OregonGal

I think it's not off-limits, and it is about the way you go about it. I plan on forming friendships and dating while in graduate school, in part because I haven't had a lot of opportunity to make social connections and date in the past few years due to a lot of hopping around the world. This will be the first time I will be in one place for two years interacting with the same 150+ people since undergrad. Now, I'm not going to be actively pursuing my local grad students, and I can see how someone who appears more focused on dating than on school might not come off too well in the eyes of their peers. I'm just saying that if the opportunity to date presents itself, I'm not going to say "nope, I'm focusing solely on school right now". I think in general that in terms of "rules", the same biases apply as dating in the workplace. Women can sometimes be looked down on for dating within the workplace, more so than men, or are seen as less "serious" for dating because its assumed that they'll marry, have a family, and not continue working at the same pace as the men. This I think would especially be a concern for women in STEM fields or those pursuing tenure track positions. I don't think that I'd look at someone differently if they were dating vs single. Now, the way that they were acting within their personal relationships might affect my view of them. Someone who dropped the ball on a group project because of relationship drama, for example, or who left a trail of broken hearts in their wake, or didn't really treat the other person well in the relationship, would not come off too well in my personal opinion of them based on how they treat people and responsibilities. So in that sense it's the way you go about personal relationships, the same as with anyone else you meet through any other circumstances.

@Dengue2011 So the way that income taxes works is a bit complicated. I find the easiest way to figure out tax withholdings is to use a calculator like this one. You can plug in relevant info that affects tax withholdings (income, number of dependents, etc) to see what your take home pay will be, approximately. If you're single, no dependents, and your payments are spread out evenly through the calendar year instead of academic year, it looks like you'll be living on about $1400/month. While it won't be fun, you can definitely live on that much in College Park/Silver Spring (I live on even less, but it means no going out and lots of brown bag lunches). You'll definitely need to share an apartment, which if you don't have a car and need to be Metro-accessible will cost you, at minimum, $600-800/month (as I've stated in other posts/threads, I share a 3 bed/2 bath older apartment in Silver Spring, Metro/bus accessible, for $610 including utilities but that is the absolute floor pricing for such apartments). As for the timing of your move, I think you can find an apartment in 1-2 weeks especially if you start looking before you arrive on Craigslist and such, so you can schedule visits for right after you arrive, but you're more likely to find an apartment opening at the start of the month (i.e. September 1 or October 1) than on a day in the middle of the month.

I have to say this is a very edifying thread for me on the security clearance process! I've always found it odd when people tell me that it can be difficult for those who have been overseas to gain clearances, since those are the same people that agencies like State are targeting.

Hey guys, just a heads up-- I participated in the admitted students chat yesterday afternoon and one point of concern came up for me with the summer prep program. One of the other participants asked about financial aid availability for summer program, and it came out that financial aid disbursements will not start until the last week of September, even if you are in summer prep. Apparently the summer prep program is structured such that prep students don't count as enrolled at UCSD, and therefore don't trigger aid disbursements/eligibility. They said they did that so it was lower-cost--enrolled for credit would make each course $1500-1750--but I am not at all happy at the lack of warning that I need to be prepared to live out of pocket for two months without financial aid support.

I was a history major in college, and now I'm headed into a policy program (international policy MA) so I definitely think a history background is helpful, especially in understanding the background of a regional conflict or issue. The main issue you need to address is how your area of expertise applies to current issues. Knowledge of medieval agricultural techniques can be applied to modern sustainable farming methods for organic farmers or subsistence farming in developing countries. An expert on colonial/post-colonial Africa can help people understand why there is so much conflict throughout the region (hint: a white guy 3000 miles away drew the map). One of my professors was an expert in the history of American public health and medicine--knowing about the division between "regular" doctors and "quacks", certifications and licenses, nurses and doctors, the evolution of the understanding of medical science, can be very helpful in understanding why the public health care system is the way it is today in the US.

I think you need to figure out what career you want to have, and look into the credentials needed for that field. One option if you go with the law degree is that you can get an LLM in international law, though it would add a fourth year to your law degree. Law degrees are more generalist than an MIA, and potentially more generally useful, but also more expensive and a longer program. With the MIA, you can concentrate in international law and organizations to understand the interactions of international law, multilateral organizations, and how those interact with national law/policy/agencies but that's more policy and less legal theory.

Ok, so random google searches do sometimes yield results: for those interested in TA'ing to offset costs, here is the March 2012 PDF detailing those positions for the 2012-13 Academic Year. This is just making me even more determined to work at least a couple quarters--if you get at least 10 hrs/week, you get $4600+ tuition remission plus minimum $13/hr as a grader (going up to max $19/hr as a tutor and $1900/month at 20 hrs/wk TA). And, all those are 2011-12 numbers so one assumes they will at least stay at that level. http://ogs.ucsd.edu/_files/financial/prospective-financial-support/jobopportunities.pdf

Ok, for starters that sounds like a super fun program! I think you need to realistically look at your workload with your current classes and how much time you can squeeze in for an additional course. It also depends on what that other class is. Is it a 1-credit yoga class or a 4-credit research seminar? How technical/time consuming is the fun course, and will the fun of the course make up for having less leisure time for other activities?

I've had a professor who complained to the class about dress standards--it was trendy on campus at the time to go to class not just in sweats, but in flannel PJ pants, flip flops/Uggs and a tank top/sweatshirt so you really looked like you just rolled out of bed. The only reason I can think of for showing up in such casual gear is if you had an exercise class right beforehand (which I've had before, and therefore wore sweats to the next class because I didn't have time to change and get all the way across campus).

I will give you my standard answer to all questions financial: compare costs! The previous poster made a very good point about the relative cost of financing a used vs new car if you have to take on debt for it, and the posters previous to them made good points about researching public transit options where you're headed. If you can sell your car (for parts, perhaps) you can test out how you like not having a car and save your insurance/gas money towards moving expenses. I would lean towards not sinking a ton of money into your current car, though, because it's essentially a junker--a car where it being "totaled" (insurance payout on repairs more expensive than value of vehicle) can come any moment. (Please don't take that as a ding against the actual condition of your car--my mother's old car was declared a totaled junker when her airbag deployed in a fender-bender even though it was in pristine condition, because it was over 15 years old and declared only worth the cost of the scrap metal by her insurer. She bought it back from her insurer for $500 and drove the car another 3 years) I would be interested in your rationale towards "can't/won't buy new" because one advantage of buying a post-recession vehicle vs pre-recession is that mpg has really trended up in the last couple years--a 2007 compact might get 25 mpg vs a 2012 getting 35 mpg, which can save you hundreds of dollars a year. Also, car dealerships are so eager to sell that they're offering good prices and really good financing offers. However, new cars have a larger up-front cost. This is where I think going to a place like auto-trader.com and checking out pricing and relative monthly costs (factoring in insurance, car payment, license costs, and estimated gas costs) would be best so you can figure out which has larger total costs.

Ehh, in my field you have to be willing to pick up and move--overseas experience is pretty much a requirement for an advanced degree in international policy! While yes, moving costs/hassle should be a consideration, I think that if you weren't willing to move far away you wouldn't apply to those places and compared to the often tens of thousands people are looking at in debt, $2000-3000 to move isn't that large in the face of it.

Yep! I definitely know how it feels trying to find housing while across the country. Another point I should mention in regards to mass transit vs car; I forgot about this before but if you look around the Greenbelt area you may be able to find cheaper housing; you may need a car and it's not the closest to downtown, but I'm pretty sure there's a shuttle from there to College Park and if not, you're one stop away from the College Park Metro. The Greenbelt Metro is also a huge commuter park'n'ride so there's tons of parking there for $5/day; your SO can park there and take the metro into DC if he finds a job downtown and avoid the commute, and if he's really lucky they'll subsidize the transportation.

When I asked JHU-SAIS about waitlist a month ago, they said they probably wouldn't even be convening the waitlist admit committee until after finals, so waitlisters wouldn't find out until probably late May-early June. I'm going to give them a call tomorrow since today their phone is probably ringing off the hook with last minute deciders.

It depends on where you live and what you term to be "metro accessible". If you want to be near a metro station, you'll want to live near Silver Spring Metro because there's a grocery store, restaurants, etc right there (the Target is right off of Wheaton Metro, where a Safeway should be going in within a year but right now is a big hole in the ground). If for you "metro accessible" means near a bus route that works for your needs (i.e. one that goes by UMD) you have a few more options, where you try to find apartments near those bus routes that are also walkable to grocery stores. The difference between Metro-accessible suburb and need-a-car suburb also depends but for example--1-bedroom units in my complex (Metro accessible, grocery and restaurants nearby, and I've seen a UMD shuttle route with limited hours) are around 1500-1700 and 2-bed units are 1700-1850 a month. I don't have a car but the subway and grocery store are about a half mile away and the Whole Foods about a half mile beyond them, along large, well lit, safe roads. The further away you get from the Metro the cheaper it gets, but with the price of gas it might not be worth it. I think you CAN find places where the math works out... I'm just not sure how nice they are, because my apartment complex is pretty efficiency-level and all the new buildings around are luxury rentals that were originally intended for condos.

There are ways to cut down on your expenses so that they're lower than the estimated cost of attendance. On top of that, I agree with the previous poster that if you have little undergraduate debt, then $60K for a 2-year degree isn't bad compared to a lot of people (like myself... similar pricing, no funding). One advantage of GWU is the class timing so while it wouldn't be ideal you could take on a part time job. Also, if that job is on campus--as a tour guide or desk staffer for Admissions, TAing a course in your undergraduate major, etc--you'll often get partial tuition remission so you're reducing your costs as well as putting money towards living expenses.

I'd suggest you check out the requirements for a Masters in Social Work graduate program if you want to work in direct services, and an MPP if you want to work more on the policy side. There's a whole forum for MSW candidates you can check out as well.

I have moved six times in the last 4 years, and grad school will mean my 7th move. I rented a U-Haul once, when I was moving out my college apartment, and half the space was taken up with stuff dropped off at Goodwill--most of the rest has sat in my mother's attic ever since. Each time I've moved other than that, it was with 2 checked suitcases, a carry-on, and my trusty backpack. That's internationally (US-Japan-US-South Korea-US) and domestically (OR-DC). Now, I'm looking at yet another move of over 2000 miles, to San Diego. I've been lucky in that I have free storage space at my mother's (my bed is currently her spare guest bed, that's the extent of my 'fee') and that I've moved into furnished apartments every time I've moved. However, I've targeted those furnished spaces because I didn't want to spend a ton of money hauling furniture across the country, or buying it only to leave it behind again! I've gotten so used to moving every few months that I've got living out of suitcases down to an art. Books--the majority of my boxes at my mother's are books! I used to read books on my iPod Touch, but my sister gave me a Kindle Touch for Christmas along with access to her stash of thousands of shadily obtained e-books. Now when I move it's with a couple of physical books that I don't have e-versions of, but which are essential to my happiness. Also, for anyone who lives sci-fi/fantasy usually with a military bent--Baen Books has a free e-book library called the Baen Free Library they started up about a decade ago because they were the only publisher to welcome the advent of the e-book instead of thinking about ways to restrict sharing of e-books. Not only do they offer free multi-format books for download or reading on the web, any book you buy from them is in multiple formats and unlocked--they advocate (gasp!) sharing them with your friends. A few tips on packing--tilt your wardrobe towards current/upcoming weather; if you move in spring, it might be better to pack mostly spring/summer/fall clothes and plan on buying some winter wardrobe pieces. Look up a tutorial on rolling your clothes to pack--it works miracles for me, I always get my bags to max weight using those methods. Only take the makeup/skincare/bath essentials that you can't buy inexpensively at your destination. Also, I saw someone earlier mention Media Mail--everyone who can should use it IMO. It's a discounted shipping rate through the US Postal Service and it's not just books, it's any form of media i.e. CDs, DVDs, magazines, books, etc. I'm going to ship my media package at the last possible moment to avoid having it arrive before I do at my new place, but it'll be saving me at least 15 lbs in baggage allowance.

I think that those two factors are often thought about and discussed on this forum, and for good reason. Because those are the "intangibles" that's why in the original thread I tried to break down the financials as much as possible. One thing about AU vs GWU is the class schedule and relative cost--living expenses will be the same but at least at the Elliott School (don't know about the Comm program) it's significantly cheaper tuition than the other private DC universities. So while you may be receiving some (a lot?) of funding from AU you'll want to break down the relative COAs to make sure it doesn't just bring it to parity with GWU. 1. Part of the reason that there are vastly varying differences between the DC schools is that each program is different, so practitioners of different fields are going to have different opinions. Some of these schools tend to feed into private sector, others public/NPO. The obsession with name/ranking is I think because of all the intangibles that come with that "brand" recognition: the networking opportunities, the resources, the career services staff. I've met alumni from these programs (admittedly the successful ones who show up to admissions info sessions) who brag about helping fellow alums find positions within their firm or organization so it's definitely a factor in your employability. Also, within private firms more than public/NPO, if they're going through a hundred resumes they may just not bother to look at the one from Podunk U in favor of one from a top 20 school because of the implied quality of education/training/skills development at a top 20. 2. I can address this one a bit better: my boss is a HKS MPP graduate, so I ended up talking over my choices with her when I got my admit decisions back. Admittedly I took this with a grain of salt because she is an HKS graduate, but she doesn't think there's a lot of added benefit from the name brand schools in the NPO/public sector. NPOs don't tend to target high profile school candidates because they're more in need of someone with a specific skill set; most are small enough that they can't afford to hire someone based simply on their pedigree. The main factor there would be the level of skills development within their program as displayed on their resume, and in that area there's potentially not a ton of difference between #6 and #15 (UCSD San Diego has a great skills dev program which they highlight as a top 20 school, as does GWU, JHU-SAIS, etc as top 10s). Now, there's government jobs and then there's government jobs. A bureaucratic position, i.e. one posted on USAJOBS etc that is hiring on the GS scale within X Y or Z agency, may have a certain amount of behind the scenes maneuvering and resume-slipping involved but not a ton; that's where the name brand doesn't matter as much, because the system is set up to try and limit the amount of patronage and influence on hiring. On the other hand, you mentioned jobs on the Hill--those are not in that group of points-based hiring systems. Those are congressional staffer positions and the like, and for those I'd say there's an outsized number of name-brand alumni--my boss has a couple of alumni friends from HKS who work up there either for committees or individual congressmen, my cousin's alumni friend from Georgetown Law helps write tax law in committee, etc. I don't think you can lump Administration/Congress positions in with federal agency positions, because they operate off of different hiring systems and different cultures, so to speak. Even the unpaid senate interns are usually the younger relative/friend of a friend/donor of the congressman, or go to a name-branded school in DC or within that congressman's district/state.

I seem to recall them mentioning forums within the IR/PS internal system for finding roommates etc but we don't get those IDs until later.

I sent off cards to my LOR writers, and wrote a nice note in it saying thank you and promising to keep them updated--with the professor, I know as the department chair she really likes to hear about what her former students are doing so she can highlight them within the department for current students or to build the still-nascent alumni community.

I have an irrational aversion to marking up textbooks so I would go with the Kindle edition; I love how easy it is to carry around with me. However, I've never bought a book which displayed page numbers so you might end up spending some time with your campus library's copy to track down citations, which should be a little hassle but not too much of one so long as the book is broken down into chapters.

My point is that I'm in a "professional" Masters program, not a theoretical/academic program; I may have a capstone project but I won't be writing/defending a thesis. I think that while certain aspects are the same (getting used to school, departmental relations, housing, TAships etc) there's a lot of difference between a professional program and an academic program where Masters/PhD is a matter of scale or where the Masters is used as a jumping off point for the PhD. I was hoping someone would have a book more geared for those who aren't preparing for an academic career.

I went with my "safety" school--obviously I applied because I knew the programs were strong, but it is hard to give up the dream school--I'm actually on waitlist at mine so who knows what will happen if they call me in June with an offer. As it is though, I'm happy with my decision to go with the safety school rather than wait a year and try again; no more uncertainty is a great feeling.

I'd say it depends on where you're trying to find work. You know best if it's difficult to find work in the field in Europe, so if you feel you won't be able to find meaningful work in that year which would make a significant difference in your candidate profile for re-applying, just go for the masters program. GWU is one of the more affordable name-brand programs in DC, and you might be able to find paid work while in DC to help cover expenses (language tutoring, paid internship, etc). Keeping your academics up your first year can also help you find second-year funding.

Great, thanks for the reminder!