lecorbeau

Congratulations to everyone that has been admitted! I hope I get to meet many of you next year in Geneva!

No, unless you want to pay $40+ per person. Hope that answers your question!

The US schools are nigh impossible to get into. You're competing with the entire school for very few spots and the vast majority of students are looking to spend their exchange semester in the States. In fact, MDev students often opt for our partner schools in developing countries (i.e., India, Indonesia, among others) to do field-work in preparation for their thesis.

Hey all, I think you're all asking questions that are, frankly, above my pay-grade. However, with regard to working part-time, I know plenty of students that manage jobs and school just fine and if they can do it so can you. In fact I myself am looking to get a part-time job in Geneva but non-EU citizens have to wait 6 months before they are legally able to start working in CH, which wouldn't apply to you.

I am currently in the MIA program, and would be happy to answer questions---but after finals this week! As you might have noticed, I'm procrastinating on gradcafe. Good luck with your applications, so far I'm quite pleased with IHEID.

You might have already seen this, but just in case, check out this thread:

Besides the continental heavyweights e.g., IHEID in Geneva and Sciences Po in Paris, I might add the Hertie School in Berlin (fairly new but already established and reputable institution), the College of Europe/Collège d'Europe in Bruges (this being almost exclusively EU-focused), and on a slightly lower tier (but by no means "bad") the Central European University in Budapest. Also, while I can't speak to its reputation or quality, I met quite a few very impressive young Italians working abroad who attended LUISS Guido Carli in Rome. They have programs in English and while the people I met are of course biased being graduates of the school themselves, they all nevertheless seemed to agree that it was one of, if not the best, school of IR in the whole of Italy.

I'm biased, but if you have the relevant profile/grades/etc. I'd recommend that you take out Zurich (which is much more of an engineering/applied sciences-y school, anyway) and replace it with the Graduate Institute in Geneva. Especially if you're after a career in the NGO/UN/etc. world. Besides the usual suspects in the UK (UCL/LSE/Kings), some other schools you should look at are Sciences Po Paris and the Hertie School in Berlin. There are a million about this, just do some searches.

Plus tuition is 36,400+ CHF. Seems pretty steep for that kind of school IMO.

I'm a self-described college/grad school addict, having done extensive research on schools around the world. I have never heard of IUG. Not that I'm anyone important, but it's just 2 cents coming from someone who is going to IHEID and consequently had done a lot of research about schools in Europe and Geneva specifically. Yes, the Graduate Institute is competitive, but it's worth a shot if you have stellar work experience/language skills/etc. Go for it---you never know.

ditto X 100000

Sorry to hear that, everyone.

I'm guessing this was directed at me, which I suppose intellectually speaking is fair enough. Refer to my "context" bit earlier. But furthermore, I just find it impossibly arrogant on Sciences Po's part to assume that I, despite holding offers from other, equally reputable schools that I needed to accept/refuse by mid-April, was doing nothing but anxiously awaiting the result of their scholarship (and I didn't appreciate their stringing me along). Frankly, Sciences Po had been my dream school for years but my attendance was 100% reliant on that scholarship, so I couldn't afford to take the huge gamble of accepting their offer and hopelessly waiting to see if I can afford to go to graduate school. Again, this was an entirely personal decision.

Keep the validation coming.

Disclaimer: I am from the west coast of the US, and am attending a university next year with fairly limited name recognition. So I'm not getting on my high horse. That said, I like to think that in my life I have researched colleges and universities to an exhaustive, perhaps even unhealthy extent. My research into graduate MPA/IR/etc. programs was no different. I also participated in an academic youth camp based in Poughkeepsie, NY several summers ago. And despite all that, I've never heard of Marist. I'd be surprised if an employer outside of Dutchess County has heard of the school, let alone had an opinion of its MPA program. Furthermore the mere mention in your post of a possibility of non-accreditation raises some major red flags. But what do I know?

I just wanted to offer my two cents, and you can take what you will from it. While I'm still young (I'm 24), I had a similar epiphany a few years back. At the time I had held down several internships in Hollywood all with the intention of breaking into the film industry (I wanted to work in international distribution). But sooner or later I realized it was the "international" rather than "distribution" that interested me most, and I needed to switch career paths. And since I was two quarters away from graduating from college---I needed to do it fast. At first I felt hopeless and stuck in a sort of professional rut. But I figured my happiness was at stake and said to hell with it and resolved to make a gradual, but ultimately, decisive, transition. I started out doing thankless PR/admin/business-y stuff for a local foreign affairs-related non-profit with very little gratification but it was still closer to what I wanted than what I was doing before. I then contributed an article to my school's foreign affairs journal about film industry trends around the world. With time, I had accumulated enough indirectly relevant experience to land a State Dept language scholarship (which led to two years working and studying overseas), internships with two of the largest international security organizations in the world, and ultimately, my acceptance to all four graduate schools I applied to. I know there's a bit of an age discrepancy between us, but I guess what I'm saying is the route offered up by charlotte_asia and a few others on this thread is sound and totally feasible. I would know---I'm speaking from experience.

this seems entirely fair to me.

For those of you pursuing an MIA or MDev at IHEID next year, the student association's website has just announced that there will be some major changes to the structure of the curriculum of the school's interdisciplinary masters. For instance it appears as though the current specializations offered will be scrapped and replaced with Global and Regional Integration (economics-focused track), Conflict and Peacebuilding (more security/politics), and Civil Society and Transnational Issues (the option that seems more generalist). This is from their website: "Here are some specific curriculum changes: Interdisciplinary Masters are to have their own pool of classes to choose from, separate from the Disciplinary Masters. Some will be open to both, some will be for MIA or MDev specifically. Electives will correspond more accurately to the tracks provided so as to create a more coherent program. Students in both Interdisciplinary and Disciplinary programs will be able to take one class outside of their program plan, and one class outside of the Institute. (This is actually the current rule). There have already been two new professors hired for the Interdisciplinary programs, so class options should not suffer. The tracks in both the MIA and MDev programs will consist of: 1 core course, 1 Applied Research Seminar, 2 optional courses in the track, and 3 optional courses outside of the track. The Conflict track will be held in common for MIA and MDev. Current students will experience SOME of the new changes, not ALL. For example, current track names will remain for 2011-2013, but there will be new electives to choose from for the fall semester. The forthcoming document will provide more details." If you're interested, here is a draft of the new MIA/MDev curriculum to be implemented over the next two years. Note that it is entirely in French. IMO, the changes look good. More focused and fewer wishy-washy courses. Excited!

That's great, DualCitizenIR. I've been keeping up with your progress ever since you were in the IHEID forums. You're going to have a blast in London!

I called and e-mailed to confirm the "end of March" deadline for the Emile Boutmy scholarship. So I waited for almost three weeks to accept any offers of admission so as to have all the information on the table before making my final decision. March comes and goes, I e-mail again. They respond with an e-mail, without explanation or apology, saying that it is actually ~April 20th and now I'm reading on this thread that it has since been changed to May. As you might guess, I was furious. Sure, I could write a more formal letter to their administration, but what's the use? When Sciences Po asked me to wait until April I made it clear to them that I was declining their offer as a direct result of their handling of the Boutmy scholarship. Writing a letter would merely get a form response (a week later) thanking me for my e-mail and that would be it. Also, keep in mind I am not so naïve as to make my decision based on this single event. Context is important. Weeks prior I had been talking to current and past Sciences Po students who unanimously complained about its laughably inferior library (which I've seen in person), a bureaucratic administration poorly organized on every level, the chaos that has resulted from the influx of new students, and I personally feel that now with the passing of Descoings the future of the institution (and all of its well-intentioned reforms) are in serious jeopardy. Furthermore, I realized that after two years in Paris at Sciences Po I would be $70,000+ in debt absent financial assistance. The scholarship fiasco was merely the straw that broke the camel's back. So a few weeks back I paid my deposit for another school (IHEID in Geneva) which has shown itself to be much more organized and infinitely more solicitous for the needs of their students and applicants. While I would much prefer to be in Paris as a city, attending university there at Sciences Po, at least from what I have gathered, would have been nothing short of nightmarish.

First March, then April, and now, apparently, May. Sciences Po's disorganization put me off to such an extent that I rejected their offer of admission outright a few weeks back.

I have accepted my offer to IHEID.

It kinda sounds like you've made up your mind already. You're leaning toward FSU.

Most schools in Europe have rolling admissions, often until as late as June-July. Try looking at the UK universities (LSE, UCL, Kings, etc.)

If I were you I'd take Hertie in a heartbeat. It's on its way to being a top-ranked school, and from a personal standpoint you can't beat living in Berlin (which is a MUCH cheaper, and arguably more fun, city than NY!) for two years. If you can swing improving your German then all the better.