Dreams

Researchers would also get specific funds to use for any research purposes. I have seen anywhere from $500 on up for this.

Not having direct IR experience will not be an ultimate deal breaker. What is important is how you relate your prior experience to wanting to pursue a degree in IR. As a journalist, you should be able to do this, and I can imagine that if you were working in the journalism field, you were at least reporting on areas that are cognates to the IR field.

Nicely collated Cornell07. Do keep in mind rileypep that these are averages. Meaning people do get in with scores lower than those listed. So no need to fret if you scored say 600 on a section but you have a solid application.

To all of you applying for next year. Knock out the GRE if you can during the summer. This would be good because you will hopefully have a little more free time to prepare for it. Besides once you start preparing your applications, you will be really tied down; especially if you will also be working full time.

You might want to scroll through the posts in the Government Affairs section.

I agree with zourah. Given that we apply to many of the same programs, it would create a bit a divide in sharing information and experiences (although we could always float between the sections). Also, some of us: myself included, have interests that are both equally domestic and international.

I do not know of any SW programs that would award full tuition scholarships. It certainly could happen though if you were to receive some university-wide fellowship that could be used for the SW program. The most I was ever awarded was a half tuition scholarship. You should look into outside scholarships like the Jack Kent Cooke, and see if you qualify for scholarships listed on the CSWE site. Typically schools will let you select a concentration in the second year where you could choose more clinically focused classes. I guess the range of classes depends on the school. Of course there are schools much more clinically focused like Simmons and NYU you can look into if you are able to leave VA. Have you also looked into PhD Clinical Psychology programs? That may also be a good fit for you in you are interested in psychodynamics.

I will add on to this good advice to get people who will write you very strong reference letters. They do not have to be from big whigs, but they do need to be from people who can give the most insight about you and your goals; and whether they feel you will be able to make progress toward your goals by going to those schools. It was mentioned earlier that SIPA should be a safety school. I would not count on that. SIPA regularly turns down applicants over lack of sufficient post-bac experience. While your current experience is good, getting more long term experience will only make you a more attractive candidate.

I don't know how many applicants here would be able to provide advice since the majority of discussion is geared to schools in the US. Hopefully you will get some more feedback. I am familiar with the Helsinki Institute of Technology and the KTH RIT in Sweden and both are very good schools. If I had my pick, I would choose the Helsinki Institute of Technology. The school has a lot of history and is very respected in the field in Europe. Studies there will also position you well for the PhD since that is your goal, and they have tons of research projects to boot that you may be able to get involved in. I don't know too too much about KTH's programs; but I know that they have many opportunities to do exchanges at different universities in Europe and the US. You won't notice too much difference in cost of living in both places. Sweden may have slightly more to do in terms of entertainment than Finland from my experience in both places. And Swedish will definitely be the easier of the two to learn (I dare not go into my experience being stuck in a part of Finland where no one speak English). At least Swedish is also spoken in Finland. I don't know how much it helps, but either way you will make out fine. As I said before, I would lean more towards Helsinki.

I have been reading a lot of recently about the number of graduates pursuing opportunities like Peace Corps, Americorps, and Teach for America. In fact, Teach for America is experiencing a record number of applications this year. How do you think this will affect the types of experiences top schools will be expecting applicants to have. For instance, I have noticed over the past four years that WWS accepted a number of returned Peace Corps volunteers. Several schools have tracks for returned PCV as well. Will these schools look more favorably on those who have experience from organizations such as TfA, PC. and Americorps over those who simply have other non profit experience?

I don't think its your numbers that were the problem. This year has yielded some very arbitrary results as far as decisions are concerned. Your Georgetown denial could been to a multitude of reasons: not enough relevant work experience (though your work experience is very interesting), unclear conveyance of your goals, or even ho hum reference letters. Letters don't have to be from well known people to be effective either. Mine certainly were not. You will have to ask yourself how much will waiting a year and going to another school position you for what you want to do. A year would have passed that could have been spent in the program you were accepted to. I think too much emphasis is put on the school name when all of the schools are strong in their own right. Did the school give you money? If so then why turn that down and risk not getting anything from other schools you are considering? If I had an offer from a school now, I would take it. Who knows what next year will hold. This one was already bad enough and there are hints that it will only get more competitive.

For those of you who have financial need, inquire in your departments about the possibility of getting a paid field placement. Some programs will allow it if you make the case for it.

I don't know about others, but I received mine about a month after I mailed it in.

Let's quit the arguing and return to the original intent of the forum: to be a place where current and prospective grad students can come together for support and advice. If there are people here who would prefer to argue and fight, there are several other sites more fitted to that sort of thing I can recommend. I am not singling anyone out - this can apply to anyone here. As nemolover said, no one needs a Fulbright to validate their sense of self worth. People go on to do great things despite not getting one. And if someone did not get one, yet strongly feels a Fulbright is a perfect next step in their goals, then by all means pursue it again next year. Contact the program officer for your region for feedback. Work on building more connections for references in your country of choice. And then use these tools to build a stellar application package for next year. Rakhan said it best. Fulbrights are not some trophy or ribbon. The mission of the Fulbright, whether we know or not, whether we want to believe it or not, it to foster and promote cultural understanding. How much of your application conveys that? How much of the discussion on this thread is conveying that? The panel members can see through applicants (in many cases), who just want to go for a vacation or who just want the prestige of it. If an applicant is cunning enough to deceive the panel, then more power to them. And furthermore, we should not be so quick to make assumptions about others based on the country they choose. There is a reason fulbrightest applied to Macao. And whatever the reason, we have no place to judge that. Applying to Macao is no different than applying to Jamaica, the United Kingdon, Armenia, France, Korea, Burkina Faso or Mongolia. Each person has a reason for that that is their own. For what it's worth, I was turned down the first time I applied for a Fulbright. The 5 word email rejection I received stung. And how appropriate I would receive it in a Psychology lecture on the determinants of human behavior and emotion. But you know what, life went on, and I continued to do great things at work. At the urging of others I reapplied and took my own advice that I gave above. I also looked at the profiles of students who received grants over the years. I looked at their project types, residence states, universities, fluctuations in available slots in the host country, who the President's Fulbright Commission members were, and a host of other things The second time I was successful. So to anyone on this board, a rejection is nothing in the grand scheme of things. If you want something badly keep at it. And for those of us who were successful this season, lend a hand and advice on what worked so those who are persistent can be successful next year.

Oh please linden. Seriously, any program would be fortunate to have you. You have over 10 years of experience, and will have tons to contribute compared to those in the programs who have just a few years of experience (not that they won't have anything to contribute for that matter). It will also work in your favor when you are done when applying to jobs that require previous experience.

Now you can cross out that 0 and make it a 1

You are absolutely correct, it is what you make of it. If you are very proactive, then you can get exactly what you need from the program. And conversely, sitting back waiting may mean you will get locked out of a lot of things. What does your gut tell you? Do you think you will end up regretting not going to SIPA? Have you felt glum when leaning towards one of your other choices? If so then that may mean you really want to go to SIPA. I think you need to take a look at what is making you insecure about SIPA and weigh those things against the implications choosing either of your other two options could have on you. Then choose the school that best suits you.

I think one of the things that hurts SIPA if how stingy it is with financial aid. Though that is a university wide problem. When faced with the debt-load from SIPA and potentially smaller load from another school, most people will opt for the smaller load because beginning salaries will not be that high. I see an exception in this with Harvard. Harvard also holds aid close, but people tend to think twice because of the strength of the name. One final thing that probably gets to most people is the admissions experience and the sink or swim approach to completing your studies. It was my top choice at one point, but as time passed and I began to get more information from people I knew in the program, I began to question that. I was also not a fan of their curriculum changes. Though I understand it was done to keep it more in line with other programs out there. I will not disagree with you though about the academic rigor. It is definitely a strong program in its own right.

There is little difference between the two when it comes to seeking out opportunities. There are Dr.PHs who do research and teach; and there are PhDs who do direct practice. Both degrees will allow you to teach at schools of Public Health, and both will allow you more applied work. In most cases, the Dr.PH will only be awarded to those already possessing an MPH. To be looking at which one is more prestigious on that level is pretty trivial, seriously. Your concerns at this point should be which school will best prepare you for what you want to do.

Up and coming? Korbel is a very solid school, especially in Security. My interests lie elsewhere, but interacting with them I had nothing but positive experiences. And those I know who are connected to the administration there says it is a very supportive atmosphere. I will not rag on SFS, but I would say you will definitely need to know how to get things done there. In making your decision, think about things that matter you. Is it important to be in DC to make connections? SFS is in DC, and Korbel also has a shared campus there. What do you plan to do after graduation? Is it something that will allow you to absorb the extra $50K plus interest you will be borrowing for SFS? How many alumni from each school are working in your field and at the types of places where you are interested in working? Both Denver and DC are nice cities. Though Denver will be cheaper and the nature in the surrounding areas is beautiful. Either way you won't go wrong. But, I personally would favor an option where I could take on less debt.

Wow you sound just like me in your logic. My first considerations were geographic locations of the schools. I absolutely needed a winter, which by default ruled out most of the south and west coast. Most of the schools I looked at were in the northeast and midwest. Then I looked at fit. Anyway, you should be considering a PhD at this point. While many say that the DSW is for those with more of a practitioner's focus, if you dissect the curriculum of the very few schools that offer both, you will notice little to no difference between the two. Also, many schools are beginning to phase out offering the DSW because of "rigor and prestige" worries. U Washington is an excellent school of Social Work. I am a personal fan of Mark Courtney and the work he does on foster care. I was very sad to see him leave the University of Chicago. The other two on your list are good as well.

Yeah I know right. This year they decided to wait so long in order to let other fellowship competitions wrap uo before getting theirs started. I think the communication could have been better on their end though.

In my doctoral applications I specially mentioned, even bolded, that I had no plans to teach or research in academia. I did just fine. To the OP, you said that you are looking specifically at Princeton. Their PhD at WWS underwent some changes over the past few years, but it is still a very quantitative degree. In fact they say many applicants fall out of the initial round due to insufficient quant preparation. So that should allieviate some of the worries you have. You might want to download their catalogs. They have inside some of the jobs that recent PhD alum have taken. It used to also be on the website, but I can't seem to find the link.

Mine was easy. There was a button on mine that specifically said due to insufficient funding. I simply checked it off.