NPSIA 2014 Fall Applicants

[MAofIndecision]

I too have been accepted to NPSIA with funding and a TA ship offer, but I have 12000 to GPSIA (Ottawa) too.     Would love anyones two cents on pros and cons of NPSIA vs GPSIA  .

 

How do you think they stack up?

Edited March 13, 2014 by MAofIndecision

[lahdeedah]

It might not be alphabetical, I'm an 'A' and haven't received anything from FGPA...I worry that it's funding based as well. So I'm hoping that there's no particular order to it haha

Oh geez, there goes that theory...   lol

[timeisticking]

I imagine the opportunities with GSPIA are similar. A friend of mine recently had an internship at the Canadian Embassy in Washington and said that many of the other interns/junior officers had a GSPIA background.

 

Do you know if the internship is paid or not, by any chance? I know that both GSPIA and NPSIA offer co-op, but I don't know if they differ in terms of the quality of the program.

[Archie1991]

Do you know if the internship is paid or not, by any chance? I know that both GSPIA and NPSIA offer co-op, but I don't know if they differ in terms of the quality of the program.

 

I believe that the embassy internship is unpaid, but I'm not sure how it works with the co-op options at NPSIA and GSPIA. I know that NPSIA says that the co-op option places students at the junior officer level in government, I imagine GSPIA would probably be similar.

[marika287]

Do you know if the internship is paid or not, by any chance? I know that both GSPIA and NPSIA offer co-op, but I don't know if they differ in terms of the quality of the program.

 

On the NPSIA student association website, they wrote that internship are usually during the semester part-time and unpaid, but the coop option, where you work an entire semester is paid, if I understood correctly. I have put the website in a previous post if you want to check

[Gabrielle Bishop]

Congratulations, Gabrielle - that's wonderful news!  I haven't heard anything beyond the unofficial acceptance email on Monday and last night I had a nightmare (!) about it being rescinded because they spoke to one of my references and can no longer offer me a spot...  not sure what THAT'S about (anxiety, much?!?  lol)

 

Anyway, do you mind me asking - did you have an amazing application?  e.g. 4.0 GPA, stellar references, international CV, etc.?  I'm trying to gauge what I can expect when I do hear from FGPA...

 

Well I actually had a nightmare too XD I dreamt on Tuesday night that NPSIA emailed back and apologized about the "typo" in the previous email; that I was not actually accepted. Naturally I freaked out, logged on to Carleton Central and realized that my application's online status went down back to "review in progress by department". I called Tabbatha Wednesday morning (PST): she said that Carleton Central often glitches, that they'd just forwarded my application to the Faculty of Grad & Postdoctoral Affairs, and to keep my eyes peeled for funding when the email arrives (!!!!). A couple hours later I received an email from the FGPA confirming my acceptance, with $12,000 in grad entrance scholarships and department scholarships.

 

My GPA is alright; 84% overall and 91% for just third & fourth year. 

 

I was very clear with my research question (which is regarding links between FDI/general economic development and human rights/standard of living increases in North Korea), and I have had a bit of international experience to relate to it, mainly during my exchange trip to South Korea. At that time, I completed three internships, one travel writing (10,000 words of well-researched articles a week!!) for a Korean company, one at a NK human rights NGO (got credit for it through my home university's Global Studies internship program) and one in the international office of my school in Korea. I was also one of only 33 international students chosen to participate in the "Friends of Invest Korea" program put on by KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency). I also wrote for the Asian Journalist Association as a Junior Reporter. My writing there largely involved trade promotion pieces between Canada and Asia, and I know NPSIA's faculty is pretty conservative, so maybe they liked that lol.

 

In Canada, I have quite a bit of volunteer experience, mainly with WUSC's Student Refugee Program on campus, but also with a few other community groups. I also did an internship at VIU's International Education Office and am currently working as a Program Evaluator for VIU's Department of Child & Youth Care, which is very research-oriented.

 

I also included a few odds and ends in my CV, ex: I was also in a young women's career mentorship program put on through Google and the G(irls)20 Summit, studied abroad in Korea twice in uni, studied abroad in France in high school, have volunteered on several political campaigns and am fairly well-involved with one national political party, volunteered with North Korean refugees in Seoul, know how to use Adobe CS5, am in French Club, etc.

 

I had one reference from Chung-Ang University's Graduate School of International Affairs, where I took a few classes on my exchange. He was such an awesome prof and had an insane CV: worked at the World Bank, Samsung, LG, Government of Honduras, Government of Hungary, etc. Our class was very small and in Korea there is a more social bond (although still hierarchical) between the professor and students; for example, he took our Project MGMT class all out for rice wine and tapas one night and paid the whole bill. So I had a pretty close and positive relationship with him.

 

My other reference was my Global Studies internship supervisor/current capstone course professor at VIU. She is an amazing woman who I am also fairly close with, since she supervised my internship final report on marketing for (North Korean) human rights nonprofits. I can assume she wrote a great letter.

 

Sorry to ramble on!! I assumed more info would be better. One girl from my major (Global Studies) at VIU is currently at NPSIA and has been very successful from the sounds of it, so I picked her brain a lot before applying. She definitely helped me out a LOT.

[Gabrielle Bishop]

Well I actually had a nightmare too XD I dreamt on Tuesday night that NPSIA emailed back and apologized about the "typo" in the previous email; that I was not actually accepted. Naturally I freaked out, logged on to Carleton Central and realized that my application's online status went down back to "review in progress by department". I called Tabbatha Wednesday morning (PST): she said that Carleton Central often glitches, that they'd just forwarded my application to the Faculty of Grad & Postdoctoral Affairs, and to keep my eyes peeled for funding when the email arrives (!!!!). A couple hours later I received an email from the FGPA confirming my acceptance, with $12,000 in grad entrance scholarships and department scholarships.

 

My GPA is alright; 84% overall and 91% for just third & fourth year. 

 

I was very clear with my research question (which is regarding links between FDI/general economic development and human rights/standard of living increases in North Korea), and I have had a bit of international experience to relate to it, mainly during my exchange trip to South Korea. At that time, I completed three internships, one travel writing (10,000 words of well-researched articles a week!!) for a Korean company, one at a NK human rights NGO (got credit for it through my home university's Global Studies internship program) and one in the international office of my school in Korea. I was also one of only 33 international students chosen to participate in the "Friends of Invest Korea" program put on by KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency). I also wrote for the Asian Journalist Association as a Junior Reporter. My writing there largely involved trade promotion pieces between Canada and Asia, and I know NPSIA's faculty is pretty conservative, so maybe they liked that lol.

 

In Canada, I have quite a bit of volunteer experience, mainly with WUSC's Student Refugee Program on campus, but also with a few other community groups. I also did an internship at VIU's International Education Office and am currently working as a Program Evaluator for VIU's Department of Child & Youth Care, which is very research-oriented.

 

I also included a few odds and ends in my CV, ex: I was also in a young women's career mentorship program put on through Google and the G(irls)20 Summit, studied abroad in Korea twice in uni, studied abroad in France in high school, have volunteered on several political campaigns and am fairly well-involved with one national political party, volunteered with North Korean refugees in Seoul, know how to use Adobe CS5, am in French Club, etc.

 

I had one reference from Chung-Ang University's Graduate School of International Affairs, where I took a few classes on my exchange. He was such an awesome prof and had an insane CV: worked at the World Bank, Samsung, LG, Government of Honduras, Government of Hungary, etc. Our class was very small and in Korea there is a more social bond (although still hierarchical) between the professor and students; for example, he took our Project MGMT class all out for rice wine and tapas one night and paid the whole bill. So I had a pretty close and positive relationship with him.

 

My other reference was my Global Studies internship supervisor/current capstone course professor at VIU. She is an amazing woman who I am also fairly close with, since she supervised my internship final report on marketing for (North Korean) human rights nonprofits. I can assume she wrote a great letter.

 

Sorry to ramble on!! I assumed more info would be better. One girl from my major (Global Studies) at VIU is currently at NPSIA and has been very successful from the sounds of it, so I picked her brain a lot before applying. She definitely helped me out a LOT.

 

Also I should mention that since first year, I've been waiting tables for about 20 hours/week to keep up with finances. I included that in my CV so maybe that had some influence as well in terms of funding.

[marika287]

@Gabrielle

 

I have the exact same nightmare since monday it's great you didn't have to wait long before getting the good news !

 

You're background is really impressive I must say. During my exchange in Tokyo, I didn't have much chance to get internship. I was wondering if you speak Korean ? For me, it feels like the hardest of the three east-asian languages lol ! I try not to worry because I have less background. And the thing is, I did two bachelors degree, one was in biology. My grades were lower than now, but at least, I was in the biology student association. I hope that it doesn't bring me down.

 

I wonder on what they base the calculation of the funding we get. At least, for the grade, I am at the same point as you

[icedtea]

I am not proud of what I did or trying to make excuses in any way, but I honestly thought you did not necessarily need to pose a clear research question in your SOP for a professional MA program... So I did not. Rather, for NPSIA, I made my SOP around an "I have done this and that work in the field and I have noticed such and such gaps and therefore I would like to be able to do blah blah about it" kind of narrative.

 

I have yet to hear from them and that's likely because I am an international applicant and they start processing those applications later, but I now understand that they probably did not think very highly of my SOP.

Edited March 14, 2014 by icedtea

[marika287]

I am not proud of what I did or trying to make excuses in any way, but I honestly thought you did not necessarily need to pose a clear research question in your SOP for a professional MA program... So I did not. Rather, for NPSIA, I made my SOP around an "I have done this and that work in the field and I have noticed such and such gaps and therefore I would like to be able to do blah blah about it" kind of narrative.

 

I have yet to hear from them and that's likely because I am an international applicant and they start processing those applications later, but I now understand that they probably did not think very highly of my SOP.

 

Don't worry too much ! I don't think it is necessary to be super specific because usually, you'll have a supervisor that will help you choose a specific question in your area of interests ! So I get that you want to make a thesis right ?

 

I wasn't really specific, I want to do the coursework, but I only mention that my area of expertise is in east asia and even if I want to broaden my knowledge about international affairs, I will probably stay focused on that area !

 

Cheer up ^^ !

[icedtea]

Thanks! No\ I haven't really thought about going the thesis route should I get admitted, but what I meant is professors reviewing the SOPs probably assess them in an academic (rather than practitioner) perspective. Well, we'll see.

Edited March 14, 2014 by icedtea

[lahdeedah]

Well I actually had a nightmare too XD I dreamt on Tuesday night that NPSIA emailed back and apologized about the "typo" in the previous email; that I was not actually accepted. Naturally I freaked out, logged on to Carleton Central and realized that my application's online status went down back to "review in progress by department". I called Tabbatha Wednesday morning (PST): she said that Carleton Central often glitches, that they'd just forwarded my application to the Faculty of Grad & Postdoctoral Affairs, and to keep my eyes peeled for funding when the email arrives (!!!!). A couple hours later I received an email from the FGPA confirming my acceptance, with $12,000 in grad entrance scholarships and department scholarships.

 

My GPA is alright; 84% overall and 91% for just third & fourth year. 

 

I was very clear with my research question (which is regarding links between FDI/general economic development and human rights/standard of living increases in North Korea), and I have had a bit of international experience to relate to it, mainly during my exchange trip to South Korea. At that time, I completed three internships, one travel writing (10,000 words of well-researched articles a week!!) for a Korean company, one at a NK human rights NGO (got credit for it through my home university's Global Studies internship program) and one in the international office of my school in Korea. I was also one of only 33 international students chosen to participate in the "Friends of Invest Korea" program put on by KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency). I also wrote for the Asian Journalist Association as a Junior Reporter. My writing there largely involved trade promotion pieces between Canada and Asia, and I know NPSIA's faculty is pretty conservative, so maybe they liked that lol.

 

In Canada, I have quite a bit of volunteer experience, mainly with WUSC's Student Refugee Program on campus, but also with a few other community groups. I also did an internship at VIU's International Education Office and am currently working as a Program Evaluator for VIU's Department of Child & Youth Care, which is very research-oriented.

 

I also included a few odds and ends in my CV, ex: I was also in a young women's career mentorship program put on through Google and the G(irls)20 Summit, studied abroad in Korea twice in uni, studied abroad in France in high school, have volunteered on several political campaigns and am fairly well-involved with one national political party, volunteered with North Korean refugees in Seoul, know how to use Adobe CS5, am in French Club, etc.

 

I had one reference from Chung-Ang University's Graduate School of International Affairs, where I took a few classes on my exchange. He was such an awesome prof and had an insane CV: worked at the World Bank, Samsung, LG, Government of Honduras, Government of Hungary, etc. Our class was very small and in Korea there is a more social bond (although still hierarchical) between the professor and students; for example, he took our Project MGMT class all out for rice wine and tapas one night and paid the whole bill. So I had a pretty close and positive relationship with him.

 

My other reference was my Global Studies internship supervisor/current capstone course professor at VIU. She is an amazing woman who I am also fairly close with, since she supervised my internship final report on marketing for (North Korean) human rights nonprofits. I can assume she wrote a great letter.

 

Sorry to ramble on!! I assumed more info would be better. One girl from my major (Global Studies) at VIU is currently at NPSIA and has been very successful from the sounds of it, so I picked her brain a lot before applying. She definitely helped me out a LOT.

@Gabrielle, thank you for providing such a thorough response!!  Wow.  Just....  wow.  

 

I now no longer wonder what kind of funding I might be getting, but how I got into the program at all! lol   

 

It'll be great to meet everyone in September and put faces to the names.  

[newpollution]

On the NPSIA student association website, they wrote that internship are usually during the semester part-time and unpaid, but the coop option, where you work an entire semester is paid, if I understood correctly. I have put the website in a previous post if you want to check

 

I've talked to some current NPSIA students about the co-op/internship process. There is an unpaid internship program run by NPSIA and a co-op program (paid) run by the Graduate office. The internship program happens in December/January with dozens of places accepting applications (DFATD, NGOs, lobby groups, think-tanks). Students pick their top 5 choices and more or less everyone who applies gets a position. 

 

The co-op program happens the summer after first year and you have the option to extend it into your second year. These jobs are usually policy jobs for the federal government. This process is a lot more competitive and you need to pay some money for the application, something like $400, which will give you access to a bunch of counselling services. I've been told that the rate of pay for Master's students is around $18-22/h but I don't if this is still the case. 

[newpollution]

I am not proud of what I did or trying to make excuses in any way, but I honestly thought you did not necessarily need to pose a clear research question in your SOP for a professional MA program... So I did not. Rather, for NPSIA, I made my SOP around an "I have done this and that work in the field and I have noticed such and such gaps and therefore I would like to be able to do blah blah about it" kind of narrative.

 

I have yet to hear from them and that's likely because I am an international applicant and they start processing those applications later, but I now understand that they probably did not think very highly of my SOP.

 

Sorry for the double post but I just wanted to respond to icedtea here. 

 

Personally I didn't include any specific research proposal because I don't intend on taking the thesis path. This is perfectly fine and I don't think you should be anxious about it. The way I framed my SOP was most likely the same as you. I explained my academic interests and listed professors I'd like to learn from etc. 

Edited March 14, 2014 by drschad

[Gabrielle Bishop]

@Gabrielle

 

I have the exact same nightmare since monday it's great you didn't have to wait long before getting the good news !

 

You're background is really impressive I must say. During my exchange in Tokyo, I didn't have much chance to get internship. I was wondering if you speak Korean ? For me, it feels like the hardest of the three east-asian languages lol ! I try not to worry because I have less background. And the thing is, I did two bachelors degree, one was in biology. My grades were lower than now, but at least, I was in the biology student association. I hope that it doesn't bring me down.

 

I wonder on what they base the calculation of the funding we get. At least, for the grade, I am at the same point as you

 

Aghh what a crazy nightmare! It's because everyone is stressed XD

 

That's really cool that you went to Tokyo. I actually only speak a beginner's level of Korean. Not sure if you encountered this in Tokyo, but I really struggled practicing my Korean at times. Many Koreans would see that I'm a foreigner and respond to me in English. Sadly, my Korean never got to the level where it surpassed their English, so English it was. I've always thought Korean was the easiest East Asian language, at least in the beginning, since the characters (unlike Chinese, Japanese, etc) were designed to be phonetic, a lot like Latin characters. I've heard Japanese and Chinese are much harder.

[Gabrielle Bishop]

I am not proud of what I did or trying to make excuses in any way, but I honestly thought you did not necessarily need to pose a clear research question in your SOP for a professional MA program... So I did not. Rather, for NPSIA, I made my SOP around an "I have done this and that work in the field and I have noticed such and such gaps and therefore I would like to be able to do blah blah about it" kind of narrative.

 

I have yet to hear from them and that's likely because I am an international applicant and they start processing those applications later, but I now understand that they probably did not think very highly of my SOP.

 

The only reason I did it was because I heard that this year, NPSIA is looking for more students to take the "Research Paper" option, which is sort of in between the Thesis option and Coursework option. While it's not a thesis, I assumed that it would still be good to have a clear research question (even if it will change in the future) for Research Paper option.

[Archie1991]

Just got my official offer from FGPA! $15,000 in funding, I'm a little shocked and thrilled!

[newpollution]

Just got my official offer from FGPA! $15,000 in funding, I'm a little shocked and thrilled!

 

Congratulations! Was a TAship included? And did you just receive it right now? I've been refreshing my email all day haha

[Archie1991]

Congratulations! Was a TAship included? And did you just receive it right now? I've been refreshing my email all day haha

 

No TAship, it was all admissions scholarships. Yep, received the email this morning around 11am Mountain time!

[lahdeedah]

No TAship, it was all admissions scholarships. Yep, received the email this morning around 11am Mountain time!

Can I also ask - was this divided up over two years?  Or is this funding for your first year?

[Archie1991]

Can I also ask - was this divided up over two years?  Or is this funding for your first year?

 

It looks like its only for the first year. The offer letter says "when accepting or declining, you will be able to do so for the first year of the funding only. Your decision will be applied automatically to all subsequent years".

[Mountie]

Hey guys, sorry to hijack your thread, but I'm looking for some help! 

 

I see a lot of you have applied/been accepted to the Munk MGA. For those accepted, were you given a deadline by which you must accepted/decline a spot? I ask because I contacted Megan Bell today and was told that I am basically on a wait-list and may receive an offer, depending on the outcome of the initial round of offers etc.

 

Unfortunately I have fast approaching deadlines for two offers from UK universities, and as most of you know, any information you get from Munk has to be squeezed out of them!!

 

Hopefully someone here will be able to help me out!

 

ps - congrats all around, a seriously brainy bunch here by the looks of it!!

[timeisticking]

I believe that the embassy internship is unpaid, but I'm not sure how it works with the co-op options at NPSIA and GSPIA. I know that NPSIA says that the co-op option places students at the junior officer level in government, I imagine GSPIA would probably be similar.

 

Do you know if there are other opportunities to work in Canadian embassies other than the US, based on accounts of people that you know?

 

I've talked to some current NPSIA students about the co-op/internship process. There is an unpaid internship program run by NPSIA and a co-op program (paid) run by the Graduate office. The internship program happens in December/January with dozens of places accepting applications (DFATD, NGOs, lobby groups, think-tanks). Students pick their top 5 choices and more or less everyone who applies gets a position. 

 

The co-op program happens the summer after first year and you have the option to extend it into your second year. These jobs are usually policy jobs for the federal government. This process is a lot more competitive and you need to pay some money for the application, something like $400, which will give you access to a bunch of counselling services. I've been told that the rate of pay for Master's students is around $18-22/h but I don't if this is still the case. 

 

I can confirm that the rate of pay will be around those figures, based on the TBS website here.

 

Aghh what a crazy nightmare! It's because everyone is stressed XD

 

That's really cool that you went to Tokyo. I actually only speak a beginner's level of Korean. Not sure if you encountered this in Tokyo, but I really struggled practicing my Korean at times. Many Koreans would see that I'm a foreigner and respond to me in English. Sadly, my Korean never got to the level where it surpassed their English, so English it was. I've always thought Korean was the easiest East Asian language, at least in the beginning, since the characters (unlike Chinese, Japanese, etc) were designed to be phonetic, a lot like Latin characters. I've heard Japanese and Chinese are much harder.

 

I believe Japanese and Korean are the easiest East Asian languages to learn for English speakers in terms of pronunciation and alphabet. However, if you want to master the language, then I believe Chinese would be easiest, given that Chinese does not have any grammar structure.

Edited March 14, 2014 by timeisticking

[marika287]

Actually, Mandarin chinese do have grammar but it is completely different than european languages. Compared to chinese, japanese may be harder regarding the multiple pronunciations of one kanji (chinese usually has one), and grammar can be really complex. I hope to pass the second hardest level of japanese next december. If i succeed, i'll try chinese !

[marika287]

Concerning the Coop program, can we do it only if we choose the coursework path or can we choose the research essay but also do the coop ?