Seeking Some Guidance In Selecting An I.R. Program

[Armadillo]

Hello all,

 

I'm new to the boards, so hopefully posting something like this is not against etiquette. So, I'm looking into pursuing a Masters in International Relations, specifically dealing with the fields of conflict management and American foreign policy. but I'd love some input from those of you who have already gone through the process, plus I'd love to get some feedback on my chances.

 

I have 4 years of work experience in the non-profit sector, where I am now the director of our agency's energy services department, which specifies in doing energy retrofits for severely low income families, mixing aspects of humanitarian aid with green energy and business development. I'm a little worried that while I have work experience, it will be detrimental that it's not in the field I'm seeking to go into.

 

Additionally, a lot of the schools I'm looking at (SAIS at John's Hopkins, Stanford etc.) place a lot of importance on economics. I'm not opposed to that idea, but I have very little background in economics from my undergrad days (I think I took one macro course at Syracuse and got a B+). There also appears to be a language requirement in order to graduate, and while I was decent in Hebrew (studied Middle Eastern Affairs and Counter Terrorism in Tel Aviv for a semester), that isn't one of the languages that would count. Will not having a background in something like Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese or Russian be significantly detrimental for my application? Obviously I'd pursue one of these languages if admitted.

 

Lastly, my GRE scores (unofficially, I took them for the 2nd time yesterday) are 163V, 156M, writing TBD, but the first time I took the GREs, I got a 5.0. My undergrad GPA was a 3.34, with a major GPA of 3.56. 

 

So, any feedback on my "resume" or about I.R. programs would be terrific. My work schedule is pretty intensive so finding some time to seriously devote to research is a bit difficult, and few people I know have pursued something like this. I initially really wanted to be in D.C., but the more I'm looking into it, the more I'm worried it'll be a bit "rat race-esque", with a saturated market. Is that a fair assessment, or am I being too negative? 

 

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the novel.

[IRToni]

This forum (Political Science) deals with academic political science, mostly PhD programs. Your question probably fits better into the "Government Affairs" forum, which deals with terminal, professional M.A.s in Public Policy and IR.

[Armadillo]

Ah ok, thank you.