Applying to Munk 2019, NPSIA, GSPIA, BSIA etc.

[pokegenie]

1 minute ago, revalith said:

There's a program called the Federal Student Work Experience Program (I think) or FSWEP for short. You can apply through there. I got my first govt job as a Page of the House of Commons but afterwards I applied through FSWEP and got a job as a policy analyst over at ESDC. I then networked that into a lot of part-time positions across several different departments. If you're coming to Ottawa, 100% check out FSWEP. It's free! The only problem is getting the first job is tricky because it's a lottery based system, but once you've gotten the first job through FSWEP managers can just pluck you out of the pool and you can network properly. I've had jobs in policy, research, project management and regulatory affairs

That is amazing! Thank you for sharing!

[revalith]

3 minutes ago, pokegenie said:

That is amazing! Thank you for sharing!

Happy to share. The ability to work for the government while studying is a huge plus in favour of Ottawa schools! Feel free to ping me if you ever need a hand with your FSWEP profile/resume, I've optimized a number of my friends' in the past. Good luck!

[GradSchoolWot]

Just now, revalith said:

Happy to share. The ability to work for the government while studying is a huge plus in favour of Ottawa schools! Feel free to ping me if you ever need a hand with your FSWEP profile/resume, I've optimized a number of my friends' in the past. Good luck!

Wow, kinda getting regrets for not doing my undergrad near Ottawa now. Definitely reaching out!

[pokegenie]

8 minutes ago, revalith said:

Happy to share. The ability to work for the government while studying is a huge plus in favour of Ottawa schools! Feel free to ping me if you ever need a hand with your FSWEP profile/resume, I've optimized a number of my friends' in the past. Good luck!

Oh! Thank you so much! I would love to meet you on campus. I will be moving to Ottawa around July or August after wrapping up my life in US.

Edited February 27, 2019 by pokegenie

[revalith]

@GradSchoolWot Yeah I'm lucky, I grew up here in Ottawa so it was an easy choice for me. Ping me when you need a hand!

@pokegenie absolutely, I'll hold mini-tours of campus for TGC forums users ? NPSIA is in one of the nicer buildings on campus too which helps a lot.

[jkohek]

Congrats to everyone who received an acceptance today or prior to!

I've heard back from SPP at UCalgary and from Queen's (still waiting on Max Bell). I'm having a really hard time finding any info about SPP - from what I can see it's virtually nonexistent on this forum. Has anyone else applied and heard good things? It seems similar to the one at Queen's from what I've researched but it would be nice to find someone who could personally speak to the program!

Good luck to everyone still waiting!

 

[v_vexed]

1 hour ago, jkohek said:

Congrats to everyone who received an acceptance today or prior to!

I've heard back from SPP at UCalgary and from Queen's (still waiting on Max Bell). I'm having a really hard time finding any info about SPP - from what I can see it's virtually nonexistent on this forum. Has anyone else applied and heard good things? It seems similar to the one at Queen's from what I've researched but it would be nice to find someone who could personally speak to the program!

Good luck to everyone still waiting!

 

I have a couple friends who have been in the SPP program in Calgary (I am from Calgary and go to UofC), I've only heard good things. You do a capstone program and can finish it 1-2 years, the professors are really good too. The campus is downtown I believe. One person I knew got into doing the program part-time while working as a constituency assistance full time. She said it worked out super well for her since she was able to manage rent, tuituton, etc. while working and not getting loans/debt.

 

also, I got into GSPIA with 6k/year as well. Haven't heard from NPSIA yet :(

[mppa]

I just received an offer of admission for International Public Policy at Balsillie!!

[CoconutAvocado]

1 hour ago, v_vexed said:

I have a couple friends who have been in the SPP program in Calgary (I am from Calgary and go to UofC), I've only heard good things. You do a capstone program and can finish it 1-2 years, the professors are really good too. The campus is downtown I believe. One person I knew got into doing the program part-time while working as a constituency assistance full time. She said it worked out super well for her since she was able to manage rent, tuituton, etc. while working and not getting loans/debt.

 

also, I got into GSPIA with 6k/year as well. Haven't heard from NPSIA yet

Was she able to get a good job after completing the program?

Edited February 27, 2019 by CoconutAvocado

[iageek]

Accepted to NPSIA with funding this morning. 4.0 GPA in my final year (3.65 CGPA), strong ECs, 9 months of related work experience in an NGO and microfinance organization. Best of luck to everyone still waiting, you got this! 

[poutinead]

29 minutes ago, iageek said:

Accepted to NPSIA with funding this morning. 4.0 GPA in my final year (3.65 CGPA), strong ECs, 9 months of related work experience in an NGO and microfinance organization. Best of luck to everyone still waiting, you got this! 

Congratulations...I wish I had applied to NPSIA ...if only to get a decision before Munk/BSIA...this is the loooooooooooogest February ever...

[CoconutAvocado]

49 minutes ago, mppa said:

I just received an offer of admission for International Public Policy at Balsillie!!

This is a great program. Congrats.

[v_vexed]

1 hour ago, CoconutAvocado said:

Was she able to get a good job after completing the program?

Yep, she got a job with the Alberta government as a policy analyst. She was also heavily interested in energy sustainability so I think she did some work with the Minister of Energy

[modesteffect]

Some info from gspia administrators to share,

- coop is optional to register, no credits, but if done, must take 2 terms

- French Language course will be offered in fall, must attend, the master course taught in French only needs French in listening and presentation, English can be used in all written parts.

 

[mppa]

1 hour ago, CoconutAvocado said:

This is a great program. Congrats.

Thank you!

[RLNCC180]

Got accepted to NPSIA with funding this morning too! Congrats to everyone else as well

Stats:

I'm graduating this May with a BA in IR. 82.2% CGPA (not sure what the 4.0 conversion is. 3.7 maybe), 83.3% GPA for 3-4th year courses. No government work experience, just 4 months of an internship with an NGO last fall. No formal research experience aside from writing research papers/reports for classes and for the NGO. LORs from two professors that I took one course with each last year. Managed to snag a 4-month volunteering position in a relevant IR field for January-April 2019, so included that in my CV. In my statement, I tried to tie in my unrelated job experience to the program (emphasized my leadership skills), indicated the professors I would enjoy learning from and why, and gave a really clear summary of the research I intended to focus on (though not sure if I would still go the research route in the NPSIA program). 

Good luck to anyone still waiting. I'm still waiting on Munk and Balsillie.

[bessyk1993]

40 minutes ago, Chrisopps said:

Some info from gspia administrators to share,

- coop is optional to register, no credits, but if done, must take 2 terms

- French Language course will be offered in fall, must attend, the master course taught in French only needs French in listening and presentation, English can be used in all written parts.

 

I know someone in the program currently- you can definitely get by in the program not knowing French. Also there are many different electives to choose from, and you can choose an easier more English dominant course as your French elective where all the assignments etc are graded and completed in English. uOttawa also has free French classes which are apparently very good, so it’s also a good oppurtunity to improve the national second language! 

[modesteffect]

31 minutes ago, bessyk1993 said:

I know someone in the program currently- you can definitely get by in the program not knowing French. Also there are many different electives to choose from, and you can choose an easier more English dominant course as your French elective where all the assignments etc are graded and completed in English. uOttawa also has free French classes which are apparently very good, so it’s also a good oppurtunity to improve the national second language! 

Thanks for info. But knowing no French to pass the course.... that’s amazing... seriously 

[modesteffect]

Btw gspia really has lots of opportunities including coop, research, embassy, exchanges overseas, summer field work etc

[bessyk1993]

11 minutes ago, Chrisopps said:

Btw gspia really has lots of opportunities including coop, research, embassy, exchanges overseas, summer field work etc

Yeah they do! As soon as I got the offer I accepted it. I also applied to Carleton MPPA, my application just got changed to 'Review in progress by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs'. But I wanted the GSPIA program more because of the mandatory MRP (MRP is optional and not guaranteed by Carleton), the options for different collaborative masters and co op and international opportunities! Im super excited 

[modesteffect]

30 minutes ago, bessyk1993 said:

Yeah they do! As soon as I got the offer I accepted it. I also applied to Carleton MPPA, my application just got changed to 'Review in progress by Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs'. But I wanted the GSPIA program more because of the mandatory MRP (MRP is optional and not guaranteed by Carleton), the options for different collaborative masters and co op and international opportunities! Im super excited 

I applied for Carleton mppa as well, but no status change, guess I am not In the first roll

[diplomaniac]

7 hours ago, revalith said:

@GradSchoolWot Sure, though I don't know if it helps at all because I was in a position very well suited to this. My undergrad is also at Carleton - policy with an intl focus, econ minor. I have a 3.9 GPA and government work experience including GAC, and my LORs were NPSIA profs (I took two NPSIA courses last semester on an advanced standing basis.) So I think I may have been a bit 'textbook' for this program.

A couple of my friends who are also in my undergrad also just received their acceptances by email, they generally had GPAs in the B+/A- range and some government work experience as well.

CONGRATS! No more stress for you! Awesome stats, btw. You place is very much well deserved 

[diplomaniac]

5 hours ago, v_vexed said:

I have a couple friends who have been in the SPP program in Calgary (I am from Calgary and go to UofC), I've only heard good things. You do a capstone program and can finish it 1-2 years, the professors are really good too. The campus is downtown I believe. One person I knew got into doing the program part-time while working as a constituency assistance full time. She said it worked out super well for her since she was able to manage rent, tuituton, etc. while working and not getting loans/debt.

 

also, I got into GSPIA with 6k/year as well. Haven't heard from NPSIA yet

Didn’t hear back from NPSIA either ?. On the bright side, no news doesn’t mean bad news. They keep the wait list rolling once they get confirmation from first round to accept or decline offer. Here’s to waiting until sometime around mid-March. 

[revalith]

I just got my funding package from NPSIA even though they said it’d take a few weeks. 26k, including scholarships, TAships and RA. They only gave me a 1/2 TAship for second year but that’s almost certainly based on the fact that I did advanced standing courses with them and might not take the full 2 years. 

Edited March 1, 2019 by revalith

[eyeb]

How did you get your funding package? Was it through email?