washdc
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Posts posted by washdc
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Are you a dual citizen or solely a US citizen?
I think most of all, with your background your security process will take *much* longer than say the average person.. for each study abroad experience you have to list a person you knew who can verify you were there.. and if you studied or traveled often it's quite a pain in the butt, not to mention you start running out of people.
How high of a clearance you get cleared for might also be dependent upon your background. I don't think you should have a problem it just might take a really long time because they will throughly investigate your familial ties to Pakistan and you will have to list that your parents are from Pakistan, etc.
But I wouldn't worry about it.. as someone else mentioned. The Foreign Service exam could take well over a year, and even if you get through until the very end, the security process will be out of your hands anyway.
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Did you look into any joint programs? AU has a joint MA/JD program in International Affairs and International Law that's 3 years.
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Ah okay, I thought you were giving an 'example' of your future situation.
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You can do DC for less of a budget than that. I have a stipend of $1950, and I lived in Silver Spring by myself in a studio, commuted to classes in DC and shopped at Whole Foods for that price (for a full year) - plus I was still able to go out once or twice a month with friends. Granted, you're not going to be *saving* any money but it's doable.
For housing.. do you need a 3K/mo 1 bedroom in Adams Morgan? Which school are you going to that you're living in Adams Morgan? 3k/mo is pretty expensive.. you can find something much cheaper. I currently live in a 2 bedroom luxury apartment with a pool on the rooftop, indoor gym and 24/hr concierge downstairs for $2200 in Crystal City.
DC has many farmers markets.. there's one here in C City a couple times a month, Dupont has a weekly farmer's market on Sundays. I was spending more than $250/mo going to Whole Foods often, but I thought it was worth it.
Again, not sure where you're going to school.. and living in Adams Morgan in relation to your school for the metro - but $200 sounds about right. We don't have monthly metro passes, so you pay for each trip - metro fares will be going up this Summer.
Socially $150 works depending on where you go.. if you're into dive bars, 930 club, etc. then that works. You can even get cheap tickets at basketball games, etc (they sometimes have really good deals for $5 dollar tickets the day-of).
Let me know if you have any other questions on DC, I've been living here for three years.
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Does anyone currently live by Columbia? Could someone tell me if the surrounding apartments are filled with Columbia students etc. I want to live within walking distance, but I don't want to feel like I'm in the middle of campus when I go home (Greenwich sort of feels this way whenever I visit, I almost feel like an NYUer). I lived on the UES this past summer and loved feeling like a regular New Yorker..
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You mean the rankings that have Syracuse ranked ahead of HKS and WWS? Yeah good call there. Second I did not say Elliott was on the same level as SAIS, I said it was a step below if you bothered to read rather than fly off the handle because you took umbrage at the idea GW is a better / more well regarded school.
How is it "dissing" AU to state the obvious that it is not on par with GW?
No.. now you're referring to Syracuse, which yes has the #1 public affairs school in the country. Not the same as IP, different programs. Get over it. Harvard and Yale are not #1 in everything. Yes, Syracuse has the better program. Why is that such a big deal for you?
And they are on par.
- K.Ash, WinterSolstice and MYRNIST
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I would say that based on reputation, rankings, and alumni GW Elliott is hands down superior to AU's SIS. The only people I've ever heard say they are on par are AU students / alumni.
Are you joking? Have you seen the rankings? GWU is 7th, AU is 8th. You actually have no idea what you're talking about (and I immediately knew this when you said Elliot is comparable to SAIS- SAIS is 2nd, better than Princeton and Harvard). Please move along and let people who actually have gone to these schools/had to choose between these schools to comment on this thread and offer their advice.
PS In addition, you've just single-handedly dissed all applicants who have gone/go to/are contemplating going to AU. Way to go, buddy. Feel better?
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I am this close to accepting my place at GW Elliott, but I still have a few (probably irrational) reservations. I somehow have the impression that GW isn't a very student-centered school (not much faculty interaction, few opportunities for participation in research, etc). For those of you who have visited (or even better, are current students or grads), what is your impression? Are faculty/administratiors/career services accessible and helpful?
Also, on an academic level, how does GW Elliott compare to SAIS and UMD-College Park?
I have a friend at GW now.. and I also looked at GW for my Master's, we both feel the same way (about both of our schools- he GW and myself AU) that they are not student-focused at all. I am assuming they just feel at our level we should be self-motivated.. Especially my feeling of GW is that mostly everyone is a working professional, so people mostly come in for class after work.. my friend said he's one of a select few actually not working but just purely studying. He already has his job lined up post-graduating, but that's because he's very well-connected and a part of a wealthy foreign family actively involved in international politics.
GW isn't a slight step below SAIS, it's on par with AU's SIS. SAIS is in its own league with HKS, WWS, and SFS. UMD is not in the same league as either GW or AU but much further below both.
Did you receive funding at SAIS? I would strongly encourage you to accept SAIS..
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I am waiting on a UK program (Oxford), and it's part-time distance learning except 2 summer terms, so there isn't a whole lot out there! I haven't been able to find anyone online who has applied...it's designed for working people, so most probably aren't as obsessive as I am! Anyway, there were 3 deadlines for application, the final one on March 9th. Previous years it looks like people were admitted in early April, so I was hoping to hear something despite the official mid-May deadline. Due to the conflicting information, I e-mailed the department just to clarify when they hoped to have decisions made. This is what they said...word for word, and it's a bit confusing...
"The response time is meant to be approximately 6 to 8 weeks and there are still decisions to be made on applications so around mid-May is about the time that we hope that to be able to tell everyone. As we are not able to tell realise any information until all decisions have been finalised."
6 - 8 weeks from the March 9 deadline is Mid-May, which is why she's saying you'll hear back in Mid-May. I agree with someone else that perhaps earlier notifications were a result of early-submits on the app deadline. I don't think you've been accepted/waitlisted/rejected yet.
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Is anyone else having an (admittedly delayed) freakout about the amount of debt they are about to sign themselves away to? I was lucky to receive some funding from some schools and think I know what my decision is, but am still finding myself staring at the spreadsheet that shows I will need $60k in loans over the next two years. Anyone have any words of advice? $500/month in student loan repayments for 10 years sounds absolutely terrifying to me...will it be worth it?
Is there anyway you can do PT like 2 classes instead of 3 (including the summer) and work, putting at least 25 - 50% of your paycheck towards tuition costs? That way it will at least cushion your fall? At AU 3 classes is a semester is on track to graduate. So if you do two each semester and summer you are still on track to grad in 2 years.
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I think this is a pretty oversimplified idea of how rankings work...
First off, rankings are an extremely imprecise science. There is no real way to quantify and compare the quality of an academic department. Yes, you can make rough approximations based on a few variables, but no variables are universally agreed upon as markers of quality, and there's definitely no way to decide which variables are the most important, and on and on and on. On top of that, official rankings tend to lag behind widespread perceptions of a program by a few years. And on top of that, the overall ranking of a program may not be the same as a specialty within the department. In other words, a department may be strong overall, but weak in a particular subfield, or weak overall, but exceptionally strong in a particular subfield. In the vast majority of fields, you're really not going to see a huge difference between schools in the top five, and probably ten, when it comes to perceived or actual quality.
It's also a pretty inaccurate portrayal of how admissions decisions get made. Being ranked more highly does not necessarily mean that school is more likely to reject you for many, many reasons. First off, as has been mentioned several times on this thread already, fit for a program is extremely important. You are more likely to get into a highly ranked program if your background, goals, and interests fit the program perfectly than you are to get into a lower ranked program where you're ill-matched. And there are just so many other factors at work: the size of the program and the cohort they admit; networks between your LORs and the profs at your prospective schools; random fluctuations of fate.
Basically, it just doesn't work like that.
tl;dr.. I was merely stating why it *might* have been the case OP didn't get into BU but into Harvard. I don't need a lecture on what rankings mean.
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Thank you for the tip dcenergygirl!
I just "google-walked" the 13th street, the neibourhood indeed looks very nice, albeit a little over my budget.
It seems for someone with a $700 budget+utilities, who dosesn't mind longer commune time as long as it doens not involve public transport interchange (e.g. metro line orange interchange to metro line red, or bus interchange to metro), but prefer a quiet, safe, and nice neighbourhood with retail facilities, DC does not present much choice.
I should probably start saving money...
A $700 budget is going to be realllllllllllllly tough to manage, even with roomies. I think the cheapest I heard any of my friends paying was $900 for a studio, and he had to go through all the legal hoopla to get a rent-controlled apartment for that price, or 1K with roomies.
You definitely might have to switch metros, and if you don't mind that.. I would suggest looking as far out into VA that's still on the metro line, such as East/West Falls Church area, or Springfield.. which might have better options. Or areas that are kind of sketch, but as long as you're next to the metro aren't "that bad" like Takoma, Ft Totten (red lines), Capitol Hill area (which is not as nice as it sounds) in NE, or even way out there like Glenmont.
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I have no clue about her route--I don't drive, and I've never gone to Georgetown
However, she does tend to have to commute during rush hour b/c I can remember her saying that if she stays late to study in the law library it takes her less than half an hour to get home, vs an hour to go to class in the morning. Pretty sure she has a 9 or 10 am class so rush hour is pretty unavoidableAh, this definitely makes sense. I have similar problems.. (I go to SIS), and if I leave at 7:30 for my 8:10 class, I actually sit through traffic more than if I leave at 7:45.. it's so bizarre. I arrive at the exact same time, so I tend to just leave at 7:45. It's that last bit of rush hour traffic leaving M street.
And even the metro is hell.. surprisingly it takes an hour to commute o.O and then you have to fight people to get on the train.
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My roommate is a 3rd year at Gtown Law and commutes in (30-60 mins depending on traffic, by car) from Silver Spring. She doesn't like the length of the commute but the pricing out here makes it worth it to her.
What route is she taking/are her classes during rush hour? That commute time is way too long.. is she going down Georgia Ave the entire time?
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I agree with everyone else.
But to answer your question - Berkeley has national recognition. It's IR program? Especially in DC? People are going to wonder why you went there.. and assume you went there because it's Berkeley, not because it's a good IR program. It'll be fairly obvious.
I would suggest applying to DC schools, and then you have the ability to also intern at human rights organizations that work on trafficking, etc.
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Have you tried emailing SAIS to let them know you received a bit more from SIPA? You might have some room to negotiate there.. it's worth a shot.
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SIS doesn't only have night classes.. not sure where you got that info. I have a class this semester at 2:30.
But anyway.. it's for people who work/have internships, which will also be a part of your grad requirement.. so the evening classes might actually work out for you.
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I would tell the employer.. they might not be flexible with PT status anyway (if it's a "real job") and let you go to hire another FT employee.
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I will likely end up with a 3.5-3.55 GPA by the time I graduate/apply for grad school. This seems to be a very mediocre GPA, and there are definitely things I could have done differently. What caliber of schools should I apply to?
It depends on literally everything else .. job experience, languages, what school are you at now? Are you a minority? publications? etc. etc.
Also I had a much lower GPA and I'm in a top 10 program for my field.
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Also isn't the Technical University of Munich 1st or 2nd in the country (Germany)? As in the Harvard of Germany?
So, in my opinion.. I would go there and then to Carnegie Mellon. You can easily get back into Columbia for a phD afterwards. Also has Columbia offered full funding? Paying 50K/year + cost of living in NYC might put you into a huge financial crunch that I know a lot of Europeans don't consider because schooling in Europe is much cheaper than it is here.
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FYI, check on shipping cats to Hawaii. We are a rabies free state and your cats will have to go through quarantine. There is a cheaper way to do it by getting your animals vaccinated and checked out by a vet before you come over, plus making reservations with the quarantine facility (see link). I live on the Big Island, not Oahu so I'm not much help on finding housing. It is very expensive to live in Honolulu, but it is a modern city and you will find just about everything you need there!
http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/ai/aqs/info
Ditto what Nari said.. our cat was able to do a one month quarantine (years ago) however apparently a typical stay is 3 months, if you don't get your ducks in order ahead of time. They will take your cats from the plane straight to quarantine.. it's so sad. And the quarantine is outside, no A/C, etc.
And yea, cockroaches fly, bite, are huge, and fly TO you.
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Might as well start weighing the options. Fletcher offered me funding, although not a ton (12K). I LOVE the sense of community they seem to build there and their job placement record is stellar. Their location is not the best.They do allow study abroad, which SAIS and SIPA don't, and give you access to classes at Harvard. Tufts has less name recognition abroad than the other two.
SAIS is in a better location and is more econ focused, which I like. They didn't accept me into IDEV, but I could choose any other concentration. I know more people in DC and I've taken classes at SAIS and loved them.
SIPA has the advantage of being an Ivy and being near the UN. I didn't expect to get in here so I haven't done as much research on it. Seems harder to get to know professors here.
Just FYI there are UN divisions outside of NYC, in particular DC.. I am in school here in DC but still did a UN internship in NYC this past summer. So you don't have to go to school in the same city where you intern.
Having said all that, SAIS is the WAY better program - ivy name aside.. It is top dog in international affairs.
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Do you know the ranks of the programs? It could be that Columbia is #1 and Harvard and UPenn are lower ranked.
In IR, for a Master's, Harvard is actually ranked 3rd, below Georgetown and below Johns Hopkins. So while someone might get an admit for Harvard and a rejection from Georgetown and JHU, it's really not confusing as to why. Rankings.
The application pool gets more competitive each year.. which might be why you were wait listed two years ago and rejected this time.
:D
Columbia Application Question (TC + SIPA)
in Applications
Posted
Yes. The only way you can apply for more than one degree at Columbia is if you are applying to different schools.