NYU MA in IB/IP

[bongin]

I thought master degree of Department of Politics in NYU is academic-oriented, but last week I just found the website said that it's a stand-alone and professional training program! When it comes to NYU, we only think of Wagner and MS in Global Affair, however, there is a "MA in International Business/International Politics" in the Department of Politics. I'd like to know anyone who had applied it? What's the difference between MA in IB/IP and MS in GA? Which one resembles for instance MSFS in Gtown, MALD in Fletcher etc...?

[impatiens]

I've looked at both NYU programs' websites back in the fall and from what I can tell, the MS in GA is from their School of Continuing Studies while the MA seems to be coming from their Graduate School.

While I have not closely looked at the NYU programs' curricula and compared them to those of Georgetown's MSFS and Fletcher's MALD programs (the latter two of which I visited/interviewed at in fall 2008), I would not put the NYU programs in the same category because they're not APSIA members or affiliates, and Georgetown and Fletcher are both members. It's like comparing apples (non APSIA schools/programs) and oranges (APSIA schools/programs).

To gain more insight between the programs, I'd suggest looking at the requirements of and lists courses available for each program and come up with a mock plan of courses you'd like to take while you're in each program. That might give you a better feel of which you'd prefer to do (e.g. MA in IR/IB or MS in GA). I found this exercise to be really helpful not only in figuring out which programs I was interested in, but also as a preliminary "brainstorm" for my personal statements.

[bongin]

Thanks for your reply first

I've compared the two programs. I think MA in IB/IP emphasizes political science, and the MS is GA is similar to the members of APSIA because of the curriculum planning, although the later is under continuing and professional school, which seems like for mid-career(?)

But how essential to being a member of APSIA? Some programs or schools are not the member, perhaps only a affiliate, still rank top by the Foreign Policy. Maybe the rank doesn't matter because of the methodology is more like a reputation survey...?

[impatiens]

But how essential to being a member of APSIA? Some programs or schools are not the member, perhaps only a affiliate, still rank top by the Foreign Policy. Maybe the rank doesn't matter because of the methodology is more like a reputation survey...?

That's a really good question, and to be honest I don't have an answer. I stuck to APSIA-member schools when applying because it defines what kind of a degree you're doing (e.g. specifically a two-year, professional/terminal graduate degree in international relations). This categorization helped me to trim down my list of schools, as one of my recommenders put it, I seemed to be intent on applying to "every school in the Western world."

Don't get all caught up with various rankings and all that jazz. Nothing is gospel and different people will say different things about all of it. I think it's most important to go with a program and a school that's a best fit for your particular strengths and goals. For example, if you're intent on being an IR prof, you probably don't need to specifically pick an APSIA school because those programs are more designed to train practitioners. On the flipside, if you know for sure that you want to work in the field doing development work (or be a practitioner in whatever your field of interest might be), then you probably want to pick an APSIA program which is supposed to focus a bit less on the "theoretical" and more on "real-life."