Columbia MA in Political Science

[Dante Diablo]

I got accepted into Columbia's MA program in Political Science this week. I'm getting conflicting advice from all kinds of people concerning the cost, the size of the program, etc. Does anybody out there have any personal experience with this program? I'd love to hear it. I'm looking for all the advice I can get. I'm mostly concerned with actual access to faculty, but anything else would be fantastic.

Thanks.

[julestools]

Dante, sorry i can't be more helpful, but would you mind sharing a bit of your background? i'm thinking of applying to this program next year and am curious to see if i'd have a shot.

congrats, btw.

[lss250]

Hi Dante, I was also recently accepted into the program. My impression is that the Columbia graduate Poli Sci dept. overall is a bit crowded and impersonal - not a lot of mentoring unless you specifically seek it out ("Graduate factory " was the exact phrase I heard). And the price tag, esp. with no financial aid, is obviously very high. On the other hand, I'm not aware of any other school offering an MA that is on Columbia's level, especially if you want to stay in the city. NYU has an even worse reputation as far as admitting a ton of unfunded MA students and giving them little in the way of support or interaction.

Feel free to send me a personal message - it would be great to be in touch with a future classmate!

[Dante Diablo]

In case anyone out there is interested but uninformed, I recieved an email yesterday that Columbia had extended the deadline to apply for the MA program to the end of May. Go get 'em!