Texas A&M Bush School Interview Conference

[HereIsHoping]

Hey all. Figured I would put this out there, since I haven't seen anything from this year yet, but has anybody else received an interview invitation for TAMU's Bush School? I got mine on Friday afternoon. I will be attending the in-person conference for the MIA on Feb 22-23. Anybody else going to be there?

It would also be pretty great to hear about anybody who has done it in the last couple of years, to see what their experiences were! I haven't been able to find many particulars from the past couple of years.

I'm also interested in any information about the program itself from anybody who may have attended, especially as it might compare to others... from the outside it seems like an interesting program, but I am worried about an international affairs/policy degree from a University in College Station, Texas--not exactly a hotbed of international affairs. I'm sure I'll learn more at the conference, but insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[cts9715]

I got notified Saturday afternoon for the MPSA conference for March 1-2. I've tried looking through posts and forums for insight, but of course it only gives us so much info. 

Edited January 29, 2019 by cschwarz97

[SketchesOfSpain]

Got invited to the MPSA conference in early March, still weighing if I should go.

I'll tell you what I know about the program, but it's not all international affairs related:

1. The Bush School has a homeland security focus, one of the very few I've seen that does. Which makes sense considering the namesake's (and his son's) presidency.

2. When talking to a LBJ school grad, I was told to consider Bush because their focus on teaching skills.

3. A&M's alumni network is insane. An Aggie Ring is this all powerful homing beacon, even outside of Texas.

Two cents from someone who has zero experience in international affairs jobs but picks up gut feelings from internet trends. If you're looking for an international development/U.N. diplomat/etc. job, Bush probably isn't for you and you should try for NYC or D.C. programs. If you're trying for something more military then you could probably do far worse than Bush. 

[HereIsHoping]

On 1/31/2019 at 9:48 AM, SketchesOfSpain said:

Got invited to the MPSA conference in early March, still weighing if I should go.

I'll tell you what I know about the program, but it's not all international affairs related:

1. The Bush School has a homeland security focus, one of the very few I've seen that does. Which makes sense considering the namesake's (and his son's) presidency.

2. When talking to a LBJ school grad, I was told to consider Bush because their focus on teaching skills.

3. A&M's alumni network is insane. An Aggie Ring is this all powerful homing beacon, even outside of Texas.

Two cents from someone who has zero experience in international affairs jobs but picks up gut feelings from internet trends. If you're looking for an international development/U.N. diplomat/etc. job, Bush probably isn't for you and you should try for NYC or D.C. programs. If you're trying for something more military then you could probably do far worse than Bush. 

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and congrats on the interview even if you decide not to attend!

Your gut read on the program matches what I've found in my reading as well. I'm pretty ok with it not being all international affairs related; I'm interested in the intersection between international and domestic policy so programs like this and the LBJ school where international affairs is nested within larger public policy schools is rather appealing to me.

I've decided that I'm going to attend the conference for MIA and see what they have to say about the amount of flexibility of choosing tracks and combining a national security emphasis with other fields. It really seems like a great program in many regards, and for the cost mixed with name recognition it seems hard to beat.

I've heard the same things about the Aggie network. I wonder if this is advantageous when considering internship opportunities and connections during the program... I've got to assume that with such an extensive alumni network getting internship opportunities in federal/international organizations should be pretty doable. I've read some discussion that the program has a decent reputation in DC for federal jobs, even when compared to many of the the DC schools. Know anything about that?

On 1/29/2019 at 8:43 AM, cts9715 said:

I got notified Saturday afternoon for the MPSA conference for March 1-2. I've tried looking through posts and forums for insight, but of course it only gives us so much info. 

Yeah, I'm doing the same thing, just looking for insight, especially anything more recent. Hence this post! But congrats on the interview!

[SketchesOfSpain]

On 2/2/2019 at 10:00 AM, HereIsHoping said:

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and congrats on the interview even if you decide not to attend!

Your gut read on the program matches what I've found in my reading as well. I'm pretty ok with it not being all international affairs related; I'm interested in the intersection between international and domestic policy so programs like this and the LBJ school where international affairs is nested within larger public policy schools is rather appealing to me.

I've decided that I'm going to attend the conference for MIA and see what they have to say about the amount of flexibility of choosing tracks and combining a national security emphasis with other fields. It really seems like a great program in many regards, and for the cost mixed with name recognition it seems hard to beat.

I've heard the same things about the Aggie network. I wonder if this is advantageous when considering internship opportunities and connections during the program... I've got to assume that with such an extensive alumni network getting internship opportunities in federal/international organizations should be pretty doable. I've read some discussion that the program has a decent reputation in DC for federal jobs, even when compared to many of the the DC schools. Know anything about that?

I can't speak to their reputation in DC but I can imagine A&M would be popular with the military crowd, probably one of the most popular non-academy schools honestly.

If you can swing it, go and just feel them out. I was telling someone in PM's they're trying to win you over just as much as you are them.

[Sarahndipity]

I'm going to the conference for the MIA this month, and I've heard good things about the experience. Personally, I'm pretty excited.

As for your inquiries, here's my two cents:

One of my closest friends is a graduate of the program, and we've talked a lot about the, as you put it, being "worried about an international affairs/policy degree from a University in College Station, Texas--not exactly a hotbed of international affairs." She works for one of the national labs, but travels to DC and abroad pretty frequently. Her impression is A&M has excellent name recognition when it comes to the IA program, in part due to how large the Aggie network is, but also due to its consistently high rankings. It tends to be the only southern school to crack to the top 20 or 25 (depending on the year), and people notice that. And that does help with the internships, as does having having professors like James Olson and Larry Napper who are deeply familiar with the intelligence and diplomacy community, respectively. 

My other insider comment from my friend concerns the flexibility issue. In a lot of ways, Bush will bend over backwards to accommodate what you're looking for/trying to do, as long as you can articulate it. I think a good example of that is the "hey, we'll find you a tutor for literally any language you want to learn" approach. Also when it comes to concentrations, you can have up to 3 and design them using courses from the university as whole alongside Bush classes.