kmita

I would not attend NYU Global Affairs if I were you. It is a terrible program with little brand recognition. I regret choosing NYU.

I am currently a student at NYU and the course is relatively new. Since the program has been criticized for lacking quant, administrators decided to require the course for some students. Basic stats is a necessity even in international relations. You may work with an economist at a think-tank during your summer internship. Or you may be required to critique a theory by anayzing how the author derived it to begin with. Critiquing a theory requires one to understand multiple regression and stats. I would strongly advise you to take the class. Kaz

I would not apply to CGA @ NYU. It is a relatively new program and has little brand recognition. The less work experience you have, the more you will be wasting your money attending NYU. The program is not stringent enough on the quant side and professors are not well networked in the internship community. Both of my summer internships were found independently. Professors here are still in the early stages of their career and some do not possess a doctorate. Since IR is a research-oriented discipline, I consider this to be a major problem. With your GMAT or GRE scores, you have other options. I would do comparison shopping among different schools and attend the best school you were admitted to. I am in my last semester and I have been quite disappointed with the quality of this program. Please do not make a bad investment. Choose your school wisely. I hope this helps. Kaz

I do not understand why people seek advanced degrees in I.R when their true objective is to work for investment banking or management consulting firms. The key technical background that banking and management consulting firms require from potential hires is financial statement analysis skills. At a typical MBA program, students are required to take a certain number of finance and accounting courses regardless of their concentration. This is not the case at I.R programs unless students decide to double up in I.R and MBA. Whether someone graduates from SAIS or SIPA, he/she is not in a great position to directly compete with his/her MBA counterparts in investment banking or management consulting firms. Before you decide on pursuing an I.R degree, make sure you have a concrete objective with what you would like to do with the degree. Otherwise you are wasting your precious time and energy.

When you enroll in a graduate program with a language proficiency requirement, are you going to use Japanese as your secondary language? When you say fluent, how fluent are you? Can you read a newspaper? I am just curious.