jeffster

I don't believe there's a lot of call in non-academic fields for pure poli sci graduate degrees. If you're not interested in teaching and research in the poli sci field (in which case why not just apply for a PhD program), you should really probably look at law school like you mentioned instead. It would be much more practical for the goal you stated of working outside of academia.

Econ grad programs seem to be pretty happy to take people who didn't major in econ for undergrad, but what matters is the math, asTheFez aluded to. I'm not sure how it would vary for an MA program because I never looked into it, but the schools you listed are all highly competitive. If the MA requirements are even remotely similar to the PhD math requirements, then your current math classes aren't going to cut it. You'll definitely need multi-variable calc and matrix algebra - that might be enough for an MA program if it's lighter on the quant side than the PhD program and your grades in those classes are good. However, you specifically say that your long-term interest is an econ PhD, and if you want to make sure you're a highly-competitive applicant for that, you will want to take differential equations and real analysis also. More statistics wouldn't hurt either. So basically, more math.

You might also check out some work by Jeffrey Sachs. He's a development economist at Columbia that consulted directly with Boliva in the 1980s after they were dealing with hyperinflation, then consulted with the Solidarity government on reforms in Poland after the fall of communism there. He also did some consulting in Russia after 1991 that didn't turn out as well, which is interesting to hear him talk about what went wrong. His books are highly approachble for non-economists, and might address the area you're interested in. I know one of his big causes was debt forgiveness from the US for these countries, and he also talks about how countries like Poland benefited from their proximity to the "west" - in Poland's case specifically Germany - but it should be more broadly applicable.

I've been told in no uncertain terms by several econ professors that classes taken online are about on par with no classes taken at all, when it comes to being considered for PhD work. Of course the two professors who told me that were giving their opinion, and two isn't a very big sample size, so take it for what it's worth.

Not everyone picks their significant others based on such rational criteria! It's possible they "picked" someone in their field because that's who they met, and who shared their interests. But really, it seems like it should be possible to keep them at arms-length, at least until you're not directly responsible for grading or supervising them.

Is the program you want to apply to in your home country? You mentioned that being far from home was causing you problems, so if you're now applying for a school at home, or at least much closer to home, you might talk about that as an issue that you had the first time around that you wont have if they accept you to their program. On the other hand, if you're applying to another school far away from home, I wouldn't mention that as a problem you had before. Also, you might ask yourself why you'll be able to handle it better this time, if you are indeed going to be far away again. You might also talk about what exactly led you to figure out your interest in this new program. Was it an elective you took, or a professor who introduced you to it? It may be a hard sell if your new major is very similar to your old major, but if it's a big change then maybe you could draw attention to the positive things that led you TO this program, rather than the negative things that led you OUT of your old program. For example, I started out majoring in a different area of the social sciences, then I had a superb professor in an intro econ course that led me to change my focus and add a double-major. Later when I applied for an econ PhD program, I talked briefly about that professor as a way of explaining my earlier work and the subsequent switch. The last thing that comes to mind is the down time between your quitting the old program and the start of the 2013 academic year. What are you doing in this space that applies to your new desired major? You might be able to use some good relevant activities in this time period to frame everything as a transition from your old major to your new, rather than a flat-out quitting of the old major. Those are just a few ideas that come to mind.

People meet significant-others in their work/school environment ALL the time, as has been stated, since it's one of your main sources of socialization. Honestly, I suspect the "whether it works out or not" thing for any given individual is directly proportional to the number relationships from anywhere for that individual that end in huge flaming messes. If you're on speaking terms with a majority of your exes, go for it. If you can't break up with someone wtihout tipping off WWIII, don't go for it. As for the online dating part, it went well for me. The first date it set me up with was this woman who worked on the assembly line for General Motors, had a high school diploma and was a right-leaning republican, when I'm a left-leaning guy who has been in academia for ages. I only went because it was the first match it suggested and I wanted to figure out what they thought they saw here. Needless to say it didn't make it to date number two! But then my second match I ended up marrying. So, I guess a 50% success rate is pretty good in this regard!

Just flipping through the thread, I saw a few topics come up repeatedly: The bus system is pretty good - a few years back MSU integrated all their busses with the CATA system, which operates city-wide. There's a brand new bus terminal right in the center of campus, and from there it connects all over EL, Lansing, and the other nearby suburbs, including the large mall and Meijer (like a midwestern Walmart) next door in Okemos. It's actually a very good bus system, everything is clean and they have quite a few hybrid busses, and won some national awards recently. I found when I rode it in undergrad that the timing wasn't always as reliable as I would have liked, especially the heavily-frequented route that runs north up Abbot road to the new apartment complexs like Chandler Crossing. It's was good enough - you just wouldn't want to rely on it to get you somewhere important on time, without any leeway. There's a ton of parking ramps - more than seems to make sense to me! They're fine for one-off parking, but not very reasonable if you were planning to do it regularly. You wont have trouble getting parking spaces if you do decide to foot the cost though. Also, someone asked about health food stores or farmer's markets. There are two relatively close stores and one co-op to campus that I used to visit. The Foods for Living is particularly nice, and is reachable by bus or bike, or even a long walk if you live on the east side of campus. http://www.thebetterhealthstore.com/stores/lansing-east/index.asp http://www.foodsforliving.com/retailer/store_templates/shell_id_1.asp?storeID=F491B142FA784F2CBDF1E053A643A6A7 http://elfco.coop/ There's also a nice farmer's market that's only a short bus ride/drive or a decent bike ride away, which has the advantage of being right next to the aforementioned mall and the Meijer: http://www.meridian.mi.us/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={FBDDD477-61D6-4BC4-8CAD-81DAA4BB9692} Let me know if anyone has other questions, I lived in the area for over 20 years.

Check out http://www.dtnmgt.com/ for apartments. They own like half the apartment buildings in the whole area. I rented from them several times and never had any issues. Where campus meets Grand River Ave is the main "happening" part of EL, with all the bars and galleries and restaurants and such. There's an Amtrak station right next to campus, although keep in mind the campus is enormous, so being "right next to it" could still be pretty far from wherever you are. I've taken the train to Chicago from there a number of times, and once you're in Chicago I imagine you can get a train to anywhere that has railroad tracks! Plus it's exactly on the way to Minnesota.

The job market for teachers is very bad in Michigan. There's a glut of highly-ranked education universities in the state which means there tends to be a lot of job seekers in that field. On top of that, the state is slashing k12 funding wherever it can. I did my undergrad at MSU and grew up in a suburb next to East Lansing, and my mother was on the school board for the district we lived in. Any time a teaching position opens, they have hundreds of applicants. Sorry for the bad news, maybe your boyfriend will have more luck!

Without knowing any more than you've written here now, I would avoid the group approach, and I would also avoid basing your complaint on the firing of other students. Do you really know everything about those fired students? Are you so sure of it, that you want to hitch your wagon to theirs? It's MORE than possible that there were things going on you were unaware of because, after all, why would the faculty keep you in the loop? But even if the reality is that you are correct, what matters more for you is perception, and if those students are perceived negatively by the faculty then you still wont want to hitch your wagon to theirs. The only thing you can concretely say is that YOU feel you aren't getting good advice. Take that complaint above him, and ask for help finding a solution. Avoid all conspiracy talk about this individual. All that matters is the quality of your relationship with him. After all, this isn't about justice for this terrible advisor, it's about you getting a good PhD experience. Or at least it seems that way to me!

Seems highly unethical if you're actually responsible for grading them, but fine if you're never in a position where you have to interact officially in your role as a grad student/TA. Although it could be problematic if they end up in some section of yours in the future, but you should be able to avoid that with planning, or if not address it with the professor in charge before hand and come up with a workaround.

I'm moving to DC with my wife this summer, to attend AU in the fall. Originally we were looking for large studio/small 1br places outside of DC with access to bus/metro, but then I started looking more at the DC transit system. We live in Prague right now, and the mass transit in DC looks like it will cost as much in a month (if I ride it maybe twice a day) as we pay in a year for unlimited rides here! It seems like we would be better off paying $1200 or $1300 somewhere in walk/bike distance to AU than we would paying less and having to ride the metro in from outside the center. Does anyone living there now have experience that matches this?

I wouldn't just gloss over the two year period though. It's not like they aren't going to notice it if you simply don't say anything about it! Instead try to spin it as a strength - you just did that a little right here, regarding the hard lessons you learned. Talk about how it led you to where you are now and what you got out of the period, while acknowledging but not focusing on the negatives. I imagine they'll be concerned about how this past experience with grad school could reflect on your potential future experience with grad school, so I think you should at least address why this isn't a valid concern for them to hold. I had a two-year gap where I worked in a field not related to my education in order to support my wife while she finished school, and when I applied to grad school I made sure to address that gap, and talk about what I did in that time to keep myself involved in the field. It worked out well enough for me. Good luck!