UCSD GPS 2019

[Thirteen]

Question for those that also received full funding from UCSD, did your financial award letter reflect this? I received an email a few weeks ago notifying me of full funding + stipend but on the letter I received yesterday it only states that I have been given California tuition fees. Does money to cover the rest of it come from another source? Did they make a mistake in either of the emails? Curious to hear from others @Ajb415 @hammyc @TheSAfiltercoffee

Edited March 21, 2019 by Thirteen

[tough_choices]

1 hour ago, Thirteen said:

Question for those that also received full funding from UCSD, did your financial award letter reflect this? I received an email a few weeks ago notifying me of full funding + stipend but on the letter I received yesterday it only states that I have been given California tuition fees. Does money to cover the rest of it come from another source? Did they make a mistake in either of the emails? Curious to hear from others @Ajb415 @hammyc @TheSAfiltercoffee

I was also offered full funding, and my official letter correctly stated one year of non resident tuition and fees and one year of resident tuition and fees. Maybe worth emailing the GPS admission office about it? Sounds like they must have made a mistake in your letter.  

[hammyc]

2 hours ago, Thirteen said:

Question for those that also received full funding from UCSD, did your financial award letter reflect this? I received an email a few weeks ago notifying me of full funding + stipend but on the letter I received yesterday it only states that I have been given California tuition fees. Does money to cover the rest of it come from another source? Did they make a mistake in either of the emails? Curious to hear from others @Ajb415 @hammyc @TheSAfiltercoffee

I also received two years of in-state tuition and fees, but I am an out-of-state applicant. I would email them for clarification. I would but I'm most likely declining the offer. Good luck!

[lafcfan]

9 hours ago, MidnightSkywalker said:

Gahhhhh I just checked my email, and the funding info came. NO FUNDING at all! Really disappointing  I am going to try to negotiate it with the program director, but I really like GPS.... I'll have to go to Chicago then. Anyone received the no funding email and trying to get some more money from the department? 

Same here. A real hit in the gut. The thought of no funding really makes decisions harder for me. I'll try to reach out to at least see if I can find out why I got absolutely no funding

Edited March 21, 2019 by lafcfan

[MidnightSkywalker]

21 hours ago, lafcfan said:

Same here. A real hit in the gut. The thought of no funding really makes decisions harder for me. I'll try to reach out to at least see if I can find out why I got absolutely no funding

I am going to do the same thing, but it really makes me sad  

[imyourskx]

Hi everyone, I also received the "nominated for admission"  message on 27th, Feb. But still not receiving the official admit letter from Graduate Division...

I am wondering if anyone still is still waiting for the final decision? And could I regard "nominated" as "admission" now?

I feel really nervous every dayThank you!! 

 

 

 

[imyourskx]

7 hours ago, imyourskx said:

Hi everyone, I also received the "nominated for admission"  message on 27th, Feb. But still not receiving the official admit letter from Graduate Division...

I am wondering if anyone still is still waiting for the final decision? And could I regard "nominated" as "admission" now?

I feel really nervous every dayThank you!! 

 

 

 

Just received the official letter this afternoon！（About 0 :00 AM PST）

Thanks again.

[TheSAfiltercoffee]

On 3/21/2019 at 8:43 PM, Thirteen said:

Question for those that also received full funding from UCSD, did your financial award letter reflect this? I received an email a few weeks ago notifying me of full funding + stipend but on the letter I received yesterday it only states that I have been given California tuition fees. Does money to cover the rest of it come from another source? Did they make a mistake in either of the emails? Curious to hear from others @Ajb415 @hammyc @TheSAfiltercoffee

I found the wording in the email a bit confusing too so I emailed the Admissions Director.She said that it covers just the tuition (international students tuition and school fees) + health insurance. I didn't get any stipend. 

[Thirteen]

6 hours ago, TheSAfiltercoffee said:

I found the wording in the email a bit confusing too so I emailed the Admissions Director.She said that it covers just the tuition (international students tuition and school fees) + health insurance. I didn't get any stipend. 

Yeah the wording wasn't clear in the award letter but I also reached out and confirmed the full funding offer still stood. Thanks for the reply.

[TheSAfiltercoffee]

16 hours ago, Thirteen said:

Yeah the wording wasn't clear in the award letter but I also reached out and confirmed the full funding offer still stood. Thanks for the reply.

You're welcome! Are you planning to take it?

[Thirteen]

On 4/3/2019 at 3:39 AM, TheSAfiltercoffee said:

You're welcome! Are you planning to take it?

Yup, I really don't think any of these degrees are worth going into significant debt for so I will be taking a paycheck to get my MA. Maybe see you in CA in a few months!

[Tako]

On 3/21/2019 at 7:12 AM, MidnightSkywalker said:

Gahhhhh I just checked my email, and the funding info came. NO FUNDING at all! Really disappointing  I am going to try to negotiate it with the program director, but I really like GPS.... I'll have to go to Chicago then. Anyone received the no funding email and trying to get some more money from the department? 

I only got funding from UW (that email from UCSD hit me in the gut too... plus requiring Econ summer class despite being an Econ minor haha). 

I am visiting next week UCSD so I might bring it up but I already contrived to UW (better area studies, my interests align better with the faculty, and so forth). 

I know it's disappointing but Chicago is great too! Maybe we can try again as PhD candidates for UCSD? 

[MidnightSkywalker]

15 hours ago, Tako said:

I only got funding from UW (that email from UCSD hit me in the gut too... plus requiring Econ summer class despite being an Econ minor haha). 

I am visiting next week UCSD so I might bring it up but I already contrived to UW (better area studies, my interests align better with the faculty, and so forth). 

I know it's disappointing but Chicago is great too! Maybe we can try again as PhD candidates for UCSD? 

I am kinda leaning towards Chicago too. It's a great school, and I wish spending one year there might open up some new research opportunities and pave my path to good Ph.D. programs! I wish we could study together at UCSD in their Ph.D. program  Best of luck to you!

[TheSAfiltercoffee]

On 4/4/2019 at 9:34 PM, Thirteen said:

Yup, I really don't think any of these degrees are worth going into significant debt for so I will be taking a paycheck to get my MA. Maybe see you in CA in a few months!

Hope to see you there!

[wms9768]

Hey folks,

Looks like this thread might be dead, but I wanted to drop a line about preparing for  PhD post GPS as I just graduated from GPS and accepted a spot in Pardee RAND's 2020 cohort.  Mapiau is correct that GPS is very professionally oriented.  However, GPS actually looks great on a PhD application if you are strategic and willing to hustle some.  GPS put three students including me into PhDs this year.  It's especially a great way to segeue into UCSD's Political Science program (Do not apply to GPS's PhD program, you will have the same access to classes and professors in the Poli Sci program, and GPS only accepts 1-2 PhD students a year, whereas Poli Sci has much larger cohorts).  My one caveat to my advice is that Pardee RAND is a bit unique in that it is a professionally focused PhD (if you dig the research and skill building of a PhD but want to be a practitioner check it out). However GPS has put students into strong academic-oriented programs too and I'm quite familiar with that process as well.

In terms of academics, the program is extremely well known for its quantitative methods, economics, security studies, and it's China/Asia scholars.  There are some rock star professors teaching in these subjects, and an  LOR from one or more of them will turn heads in adcoms.  Here is my list of professors you should try to create a relationship with as soon as possible

Tai Ming Cheung (Chinese Security and Tech)

Emilie Hafner-Burton (International Law and Regulation, also she is the head of the UCSD Poli Sci adcom, you absolutely want to get to know her)

Barbara Walter (International Security/Civil Wars)

Stephen Haggard (North Korea)

David Victor (International Law and Regulation and Energy Studies)

Barry Naughton (Chinese Economics)

Victor Shih (Chinese Politics)

Craig Mcintosh (Quantitative Methods)

I can't shine much light on the Latin America professors as I was a China focus, but it's my understanding that while we have some great professors, there's just not as much name recognition there yet.  Gordon McCord is someone who stands out as a rising star (Economics and Latin America)

You want to secure LOR's from as many of these professors as you can, and ideally you want to do GSR work with them as well.  This can be difficult to achieve. Competition for GSR positions is stiff and many times these positions aren't even made public (i.e. you won't even know about it unless you're already talking with that professor).  Doing an Independent Research Project is a great lead-in to these positions (most professors, even the 'big dogs' will be willing do this with the understanding that you put in a lot of work with somewhat limited help on their end). 

I couldn't get any GSR positions my first year, but secured a GSR with a newer professor over the summer and did an IRP with one of the above-mentioned professors.  I segued those into GSR positions with two of the professors on this list and ultimately got LORs from them that boosted my application big time.  This took a lot of hustling and being in constant communication with them (You also need to get A's in their classes or already have a background working in their field).  Due to the programs professional focus, there is no one to connect these dots for you, but you can do it.

You also need to understand that you will have to approach internships and work opportunities differently than your classmates.  Unless you land an internship with a major international org or a name brand think tank (extremely rare), you should be trying to do GSR work and an IRP over the summer and throughout the year.   TA positions are okay, but adcoms want to see you doing research.  Also, I would recommend taking as many quantitative methods and economics classes as you can (GPS is running circles around most programs in this area).  Your capstone should be one of the QM focused ones (This year I had QM 4 and as well as a China/QM capstone to choose from, there were some other QM focused options for energy I think, but that's not my field so I can't make any recommendation there). 

The great thing about GPS is that the program is so flexible.  If you're getting an MIA or an MPP you can come out with a skill set equivalent to that of an MBA's, security specialist,  international development specialist, or energy specialists. If you're willing to put in the work to take the extra QM/Econ/Programming classes offered and chase down some GSR positions, you can be highly competitive for a lot of PhD programs.  I will say that I had to take the full sequence of Chinese language classes, and that on top of the QM classes was brutal as I didn't have much background in either area (kind of like learning 2 languages at once), so again, think about your strengths and be strategic.  I narrowly got out of the first year (I didn't get my first A until the spring quarter), but made some big gains over the summer and walked into the second year as a much stronger student and PhD candidate than when I arrived.

Anyways, hope this helps someone.  If you have any other questions about GPS or PhD applications, feel free to reach out through PM and we can exchange email addresses.  Very excited for all of you, GPS is a special program.  It will likely be tough, but you will come out of it so much stronger as a policy analyst.

 

 

 

 

[Acrimonia]

Got to say that UCSD is kinda the program that got away for me.  I applied too late in the cycle to make their math camp, so I ended up going to one of the DC-area programs instead.  While I ended up getting a good job afterwards, it will surprise few here when I say that the positive outcome was principally due to having an active security clearance and having done a particular internship (in that order).  The master's itself was clearly a tertiary factor, and frankly imparted little in the way of hard skills or intellectual edification.  My sense is that UCSD has inferior placement for the "Holy Trinity" (DoD/DoS/CIA) jobs that most people aim for when doing these programs, but probably sets you up much better for long-term success everywhere else.

[wms9768]

On 6/23/2020 at 6:34 AM, Acrimonia said:

Got to say that UCSD is kinda the program that got away for me.  I applied too late in the cycle to make their math camp, so I ended up going to one of the DC-area programs instead.  While I ended up getting a good job afterwards, it will surprise few here when I say that the positive outcome was principally due to having an active security clearance and having done a particular internship (in that order).  The master's itself was clearly a tertiary factor, and frankly imparted little in the way of hard skills or intellectual edification.  My sense is that UCSD has inferior placement for the "Holy Trinity" (DoD/DoS/CIA) jobs that most people aim for when doing these programs, but probably sets you up much better for long-term success everywhere else.

That's really interesting Acrimonia! I often find myself thinking the same about some of the DC programs haha.  I think you are definitely right about DC internships and the "Holy Trinity".  GPS does place some students in these agencies, but not on the level of the DC schools.  The flip side is GPS places much better than most schools in the private sector (something that attracted me when I began to see how impacted most policy programs are, and the difficult reality of securing a position in high end state agencies even in the top schools in DC)