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BMCGirl10

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  1. What you're describing sounds similar to cold-calling in sales, and it has a very, very low success rate. You can drastically increase the chances of a successful cold call by having a referral from someone the person you're calling knows.

    So, since you actually work in the field in this area, maybe you can find a co-worker or supervisor or other local contact, and see if they can recommend someone in academia who could co-author this with you? Or maybe since you work for an aid organization, the organization itself might be able to help. I would think "Hello professor, you don't know me but when I spoke with Bob-mutual-contact-of-ours he recommended I get in touch with you..." sounds way, way better than "Hello professor so-and-so, you don't know me but I thought we could co-author this paper..."

    Or if you can't get any lead-ins to someone in academia who would do this with you, maybe you could look for other journals that would publish it, and accept a submission from someone actually working in the field? For that matter, you wouldn't have anything to loose contacting the journal in question and asking if it's a hard-and-fast rule, or if they would still consider your submission anyway.

    Will definitely keep this in mind. Now planning to approach a scholar that I know personally and have worked with previously.

  2. Ok! That makes more sense to me now! And is this an opinion / perspective piece, a literature review/meta-analysis, or a paper that will need data collection?

    One way to do it is to approach people who you've worked with before and/or know you in your own department and sacrifice writing about something that's strictly of your own interest, and maybe something that's a bit more in their area but that you can spin into a topic you enjoy. A lot of profs have data that they let students take and publish from something, or they might have contacts that they could direct you too. You could also try and apply for an RAship- they often lead to publications.

    Do you have an advisor or some academic contact? If you do, I would start there, and let them know that you're interested in publishing and the topic you would like to do. They could probably give you some advice.

    Tbh, I don't know anyone that has cold called a person and ask them to co-write something, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I might research people who write in that area, and contact them about the potential to collaborate and your ideas. I don't know about the politics/manners of this, but if it's done professionally and with the tone that you're an eager and motivated student looking to gain experience, I am sure it would be fine.

    Do you have an academic point of contact like a supervisor?

    Hi - I'm not in school currently. I've been out of undergrad for three years and work in the field. But I do have professors and scholars at former think tanks that I've worked with. I have an editor and a scholar in mind to help me review my piece once I draft it. No data in mind - just analysis and rule of law projection. I've found a new journal that accepts pieces on comparative democracy so I'll be reviewing their recent articles.

  3. Hi there- I have not had experience doing this, but I am curious as to why you want to have a co-author and not just submit your own. Do you have a topic? data? is this why you're interested in bringing someone in?

    If you have a topic and/or data, why not take the chance to get a single authored paper?! :)

    Hi Dal PhDer,

    The Journal that I'm interested in publishing in, the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa, requires submission from faculty or ABD students. I assume that many other academic journals have similar requirements for submission. I have a general topic in mind focusing on rule of law in South Sudan. I'll look around to see if I can find journals that I can publish in solo but I'd also like the guidance of a scholar to direct my research and writing style for an academic audience.

  4. Hello,

    Not sure if this is the right place...but any advice on approaching a scholar to co-write a journal or publication article? I'm an aid worker in East Africa with previous foreign policy publications but nothing academic outside of undergraduate. During my time abroad I'd like to co-write a piece with a scholar to boost my resume. I can't approach anyone at my undergraduate institution because none of the professors write on topics in my field. So this will be a blind email to scholars I'm familiar w/ from think tanks or someone I've met on-site. Would I be better off trying to work with a recent post-doc or graduate student?

  5. I'm familiar with someone who did the GPPN Dual Degree program with LSE and Columbia SIPA. She started at LSE and this year is at SIPA. You can read it here: http://www.asianpoly...ry/grad-school/

    I’ve been receiving emails regarding the GPPN Dual Degree program between the LSE and Columbia SIPA that I am pursuing. In the interest of sharing information, here’s some key items:

    If you are at LSE and looking to apply to do your 2nd year at Columbia:

    Application is generally due during early February and you hear back in early March. The process is simple – just four short essays. Three of the essays is likely to be exactly as they are for next year’s incoming

    SIPA applicants. And then, there is typically a question similar to “If you could have dinner with anyone dead or alive, whom would it be?”. It’s important to note that since LSE doesn’t have grades until the end of the year, these essays are the only thing that really sets you apart from the rest. You are competing against others who are already at the LSE, so obviously you are all already of a certain caliber. Therefore, the fact I was accepted into SIPA originally for the MPA mattered none. I still slaved and agonized over these essays for days. There must have been at least 5 drafts of each. I am fairly certain that I spent more energy on these essays than anything else I did at the LSE.

    Why the fuss? Well, it can be rather competitive. Last year, I believe there were 19 applicants and 7 offers. Historically, it’s about 1/3 probability. I believe it depends on supply and demand. The number of spots available is determined by how many people want to come to the LSE. There may be other factors involved in the available spots, but I know this is the main one. I don’t work in the Admissions Committee, so I haven no idea what works. But I think the same rules apply for any essays: more is NOT better. Judging by the student body at SIPA, I would say highlighting previous experiences and how they motivate your wish to study at SIPA is probably more important than academic achievements. My observation is that SIPA is training people to become practitioners, not academics.

    Once you do get the offer, you will immediately need to think about courses as pre-registration for the fall semester opens in the spring and courses can fill very quickly at SIPA. Your courses at the LSE will count for some of the core classes at SIPA. Basically, you will need to complete all requirements that a normal two-year SIPA student needs to complete. EC440 will count for the year long Economics classes. EC455 will count for Quantitative Analysis. GV478 will count for Politics of Policy-making. I was doing International Development, so DV441 counted for the Management requirement. If you are serious about coming to SIPA, you can plan your courses that will count, in the event that you do get in, that will give you more flexibility to take classes at SIPA. I also had LL484 Regulations of Financial Markets to count as International Banking at SIPA. In some ways, going from LSE-SIPA shortchanged me on class options since most year-long classes only counted for semester-long classes at SIPA.

    Beyond the above requirements that can be satisfied from LSE courses, you are still require to take a financial management class, a professional development seminar,

    capstone and internship. In addition, everyone is required to pursue a concentration and a specialization. Depending on the track you choose to take, the number of required classes varies. For more information regarding requirements, refer to SIPA Academics.

    LSE.Logo_.jpg

    For anyone considering GPPN Dual Degree between LSE/SIPA:

    One great advantage about SIPA is its student body size and a wide variety of student groups within SIPA itself, completely independent from Columbia University. LSE has a number of societies, but they are usually mixed with undergrads. The student groups at SIPA host a number of events and some have insane amount of money in their budget, ranging well into thousands of dollars. Serving on a board in one of these groups give you all sorts of experience to answer those “behavior questions” you face in interviews. Caveat: the boards run from spring to fall semester between students first and second year. Thus, as a dual degree student, I was excluded from able to serve on any board. This is not to say I am excluded from participating or becoming involved, but it greatly diminishes the leadership opportunities.

    The other potential difficulty is the social life. Since there is only a handful of dual degree students, you tend to fall into a strange lot that doesn’t quite fit with the first year, but most of the 2nd year already have pre-established social circle. I already had a lot of friends in New York, so this is less of an issue for me. I have heard this is a general issue to keep in mind for any dual degree students. The upside is that if you can overcome the difficulty, you walk away after the two years with a massive network of contacts from all over the world.

    Academically, the LSE is much more in depth and challenging. The nature of the programs are different. LSE is much more academic. SIPA is much more practical. LSE is all about independent learning and one huge exam at the end of the year for most classes. At SIPA, classes are only one-semester long and there are assignments/projects/papers due constantly. You can think of it as a strength vs. endurance. To me, academic is all there is at the LSE. Extracurricular mattered very little. At SIPA, to get the full experience, soft skills are important, the professional development events consume your life, as well as extracurricular activities. If you come to SIPA only to excel at academics, then you really would not get your money’s worth. Personally, I love SIPA. But, we all know how the LSE and the British system in general perplexes me.

    If I could do it over, I likely would have gone to SIPA in the first place and stayed there for two years. Having two degrees on the resume is a nice plus, but the experience itself lacks continuity. Since the GPPN dual degree comprises of only a handful of people in all schools, there doesn’t really exist a very good structure to help the integration. Having to learn the entire system and politics of school each year can be really frustrating. At the end of the day, it depends on what you are after and prefer. As always, there are pros and cons to all things and each decision depends on which way the balance tilts.

    Good luck with your decision!

  6. I'm posting this question on behalf of a friend. She received a FLAS to study Russian (MA) at UW-Madison. She was also admitted into the Russian and Eurasian Studies program at SAIS with 60k+ in loans. And she's a Fulbright finalist.

    A - Can she defer a FLAS scholarship for one year? Will she loose that funding if she takes the year as a Fulbright scholar?

    B - Can she leverage the FLAS funding at UW for more aid at SAIS?

    C - Is full funding at UW better than the opportunity to attend SAIS with little to no funding?

  7. An interesting profile from the Washington Post on a USAID officer who went back for his MPA prompted the question.

    --------------------

    Graduate degrees: Are they worth it?

    http://www.washingto..._washingtonpost

    In early 2011, Ramsey Day was completing his 21 / 2-year tour as head of USAID’s Montenegro office and evaluating his next job offer. The 36-year-old’s political career trajectory had been steep and fast. Starting in 2003, he had: served as an advance representative for Vice President Dick Cheney; worked on George Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign; won a political appointment to USAID’s Europe-Eurasia Bureau; been promoted to the bureau’s chief of staff, and then promoted again to chief of USAID’s Public Liaison Office.

    With that track record, his successful stint in Montenegro, and his deep management experience, Day seemed positioned for advancement by almost any measure — any measure, that is, but his academic credentials. With a bachelor’s degree only, he was shut out of the running for positions at the next level of leadership in the U.S. Agency for International Development. His new assignment felt like it would be a step down: a post as general development officer in a remote area of Afghanistan, which (because it was also a move from civil to foreign service) came with a $50,000 pay cut — half of his Montenegro salary.

    - Read the rest on The Washington Post

  8. I was wondering if for some countries all applicants (PhD, MA, BA people) are in the same pool vying for the same spots? I am an alternate and have seen online that 2 profs. received the fulbright to teh same country I am an alternate to. (See http://www.education.auburn.edu/news/2011/april/estonia.html and http://www.nebrwesleyan.edu/press-and-media/news/15930 )

    You might not have been competing against those professors at all. There are separate Fulbright grants which are specifically designated for scholars, professors and educators. http://fulbright.state.gov/grants/scholar-program/us-citizen.html They're designed to let them teach university level courses while conducting research on their specific topics.

  9. Oh hai Flyers. How are ya?

    He's right about the competitiveness. While some of us got these great internships, many did not. I know a couple that are going back home and applying for local police this summer. I should note, that the ones that got great internships were particularly competitive w/ some work experience between undergrad/grad. The ones that did not got internships came straight out of undergrad. So take that gap year kiddos!

    I would agree with this. I'm in the Gap Year (or two) between undergrad & grad. I was lucky to find some paid internships but it's definitely true that the more plum positions go to students with graduate studies & more experience under their belt.

  10. Did you specifically seek out internships? Are these connected to your school somehow? I just want an actual job in order to supplement my loans.

    None of those internships were connected to my college. I also didn't get academic credit for them. I sought them out on my own through networking and idealist.org.

  11. I was doing some research on the summer internship for those doing an IR MA and it looks like a lot of them are completely unpaid and have to rely on external funding. Is this true? I mean, I can totally understand how doing a project with an NGO might be unpaid, but are even the private sector internships COMPLETELY unpaid? Is this the norm for this type of degree? What about if the internship is in DC and doesn't require transnational flights? Are there at least housing stipends by the host org? Maybe I'm being naive here but it came as a surprise to me to hear that most internships are unpaid.

    Any advice from people doing these degrees or who are in the know would be helpful.

    Most internships in DC are unpaid unless you're lucky enough to find one that specifies a stipend or salary. I've had four DC internships. Internship A at non-profit: Unpaid, Internship B at govt contractor: Stipend of $750 a month (impossible to live on), Internship C at international dev firm: $8.25 an hour (ridiculous), Internship D: $11 an hour (international consulting firm). None of these internships came with a housing allowance but one did give me a mass transit subsidy. Good luck.

  12. international development is a big industry, but generally field experience counts more than anything. I do some hiring, and while a grad degree from a name university will move you up in the pile, someone who had done relevant work in the developing world is much more likely to get an interview

    I agree with what DCA John has said. I work at a DC intl dev consulting firm. A lot of hires I see (both in the field and domestic) have grad degrees from non-prestigious schools. What pushes them forward is the field experience.

  13. Make sure you have some stats on hand regarding the wage range for similar positions as well asliving costs. That way your argument will come across as factual rather than just a wishlist.

    Good luck!

    Thanks MBabe! That was very helpful.

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