iamdanthemanstan

Just to conclude this post in case anyone is wondering, I'm going to Korbel. SAIS might be the better school but Korbel is a good school with some notable professors and the 95+ thousand more is just not worth it for SAIS. On top of that Korbel offered an RA position as well which sounds really interesting. Thanks for all the advice.

That's interesting. I asked Denver for more time when they offered me more money right at the end and they said yes. Though it was only another day or two.

Thanks. I am talking about the federal loans. So if the interest compounds daily and they say the loan is 7% what would 50000 grow to in a year?

Does anyone know if decent MA economics programs willing to take students who didn't study economics as an undergrad if they have some math and very good GRE scores?

Can anybody tell me what exactly happens when you can't pay your student loans. I don't mean permanently, but for a period of time. For example let's say you finish an MA with 50,000 in debt at 7% interest. Then you start a PhD program that while funded leaves you with no money to pay your existing debt. Does the interest compound yearly so after one year you'd owe 53,500 (in two 57,245) or is it more often than that? Are there other fees? Anything else I'm not thinking of? Thanks.

I had been leaning towards Korbel, going to SAIS would probably end up with me having 80k+ in debt but now I'm not so sure. I called one top people in China Studies area at Korbel and said that Korbel was good, but he was also very complimentary about SAIS. He said that if it was AU or GW he say take the money and go to Korbel, but for SAIS he wasn't so sure. SAIS does have a great China program, and I'm interested in the economic stuff too, but I'm not 100% sure about my IR interests overall. Korbel is more into Security Studies, which is what this scholarship deals with, and I think that area can be interesting also, but it wasn't what I'd had in mind. Man this decision is killing me.

Unfortunately I can't visit anywhere since I'm living in China now. And I have to decided by the 22nd. I had mostly made up my mind for SAIS but Korbel just offered this much money. If I go for a PhD right from SAIS the interest on the debt would certainly be significant but it wouldn't be unpayable in the long term, just a lot.

I was finally ready to make a decision and go to SAIS when Denver e-mailed me this morning offering a full tuition scholarship and an RA position if I wanted it. Now I don't know what to do. I really like what I know of SAIS' program. They have a great China program, my biggest area of interest, and all the rest of their classes seem really interesting as well. I like the economics focus, I'd never taken much economics, but I've been more and more interested in it since I graduated and SAIS seems to offer a good into to economics even for people with little basis in it. SAIS also has some really interesting professors who teach American Foreign Policy my next biggest area of interest. Being in DC would be good too with so many conferences and lectures held their all the time. But the difference in price over two years is about $95,000+ dollars with the money Denver offered me. Denver doesn't have any where near the reputation SAIS does but it seems like a good school. Korbel has some good China stuff including one professor who is a big deal in China studies. They seem to be big on Security Studies, which I'm sort of interested in. Making things more complicated I'm thinking about pursuing a PhD after a MA. I wouldn't get into a top PhD program now so I figured getting an MA would help out a lot. In the end I want to go to SAIS, the program seems great, I just don't know how I can turn down that much money.

Hey sorry if this is going back to something that was addressed a while ago but I'm not sure there was much posted on this. I know they say that scholarships are only up to 15k a year somewhere on the website but they do sometimes offer more than this.

I'm having some trouble figuring out what schools to apply to for a Masters in International Relations. There are a number of lists I've seen but many of the schools are very focused on the practical side for mid-career people. I'm interested in eventually getting a PhD and being an academic. Also most lists are only of the top 5 or 10 schools so it's hard to tell how good other schools are. My application is a little mixed, some strong parts some weak parts, so I was thinking of applying to a wide range of schools but I could really use some advice in what schools to look at. My undergrad GPA isn't good, 3.14 (3.5 in the major), but my GRE scores are good, 170V 168Q 4.5. I've been living in China for the past 5 years, but only speak a tiny bit of Chinese. I'd love some advice about where to apply or any rankings to look at. Thanks

I'm having some trouble figuring out what schools to apply to for a Masters in International Relations. There are a number of lists I've seen but many of the schools are very focused on the practical side for mid-career people. I'm interested in eventually getting a PhD and being an academic. Also most lists are only of the top 5 or 10 schools so it's hard to tell how good other schools are. My application is a little mixed, some strong parts some weak parts, so I was thinking of applying to a wide range of schools but I could really use some advice in what schools to look at. My undergrad GPA isn't good, 3.14 (3.5 in the major), but my GRE scores are good, 170V 168Q 4.5. I've been living in China for the past 5 years, but only speak a tiny bit of Chinese. I'd love some advice about where to apply or any rankings to look at. Thanks.

I'm freaking out a little over what sort of program I can get into and I need some advice. I was an English major in college, but I've always been very interested in politics, and after living in China for the past five years I'm planning on applying to some graduate programs. My ultimate goal is get a PhD, but my GPA is pretty bad 3.1 and I just never developed great contact with any professors so my letters of recommendation are going to be fairly weak. On the plus side I'll probably do well on the GRE, I always do well on standardized tests and I've been doing really well on the practice questions. My plan was to go for a Master's degree. It should be easier to get into than a PhD program and that way I can develop better contacts and show that I can do the work. But now I'm freaking out a little over if I can get into any decent Master's programs. A lot have requirements I don't meet, like having taken econ. courses, or being fluent in a foreign language, I can speak a little Chinese, but not much. One wanted a 20 page writing sample, unless they want a short story nothing I did in college is very applicable. I can't tell if I have a chance to get in somewhere or am just totally screwed. Thanks for taking the time to read all this, I'd love any thoughts.

I'm freaking out a little over what sort of program I can get into and I need some advice. I was an English major in college, but I've always been very interested in politics, and after living in China for the past five years I'm planning on applying to some graduate programs. My ultimate goal is get a PhD, but my GPA is pretty bad 3.1 and I just never developed great contact with any professors so my letters of recommendation are going to be fairly weak. On the plus side I'll probably do well on the GRE, I always do well on standardized tests and I've been doing really well on the practice questions. My plan was to go for a Master's degree. It should be easier to get into than a PhD program and that way I can develop better contacts and show that I can do the work. But now I'm freaking out a little over if I can get into any decent Master's programs. A lot have requirements I don't meet, like having taken econ. courses, or being fluent in a foreign language, I can speak a little Chinese, but not much. One wanted a 20 page writing sample, unless they want a short story nothing I did in college is very applicable. I can't tell if I have a chance to get in somewhere or am just totally screwed. Thanks for taking the time to read all this, I'd love any thoughts. Edit: This somehow got posted twice and I can't see how to delete this one. Can someone delete it?

I can write better than most, but my spelling is atrocious. When practicing for the GRE I make about one mistake every 40 words. Anyone else whose taken the GRE have any idea how important spelling is really?

Going though the Reading Comprehension questions in this new Kaplan book I can't tell for some of the stuff if the advice they are offering is actually good advice or just the way they like to do it. For example any they ask about the "primary purpose" or "main idea" they are looking for a fairly general answer even if they have a more specific answer listed. Also there have been a bunch of questions that relied on the difference between a general "topic" and a specific "scope" where if the passage was about symbolism in Moby-Dick they would say the topic is Moby-Dick and the scope is the symbolism in Moby-Dick. I can't tell if this is actually what they want on the GRE of just what how Kaplan likes to make the questions.