What are my chances (IR Masters)?

[gazelle]

Currently in the process of applying to MA IR programs.

My stats:

Undergrad degrees: Chemical engineering, chemistry (double major)

School: University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus (top 3 ChemE program, well known in industry)

GPA: 3.12 (ouch)

GRE: 520V/730Q/5.0AW

Work experience: two years living in a tiny rural coastal fishing village in Japan teaching English for the Japanese government (JET Program) as the only foreign national within a 50 km radius

Foreign Languages: Proficient in German and Japanese

Volunteer work: 2 summers at a Japanese garden

Additional work experience: Three years in a demographic office working with quantitative historical census data, and two semesters of being a lab T/A for general chemistry at college

Additional coursework: 5-6 courses in Japanese culture/society/language--grades of A in all (except I received a grade of A- for each of the two semesters of Japanese language)

Extra: I grew up around alcoholism and was a child of divorce. At fifteen I began working full time to support my mother and myself as the sole income earner. Working full-time continued into college, and my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in the summer prior to entering my upper division coursework. She died three weeks into that semester, but I persevered through that while still working 40 hours a week between my demographic job and being a T/A, and while volunteering. Also I had to spend the year following my mother's death going through her things and dealing with the legal aspects of her death.

My GPA is pretty low but my degrees were no walk in the park, especially with the full plate I had. Verbal GRE is another ouch, but I took it eight days before moving to Japan (should've retook it anyway though). I suppose for an engineer my quantitative GRE is a tad low, but I was fairly happy with it (was shooting for 750).

What I want to do: I want to study corporate social responsibility and environmental practices in Japan as a function of economics (e.g. relatively quantitative studies).

Schools I am applying to:

UCSD IR/PS

Columbia SIPA

NYU GSAS

Syracuse Maxwell

I sent off UCSD last week and felt pretty good about my essays, and am finishing Columbia now. However I am a bit worried about Columbia--they seem to only be interested in my academic record, if the application is anything to go by. No essays outside the statement of purpose, and nowhere within the application to really elaborate on experiences or anything like that.

What are my chances?

[Cornell07]

Currently in the process of applying to MA IR programs.

My stats:

Undergrad degrees: Chemical engineering, chemistry (double major)

School: University of Minnesota Twin Cities Campus (top 3 ChemE program, well known in industry)

GPA: 3.12 (ouch)

GRE: 520V/730Q/5.0AW

Work experience: two years living in a tiny rural coastal fishing village in Japan teaching English for the Japanese government (JET Program) as the only foreign national within a 50 km radius

Foreign Languages: Proficient in German and Japanese

Volunteer work: 2 summers at a Japanese garden

Additional work experience: Three years in a demographic office working with quantitative historical census data, and two semesters of being a lab T/A for general chemistry at college

Additional coursework: 5-6 courses in Japanese culture/society/language--grades of A in all (except I received a grade of A- for each of the two semesters of Japanese language)

Extra: I grew up around alcoholism and was a child of divorce. At fifteen I began working full time to support my mother and myself as the sole income earner. Working full-time continued into college, and my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer in the summer prior to entering my upper division coursework. She died three weeks into that semester, but I persevered through that while still working 40 hours a week between my demographic job and being a T/A, and while volunteering. Also I had to spend the year following my mother's death going through her things and dealing with the legal aspects of her death.

My GPA is pretty low but my degrees were no walk in the park, especially with the full plate I had. Verbal GRE is another ouch, but I took it eight days before moving to Japan (should've retook it anyway though). I suppose for an engineer my quantitative GRE is a tad low, but I was fairly happy with it (was shooting for 750).

What I want to do: I want to study corporate social responsibility and environmental practices in Japan as a function of economics (e.g. relatively quantitative studies).

Schools I am applying to:

UCSD IR/PS

Columbia SIPA

NYU GSAS

Syracuse Maxwell

I sent off UCSD last week and felt pretty good about my essays, and am finishing Columbia now. However I am a bit worried about Columbia--they seem to only be interested in my academic record, if the application is anything to go by. No essays outside the statement of purpose, and nowhere within the application to really elaborate on experiences or anything like that.

What are my chances?

Blanket response for such questions: check out this thread --

[gazelle]

Blanket response for such questions: check out this thread --

I appreciate the link but I've already read through it; most everyone on these sites is a 3.7+ GPA, 1400+ GRE, etc. etc. but I don't have those stats so it's not of much help.

[Dreams]

I appreciate the link but I've already read through it; most everyone on these sites is a 3.7+ GPA, 1400+ GRE, etc. etc. but I don't have those stats so it's not of much help.

I would say your chances are good for all of the schools you applied to, but I think you know that already. The admissions folks will be aware of the difficulties in completing science and engineering degrees verses other disciplines. All of your other experiences further strengthen your application.

[gazelle]

Thanks, that's what I'm thinking but I can't be too sure with that GPA and low verbal score.

Any other input?

I felt pretty good about what I wrote for UCSD, and good about Columbia as well which I sent last night but it was hard to really get what I wanted into the short word limit on the Columbia SoP, but I think it came out decent.

[Batignolles]

gazelle, I'm not really sure that we can add a lot of certainty to your potential application success. As you know, you have pretty good stats - but not the unbelievably-amazing shoo-in stats we sometimes see here. I'd say based on numbers alone you have a decent shot, but a lot will depend on your personal statement and the way you present your experiences in each school's applications. So try your best and hope for a few acceptances!

[gazelle]

I just realized that it sounds like I worked as a demographic research assistant for three years outside of college, but that was actually a position held as an undergraduate. I figured I should make that clarification, since that's a big difference.

Thanks for the replies so far!