Sarahndipity

I'm going to the conference for the MIA this month, and I've heard good things about the experience. Personally, I'm pretty excited. As for your inquiries, here's my two cents: One of my closest friends is a graduate of the program, and we've talked a lot about the, as you put it, being "worried about an international affairs/policy degree from a University in College Station, Texas--not exactly a hotbed of international affairs." She works for one of the national labs, but travels to DC and abroad pretty frequently. Her impression is A&M has excellent name recognition when it comes to the IA program, in part due to how large the Aggie network is, but also due to its consistently high rankings. It tends to be the only southern school to crack to the top 20 or 25 (depending on the year), and people notice that. And that does help with the internships, as does having having professors like James Olson and Larry Napper who are deeply familiar with the intelligence and diplomacy community, respectively. My other insider comment from my friend concerns the flexibility issue. In a lot of ways, Bush will bend over backwards to accommodate what you're looking for/trying to do, as long as you can articulate it. I think a good example of that is the "hey, we'll find you a tutor for literally any language you want to learn" approach. Also when it comes to concentrations, you can have up to 3 and design them using courses from the university as whole alongside Bush classes.