Stanford open house

[octopus]

I have not seen a thread on IPS open house.

Would those who attended the IPS open house please share? How did you like the program staff/faculty/students? What did you think of the campus environment? Any insight would be much appreciated!!

[lycny]

I went to the open house.

Here's what I learned:

a) The program has superb career services. Sarah Tung, the vice director, will get to know you when you first walk in and make calls on behalf of you to get you your dream internship/job.

The annual spring break study trip is fully planned and led by students and paid for by the program. The people you get to meet on the trips are very high-level (e.g. Prime Minister of Brazil)

c) The program is located in center of Stanford campus, right next to the Hoover Tower. It is housed in the same building as all the politics research centers, which means you can find professors right at where they work.

d) The second-year practicum lets you work with real clients with a small team of students. The program identifies clients and sets up the project for you. Everyone has to contribute to the project and results are impressive. At least one project gets featured by major policy publications or newspapers. Great professional development exercise as well as personal development experience. The practicum is not role-play as it is WWS. It is a real policy consulting job.

e) Staff and faculty in the program are super nice and very willing to work with you.

f) The program can pay you to do summer internships.

g) Research/teaching assistantships are easily available for people with relevant skills.

h) Students in the program all have impressive backgrounds and are high-caliber.

Hope this helps. Good luck to all who's still deciding. I look forward to seeing at least some of you in IPS in the fall!

[octopus]

Thanks for the detailed description lycny.

I heard IPS is very Asia focused (which makes sense due to its location on the west coast). Did you get the sense that IPS is also a good fit for students with interest in other regions (such as Western Europe).

Thanks!

I went to the open house.

Here's what I learned:

a) The program has superb career services. Sarah Tung, the vice director, will get to know you when you first walk in and make calls on behalf of you to get you your dream internship/job.

The annual spring break study trip is fully planned and led by students and paid for by the program. The people you get to meet on the trips are very high-level (e.g. Prime Minister of Brazil)

c) The program is located in center of Stanford campus, right next to the Hoover Tower. It is housed in the same building as all the politics research centers, which means you can find professors right at where they work.

d) The second-year practicum lets you work with real clients with a small team of students. The program identifies clients and sets up the project for you. Everyone has to contribute to the project and results are impressive. At least one project gets featured by major policy publications or newspapers. Great professional development exercise as well as personal development experience. The practicum is not role-play as it is WWS. It is a real policy consulting job.

e) Staff and faculty in the program are super nice and very willing to work with you.

f) The program can pay you to do summer internships.

g) Research/teaching assistantships are easily available for people with relevant skills.

h) Students in the program all have impressive backgrounds and are high-caliber.

Hope this helps. Good luck to all who's still deciding. I look forward to seeing at least some of you in IPS in the fall!

[lycny]

I was told that there are always a couple of people interested in Asia (specifically China) each year. But from conversations with current and prospective students, I see that people are interested in a wide range of geographical areas--Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East. If anything, IPS is international in its analytical scope. It is definitely possible to specialize in area studies. But I think the general curriculum is about understanding global issues and trends.

[itsfridayfriday]

didn't go to the open house, but have had a few discussions with graduates/students associated with the program. here's what people have had to say about the program.

a) size is a huge plus, because it pretty much allows you to do anything you want academically, allows you to get to know people across schools (stanford has a huge interdisciplinary committment), and gives you the structure to really develop relationships with your professors.

research assistantships are there for those who want to go out there and get them, and they cover full tuition, insurance, and give you 8k a quarter for living expenses.

c) ips isn't a moneymaking institution so there's a real commitment from professors to students.

d) study trip abroad allows you to meet with really high level people (dignitaries), and is paid for by the school

e) stanford has amazing research centers. someone cited the design school as one of the "best things" about his experience there, because they offer classes for students across all disciplines: http://dschool.stanf...lasses.php#EDEA.

f) the practicum is basically a masters thesis but for a client, who all tend to be pretty high flyers like the carnegie endowment or the world bank. the school actively pushes out media attention for this research. here's an example of some of the research: http://www.nytimes.c.../07pension.html.

g) director of internships/jobs really gets to know you and uses her network to get you opportunities. "i thought i was good at making contacts but she takes it to a whole new level."

h) housing is with other stanford grad programs (if you elect to live on campus) so you can really get to know students across schools

to respond to your question about europe, i'm not affiliated with the program, but it seems like a place where you can pretty much do anything with your degree. not sure the has an asia focus, either -- are you sure you aren't mixing it up with the ucsd program which is called "ir/ps" (similar to ips) and definitely does have a strong asia focus?

Edited April 16, 2011 by itsfridayfriday