International Development Applicants 2014/15 for SOAS, IHEID, LSE or Sciences Po?

[Guest]

The way I see it is that we should all hope and pray that not many exceptional candidates apply for IHEID in January. This should give us a better chance of getting in.

 

Btw congrats K_angie for Sciences Po and alchyna for SOAS.

 

I guess for for most of us, the waiting game continues for another few months. Any suggestions how we should spend it?

[k_angie]

I am not a Statistics expert. 

 

In this thread, we have people from all around the world. Each of us has a different professional and academic background. It is quite diverse. 

 

The admission rate is  33%. We are just related by this thread. So you can say the people here are pretty random. We do not know each other. 

 

Statistically, in such a random situation, is it possible that all of us were the worst 66% ?

  

The way I see it is that we should all hope and pray that not many exceptional candidates apply for IHEID in January. This should give us a better chance of getting in.

 

Btw congrats K_angie for Sciences Po and alchyna for SOAS.

 

I guess for for most of us, the waiting game continues for another few months. Any suggestions how we should spend it?

That's what I thought too mickun88 hence I came to the conclusion that they didn't take any ones me just postponed all their interdisciplinary decisions. I mean we all can't be that worse off.

Also thanks thedoublebarrel for the wishes. I got into 5 schools as of now. Only one is my top choice along with IHEID. Waiting. Waiting

[alchyna]

Thanks thedoublebarrel! I'm still waiting to hear back from Sciences Po and LSE hopefully wayyy before IHEID in march. They are my top 3 choices.

By the way I did some digging and the acceptance rate is NOT 33% it's 18%. There is an article on their site about the incoming class of 2012 wiith very detailed numbers.

 

Here is the link sorry it's in French: http://graduateinstitute.ch/fr/contents/news/corporate/news_945.viewContent.html

 

For those who don't understand French at all it basically says out of 1644 students 288 were admitted. They come mostly from the UK and North America. They then cite all the fancy US/UK schools these students are coming from (see I knew it matters).

 

Interdisciplinary masters admitted 129 students (67 in MIA and 62 in Mdev)

37% got scholarships 62% are women  51 % speak 3 languages, 33 % speak 4 and 16 % speak 5 languages.

Edited December 19, 2013 by alchyna

[mickun88]

They admitted 33% but only 18% attended. 

 

The annual report of IHEID has more information. 

Edited December 19, 2013 by mickun88

[mickun88]

http://graduateinstitute.ch/home/about-us/annualReport.html

 

In 2012 , 1631 Candidates  applied, 519  were accepted (32%)  and only  292 enrolled (18%).  

[mickun88]

I think acceptance rate of LSE and Oxbridge uses the same logic. They count the enrolment not the acceptance. The true rate of acceptance is usully way higher than that of enrolment 

[k_angie]

Yes exactly. Mickmun88 got it right. I read it somewhere that the institutes does that as they know that not everyone will be joining the course as everyone has diff top choices. Thus, institutes generally choose two to three candidates for every one seat.

[alchyna]

Thanks for the clarification mickun! That does make more sense. It explains why LSE has a 10% admission rate for the programs I was considering.

 

But if they give out more acceptances than spots how come IHEID is holding us off to second round?

Edited December 19, 2013 by alchyna

[k_angie]

Last year they were few people who were given admissions in interdisciplinary programmes in the first round. You can still find their posts on the FB page. This time I haven't come across any like any acceptance for MDev yet. It's 20th today, one more day before Christmas break. Have you guys heard or know someone who got through?

Edited December 19, 2013 by k_angie

[mickun88]

 

But if they give out more acceptances than spots how come IHEID is holding us off to second round?

 

I also want to know why.

 

I think the name of the school matters, but it does not matter that much. I read this articule  long time ago. I was also thinking.. oh shit I could speak six languages but i did not come from those fancy UK/US schools. 

 

But from the information that i gathered from stalking Linkedin, most of them do not come from fancy schools. Quite a lot of them come from schools not listed in major rankings. 

 

They mentioned it just to show OFF. Take a look at their annual report. They also boasted the number of professors who obtained their PhD from those fancy UK/US schools. 

[alchyna]

Mickun that is reassuring!

 

I'm giving myself a headache over this and March is so far off there is no point speculating. I have decided to start worrying about Sciences Po and LSE instead.

I hope you are thinking of applying to more schools since we won't hear anything from IHEID for a while

[mickun88]

any good news?

[k_angie]

So I contacted one of the students of IHEID about the whole postponement issues. She gave me her two cents on the issue which I am sharing with you guys!

"Postponement is neither a bad nor a good sign. IT means that they want to evaluate you against other people applying. MDev this year had a way larger yield than the years before, therefore MDev has almost 100 students. I believe that this is part of the story, since they don't want to have another overbooked class."

So I guess IHEID is just trying to play it safe as Alchyna said and choose the best out of the lot in the second round. Though I think in that case, they should have just scrapped the early admission for interdisciplinary programmes.

Anyway!

Edited December 20, 2013 by k_angie

[mickun88]

So I contacted one of the students of IHEID about the whole postponement issues. She gave me her two cents on the issue which I am sharing with you guys!

"Postponement is neither a bad nor a good sign. IT means that they want to evaluate you against other people applying. MDev this year had a way larger yield than the years before, therefore MDev has almost 100 students. I believe that this is part of the story, since they don't want to have another overbooked class."

So I guess IHEID is just trying to play it safe as Alchyna said and choose the best out of the lot in the second round. Though I think in that case, they should have just scrapped the early admission for interdisciplinary programmes.

Anyway!

 

 

Thanks for the information.

 

I totally agree with you !!!!!

[alchyna]

So I contacted one of the students of IHEID about the whole postponement issues. She gave me her two cents on the issue which I am sharing with you guys!

"Postponement is neither a bad nor a good sign. IT means that they want to evaluate you against other people applying. MDev this year had a way larger yield than the years before, therefore MDev has almost 100 students. I believe that this is part of the story, since they don't want to have another overbooked class."

So I guess IHEID is just trying to play it safe as Alchyna said and choose the best out of the lot in the second round. Though I think in that case, they should have just scrapped the early admission for interdisciplinary programmes.

Anyway!

 

Thanks angie for sharing this!

 

I agree they should just scrap early admission round if they don't want to do a rolling admission kind of system.

[alchyna]

I know everyone on this thread applied to IHEID but did anyone else apply to LSE and Sciences Po (other than Angie)? I applied to both in November and still haven't heard back so I wanted to compare notes.

In last year's LSE thread they were saying that they send rejections really fast so the longer you are 'under consideration' the better... I hope it's true!

 

We won't hear anything back for the next 2 weeks most admission administrations are going on holiday break now. And the waiting continues....

[alchyna]

Ok somehow it's not letting me edit my previous post anymore... but I got into the Development Practice program at Sciences Po *relief*

[k_angie]

Okay so well I just got to know that someone was indeed admitted to interdisciplinary programme. Rather MIA. Haven't found anyone from MDev!

[mickun88]

Thanks for the information. 

 

Do you have any information about that person's background ?

[k_angie]

No I just saw that persons post on the other thread. Here's the link.

[mickun88]

Thanks 

Do you think it is possible to ask if they have admitted any MDev applicants in their coming online session? 

[k_angie]

I don't know. I was thinking the same myself :/

Plus they usually have an fb group running for prospective students to interact with each other as well as the current students. It isn't up yet. Last year it was mid dec if I remember correctly. Maybe once it's up, we will positively know how many people were admitted to MDev.

Edited December 26, 2013 by k_angie

[alchyna]

Yes I'm hoping they create a fb group soon for IHEID and Sciences Po that would be very helpful. I read that person's post on the other board about the MIA but it's not quite clear to me what they meant... oh well!

[alchyna]

I don't know. I was thinking the same myself :/

Plus they usually have an fb group running for prospective students to interact with each other as well as the current students. It isn't up yet. Last year it was mid dec if I remember correctly. Maybe once it's up, we will positively know how many people were admitted to MDev.

Angie,

 

I was wondering about Sciences Po's concentrations, thematic and regional. You get to pick one of each or 2 of each? I was under the impression that it was one of each but it was brought to my attention that their instructions kind of leave the window opened for different interpretations. What's your take on it?

[k_angie]

Angie,

 

I was wondering about Sciences Po's concentrations, thematic and regional. You get to pick one of each or 2 of each? I was under the impression that it was one of each but it was brought to my attention that their instructions kind of leave the window opened for different interpretations. What's your take on it?

 

This is what I found on their website regarding regional and thematic conc. I am sharing the same with you and also posting the link too. 

 

"Students must choose 2 concentrations which they will follow for the duration of their studies at PSIA.

• during their first semester, students take 2 courses: 1 in each concentration
• during their second semester, students take 2 courses: 1 in each concentration
• during their last semester, students take 2 courses: 1 in each concentration

A concentration in Regional Studies is highly recommended for all students.

PSIA students may choose any two "Concentrations" among the following. The concentrations are open to all PSIA students irrespective of their choice of Master and are intended to complement their core curricula in relation to their career projects and the job market.

Regional Concentrations

• Africa
• China and East Asia
• Europe
• Latin America
• Middle East
• North America
• Russia
• South and Central Asia

Undertaking a regional concentration will also give you a definite advantage on the job market: recruiters of international affairs graduates are looking more and more to those who have acquired both a specialisation in a field combined with an understanding of the culture, history, politics and economics of a specific part of the world. And if you undertake related language training as well as to do an internship in that part of world you have studied, your professional profile is that much stronger.

Thematic Concentrations

• Defense and Security Economics
• Diplomacy
• Emerging Economies
• Environment
• Global Health
• Global Risks
• Global Economic Policy
• Human Rights
• Intelligence
• International Energy
• Methods
• Migrations
• Project Management

Students will be requested to indicate their choice of two concentrations and consult with PSIA faculty and staff prior to course registration. They will confirm their choices on the day of course registration. In total, for each chosen concentration, students must follow three 24-hour modules."

 

Link:- http://www.sciencespo.fr/psia/content/concentrations#regional-concentrations