Advice on school preferences for Fulbright (Master in IR)

[YaelRania]

Hey everyone!

I already posted this on the Political Science board and got the advice to cross-post here, hope noone minds - I would be extremely happy about some more help.

I am at the moment in the process of applying for a Fulbright grant to study in the USA for my master's / part of my master's in International Relations or Political Science / Public Affairs with an IR concentration.

I don't know if any of you is familiar with the application process - candidates have to name five schools where they might be placed, at least three of them public. I am having a hard time deciding which schools to choose and wanted to ask for your advice, firstly regarding my chances to get into really good programs (don't want to "waste" my two private picks on schools I won't get in anyway), and secondly about decent state schools.

Some info:

Education: Will graduate next spring from a normal university in Berlin (we don't really have that great schools, they are all mostly okay) with a Bachelor in Poli Science & Administration. Very quantitative, sufficient econ. Took many IR classes.Very good grades (according to some translation website would be a 4.0 GPA, no idea if that is right). Older than US college graduates, but totally average for Germany.

Study abroad: Twice in my BA, once in the Middle East, once in France at a renowned school

Work experience: Only internships, a longer one at the UN, two shorter at NGOs & an MP's office. All together a bit less than one year. Plus working as a student research assistant and teaching assistant.

Languages: German, English (fluent), French, Hebrew, Arabic (all rather fair, was fluent as a kid in Arabic and Hebrew but literally forgot everything, will try to work on it the following year).

LOR/Statement of intent: Getting good LORs is somewhat hard here. Worked hard to write good statements. I'm focusing a bit on my background (mother Jewish-israeli, father muslim-palestinian, spent early childhood in Haifa, then grew up in Ger) and how that lead me to IR, hope it is a good catch

GREs: Did not take them yet. Did actually not even start studying yet, which is bit of a problem, but Fulbright is being vague about whether I even need them, and the application alone was a lot of work already. I scored quite high on the TOEFL, but know that the GREs are much harder.

I don't know how (of course if it would work out) the Fulbright grant would influence my chances, but I was wondering if I should even name the really big schools without any real work experience. My favorite programs are Georgetown and Columbia, and of course I was also thinking about all the other great ones like Fletcher, Woodrow Wilson, MIT, Yale (I know this sounds very naive, but I thoroughly looked into each and everyone and did not only choose because of the name).

Which I am finding even more difficult is picking three state schools. I am leaning towards Berkeley and Michigan, but don't really know a third one. Any suggestions? I would prefer studying on the East Coast actually, but heard mixed reviews of the SUNY schools and the state schools in Connecticut and Massachusetts... In the Poli Science Forum I was told to look into Pittsburg, Kentucky and other Universitiy of California schools besides Berkeley.

If anyone of you has a piece of advice for me it would help me a lot.

Thanks,

Rania

[YaelRania]

Hi,

Sorry, I have one more question: If I could choose my private picks freely I would take G'town and SIPA. Anyhow, I know I really really should include one reach if I want to stand any chances, but I find it quite hard to understand what is a reach school - I mean, I read the rankings and everything, but which private schools woild be considered very good, but not that crazy competitive? Would GWU be in that league? Syracuse? NYU? Or maybe reach is the wrong word, rather a school where I might maybe have a better chance of getting in.

I know I am probably super annoying. In my defense, it is really quite hard for an international, the USA have for sure the greatest university system, but also the most complicated one

[itsfridayfriday]

i would add UCSD as your third state school. very strong ir program.

you may also be interested in looking at apsia and their member schools to help your decision making: http://www.apsia.org...?section=member. it may also help give context on us schools in this space, though it seems that you've done some good research already.

regarding your top choices, i didn't apply to gtown so i can't give advice on that. but i did get into SIPA, and i can say that presenting very strong interest, demonstrated by strong research and school-specific essays will go a very long way with sipa. their admissions blog is a treasure trove of information on what they're looking for. i would just say follow those instructions and with your 4.0 gpa (or german equivalent) you should be in a strong position.

Edited June 27, 2011 by itsfridayfriday

[YaelRania]

i would add UCSD as your third state school. very strong ir program.

you may also be interested in looking at apsia and their member schools to help your decision making: http://www.apsia.org...?section=member. it may also help give context on us schools in this space, though it seems that you've done some good research already.

regarding your top choices, i didn't apply to gtown so i can't give advice on that. but i did get into SIPA, and i can say that presenting very strong interest, demonstrated by strong research and school-specific essays will go a very long way with sipa. their admissions blog is a treasure trove of information on what they're looking for. i would just say follow those instructions and with your 4.0 gpa (or german equivalent) you should be in a strong position.

Thanks a lot for the advice, itsfridayfriday!

But isn't UCSD very much focused on the Pacific region? I would prefer not having to focus on a region from the start, or if so the Middle East is more my area of interest.

Oh, one more question: Would you say SIPA is as crazy hard to get in as for example Yale or WWS? I know it is a top program, and very very selective, but from reading this forum and talking to people I kind of got the impression as if it is a little bit less competitive. I know that Yale for example is more academically orientated, but then again probably many MA applicants want to work afterwards, so NY might be the better location than New Haven, and more people might want to go there? The reason I am asking is because I had this discussion with a (German) friend who said that getting into Yale would probably be easier, and as I liked the program as well I should rather take Yale than SIPA for my one "top" school, and then choose one private safety school and three good public ones.

It is really unfortunate for applicants from countries like Germany where you just cannot get a job with a BA that all those great programs strongly prefer candidates with work experience

Thanks!

[itsfridayfriday]

sorry friend, i'm afraid i don't know the relative selectivity of sipa vs. yale. i do know that SIPA's a lot bigger so your chances there should be good with some school-focused essays.