UCSD GPS – 2016

[botbot22]

On 3/21/2016 at 9:26 AM, Stars88 said:

It's great to hear you're enjoying the program! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following questions as I make my decision:

1. Do employers recruit on campus? What kinds of organizations? Could you give us a list? 

2. Are employers outside of California familiar with GPS?

3. Are there a lot of job opportunities in California for international business + Asia? That's the field I would hope to land a job in after graduating. 

4. How strong is the International Management track and where do those alumni  tend to find jobs?

Thanks in advance

 

 

1. There are job fairs, but those are more often campus wide. We have had the CIA come through to recruit, but I haven't seen as many private companies. The school holds pretty interesting alumni events though, which are semi job fairs where alumni are trying to help you get connected for internships and jobs. Our last alumni meeting had a series of interviews for full time (for those graduating) and internship (for those finishing their first year) positions.

For your other three questions, I'm not private sector focused but can say:

2. The GPS branding is still really new, but haven't heard anyone talking about that being a necessarily bad thing in their job search.

3. From what I hear, yes, absolutely. San Diego has a lot of opportunities in certain industries, and San Francisco is kind of a hub for Asia related business.

4. I'm international politics and economics, so can't say as much about management. If I remember from our earlier career service meetings, placements are centered around San Francisco and DC, then San Diego and New York, then various Asian capitals.

 

@beefmaster, I'm not sure what you mean about first cohort. The school just rebranded from IR/PS to GPS, and the class of 2018 will be the third wave of students to graduate officially from GPS.

For those of you who are asking about prep: It's a definite must go. It's a bonding experience with your incoming class and a great refresher for getting back into the academic state of mind. It's particularly helpful in easing you into the quantitative aspects of the program. It's also the only carefree month of grad school you will ever have.

[beefmaster]

First MPP cohort. 

[Meghna296]

Is there a FB page or something for incoming fall 2016 students? Was hoping to connect with other fellow MIA students.

[GrumpyGrouch]

Coming back to school after a long hiatus and I'm working at the same time part-time (I don't advise it - this isn't just any grad program - this is a nightmare).  I'm past mid-terms now.  I also did the prep-course this summer to help prepare for all of the bloody math we have to do (but it was a gigantic cram session - maybe they should just spread the fucking econ out over more than a bloody quarter?).  The courses are punishing.  It's very math heavy, which I HATE.  The lectures are gawd-awful long and without breaks, and the professors seem to be dead set on blasting through everything at light-speed. Multiple topics are covered in the same lecture.  The assignments are graded on the whims of TAs that can't seem to maintain any sort of consistency in grading.  The language professor doesn't even have a proper syllabus, nor does she have a textbook or any sort of structure to the classes - it's basically us teaching ourselves through conversations in her class and her assigning readings from online blogs and news outlets she chooses without any set vocabulary to focus on and a lot of sighs and eye rolling when you don't know what she's saying.  The Globalization class is a nebulous clusterfuck of vague concepts tied together with some stupid buzzwords.   None of the classes have daily assignments or weekly quizzes to measure progress and provide a check on learning.  The class sizes are huge (except for language, but you're lumped together with people of very different abilities and so the class size being small is nearly irrelevant).  Most of the students coming here can't find major countries on a map and have no background in a field related to strategy, geopolitics, international law, or polisci.  A lot of economics whizkids, accountants, and fucking management types (ooh, look at me, I can do a cost benefit analysis!  FUCK EVERYONE IN THAT MAJOR) fresh from undergrad.  I haven't heard or seen anything strategic come from anybody's mouth since coming here.  I've been helping the foreign students with their essays, and the kiddos coming from censored countries (looking at you, China) have painfully bad understandings of the outside world and their historical knowledge is so full of propaganda it hurts.  So far, I'm very, very disappointed.  This program seems geared towards making it's students into a bunch of basement-dwelling dorks working for the actual decision makers.  Hopefully shit turns around in year two.  I need a drink.

Edited November 23, 2017 by GrumpyGrouch

[mapiau]

10 hours ago, GrumpyGrouch said:

So far, I'm very, very disappointed.  This program seems geared towards making it's students into a bunch of basement-dwelling dorks working for the actual decision makers.  Hopefully shit turns around in year two.  I need a drink.

I’m a second year at GPS, and disagree with most of this.

Yes, the core classes are math heavy, and Managerial Econ covers a lot of material in a single quarter in order to minimize the number of required core classes. The TAs are very hit or miss, and I had a mixed experience in the one quarter of language classes I took. All in all the core classes are too big and often difficult but the curve is generous, and the quant-heavy material is a distinctive part of the program and shouldn’t be a shock.

I’m surprised to hear that you don’t like the Globalization course, which I thought was very well taught and was my favorite of the core classes.

What you say about some of the students is true—there are a lot of students without experience in international affairs or business or who are straight out of undergrad. (I think the school should admit less young students, and should get rid of the BA/MIA program.) Some of the international students also lack the English skills to really participate in class discussions. But again, this shouldn’t be surprising—GPS is a less selective program than more elite East Coast schools, and that’s just the reality. There are also some very impressive students, both in my year and the year before me.

Honestly, this program is what you make of it. I’m realistic about some of its problems (some very poor professors, TAs who shouldn’t be teaching, the lack of some key classes, comparatively limited network, etc.), and understand that it is less selective than some other programs. But I also appreciate that it has a lot of resources available for students who reach for them, and that it’s far easier to stand out in GPS’ smaller program. I had a very tough choice deciding between GPS and a higher-ranked East Coast program, but haven’t regretted it and believe that in my field at least I’m having a better experience at GPS. 

If your attitude a quarter in is only how disappointed you are, it’ll be harder for you to take advantage of the opportunities and advantages that GPS does offer.

[GrumpyGrouch]

I'm not really concerned with selectivity - I think a lot of this could be fixed by getting everyone on the same page in prep - if the prep program was expanded a few weeks it would make this a lot easier.  The fact that there IS a prep program for math/English is encouraging, but there ought to be some way to get students with no polisci/govt/law/geopol/history classes caught up as well. I would have even been happy taking a few summer undergrad courses to get caught up and ready for GPS.

I agree there are some impressive students, I just hope we don't lose a lot of them here after the first quarter.  I hope you're right about the curve.  My assessment, as I said in my previous post, is biased by my perspective of being in my first quarter.  Your optimism is encouraging, but you have to understand where I'm coming from.  Despite my natural skeptical pessimism, I'm very much looking forward to next year - the bulk of the courses in which I am interested are only available in the second year because of the size of the core classes.

I haven't really taken a look too hard at the BA/MIA program, so I'll have to take your word on it.

I had a choice between GPS and a school in DC as well.  Please don't mistake my grumpiness for enthusiasm with an East Coast program, because that would be incorrect. I do not regret choosing GPS - I am merely grumpy and making an initial assessment based on limited information.

Edited November 24, 2017 by GrumpyGrouch
clarity and readability