crew to complement. I can see how one would be put off by the grey, rainy weather (and I’ve heard the winters are rough), but at least in my case having gone to Penn State, the weather doesn’t really affect me that much. If you have any specific questions I’ll do my bestto answer them. I hope myimpressions helped you all!

Hi Affirmed! Thanks for the info; I was made aware of this partnership during my visit to Maxwell. This partnership is a huge plus for Maxwell in my book, because, like I said, I'm interested in studying Turkey while in graduate school.

Hi chojnacm, thanks for your thorough response! By any chance are you going to the Preview GSPIA event on April 9th? I'll be there. I definitely hear you on GSPIA recognizing potential. By way of that, and depending on the cohort size, I feel like I'd get a lot more individualized attention from the faculty. I'm not sure how big the incoming cohort at SIS will be, but I do know that American is the largest in my list of schools. Syracuse will have a cohort of around 100, so I'd be likely to get individualized attention there as well. One thing that I've gathered is that SIS seems to be the most "traditional" in the academic sense, that is, students must complete a thesis and take a comprehensive exam. I'm not frightened by either of these options (having a long, well-researched paper in my name is an enticing option), but I can't help but wonder just how theoretical the US Foreign Policy program will be. I haven't encountered any sort of professional skills courses on the SIS website (aside from quantitative methodology, which every school requires), whereas both Pitt and Syracuse offer professionally-oriented degrees as well as research centers. That way, I'd be able to complement professional skills with substantive research. Do you know if GSPIA allows students to design their own study-abroad programs? Although I've been focusing on Western European politics, I've taken an interest in Balkan affairs and Turkey as of recently and would like to spend some time in those areas.

Hey y'all. I've been admitted into 4 programs, and I'm looking at 3 of those: the MPIA in Security & Intelligence Studies at the U. of Pittsburgh's GSPIA, the MAIR at Syracuse's Maxwell School, and the MAIA: U.S. Foreign Policy at American's SIS. In my mind, each school has something going for it that is really preventing me from making a decision. Maxwell's degree can be completed in the least amount of time, plus an internship is part of the curriculum. Similarly at Pitt, an internship is part of the curriculum, plus Pitt has offered me almost complete funding in merit scholarships. Both Maxwell and GSPIA have research centers on European affairs, which is pretty much my geographical focus. Lastly, American is in DC where internships at government agencies or government-related firms could presumably be more easily had. Can anyone give me any insight into these programs? I've seen the rankings and they don't affect me much. Costs aren't too big of a factor for me, but of course, getting an MA with little or even no debt is an opportunity that is difficult to pass up. Thanks in advance.