OregonGal

Previous Schools (Name, type, or tier): Undergraduate at large public research university (APSIA affiliate) Previous Degrees and GPAs: B.A. International Studies/History, minor Japanese; 3.2 overall GPA (3.5 major/last two years) GRE Scores (Verbal/Quantitative/Analytical Writing): 670V/680Q/4.5AW Previous Work Experience (Years, Type): 2-2.5 years; 1 year teaching English overseas, 9 months internships, currently 7 months into Americorps Service Year w/ AAPI community organization Math/Econ Background: no math since high school, basic econ (intro micro/macro + international econ/business survey course for major) Foreign Language Background (if applicable to your program): Japanese minor Intended Field of Study in Grad School: International Politics Long Term Professional Goals: NPO/government agency position; dream job is Public Affairs Officer for US Foreign Service Schools Applied to & Results: Columbia SIPA (rejected), GWU Elliott (rejected), Johns Hopkins SAIS (wait-listed), UC San Diego IR/PS (accepted, no funding) Ultimate Decision & Why: I accepted UCSD's offer because I was impressed by the effort their Career Services puts in, and because the Pacific Rim focus really appeals to my professional goals/interests. All of the schools I applied to have a strong professional/quantitative focus which is what I was looking for. I was tempted to decline and try again in a year or two but decided I didn't want to gamble again in hopes of more funding/more acceptances next time. Advice for Future Applicants: Do your research before you apply to schools, and make sure you're looking early--my list of "finalists" changed a lot in the six months between my GRE test and the first of January. Ask the advice of your academic LOR when you're looking at schools; my professor pointed me in the direction of SAIS and IR/PS based on my stated interests and goals. And don't be discouraged from applying by a lower GPA or a couple of genuinely bad grades on the transcript; the onus is on you to prove that you've grown beyond those Fs but admissions officers are a lot more interested in how you did in higher-level relevant coursework, or what you accomplished in your professional career, than that freshman Astronomy course.

OK--I sat on my decision for a couple days to make sure I wasn't going to start doubting it again, but I've officially accepted at UCSD IR/PS for Fall 2012. I'm attending the Summer Prep program and am planning on living in grad housing. Hopefully I'll see some of my fellow GradCafers in August!

Well my DC estimates were all taken from my current rent--I live in Silver Spring, a suburb NW of DC which is about a half hour by bus from SAIS. I pay $580 for 1/3 of an older 3-bedroom apartment, inclusive utilities. If you want to live closer to SAIS (ie Dupont Circle area), expect to pay $1000+/month in a shared place, or $1500+ for a studio.

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.

I would disagree about the DC location of SAIS not being an advantage. There's a lot of private consulting firms and contractors based in the DC area, and in general I'd argue that there are more career opportunities on the ground in DC than in Syracuse. Other than location, my other piece of advcie is to do a side-by-side comparison: look at all the factors and how they play out. What percentage of Maxwell's alumni go into the private sector vs SAIS? How strong is their international econ track? At either school, are there professors whose research you're interested in, or courses you'd love to take? How is each school's relative strength in their Asia regional track? When looking at financing and debt loads, also look at more than the sticker price. How much funding is there for 2nd-year students? For example, at UCSD IR/PS they said flat-out that they don't have a lot of internal funding for 2nd year; they focus on first-year renewable fellowships. I think I saw another recent post about SAIS quoting an admissions officer that 50+% of their 2nd-year students receive funding--you'd want to check in more on specifics (do most only get $5000?) but that holds out the possibility of defraying 2nd-year costs. What are Maxwell's funding rates? Finally, when looking at the feasability of debt loads I've found that looking at take-home pay is a great way of gauging that. First, figure out what your likely salary would be in that private-sector job after graduation. Next, go to the federal loans site calculator and plug in loans to see what your monthly payment would be under various plans. Then go to a payroll calculator (I use this one) to calculate take-home pay after tax withholding. Subtract that monthly payment from your take-home pay to see what you'd be living on at that amount of debt. Are you comfortable at living with that? Here's my own work-up in Google Docs (second tab) as an example.

So... first off, I think that perhaps you should read the instructions a little closer. As in, the part that says "500 words or less"? The reason that the essay questions are vague is so that the admissions committee can see what you think is important, and see how you respond. In general, they are looking for a strong argument in favor of your thesis statement and good writing ability. I would suggest writing about a topic that favors your concentration, or framing it in a way that makes it clear that it is part of your professional interests/goals. For my essay, I wrote about Congressional partisan gridlock and how that is affecting the U.S.' world standing through lack of leadership. My declared concentration is International Politics and my professional interest is in US foreign and security policy, so being able to tie in a current event (do-nothing Congress/partisan infighting preventing confirmation of ambassadors) with the broader diplomatic implications (potential harm to standing w/in countries where our embassies lack leaders, and decrease in US soft power and standing in the long term) was important to me. I also took a strong argumentative stance because I wanted a contrast to my first essay, which was the traditional explicative "this is what I want to do and this is why I am a good fit for school X" candidate statement.

I had the same concern about location with UCSD... however, a selling point for me is the support that their Career Services gives for getting internships and paying for living expenses during them. If you get an unpaid summer internship they'll give you a couple thousand dollars--not a loan, but an outright grant--to pay for travel/living expenses.

Yes, if you look at a school's total COA budget it usually includes line items for tuition, campus fees, insurance, housing and food, transportation, books and supplies, and personal expenses.

Hey guys, so as you've seen I've been a bit hesitant to make a final decision. I e-mailed the admissions officer who ran the DC admitted students info session and she put me in contact with a current student who works part time in their office. I ended up e-mailing an extensive list of questions--3-4 paragraphs--which she answered in pretty decent detail. Most of my questions were about the student community and work-life balance--accessibility of professors out of class, on-campus organizations, sense of community within the school/cohort, availability/feasability of TA-ships, etc. I also asked whether she felt that the Career Services center was proactive enough to make up for the location. The current student affirmed that professors are not only knowledgeable, but open to engaging students out of class; she also mentioned a lot of on-campus organizations to be involved in and said that students often get together for non-class-related activities (a large-group weekend trip to Baja was mentioned ). That's pretty important to me because I know I do better when I have connections outside the classroom, and also because cohort community is the first step towards an active alumni base. She did say that TA-ships, while not guaranteed, are pretty well publicized; she also said that she thought it would be challenging though not impossible to balance full courseload/student organizations/TA workload. All in all, being able to get feedback from a current student has helped a lot to settle my nerves; I've realized that a lot of my jitters are over the fear of making the "wrong" choice, since that's what I did with undergrad (the school was most definitely not a good fit and I transferred after freshman year). I'm going to sit on it until this weekend but I'm fairly sure this is where I'll be headed come August.

Speaking from experience... when I accepted my current position I had 10 days to pack, find an apartment, and move across the country (~3000 miles). I found a month-to-month place and took it sight unseen, then used it as a base for finding more permanent accommodations. Month-to-month rentals found on Craigslist can be shady--my landlord misrepresented the size of the room I rented and the quality of the furnishings, though he wasn't actively creepy--so you might also look into area student/backpacker hostels. Many of them will offer a discounted rate for longer-term occupancy (more than a week) and most have a secure room to stash larger suitcases. However, my scenario ended with me moving with what I could carry onto a plane (2 suitcases and a duffel). If you are planning on moving furniture/housewares/etc, then I would suggest looking into PODS.

Also... found the course catalog for this past school year for IR/PS in case anyone wants to read the 1-paragraph synopses of courses instead of relying on course titles. http://ucsd.edu/catalog/courses/IRPS.html

I would suggest contacting your school's financial aid office. AFAIK PLUS loans come through the school, and the cost of attendance is based off the school's estimate. I don't know anything about the credit check, but the PLUS loan caps out at total cost of attendance so you can't increase it to pay off credit card debt. It could be that the unsub direct loan covers the school's estimated COA, in which case you can't get a PLUS loan to supplement. However, some schools will extend small "bridge" loans for summer classes.

For your MacBook specs, go to the Apple sign at the top left of your top bar. On that menu, click "About your Mac" (I think that's what it's called) and it will tell you specs and what software version you have. In general though, any MacBook made in the last couple of years ought to be dual-core. I bought a dual-core metal unibody MacBook in late 2008 (before they started calling them MacBook Pro).

Agreed. They emphasize that the timing of the classes allows students to work, and also allows them to get all those field practitioners to come in and teach classes because they can literally walk over a block or two from the World Bank or State Dept. The only exception is if you were taking a class from another graduate program (public health, management, etc) or a language class. At the info sessions I attended it was more current students than alumni present. There's a dedicated career services department for Elliott but I've found that to be the case at all the top schools (certainly it's the case at all the places I applied to).

Best advice ever Seriously though, I know someone who graduated college at 20 (skipped a grade in middle school, used AP credits to graduate in 3 years) and went straight into a Masters in Social Work. That's a degree where the average age is late twenties, so it was intimidating for her to be with a lot of people who were, yes, married/with kids or at least with a lot more 'life experience' than her. However, it meant she could benefit from their input in classroom discussions and from what she's said she didn't have personality conflicts with them along the lines of "what can she know she's so young". I definitely agree with SeriousSillyPutty that in programs weighted towards experience, the cohort seems much more collegial because people are used to working with others of all ages and backgrounds, versus a younger program where many are still in 'class competition' mode. Also, don't discount your own experiences. Just because they're a bit more compressed than your cohort's doesn't mean you don't have valuable input to give in class discussions or coursework. Congratulations on all your accomplishments so far! First-gen college student graduating in 3 years and going straight into a professional graduate program is pretty amazing.

If you want to find a compromise between location and price you may want to take another look at University of Maryland's MPP program. If its at the College Park location, it's in the DC suburbs and you can access DC fairly easily. If it's at the Baltimore campus, you're still less than an hour away from DC. However, I don't know anything about the relative academic/professional strength of their MPP program.

If you check some of the big IR schools they have listings of external fellowships that they keep; I definitely went through SIPA's list and UCSD's. Unfortunately, I don't know of a useful aggregator of graduate IR fellowships outside of IR school admissions websites.

@2012IRGrad-- Thanks for the insight! This is really reassuring to me, especially the quant aspect of it--all of the programs I applied to I chose in part because they have strong professional skills building, whether through quant/finance/management classes or through professional development courses, so it's good to hear that UCSD's first year coursework is seen as a very tangible benefit by the students there.

I am a little surprised, as a UO alum, that it's the most expensive of your options. If it's a 2-year program, do you know if you can qualify for in-state tuition your second year? Alternatively, I'd be happy to answer any questions about UO campus/facilities/Eugene... graduated 3 years ago in a liberal arts program.

I don't know how to address the academic dishonesty part. As for myself, I had a difficult early start to college--I ended up addressing it in my "essay 3/other comments" when I could, but not in my main SOP because it took too many words which could be used to address my strengths. However, I can tell you that I got into UCSD and wait-listed at SAIS with two Fs on the transcript from my freshman year. I ended up with a 3.5+ for my last two years, which I'm sure helped a lot. I was told by an admissions officer that they care less about low grades during the first two years than in the last two years of college because the last two years is when a lot of people buckle down and focus. It sounds like your class you failed may have been related to your IR concentration, which is the part of the transcript schools will look at more closely. In that case, it's up to you how to address it, if at all; it'll definitely be noticed, but you can either address it in your "other comments" or hope they'll overlook it altogether. I wouldn't, however, call it a deal-breaker and not bother applying to graduate school.

With my aiming for somewhat quant-heavy programs (especially SAIS), I think that what weakened my application was the lack of econ past my sophomore year of college. If I chose to wait and re-apply I'd take a stats/econ class and think about re-taking the GRE afterwards (to be fair, I spent all of 3 hours preparing for the GRE lol). Mostly this attitude of mine came after applying when I started getting rejection letters.

As far as writing/internet/movies go ultrabooks work fine--though you'll want to check your comfort with the keyboard size for typing, I'm not sure if they run smaller than a regular laptop's. I would check into the spec requirements for that analysis software, though--if it's crunching a lot of data it will need a good processor/RAM/vid card, and I'm not sure that something as small as an ultrabook will have that kind of processing power. My friend who is a physics grad student was basically given a top-quality gaming laptop by his department to run his simulations on. My only experience with 'ultrabooks' is with the MacBook Air (not what you're thinking of, I know) but in general they are fast because they have solid state drives, which is what smartphones and tablets have--no waiting 30 seconds for a program to load or hearing the whir of the hard drive ramping up. My brother's MacBook Air literally starts up in 10 seconds, from completely shut down to opening a web browser or software program. They're also supposed to have really good battery life too.

RE: American...I only applied to 4 schools, and focused on schools with a strong functional/professional skills focus. And really, I only paid to apply to 3 schools (UCSD waives for Americorps members). On limited funds, I didn't want to apply to 7 or 8 schools and American didn't make that final cut. It didn't strike me as rigorous in the professional skills vs theoretical knowledge (especially with all the "wonk" ads they have plastered over DC). I also took my LOR/IR dept head's recommendations pretty strongly--she's the one who pointed me towards SAIS, which replaced American on my shortlist. RE: finding a job... My Americorps service year is up at the end of July. My concern is that I won't find a job immediately, and also that even if I do, as @peach11 pointed out that's only 6-7 months before I'm applying for grad school (which would imply notifying my employer via asking for LOR, that I'm looking at leaving 6 months after hire). Of course, I could just give UCSD $500 and hedge my bets, still looking for that job and waiting to hear back from SAIS... but I would prefer not to have uncertainty hanging over my head for 3 more months.

@understatement700 What were your impressions of the dinner/networking after I left? Was there anything from that part of the DC session which left you more/less inclined to choose IR/PS?

While I've contacted the other schools I applied to, they've said that either they can't give specifics due to the number of applicants or that they can't respond until after they've processed admits/waitists--at which point it's too late for me to use that input in my decision. To further expand on my thinking and my background: Undergraduate Institution: non-APSIA school (just became affiliate) GPA:3.2 (I had a bad first year, but maintained above 3.5 GPA for my last 2 years and due to a double major I took a LOT of upper-div. coursework) GRE: 670V/680Q/4.5AW LOR: Strong in titles, though I don't have copies of the actual LOR. Public programs director at IR non-profit who I interned for, the IS department head at my school, and the director of an Americorps program. WE: Not strong. 1 year teaching English overseas, 9 months at IR non-profit (internships), and I'm partway through an Americorps year working with the immigrant community. All of it is relatable to IR but not direct IR policy experience. SOP: Fair-to-strong; I tend to be pessimistic but my friend (3rd year law) who edited gave them a thumbs up. I mainly used it to tie my WE so far with my professional objectives and my program choices. I aimed high with my school choices considering my credentials, but while I recognized that intellectually it still hit me emotionally when I didn't get into 3/4 of them; typical "over-achiever meets reality" syndrome I guess, but it shook my confidence a bit. Also, the longer I spend in DC the more I'm aware of the intangible benefits going to school here can bring, just from the wealth of internships, network connections, and also the ability to attend a lot of lectures at other schools and area organizations. However, at this point I need to decide: if IR/PS is "settling" or if it's just the letdown of not being admitted to other schools that's making me feel his way; if the programs at IR/PS match my interests the way I thought they did a year ago when I selected it as a finalist school; if the strength of programs at IR/PS are enough to justify the price point; if a year of work experience will dramatically improve my credentials so that I can get into my top-choice schools in the DC area; if I can get the type of work experience that will benefit me most; and if I want to wait and enter the lottery again in hopes of winning the jackpot, or just take my winnings and go home. Last (and, probably) least is the prospect in the back of my head of not finding a job immediately and having to justify my decision to family, friends etc: "I got into grad school but decided to wait a year and get a job... Well, right now I'm working at Starbucks and doing an unpaid internship... yes, like I did before I decided to go to grad school, thanks for that."