newtodc206

In the state of Washington UW is top notch, and on the west coast UW is a really great school. I can’t say how UW is perceived in other parts of the US. I would reach out to UW and ask where most of their grads go after completing the program. You should then ask for a contact who’s now in govt or an intl org who can tell you how much weight a UW degree has when trying to enter govt / Intl orgs outside of DC.

I live in Seattle and do not believe it is a great city if you want to do IR. There are many opportunities to work in immigration, global health, and global development, but if you want to work in government it is not a sustainable place to launch a government, IR career.

I've been accepted to both Georgetown's Security Studies Program and George Washington's Security Policy Studies program. As someone who has not worked in DC or the security field, I feel ill-equipped to decide which program will prepare me best for a job in international security. GWU offers a lot of 1 credit professional courses that I find to be extremely valuable - mediation skills, methods in intl program evaluation, formal briefing, etc. Does Georgetown assume students already have these skills? In what ways do they provide similar instruction? Additionally, Georgetown SSP previously required a thesis in the second year of the program. SSP's website states they are abolishing this requirement starting in Fall 2019, but I'm not sure what they'll be replacing this requirement with. Unlike GWU, I don't see that Georgetown allows an internship/project as a capstone. The idea of gaining experience through GWU's global capstone project intrigues me, and the fact that GU does not offer something similar is a major downside. Does anyone have insight as to why one program is better than the other for students interested in international security?