OregonGal

My grad school has told us that they strongly, strongly recommend buying a new laptop for grad school with an extended warranty. I'm reluctant to give up my MacBook, but I acknowledge that it is 3.5 years old and not top of the line anymore. The IT coordinator said that MacBook Airs were good enough (his main exhortation was NO NETBOOK, he ok'd ultrabooks for a MPA/IR program) so I may get that instead--yay SSD and instant startup! The other thing he recommended is to buy your laptop as close to the start of the school year as possible to make sure you have the most up-to-date version, and to buy the extended warranty because that way if it dies halfway through your second year you don't have to shell out for a replacement.

One thing that Mac users, and even PC users, should keep in mind is that if your current comp is in decent condition, you can trade it in for money off. In my case, my late 2008 first version of the metal MacBook, in fairly good condition, will net me a $300 credit I can apply to the MacBook Air along with the 10% education discount for about $400 off (40% discount). PC users, might need to go to a 3rd party trade-in but these trade-ins are where "refurbished" laptops come from

Also, another thing to keep in mind is... sales tax! I am from a no-sales-tax state, currently in a 6% and moving to a 10% (damn you CA) so it's worth $40-100 to buy outside of CA.

My grad school has told us that they strongly, strongly recommend buying a new laptop for grad school with an extended warranty. I'm reluctant to give up my MacBook, but I acknowledge that it is 3.5 years old and not top of the line anymore. The IT coordinator said that MacBook Airs were good enough (his main exhortation was NO NETBOOK, he ok'd ultrabooks for a MPA/IR program) so I may get that instead--yay SSD and instant startup! The other thing he recommended is to buy your laptop as close to the start of the school year as possible to make sure you have the most up-to-date version, and to buy the extended warranty because that way if it dies halfway through your second year you don't have to shell out for a replacement.

One thing that Mac users, and even PC users, should keep in mind is that if your current comp is in decent condition, you can trade it in for money off. In my case, my late 2008 first version of the metal MacBook, in fairly good condition, will net me a $300 credit I can apply to the MacBook Air along with the 10% education discount for about $400 off (40% discount). PC users, might need to go to a 3rd party trade-in but these trade-ins are where "refurbished" laptops come from

Also, another thing to keep in mind is... sales tax! I am from a no-sales-tax state, currently in a 6% and moving to a 10% (damn you CA) so it's worth $40-100 to buy outside of CA.

Well those are pretty much the two extremes for urban transportation! It also depends on what you count as in the city. Like I said, Portland's transit extends to the far edges of the counties that the city sits in--the transit authority is called Trimet for the three metropolitan counties. However, in other places the buses stop at the city limit and aren't a regional system. I would say that as long as you're not averse to buses (I know some people who refuse to take buses but are fine with subway) you'd be fine in Seattle. I've heard good things about Minneapolis and Madison as well, but I've never been so I couldn't speak to the public transit experience there.

And yeah.. the heat index today in DC is predicted to hit 105. Go West!

If you want to go directly through Apple, you go to their recycling site and answer a quick survey about what model you have, its condition, how many accessories you held onto, etc. It told me the current market value they'd pay me as of a week ago was a little over $300.

I had a similar experience that there were several other people taking a test, but it was actually very quiet--we got ear protectors like airline tarmac personnel wear lol, and also we were behind a soundproof door/window so it was quiet other than the frantic clacking of keys.

Ok, so after attending the DC admitted students session, here's a few impressions:

I walked in 90% sure I wasn't going to grad school next year; now I'm much more torn and mostly on the financial basis. My main concern with UCSD is the location, and the event really showcased the strength of their career services to mitigate that distance.

The admitted students session was a short presentation/Q&A with an admissions officer and a recent alum. There were only 3 of us at the session, so while we didn't overall have a ton of questions we did have a lot of opportunity to ask them. After that we went down to a mixer with alumni and current students, followed by a dinner (which I was unable to stay for) headlined by the dean of IR/PS.

The main thing that impressed me about the networking/mixer session is the turnout and the format. Apparently, over UCSD's spring break they take a trip to DC with 15-20 current students, to help them with connecting with potential employers/internships or informational interviews. The mixer/dinner had not only those students, but 50-60 alumni in the DC area. When you're talking about a west coast school that graduates 125-150 people a year, that's a pretty good indication of an active alumni base to help you along your path. For example, the alumni sitting in on the admissions session said she'd helped connect at least two UCSD grads with jobs at the World Bank in the last 18 months she'd been employed by them.

Besides the generic presentation for the admit session, of which a lot of the information could be found on the website, a few things stuck out:

a) the vast majority of the incoming class is required/strongly recommended to attend the summer prep session in August. The admissions officer said that with recent classes, they'd found that the "recommended" students tended not to attend the boot camp and subsequently struggled in class, so they are encouraging somewhere around 90% of the incoming MA students to attend. That makes me feel better about being sent to summer school

35% of the students at IR/PS have a TA-ship or similar (grader, etc). Those positions offer full tuition remission if you are at 10 hours+ a week, plus a pretty decent hourly wage ($12-15/hr). Even if that doesn't include out of state tuition fees, that can knock a significant amount off even in the first year where they don't want you TA-ing your first quarter.

c) Internship funding. I'd seen them highlight that they offer grants for people taking unpaid internships, but assumed that funding was fairly limited. However, they've secured enough funding that the admissions officer pretty much guaranteed that as long as you do your part in sourcing the internship by their April deadline, they will give you pretty decent funding--she said a couple thousand for within the US depending on the area (presumably pro-rated by living costs so you get less if you intern in Minnesota vs NYC), and potentially a bit more for overseas internships (presumably because of travel costs). One detractor for me was the idea of finding summer housing and funding an unpaid internship in DC/NYC; if I can get a significant portion to all of those costs covered, plus get Career Services to help me find that internship, that takes away a lot of the detractors of a west coast school.

You could take a look at the TRIP survey out of William and Mary--it's a survey of IR academia and one segment of it is ranking of PhD/MA/BA programs, U Denver is #11 for MA and TAMU doesn't make the top 19 listed in the results (page 27). I just looked at the Foreign Policy mag rankings, and those are pulled directly from TRIP which tells you how reputable the survey was. I wouldn't put much faith into US News rankings etc.

Beach/water activities, hiking, biking if you're into outdoor activities. Tijuana?

The "average" summer day in the Portland area is in the 70s and sunny to partly cloudy. However, we do get hotter, especially in late July and early August--80s during the day isn't uncommon, and there will be a few days in the 90s and stretching towards 100 (a couple years we had a horrible heat wave of like, 8 days straight reaching into the 90s with 3 100+ days in the middle). It cools down at night into the 50s-60s and isn't humid so it's a lot more bearable than an 80-mumble day on the East Coast.

The final point to remember: on average, there are 200+ cloudy days in Portland every year. It rains from October to May, and then there is a drought from June-September. Half the rain falls in the winter (November-February), another third in the spring. I'm not talking about occasional torrential downpours here, either--I'm talking about cloudy days, with a near-constant drizzle that randomly amps up to actual rain. The situation in Seattle is very similar, just even more rain and a bit colder in the winters. If you don't like the rain, or need a lot of sunny days, don't move to the Pacific Northwest; just visit in the summer

GW-Elliott is definitely one to consider--it's professional development-focused with all evening classes (except for language) to better recruit people currently working during the day in jobs or internships. Most of their professors are current practitioners, which is the other reason that they hold classes in the evenings--the instructors come in after work to teach classes. Its sticker price is also a lot lower than the other DC private schools and it's literally 2 blocks away from the State Department and World Bank. I've also attended some of their guest lectures/open forums and they're fairly impressive--at one point I attended a lecture/Q&A with Hilary Clinton's right-hand policy guy that was fairly frank and classified as "background only, unattributed" for the attending reporters.

AU I didn't do a lot of research in--my initial impression was that they didn't have a strong Asia focus so I didn't apply there, though I could be completely wrong about that-- but based on all the "xx-wonk" ads they have plastered over the Metro they have a pretty strong policy focus in their graduate programs.

I think that UMCP's MPP program is fairly decent, but I don't know how rigorous the international track is.

If you want to get a rigorous quant-based program and don't care about the collegiate campus environment, you should also look at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. They're right on the edge of Embassy Row off of Dupont Circle and across the street from Brookings. They do like if you have a quant background, but I got the impression they get a lot of lopsided applications--either people with a strong policy background (excellent SOP and Verbal/AW GRE) or strong quant background (perfect Quant GRE and Econ minor/major)--so they sort of compare within those two pools.

Also, Georgetown SFS has a very rigorous standard of admissions but with Peace Corps under your belt, I think you'd have an advantage over others who don't have significant international experience or foreign language expertise.

I don't think, in mid-July for a program starting in the fall (presumably), that it's unreasonable to ask about student orientation. Now, you're only listing one example of a time you feel you may have "annoyed" your advisor with questions. If you're e-mailing them every day about the same issue, that's excessive. If you're e-mailing every day with a different issue each time, that's also excessive. However, if you've only e-mailed a couple of times about topical issues that's completely reasonable.

Some ways to try and minimize the annoyance for the advisor while still getting the answers you need are:

Ask multiple questions in a single e-mail. If you have a question, start an e-mail draft and then sit on it if possible so that if another question comes to you, you're only sending one e-mail for both and not spamming his inbox.

Also, make sure to do your research first--asking questions that can be found on a dept FAQ casts you as not being pro-active.

Make sure that the questions are truly topical to the advisor: asking about orientation is perfectly understandable, asking about good places to eat in the area is not.

Keep an eye on your communication style! Especially if you haven't met this advisor yet, keep your e-mails polite and professional. My mother is an instructor at a community college, and the e-mails she sometimes receives from current or prospective students are mind-boggling--misspellings, text-speak, emoticons, etc. Use language you'd use to write to a work supervisor, because that's what they are!

It sounds like you haven't started with your advisor yet; even if you did know him I would suggest including a cover letter because you are applying for a job. You don't want to come off as unprofessional or relying on your personal relationship with him.

MPP/MPAs are professional degrees; the best programs really stress professional experience. The students who come in straight out of college have to be stellar candidates in everything from LORs/SOPs to GPA/GREs, and usually with relevant internship/research experience.

I don't know how colleges consider taking an extra term, but it might be worth your while if you can get that internship. Personally, I'd advocate getting some professional experience for a year at least once you graduate--you mentioned doing part-time Americorps in school, so you might look into a full-time Americorps position to get experience in the issue area you want to study the policy for.

I don't know how NSF fellows tie in to graduate schools, but if you're planning to apply to graduate schools in December/January you want to take the GRE no later than that Nov 1 date, and that's really pushing it. Scores can take anywhere from a few weeks to 2 months to be processed and sent to schools because of the lag time in grading the AW essays and pushing the scores through the ETS system.

I don't think internships during the school year are as important as taking advantage of summer opportunities. During the school year I plan on working a part-time job that hopefully gets me tuition remission (TA/grader/tutor) to defray my living costs and lower my total indebtedness at graduation, on top of taking 4-5 classes. The summer is when I'll have the time to work a full-time internship and get a meaningful project done in that position (hopefully). In that sense, going to a school that provides support for summer internships is important. Thankfully UCSD IR/PS offers summer grants for students undertaking unpaid internships because they recognize how important that work experience is and want to lower financial barriers for it.

Yes and no. Housing is a separate cost, but it's included in the educational budget and financial aid calculations. If you look at the cost of attendance budgets, they'll be broken down into the various expenses-- tuition (in state/out of state for public schools), graduate school fees, books & supplies, housing, personal costs, etc. There'll usually be two calculations, one for on-campus housing and one for off-campus, and if you're a US student with a FAFSA then your financial need (and loan offer) will be based on that total cost of attendance calculation.

On my personal e-mail, I don't keep a signature--I find it annoying when people have large-font inspirational quotes under their name. On my professional e-mail (work e-mail) I list my title, mailing address, e-mail and phone number. If I TA'd a course I'd add in any official office hours but I probably wouldn't bother listing my courses or my undergraduate degree. One of the most useful things about e-mail services like Outlook is the ability to set a signature template so you don't have to re-type it every time. You can even set multiple templates like one with all your contact/hours info for students, one for your classmates/professors etc.

Actually Kaguyahime, we've had this discussion in other threads on this forum-- The Ed Dept is phasing out subsidized loans for graduate students on July 1, 2012. Starting on that date, they will only be disbursing unsubsidized Stafford Loans at 6.8% interest with a per-year cap of $20,500, and to supplement financial need beyond that will be offering unsubsidized Grad PLUS loans at 7.9% interest and no cap.

I currently have the late 2008 metal unibody MacBook. It'll be turning 4 this fall, and with the start of grad school I'm looking at replacement options.

I did take a glance at the Pro, and while I don't agree with his condescending tone re: the quality of Macs or the "premium" price, I do agree with Mr. Compensating With Font Size that it's designed for graphic designers/photographers/etc. If you're just using it to watch movies/browse the web/write papers, you do not need a retina display. If you want Retina that badly, you can buy an Air AND an iPad for less than the Pro.

I'm planning on buying the 13.3" MacBook Air; it will serve my needs great (they're similar to the OP's) and at $1149 + discounted AppleCare of $183, it's within my means.

You could take a look at the TRIP survey out of William and Mary--it's a survey of IR academia and one segment of it is ranking of PhD/MA/BA programs, U Denver is #11 for MA and TAMU doesn't make the top 19 listed in the results (page 27). I just looked at the Foreign Policy mag rankings, and those are pulled directly from TRIP which tells you how reputable the survey was. I wouldn't put much faith into US News rankings etc.

I've had varied experiences with grading methods. As a liberal arts major (history, international studies) I was not often in classes graded on a curve because the graded portions were often subjective--grading a research paper or an in-class essay isn't the same as solving an equation correctly or answering multiple choice questions. Usually in those classes the syllabi broke down the grades into portions (attendance (usually assessed via pop quiz), homework, mid-term essay/exam/project(s), final essay/exam /project) with a percentage grade assigned to each, and no curving.

Now, I took a few econ classes with interesting results. In one, the professor told us since it was an international studies course he'd go easy on us and curve to a B instead of to a C as he would for his econ-major courses, and explained how the curve distribution worked (he hedged as others have mentioned, but I think that the hedge was predicated on your attendance--i.e. he would allow your final grade to be drastically lower than your final exam if you had poor attendance/homework turn ins). In another, the econ professor hadn't taught an introductory course in a decade and I was very, very happy he curved his exams because my midterm exam grade of 25% was a C--and then his final was a breeze because he over-corrected for his previous exam's rigor.

My final note is that my engineering school friends had extreme grade distributions because their intro courses were designed to crush their dreams--a 10% was an A in one of their exams that I remember them agonizing over. In that class I think the distribution was by making the top grade 100% and adjusting everyone else's accordingly, so that if everyone scored the same then they'd all have the same grade rather than the usual curve.

So I've seen everything--curved grade distribution, weighted non-curved grades, curve adjustments for bad tests/teaching, and redistributions for intentionally over-rigorous tests. I'm in favor of the objectively weighted grade myself, because then it's easier for students to see what they need to do to make up for blowing off an exam etc by seeing how deep a hole they dug in that subcategory, and therefore what their max possible grade is. It's also easier to justify when someone comes to you asking why their final grade is what it is when you can point to the syllabus and tell them that getting 95% on the final (worth 25%) doesn't make up for the missed 15% from never turning in homework.

Typically, "legacy students" are given preference but not over a more well qualified student--if Student A and Student B are equally qualified but Student B's parent graduated from University X and has a history of donating/season ticket holder/etc, Student B would probably get the offer. That policy varies from school to school but is I think a generally accepted way of doing things. There are also, as previously stated, a lot of scholarships either designated for legacy students or with preference given to them. My main caveat is that my perception has been that the "extra points for affiliation" method is used more in undergraduate admissions than in graduate positions--I would think that graduate applicants are a smaller pool, and because the process is a bit more involved than undergrad admissions an alumni affiliation shouldn't be the tipping factor in someone's favor.

I don't think it's particularly "shady", I do think it's the way life works (a lot of people in this forum are targeting "name brand" schools because of the perception that they're more likely to be hired by certain employers, how is that kind of influence any different?).

As someone going into an IR MA program, I would differ from the previous poster on a few points.

Your GPA is great, and will be very helpful in your applications. However, the top-tier IR graduate schools usually have less than 10% of their incoming class coming straight out of undergrad. They are very focused on bringing in people with professional experience, international experience, who have proven that they know enough about working within the IR field to put the degree to good use. These programs highlight that the average age of students is 26-28 and that they only take people with stellar GPAs and very relevant international/intern experience straight out of undergrad.

While these MA programs are "cash cows" in that they generate cash flow for their parent universities, I would disagree that they are of less use than an IR doctorate. Most practitioners do not advance beyond the MA because it is a professional degree program, like getting a Masters in Engineering, Architecture or Social Work. I think IR doctorates are more for those who want to stay within academia, for which you still need practical, professional experience but where the focus is more on research/publishing/teaching.

Since you're taking at least a partial fifth year to finish up, I would recommend waiting until the next application cycle. That way, you can get some professional experience whether through nonprofit work or internships. I would also recommend going to Germany, especially if your intended regional concentration is Europe, unless you have a significant amount of previous international experience.

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 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.