fenderpete

On the plus side I get back into my capital city tomorrow for ten days, so can take a break from the obsessing

My heart skipped a beat when the Elliott School sent out a newsletter about their 'convenient evening course schedule.' Nothing to see here, back to business as usual...

I wish. I'm quite literally on the other side of the world. This will be when I visit the US to check out programs in a little over a month. And no reply either, so now I feel like I'm in high school and have texted a crush who won't text back....

Still three weeks before I'll hear anything...

Hahaha... I've got a nice corsage picked out and everything.

I cracked and emailed a POI... Asked if they'd be free for coffee...

AFAIK is it not mandatory that schools give you until mid-April?

Nah I don't really think they'll be expecting you to have worked for Jane's or the Pentagon at this point. Relevant critical thinking and analytical experience is where it's at. Although I would probably have expressed an undying love of Keifer Sutherland and 24 in my personal statement if I were you. IDEV is the other end of the scale, unless you've singlehandedly eradicated malaria it's a bit tough to break the threshold - there are so many Mickey Mouse orgs. out there it can be hard to stand out.

Sorry MYRNIST, I've already offered up a burnt offering of a fattened calf on a pyre of old issues of Foreign Policy for a WWS spot

I think the most important thing here is how you've related your experience in your personal statement. Grad programs recruit across a really broad spectrum of experience levels and you could well be a perfect fit for one of your POIs. However, do bear in mind that all of those programs are insanely competitive, and that people who have much more experience than all of us in this forum routinely fail to get admitted. If it doesn't work out this year, take some time and build some more experience in developing countries. Where you work matters almost equally with what you do/achieve while you're there. A lot of the grad profiles on the programs you listed can reel off a list of two or three continents they've worked on, and I'm not just talking Europe and the US All that being said, good luck with the applications and financial aid!

Can you clarify what you mean by "3yrs of international exposure" and how that fits in with "straight from undergrad"? Not to sound harsh, but there's a big difference between living/volunteering abroad and a full-time salaried position. From what I've heard SIPA can be decent if they want you enough, while Georgetown are pretty stingy.

Oof. I'd rather have an email tbh. My current internet connection means that whole process will probably take a nerve-jangling five minutes.

Everyone else has pretty much hit the nail on the head here. Program names/degree titles mean nothing - depending on where I applied I applied to an MPA, MA in International Development (Studies), MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution and I only applied to four programs. All those degrees let me focus on what I want, it's just down to the school what they call it. I think a lot of people pick the schools with the best funding option, or at least a compromise of the two. For example, I didn't even apply to Georgetown because I know they pretty much don't fund. Ideally you want somewhere that combines the course you want, location and a decent funding offer. I need to step out a second, pigs appear to be flying past my window... I do also know that a lot of schools give loan remittance if you guarantee you'll do X amount of years in public service (American does this) so that's also worth researching. The four schools I applied to are a decent start, as I pretty much targeted places that fund

Having staved off the madness this long, I'm now starting to feel a touch antsy. All my schools notify in March, so we're two weeks from the start of crunch time. I'm beginning to feel the zero-sum nature of the application cycle.

I'd happily go anywhere I applied... That's kind of why I applied there.

You can have my SAIS money if I can have your GWU money

Ditto, nada from GWU either. -MPA455 - Only the Norton fellowship is available for international students, and then only if you're doing something that'll help combat terrorism.

Ditto. I just wrote an article about their work too... Like you said, awwwkward.

Start a blog maybe? Blog on international affairs related to your area of interest?

I'm guessing it is just me then lol.

It's just come to my attention that some of the schools I've applied to have Twitter accounts for their specific departments. I hadn't really thought about that until now. Before I'd checked out PoIs and been cognisant of the fact PoIs might check my account out, but never really thought about schools doing it. Dug a little deeper and found people tweeting at various programs basically saying "OMG JUST APPLIED TO YOUR MA IN GOLDFISH!". Am I wrong, or does this seem a little much? I've addressed tweets at PoIs before but even then, that was 9 months back before I submitted apps. At this stage, is it not a bit high wire and cheesy to be pulling that sort of thing? Thoughts?

isamup - Afraid I can't help you on the safety schools front as I don't really know anything about MURP. But otherwise your stats look good. XOAN - You may be leaving it a bit late if you're applying for Fall 2012 to get GRE scores in. jhpigott - You look pretty solid to me in terms of work experience and profile to me. I don't necessarily think it's about fitting the mould for security studies programs (this is just my opinion). I'd far rather have someone who can bring a unique point of view to the subject and sounds like you can do that. That being said, bear in mind I may be completely wrong

Second time round here and I'm a lot less stressed. It would make for some very tough choices if I don't get in anywhere, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Meanwhile it's out of my hands, 6 weeks to go and regardless I'm visiting good friends in the US two months from now. Until then, on with the day job.

"Is it March yet?"

"You applied THERE?!?!"