CGchick

Thank you everyone for your comments. I really appreciate you all taking the time to write with straightforward analysis, fantastic insight, and wonderful advice. It's a lot to digest but seeing this all written down from a community of thinkers who understand the field way more than I do has really helped to put a lot of things into perspective for me, and has helped me to better understand what kind of experience and work these areas entail. This is the exact kind of advice I was looking for!

Hello everyone, This is my first post on this forum, so hopefully I'm posting this in the correct location. If not, please let me know if I need to move this thread. I've come to you all today to ask for some advice. Right now I'm a Visual Effects artist for feature film in her late 20s and I'm starting to get frustrated with how my industry is turning out. It's sad because I actually really love what I do for a living, but the way the VFX studios are treating their employees is becoming more and more abhorrent. As a result I've begun to contemplate changing careers. I did go to graduate school once before (for an M.S in Digital Media), but I left the first semester in because I was offered a job out in Hollywood. I have no regrets about doing that. Having gone through the admissions process as well as a full semester with a research assistantship, I figured at some point if I ever got frustrated with my line of work I would know how to go back and get a degree. The problem is, I am no longer interested in studying digital media. I want to completely change fields altogether and try something new. At first I didn't know what I wanted to do, but the more soul-searching I did the more I realized I really enjoyed intelligence, strategy, and diplomacy. I went to the Churchill War Rooms in London recently and I felt like I had an epiphany that it would be something I would really enjoy doing (the top British intelligence commanders huddled in those bunkers during WWII and their work was discussed heavily). As a result I've been looking into programs dealing with international intelligence, diplomacy, and international affairs. I've done a bit of research and here are some promising programs I've found so far: http://dss.missouristate.edu/ http://sipa.columbia.../mia/index.html http://www.gspia.pit...95/Default.aspx http://www.gradschoo...ffairs-187879_1 http://www.gradschoo...ffairs-193729_1 http://www.gradschoo...tudies-248505_1 Does anyone have any advice regarding programs in these fields? Are any of those programs listed above worth noting or should I scrap my current research and start over? I prefer going to larger schoos in the United States if I can help it. Will it be a bad mark against me that I come from a digital media background instead of, say, a military or law or communications background? I am currently working internationally so I at least have practical work experience as a freelancer in a foreign country. Any advice at all would be monumentally helpful. Thank you!