mwallace04 Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 Hello all out there! I'm seeking the help of some educated individuals to help me make some decisions. I'm a graduating senior at the university of tampa. I'm finishing my undergrad in 3 years (not necessarily intentionally..), and will be walking at graduation in May, though i will be finishing up my final 6 credits with a study abroad in Tanzania this summer. I wasn't sure that i was definitely going to graduate early until November-December, so as a result, I had very little time to get grad school applications together / take the GRE / meet deadlines. So far, I've only applied to NYU-Wagner (my cum.gpa is 3.88, so i didn't take the GRE / didn't have time). There are other places I wanted to apply for for the fall, but obviously missed the deadlines (I think my GPA is high enough to not need to take the GRE, but a lot of schools said you need to take the GRE for scholarship purposes so I still want to take it). I haven't heard from NYU yet and I'm sort of basing my next moves on whether or not I get in. Part of me wants to move back home, work and either: A. apply to more grad schools for the spring semester (time to make some money and take the GRE) B. work for a whole year, study for the LSATS, and go to law school. My lifelong goal is to work for the united nations and lofty as it may sound, i hope to become the secretary general one day. So I guess my main question is, is grad school enough? Do I need the law degree for the UN? Should I still apply to grad schools and then apply to their law programs after a year (and pursue a joint degree)? this is all so new to me and i just wish i had more time to think all of this through! Any advice or suggestions are more than welcome and certainly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GirlattheHelm Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 My lifelong goal is to work for the united nations and lofty as it may sound, i hope to become the secretary general one day. So I guess my main question is, is grad school enough? Do I need the law degree for the UN? Should I still apply to grad schools and then apply to their law programs after a year (and pursue a joint degree)? this is all so new to me and i just wish i had more time to think all of this through! Any advice or suggestions are more than welcome and certainly appreciated. Hmm.... the United Nations. Okay, I'm viciously not a fan of the United Nations - but personal qualms asside - you need alot more than a JD to end up in that hot seat. Look at the bios of former Secretary Generals and see what their paths were. You cannot decide to one day be a secretary general - you're appointed - so the whole idea is what kind of background do you need in order to obtain such an appointment. It will be diverse, long and probably won't happen. But graduate school is definately not enough - it's one stepping stone to infinite other possibilities. And I would gear it, honestly, towards what you want to do in its own context (outside of your want for such an affluent position). That way, regardless of whether or not your dream manifests, you can be happy with the work you've done. It's much better than feeling angry over doing work you hated for pipe dreams and feeling like you've accomplished nothing in the end... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glasses Posted March 26, 2009 Share Posted March 26, 2009 I haven't heard from NYU yet and I'm sort of basing my next moves on whether or not I get in. Part of me wants to move back home, work and either: A. apply to more grad schools for the spring semester (time to make some money and take the GRE) B. work for a whole year, study for the LSATS, and go to law school. Well, being from an entirely different field, I have no idea what it would take to put yourself in a position to become secretary general. However, I do get the sense that paths A and B are very different; for one, graduate school leads to a career in academia, where law school yields a professional degree. The end results, career-wise, are very different, and I guess what I'm saying is that according to what I have heard, unless you want to spend the rest of your life doing research and teaching at the university level, a Ph.D. isn't for you. Also, when you say grad school, I'm not sure whether you mean an MA or a Ph.D., so there's that . . . Either way, I'd really suggest a gap year. Particularly since you graduated a year early, you might want to just spend some time researching your goals as GirlattheHelm suggests, and then research the various routes you could take to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TulipOHare Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Minimum quals for a job at the UN -- any job -- are a graduate degree in one of six general categories (check their hiring website for more info but I think a JD would work) and at least business-level fluency in two of the six official UN languages (I assume you're a native speaker of English, so pick your next favorite out of Spanish, French, Russian, Arabic, and Chinese). Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dreams Posted March 27, 2009 Share Posted March 27, 2009 Hmm Sec Gen eh? Hope you are not American. If so, then you can kiss that dream goodbye. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stigMPA Posted March 28, 2009 Share Posted March 28, 2009 Hmm Sec Gen eh? Hope you are not American. If so, then you can kiss that dream goodbye. I was just about to say the same exact thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwallace04 Posted March 31, 2009 Author Share Posted March 31, 2009 hahaha unfortunately I AM American but it doesn't hurt to have big goals does it?? Someone's got to do it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zourah Posted March 31, 2009 Share Posted March 31, 2009 hahaha unfortunately I AM American but it doesn't hurt to have big goals does it?? Someone's got to do it.. Do have big goals, but the US just isn't getting the SG slot. Sorry. There are some USG/ASG-ships and other executive heads of agencies that traditionally go to Americans, though, so don't despair. That said, yes, to be a professional/international staffer at the UN, you'll need a grad degree. (Bilingualism, not so much, unless you really want to be in Geneva, but being English-only does limit your options). Find a focus (WFP sound good? What about UNDP? UNESCO? DPA? DPI???) and yes, take your time. You've got big goals, but they're broad ones, and you'll want to take that year and refine them before you take off on an unclear path. Tanzania sounds pretty awesome, actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linden Posted April 6, 2009 Share Posted April 6, 2009 My lifelong goal is to work for the united nations and lofty as it may sound, i hope to become the secretary general one day. You might already know this, but don't include this info on your SOP. I remembering reading a short essay about SOPs by the former Dean of WWS. And, she classified this type statement as a mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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