HisRoyalHighness

Excuse me? This isn't like the Bush Justice Department where anyone's amoral conduct can be creatively excused. 2400 received an "honest opinion." You may not like the way it was phrased but both myself and math123 are certainly entitled to voice ours. And no, I didn't find myself in that situation - wanna know why? Because I didn't create a situation like that for myself.

It's quite shocking how some people are quite willing to abandon or ignore easily understood and agreed-to rules to suit themselves when they believe the circumstances create a more advantageous situation for them. Ignoring, of course, that most other people in this process try and abide by the rules we agreed to when we started this journey back in 2008.

Perhaps "shocking" isn't the appropriate word - disgusting more aptly sums it up.

It's interesting. Recommendation letters are one of the last bastions of academic secrecy. Corporations aren't allowed to keep references secret so why should professors be allowed to to do so? I provided an example (and there are thousands, if not tens of thousands) of a professor who told a student they would write a RECOMMENDATION letter and then slammed the student behind their back, possibly costing them admittance to their chosen program. And you feel that asking a professor for full transparency to ensure the same thing doesn't happen to you is a "dick move?"

I stand by what I write and I don't see why professors shouldn't do the same. It's pretty simple for them to turn down requests for recommendations instead of agreeing to write one and then trash-talking an applicant, which strikes me as not only extremely cowardly (why not tell them to their face?) but also far more of a "dick move" than asking for a copy (which some schools will allow you to see anyway).

You all keep talking about IR - the original poster specifically asked about Security Studies. I would not put Yale, LSE or even SAIS on a top-10 list for International Security. IR and Security are two separate fields - security focuses on intelligence, defense, regional security and terrorism analysis using qualitative and quantitative methods - IR does not.

If someone really finds the FAFSA difficult to fill out then they're probably going to find most graduate programs extraordinarily difficult. I can't empathize with people who complain about how hard it is to fill in an electronic form which asks such difficult questions like: "how much was your total income last year."

Excuse me? This isn't like the Bush Justice Department where anyone's amoral conduct can be creatively excused. 2400 received an "honest opinion." You may not like the way it was phrased but both myself and math123 are certainly entitled to voice ours. And no, I didn't find myself in that situation - wanna know why? Because I didn't create a situation like that for myself.