IRToni

You should probably nail down your interests first!

Seriously? "we are girls and we overreact sometimes"? I am a girl and I feel totally insulted by that. WTF? Back on-topic: I really think the OP is reading too much into all of this, TBH. I will say that your behavior seems really unprofessional, both in flirting with him (doesn't matter whether he's married or not, flirting with a prof is always a bad idea), and in asking for a seat in his class, and then dropping it. I would be pissed if one of my students did that, because it is additional work for him to enroll you in his class, esp. if you're from another department. Not to mention the fact that you then didn't even bother to officially drop his class, creating additional work for him and the secretary. Regarding the syllabus: Couldn't you have gotten your hands on it from another student? That's what we do, in order to not bother our professors etc. with trivial crap, and in order to actually get a feel for the class... Regarding all these other events that you chalk up to this professor: 1. If he actually is less than 10 years your senior, I highly doubt his word carries enough weight to influence admin decsions etc. At my unis, oral enthusiastic responses, followed by a written "we'll have to think about it/check/confirm" are completely normal, and more than once ended with a "Sorry, we can't do it". Also, taking into account the fact that most Americans I have met are a lot more enthusiastic, outgoing and positive in the first place, and thereby often phrase things in a way that would be a sure thing for me, as a European, but isn't for them, I really don't think you'll be able to infer anything from their positive or negative response. 2. Regarding the other professor: schedule a meeting or go to her office hours! If she still ignores you there, you might have grounds to complain, though I would highly advise against bringing up your issue with the other professor, because you're basically accusing her of being unprofessional there. As a future course of action, I would advise you to let it go, chalk it up as a learning and growing experience for you as a person (and student), and be more careful in the future. I also wouldn't try to talks to the professor anymore. He's made it abundantly clear he has no interest in talking to you, you guys don't currently have any sort of involvement that would require contact ( as in, you're not in his class etc.), so just let it go, be happy that you were able to drop his class (which is not a given). Hope this helps!

I studied Politics, Economics, and Math in undergrad (since I'm from a foreign country, I can't exactly say major or minor, since we don't have these concepts - I did about 70-80 credits in politics (excluding honor thesis etc.), 40 in Econ, and 70 or so in Math, with a normal B.A. being 180 credits, including a general part, and 20 or so credits for the thesis etc. I personally felt that Politics and Economics were most useful for my graduate program, in preparing how to think about problems etc. I didn't benefit nearly as much from my math major, and am wondering why, if Politics is what you're interested in, you're not interested in studying it? For me, class discussions in politics were invaluable, whereas I could teach myself math and most of the econ stuff that I took with a good textbook. The other thing is: How do you know politics is what you want to do if you haven't studied (or worked in) it? There's a huge gap between being interested in politics, and actually studying it academically, IMO. I would think that Stats and PoSci would be more interesting and possibly better for your career goals etc., provided you manage to take the intro econ courses that are required esp. for the policy schools (i.e. Intro Macro, Intro Micro). JMO, of course!

I might be able to offer some perspective from my experience. I graduated in 2012 from a pretty well-respected foreign university (European student). Had a higher GPA than you, but the school is less well-known, so it probably doesn't make much difference. I incidentally also have the same specialization (IR/China), speak Chinese (not heritage, taught), and spent 2011/2012 abroad, studying and interning in China. I ultimately decided to go for a (fully-funded) terminal MA program (in Europe) in IR, because I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do policy or research work. The path really became clear to me only when writing my senior thesis, and even more so during my first semester of my terminal MA program, and I don't regret the decision one bit, because I felt I wasn't ready to commit to something for 5+ years, not knowing whether I actually want to do academic work in the future. In Europe, in general, though, you do a MA before doing a PhD, and most schools don't have a strict division between academic and professional Masters. Incidentally, my school does have this division, and I am in the more academic Masters, and overall really like it. For me, it is/was a way to clarify my goals, get acquainted with graduate-level work, and get better exposure of the field as a whole. In that way, I think be worth it to do a terminal MA, and even in the US, looking at top schools, there's, I believe more and more people that have a MA before comming in. Just my .02, of course!

I also started college early, and didn't mention it in my SOP, but one of my LORs actually mentioned my unusually young age. I made sure that my profs comment on my "maturity" in the LORs, and my age wasn't the focus at all, but I have definitely been discriminated against for my age more than once. I am from a country where finishing HS early is a lot more unusual than in the US though, and you have to put your birthdate on your CV, so everyone will see it. Many people, however, just skim the CV and don't quite catch it consciously (or they think I put it down wrong...). Now, being in grad school, I did what I did in my undergrad. When people asked me, I was forthright about my age (i.e. didn't lie), but I also don't talk about it by myself. Seems to be working pretty well, because by the time it comes up, they already have an image of me that won't be drastically revised just because I am younger. However, there is the occasional joke at my expense because of my age, but usually not in a mean way!

I used anki, which is an amazing flashcard tool for pretty much all studying that you need to do. You can input everything, from formulas for math to words. I just downloaded one of those GRE wordlists (there's a large numbers in the anki archives), and used one that had synonyms, and examples of usage. In addition, I added words that I encountered in the practice tests. I didn't manage to finish all the revisions before the test, but scored 166 (94th percentile). I'm a non-native speaker, but have learned English earlier and more enmeshed than most other people (went to school in England), so didn't revert to translations at all. Since I know a fair amount of Latin and German, I could also infer a lot of meanings. If you don't, it might make a lot of sense to look at roots that help you pinpoint the meaning!

Hi! Welcome! Sorry for the late reply I'm in IR as well. What I've read (and done myself), is literature reviews that were adjacent to the topic, and that helped place the research undertaken in the broader debate (and/or explain it better). For your topic, political islam in mulim country's foreign policy would indeed be one good option, I believe. Another option could be to review the literature on Turkish foreign policy decision-making, I think, especially if your arguments rely on some of that. Both of these would place your research in some debate, and also not take anything away from your real arguments. Which one to choose depends on the thrust of your arguments, I believe. Would you consider your paper to be more about Turkey and Turkish foreign policy, or more of a case study on the role of political Islam in foreign policy? Hope this helped.

Also, if you're a US citizen and/or went to school in the States, they usually don't let you go back for an exchange, or so I've heard. I definitely wouldn't attend IHEID just so you can go to one of the US partner schools, spots are too scarce for that!

Hi! Did you look at Central European University? I've been hearing lots of good stuff from there recently, although it is apparently quite European-focused. Did you look at some lesser-known schools in England (Warwick, Nottingham)? Otherwise, I've heard good stuff from Leiden, but I think the degree is quite expensive, and the course selection seemed quite small. SOAS is an amazing school, especially if you have a more regional focus. It is hard to evaluate without knowing what you're after. Did you apply to MIA at IHEID?

Regarding the grades: The grades here, especially in the disciplinary departments, really are strange, and I was also worried about that at the beginning. However, you will usually send in your original transcript, since most schools do not expect you to send in the conversion. I have heard that most schools will know about Swiss grading, and IHEID grading, where a 5.25 often equals an American A, I would say. In addition, this is something where LORs can play an important role. Grade conversion of the Swiss system is a mess anyway, but IHEID is sufficiently well-known in a lot of universities, I think, that this grade difference is not that important. I'd say that the name would actually help you, and most schools in the US do know about European/Swiss grading. At IHEID, you usually need an average of 5 or higher to transition seemlessly into the PhD. That's similar for other schools, I expect.

Thanks for your input! I asked one of my professors who told me to go ahead with the publication now, as it will make me a stronger candidate for PhD applications down the road (it probably won't be published in a journal by then). She also recommended that after this publication, I could further it, put a new spin on it and then publish it in a journal, which it is really suited to do. She also said that I'm in a pretty intensive M.A. program that possibly won't allow me to actually complete a publication in a journal, and that this is a really good opportunity for networking. I thus decided to go ahead, and am really grateful that you guys took the time to answer.

Dear all, I am a current M.A. student at one of the best schools for Political Science/IR in Europe, and am looking at doing a PhD afterwards. I wrote a senior thesis, that my professor thought was of high enough quality to publish, and I will be presenting at the Swiss Association for Political Science Annual Conference in February. Now, I was just contacted whether I would want to contribute this peace (in a slightly adapted fashion of course) to an anthology (book) that will be published with Cambridge Scholarly Publishing (notably not Cambridge University Press). The book as such is peer-reviewed, but not by the press (the editors themselves organize this blind peer review). In addition, I've heard mixed things from Cambridge Scholarly Publishing. Do you think I should still go for it and have it published as a book chapter or should I wait for the conference, then revise it some more and try to get it into a peer-reviewed journal? Thanks in advance, Toni

Regarding the statistics. Keep in mind that this is purely speculation from talking to students and TAs/professors: Generally, MIA and MDev people seem to be older than those from the disciplinary masters. I'd say that MIA/MDev average might be about 25/26, while the disciplinary Masters average is closer to 24. Compared to its stateside peers, people definitely tend to be younger at IHEID. In addition, work experience is not as important in admissions as it is in the US, even for the interdisciplinary masters. I'd say your academic performance and LORs are probably the most important things, followed by your SOP. Regarding admission statistics: The institute doesn't publish them, I believe. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the MIA is the most "competitive" program in sheer numbers, while "History" and "Anthropology and Sociology of Development" are quite easy to get into.

Hey Lud, about your first question: I don't think there's any way for you to get credits for an internship in the disciplinary masters. I was also surprised by that, but I think their rationale is that these M.A. prepare for PhD work, so getting the coursework done (remember that most European PhDs don't include a lot of course work, if any at all) is more important. However, many people do internships while there, both during the semester and in the summer, you just can't get any credits. In addition, quite a few people do internships in their fourth semester, when they don't have courses any more and are just writing their theses. 2. There's rules for that: 1. as an interdisciplinary student, you can take classes from the other interdisciplinary programs, 2. as a disciplinary student, you can take 2-4 classes from another (or multiple) disciplines. For out-of program classes: Every student can (currently) take two classes out-of-program, one of them in the Graduate Institute, another one at another academic institution in Geneva (e.g. University of geneva, Academy for Human Rights etc.). All of these work on a "space available" basis, however, which means that you'll only be allowed to take them if there's space, i.e. you don't get priority. At the moment, there's not much flexibility (i.e. you can't take both classes at the Institute), but the student association is actually working on changing this at the moment. Regarding flexibility: I find the institute to be super rigid in administration questions, much more so than my undergrad.

Hey. I'm a current student in the IR/PS program, and would be happy to answer questions. I just read through your posts and have a couple of things to say: 1. disciplinary vs. interdisciplinary: In general, the disciplinary courses are more work, more rigorous and have smaller classes, esp. at the beginning. They're also a lot more theoretical, though. I personally changed from MIA to IR/PS, because I probably want to do a PhD afterwards, which can be harder for MIA. At the same time, though, grades are easier in the MIA, and ppl from interdisciplinary programs do go on to do a PhD, although they generally need a B.A. in the same discipline then. Otherwise, there've been some major changes to the MIA and MDev curriculum, which the students were not informed of prior, thus ppl like me applied to different programs than what we're actually getting, which was a bad move on the administration's part. The current programs are up-to-date and unlikely to change drastically anytime soon. The interdisciplinary programs are the two biggest programs, each having about 70 students. That makes core courses really big as well. However, if you're not interested in doing a PhD, the MIA and MDev will allow you to do internships on the side, and in general take less of your time than the disciplinary programs. IMO, both tracks have their own merits and shortcomings, and although there is a general snobbery between interdisciplinary and disciplinary, you should choose your program based on your own goals. What some people have complained about with the MIA is that it starts off really basic, so your courses in the first semester really are introductory, which can be frustrating if you have a background in the social sciences, which some people do not. 2. Non-lawyers in IL: I know of a couple of people in International Law that have an International Relations B.A., although focusing on international law, with a B.A. thesis in law, so it's possible, but you do really need to have a background in law. 3. Changing after being admitted: It's actually quite easy to change after being admitted, provided you have the necessary background for the disciplinary masters. In general, more ppl switch from interdisciplinary to disciplinary, although switches in all direction are possible. The department head generally decides based on your credentials! I've heard of some people that were transferred from MIA to history when applying, so these things happen, even if there's no note in your SOP. Right, that's it for now. Hope I adressed some of your concerns and don't hesitate to ask! Toni

This time last year I was just finishing up my last semester of uni (as in physical presence required). Finishing up papers. Yesterday a year ago I had my B.A. oral examination. I was already pretty clear that I wanted to apply to grad school, but hadn't narrowed down the list yet. Alos, I was preparing for my year abroad...

Hi. Your quant seems to be on the low side, though that also depends on what you want to do. If you want to focus on Human Rights, it will not matter as much as if you want to focus on Econ-heavy stuff. Your micro, macro and stats grades will probably make up for it though. Aside from that, WE is of course a factor. I'd also say that you'd have to find pretty good reasons for your heavy involvement with Germany if you want to do IDev. You've been to Egypt, that's great, but going to Germany will, IMO, not be regarded that highly in IDev, unless you can find good reasons. Just my two cents though.

Best: WWS. They fund everyone. Harvard is notoriously stingy with funding, as well as LSE, from what I gather. Don't know about the rest though.

First, the GRE is going to allow you to selectively send scores soon, from what I've read. Second, if you're sitting out a year and really fell like you could do better, improving the Quant score might just be worth it. I don't think it will hurt you more than the score you have now. Not that your quant score is bad by any stretch of the imagination, but there's definitely room to improve. At the same time, however, if the rest of your application is very good, your current score will likely not hinder you at all. I'd probably make it depend upon how much effort I'd have to put in to get (>90th percentile) in math and then decide from there. Just my 2 cents

In Germany, you can't do it. You can't be enrolled in a US uni when you apply, so it doesn't work that way. Don't know about Bulgaria though, best just send an E-Mail to the Fulbright people.

I personally found it quite easy to go over to office hours to get feedback. It's a good way to get to know professors, they see that you're interested and want to learn, but you don't just go there for the sake of going there. For example, I had a class where we had to do a presentation. I went in a couple of weeks prior just to talk about ideas and what the prof deemed appropriate, sent my ppt one week before the presentation so they'd have time to go through it, came the week after to get in-detail feedback and talk about my paper. Then, after my paper was done, I also went there to discuss the paper and get feedback. That has the added benefit of actually getting feedback and improving. This, of course, only works in small seminar-like classes where the professor himself does the marking (fortunately, most of the classes I took were that way). In lectures, I found it useful to try to ask questions (they are usually encouraged and if you're up to date with the readings etc., chances are other people will have the same questions) during the lecture. Then, I usually went to office hours once a semester, just to "chat". I'd usually have a question that I wanted to get answered and couldn't find a satisfactory answer to, so I'd set up an appointment and/or just go to their office hours. More often than not, the professors at my undergrad had lots of time and asked questions about me etc., but that might just be my undergrad. Hope that helps.

Geneva IHEID: https://www.facebook.com/groups/334176453293607/

For those interested, there's a FB group for the incoming class of 2012: https://www.facebook.com/groups/334176453293607/. Join!!!

If your son is truly committed to public service, he might be banking on the Public service loan forgiveness program. With this program, he would pay the loans back according to his income and after 10 years, the remainder would be forgiven completely. Aside from that, there's something I just need to say and I hope you don't take it the wrong way. I think it's great that you're so active and take such a personal interest in your sons' life, but I also think that while your input should definitely be appreciated, it is ultimately his life and his decision. He's probably in his mid-20s right now, having worked for at least a year (since he got into HKS). That means that he's old enough and it is his choice ultimately. That doesn't mean that you shouldn't share your feelings, but I get the feeling, from the way you come across here, that you might be a little overbearing to him and that this might hurt both of you in the long run. Now, you being concerned is understandable, but ultimately, he's an adult that makes his own decision and for him personally, the debt might be worth it. Also note that in case he goes the private sector route, he will likely make 95 to 100k starting salary (the mean here: http://www.hks.harvard.edu/var/ezp_site/storage/fckeditor/file/pdfs/degree-programs/oca/class_employment_overview.pdf). Add bonuses and likely increases through seniority, the debt does seem managable, if he's so inclined. Hope this helps and you don't take this the wrong way.