SAIS Concentrations

[hlove]

So I've officially accepted my admissions offer and was wondering what everyone is going to concentrate in. I've heard about so really well backed programs (Idev, Security studies) and some not so well developed concentrations (ilaw and conflict management). This makes me slightly worried as I'm seriously leaning towards conflict management but haven't settled on a concentration.

 

So what are you guys concentrating in, why and what have you heard about the program? 

[flyingjellyfish]

I applied as General IR, but then when I looked at the courses recently I realized that most of the smaller, specialized courses that interest me are in International Law and Organizations...So I think that that's the route I'm going to go.  Plus, I took several Internaitonal law courses during undergrad and found them interesting and useful. 

 

I spoke with an alumna recently who mentioned that students in a particular concentration get priority for those courses, which makes sense.  That doesn't tend to be a problem for less impacted concentrations like Intl. Law (yay for me!), but does make a difference for security studies and IDEV. Perhaps contact SAIS and see if they can put you in contact with a current student or alum in the concentrations of interest to you so you can find out more?  The alum I spoke with ended up concentrating in Intl. Law, which wasn't her plan intially, but worked out well with her interests while she was there.  Those are the kind of stories that make me relax a little!  

 

A couple students I've been in contact with have also encouraged me to take the more specialized, concentration courses as early as the first semester as they are smaller and more interesting than the larger core courses.  Since I'll be in Bologna, I'm excited to take some of the smaller courses only offered there, so will definitely follow their advice.  My first semester will probably include one core course, macro econ, Intl. trade theory, a smaller intl. law course, and hopefully Italian.  I'm really hoping I can test out of French early on so I can learn a new language

 

Congrats on accepting your offer!  Will you be in Bologna in the fall or DC both years?  Maybe we'll have some classes together!

[deadhead47]

Initially I was interested in Conflict Management, but I think I'll do Strategic Studies instead.

I really don't know though, I'm still debating...

[JFactor]

I'll probably do Global Theory and History because I want to take international political economy classes. However, my actual focus could be considered to be econ because I'm planning to take a lot of econ classes and I'll probably do "the specialization" in economic policy analysis.

[dyavrom]

just my two cents from talking to a few alumni:

 

One alum told me that international law and organizations is very weak, disorganized and has little to zero funding with limited events.  Same with conflict management. Also Strategic Studies is really conservative/military.    Another alum that currently works for the Bank told me that Euro Studies was great, but very theory based and more like studying euro history than anything else.  Most agree that the regional concentrations are the best, especially LASP  and the asia ones.   Personally, I sat in the ERE luncheon and got a good vibe from it.  Seemed like a really well developed concentration, plenty of field trip/study abroad stuff, they had $ in the dept for proposed abroad trips etc.

 

During the open house, the faculty were saying that the concentration doesn't matter as much, and it doesn't really pigeon hole you into a job.  They also suggested following the concentration you are most interested studying as opposed to strategically choosing the one you feel would get you a job. 

 

As for myself, not 100% sure yet.  I want to go and take as many econ/quant courses as I can, so ideally id do a concentration that would allow me to do that.  I know the LASP offers a bunch with their emerging markets specialization, but I dunno how well it would fit with me as I am planning to take farsi as my language req. 

Edited April 30, 2013 by dyavrom

[dyavrom]

oh yeah, and admissions said that you can change your concentration anytime during your first year.  second year you have to get it approved   So whatever you decide now wont matter toooooo much

[flyingjellyfish]

Thanks dyavrom, that was really helpful info!  

[123seekay123]

I applied as General IR, but then when I looked at the courses recently I realized that most of the smaller, specialized courses that interest me are in International Law and Organizations...So I think that that's the route I'm going to go.  Plus, I took several Internaitonal law courses during undergrad and found them interesting and useful. 

 

A couple students I've been in contact with have also encouraged me to take the more specialized, concentration courses as early as the first semester as they are smaller and more interesting than the larger core courses.  Since I'll be in Bologna, I'm excited to take some of the smaller courses only offered there, so will definitely follow their advice.  My first semester will probably include one core course, macro econ, Intl. trade theory, a smaller intl. law course, and hopefully Italian.  I'm really hoping I can test out of French early on so I can learn a new language

 

Congrats on accepting your offer!  Will you be in Bologna in the fall or DC both years?  Maybe we'll have some classes together!

Ha, you sound exactly like me! Also registered as general IR, more interested in Law and Organizations. I guess we'll be in a lot of the same classes

[flyingjellyfish]

Looking forward to it! Can you believe we'll be in Italy soon? I bought my plane ticket last week.., so exciting!

Quick tip- I used studentuniverse to book my flight and got a really good deal. I used to use it back in undergrad when I studied abroad a couple times. It was satisfying to get the student rate again!

[hlove]

I spoke with an alumna recently who mentioned that students in a particular concentration get priority for those courses, which makes sense.  That doesn't tend to be a problem for less impacted concentrations like Intl. Law (yay for me!), but does make a difference for security studies and IDEV. Perhaps contact SAIS and see if they can put you in contact with a current student or alum in the concentrations of interest to you so you can find out more?  The alum I spoke with ended up concentrating in Intl. Law, which wasn't her plan intially, but worked out well with her interests while she was there.  Those are the kind of stories that make me relax a little!  

 

A couple students I've been in contact with have also encouraged me to take the more specialized, concentration courses as early as the first semester as they are smaller and more interesting than the larger core courses.  Since I'll be in Bologna, I'm excited to take some of the smaller courses only offered there, so will definitely follow their advice.  My first semester will probably include one core course, macro econ, Intl. trade theory, a smaller intl. law course, and hopefully Italian.  I'm really hoping I can test out of French early on so I can learn a new language

 

Congrats on accepting your offer!  Will you be in Bologna in the fall or DC both years?  Maybe we'll have some classes together!

Thanks for all the great advice flyingjellyfish! I think going to definitely take it and see if I can speak to anyone in my specific program/s. I'm actually hoping to double, well I guess triple concentrate with Econ, so hopefully I'll be able to benefit from all programs. I speak (rusty) german so with some luck I can test out of that and then I'll be taking Italian during pre-term...either microecon with survival or just intensive to help me during the year, and then do Spanish has my main language of study after pre-term. Haha if you hadn't guessed I'll be in Bologna for my first year then on to D.C. Excited to meet you and all my other class mates! Still a lot of things I need to decide but I'm getting there. 

 

One alum told me that international law and organizations is very weak, disorganized and has little to zero funding with limited events.  Same with conflict management. Also Strategic Studies is really conservative/military.    Another alum that currently works for the Bank told me that Euro Studies was great, but very theory based and more like studying euro history than anything else.  Most agree that the regional concentrations are the best, especially LASP  and the asia ones.   Personally, I sat in the ERE luncheon and got a good vibe from it.  Seemed like a really well developed concentration, plenty of field trip/study abroad stuff, they had $ in the dept for proposed abroad trips etc.

 

As for myself, not 100% sure yet.  I want to go and take as many econ/quant courses as I can, so ideally id do a concentration that would allow me to do that.  I know the LASP offers a bunch with their emerging markets specialization, but I dunno how well it would fit with me as I am planning to take farsi as my language req. 

 

I heard the exact same thing about all those concentrations from a current student I pm'd on this board, so either we talked to the same person (not unlikely) or that might actually be the general consensus. In any case, I don't really think any of us are going to get a "bad" education no matter what we choose so I'm not going to stress to much about it. 

[flyingjellyfish]

Yay!  See you in Bologna  

[rudy2012]

This is kind of a stupid question, but as someone who is gearing up to apply this coming Fall - they don't make you note your concentration on the application? Do you just write what your intentions/focus is going to be in your SOP, then if you get in, THEN you are free to select your concentration?

[dyavrom]

i remember you pick if you want to be in IDEV or not.  apart from that im not 100% sure...

 

IDEV is the only concentration you cant freely enter or switch into though, you need to be accepted to go in. 

[hlove]

If you know what you want then definitely put it down but it's not set in stone. Like rudy said, IDEV is the only program that you have to apply to when you apply to SAIS. Obviously it's better to know what area you want to concentrate because then you can look at which campus gives you the best range of courses and background. As some have said on the board, SAIS BC is great for European Studies but not so much for African studies. And you can start taking classes in your specific concentrate (barring pre-reqs) right away. I think on one of the other topics a current SAIS student was thinking of switching her concentrate this late in the year so it doesn't seem uncommon to change your mind.