Yale MA in IR

[irhopefull2010]

Hey

I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster. Anyone else out there applying to Yale's MA in IR? There's lots of talk about the other programs but not so much about this one. Anyone else want to commiserate/anticipate? I figure we can get a discussion rolling.

Just a few more weeks till decisions come out. Does anyone know if apps to Yale were up or down this year?

[Cornell07]

Hey

I'm a long-time lurker and first-time poster. Anyone else out there applying to Yale's MA in IR? There's lots of talk about the other programs but not so much about this one. Anyone else want to commiserate/anticipate? I figure we can get a discussion rolling.

Just a few more weeks till decisions come out. Does anyone know if apps to Yale were up or down this year?

Good luck. Yale was the first program I heard back from last year.

[irhopefull2010]

Good luck. Yale was the first program I heard back from last year.

Thanks!

How do you like it there so far? I'm thinking the intimate nature of the program can either help or hurt. Any regrets/things you wish you had known before going to Yale?

[JBrodsky]

I've heard great things about the African Studies program, for what that's worth. I applied to IR this year.

[Cornell07]

Generally, I'd say that I like the program and that I still would select Yale over SAIS, which was (out of my accepted schools) the only other one that really competed for my interest. Both programs easily eclipsed my other accepted programs at GW and American in terms of overall quality of students, faculty, and match with my interests.

I admit that sometimes I do wonder if I made the right choice and, when I reassess the options I that I had, I still come to the same conclusion that Yale was a better match for me.

Here's what I think would have been useful for me to know or internalize (there are, of course, plenty of other pluses and minuses, but those you should be able to get out of any info session or the like). Also, yes, you should consider your academic and non-academic lives when selecting your school:

Positives

• If you are feeling motivated and funded, you can easily sneak your way into a dual degree. You can get a joint MA/MBA in only one extra year or joint MA/JD in two extra years. Though it is still very tough to get into the JD program, our students have lots of success getting into the MBA program.
  
• Pay is really good for Teaching Fellow positions. Though they aren't as easy to get as the school would have you believe (you are only getting one your first semester if you are very lucky), you stand a great chance of getting one your second year. I am a grader this semester and get a little less that $5k and next year I will probably be getting about $9k each semester to TF. This is a great opportunity to get build relationships with professors who are a) interesting in their own right, B ) can write great LOR's for jobs or further graduate study, and c) are probably willing to put you in contact with people who can get you a job or an internship. As you will all agonize really soon, money will weigh heavily on your school selections and these are much more useful campus job options than what most other schools can offer.
  
• There is a campus pub with cheap drinks and a laid-back atmosphere just for graduate students. It may sound silly to bring this up, but having this sort of place to hang out and meet other graduate students without breaking the bank is a really nice option for us.
  
• There is a surprising number of opportunities to go on school sponsored trips. Over winter break, 50 grad students went to China on the PRC's dime and a cohort will be traveling to Japan late this summer (i.e. that time between the end of internships and the start of school). I know someone who takes a class that every semester travels somewhere pertaining to a development-related topic.
  
• If you want to make the minimal effort, it is easy to be connected to the rest of the MA IR group. Some people seem to be shut-ins, but for the most part, if you want to make a bunch of friends who will be your support structure for the next two years, it is not hard. The benefits of a small program!
  
  
  
  Negatives
  
  • Though many of the requirements seem very open ended, your options may be quite limited depending on your background. Specifically, I am thinking of our econ requirement. One of the big reasons that I passed on SAIS was my lack of interest in econ and limited math background -- a couple stats classes and zero calculus. You need to take an economic analysis course and an international economics course. If, like me, you have a limited math background and only intro Micro and Macro, you have essentially no other options for these requirements other than intermediate Micro and Macro.
    
  • I wish more classes did simulations, something SAIS seemed to offer many more of. Every once and a while, a class will give as a midterm or major assignment a detailed description of a crisis (e.g. Iran and Venezuela set off nukes simultaneously, declare an alliance, and put an ultimatum on Israel high-tailing from the West Bank). But that only sort of resembles a simulation, like one (exceedingly hard to get into) class that takes over a building, sets up student led government, and then, over the course of two weekends, the professors throw a mountain of problems at you, while requiring you to hold press conferences, light the x-mas tree etc...
    
  • Undergraduates get lots more love from the university than MA candidates. it feels sometimes like we are the somewhat overlooked middle children -- they get more funding, cushy dorms, and better access to the zillions of great speakers who visit campus regularly (often at "master's tea's".
    
  • You can only take one course per semester at one of the professional schools. So, don't think you can moonlight as a JD candidate.
    
  • Remember, just because someone is famous, he is not necessarily a good professor -- just ask the people who have had classes with Tony (Zzz...) Blair.
    

  Others

  [*] Yeah. It is true that New Haven is pretty lousy town. I was a little spoiled by living in Ithaca during my college days, which is what I use as a benchmark to compare collegetowns. Restaurants are often expensive and not that good. This isn't the cornfields of Kansas, mind you, but when you want some good food that isn't pizza or Thai, your heart will wander. Also, there are lots of homeless people and there sometimes is gun related violence. I've never felt any more unsafe than I would walking around the Bronx, but there are places pretty close to campus where I probably would not go jogging or park my car late at night, if you know what I mean.

  [*] Parking is a pain in the butt. Meters and pay-by-the-day lots are fabulously expensive. I pay about $675 for a year long garage spot and I consider my investment worth every penny.

  [*] Don't believe what people tell you about this being an easily bike-able area. It does snow -- this is New England, people.

  [*] The library hours seem waaaay to short, imho.

  [*] You are locked out of all of the undergraduate college buildings.

Edited February 19, 2010 by Cornell07

[irhopefull2010]

Generally, I'd say that I like the program and that I still would select Yale over SAIS, which was (out of my accepted schools) the only other one that really competed for my interest. Both programs easily eclipsed my other accepted programs at GW and American in terms of overall quality of students, faculty, and match with my interests.

I admit that sometimes I do wonder if I made the right choice and, when I reassess the options I that I had, I still come to the same conclusion that Yale was a better match for me.

Here's what I think would have been useful for me to know or internalize (there are, of course, plenty of other pluses and minuses, but those you should be able to get out of any info session or the like). Also, yes, you should consider your academic and non-academic lives when selecting your school:

Positives

• If you are feeling motivated and funded, you can easily sneak your way into a dual degree. You can get a joint MA/MBA in only one extra year or joint MA/JD in two extra years. Though it is still very tough to get into the JD program, our students have lots of success getting into the MBA program.
• Pay is really good for Teaching Fellow positions. Though they aren't as easy to get as the school would have you believe (you are only getting one your first semester if you are very lucky), you stand a great chance of getting one your second year. I am a grader this semester and get a little less that $5k and next year I will probably be getting about $9k each semester to TF. This is a great opportunity to get build relationships with professors who are a) interesting in their own right, B ) can write great LOR's for jobs or further graduate study, and c) are probably willing to put you in contact with people who can get you a job or an internship. As you will all agonize really soon, money will weigh heavily on your school selections and these are much more useful campus job options than what most other schools can offer.
• There is a campus pub with cheap drinks and a laid-back atmosphere just for graduate students. It may sound silly to bring this up, but having this sort of place to hang out and meet other graduate students without breaking the bank is a really nice option for us.
• There is a surprising number of opportunities to go on school sponsored trips. Over winter break, 50 grad students went to China on the PRC's dime and a cohort will be traveling to Japan late this summer (i.e. that time between the end of internships and the start of school). I know someone who takes a class that every semester travels somewhere pertaining to a development-related topic.
• If you want to make the minimal effort, it is easy to be connected to the rest of the MA IR group. Some people seem to be shut-ins, but for the most part, if you want to make a bunch of friends who will be your support structure for the next two years, it is not hard. The benefits of a small program!
  
  
  Negatives
  
  • Though many of the requirements seem very open ended, your options may be quite limited depending on your background. Specifically, I am thinking of our econ requirement. One of the big reasons that I passed on SAIS was my lack of interest in econ and limited math background -- a couple stats classes and zero calculus. You need to take an economic analysis course and an international economics course. If, like me, you have a limited math background and only intro Micro and Macro, you have essentially no other options for these requirements other than intermediate Micro and Macro.
  • I wish more classes did simulations, something SAIS seemed to offer many more of. Every once and a while, a class will give as a midterm or major assignment a detailed description of a crisis (e.g. Iran and Venezuela set off nukes simultaneously, declare an alliance, and put an ultimatum on Israel high-tailing from the West Bank). But that only sort of resembles a simulation, like one (exceedingly hard to get into) class that takes over a building, sets up student led government, and then, over the course of two weekends, the professors throw a mountain of problems at you, while requiring you to hold press conferences, light the x-mas tree etc...
  • Undergraduates get lots more love from the university than MA candidates. it feels sometimes like we are the somewhat overlooked middle children -- they get more funding, cushy dorms, and better access to the zillions of great speakers who visit campus regularly (often at "master's tea's".
  • You can only take one course per semester at one of the professional schools. So, don't think you can moonlight as a JD candidate.
  • Remember, just because someone is famous, he is not necessarily a good professor -- just ask the people who have had classes with Tony (Zzz...) Blair.

  Others

  [*] Yeah. It is true that New Haven is pretty lousy town. I was a little spoiled by living in Ithaca during my college days, which is what I use as a benchmark to compare collegetowns. Restaurants are often expensive and not that good. This isn't the cornfields of Kansas, mind you, but when you want some good food that isn't pizza or Thai, your heart will wander. Also, there are lots of homeless people and there sometimes is gun related violence. I've never felt any more unsafe than I would walking around the Bronx, but there are places pretty close to campus where I probably would not go jogging or park my car late at night, if you know what I mean.[*] Parking is a pain in the butt. Meters and pay-by-the-day lots are fabulously expensive. I pay about $675 for a year long garage spot and I consider my investment worth every penny.[*] Don't believe what people tell you about this being an easily bike-able area. It does snow -- this is New England, people.[*] The library hours seem waaaay to short, imho.[*] You are locked out of all of the undergraduate college buildings.

  Thank you for the synopsis. You brought up some points I wasn't quite aware of and if/when I get in I will have to consider them. I am a bit confused about the TF thing, is it just a paying teaching position, or does tuition remission come with the package?

  What about the Jackson Institute? Has it had any impact on your experience at all, or are you at least hoping it will once it gets going?

[Cornell07]

Thank you for the synopsis. You brought up some points I wasn't quite aware of and if/when I get in I will have to consider them. I am a bit confused about the TF thing, is it just a paying teaching position, or does tuition remission come with the package?

What about the Jackson Institute? Has it had any impact on your experience at all, or are you at least hoping it will once it gets going?

Again these are only the sorts of observations that you could not get from a brochure and/or info session. Obviously, there are a lot more positive things I left out as these are the sorts of things that the program touts -- the generally superb quality of professors, the library system, the lectures on campus, the internship connections etc.

Teaching Fellows are the same thing as Teaching Assistants at other universities -- Yale just likes a hoity-toity name because a 'fellow' sounds more prestigious than an 'assistant' like how at Harvard and Princeton, you have 'recitations' instead of 'sections'. Unless teaching is a required part of your financial aid package when you are accepted (I don't think that happens with MA students), the pay for TFs works like any other job on campus where you pay taxes and you can choose to pay your tuition with as much or as little as you like from what's left. Even if you have Yale put the money directly credited against your tuition balance, there is no way to get out of paying taxes, although the taxes should be approximately nothing as graduate students can't hope to make more than the poverty income level. Furthermore, Yale does not offer to slash your tuition bill just because you are teaching (which would be nice -- I think that my mom's university during grad school nixed her tuition in exchange for being a TA - I think this is what you are asking about).

As Jackson hasn't formally started yet, it has not begun to impact our lives in any meaningful sense. All that we, the students, know is that a handful of rotating professionals will be hired (i.e. diplomats, NGO officials etc.) for 6 mo. to 2 year terms to teach; their names should be announced shortly. Officially speaking, I will be in the first Jackson graduating class. Fingers are crossed that we may get some more financial aid for next year.

Edited February 22, 2010 by Cornell07

[Cornell07]

I expect that if Yale follows the same schedule as last year, the decisions should come out this Friday, the day before spring break starts. Good luck, all who applied! Hope to see you in a month at the admit day.

[Cornell07]

For all who are interested, here is an article from today's Yale Daily News regarding the new Jackson Institute here at Yale. http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2010/03/02/jackson-institute-school-cheaper/

[irhopefull2010]

Anyone Heard back yet? I haven't yet and don't know if its that decisions are delayed... or something else.

[Cornell07]

Anyone Heard back yet? I haven't yet and don't know if its that decisions are delayed... or something else.

I received my decision last year at 4:40 pm on the last day before Spring Break -- 3/6 (*checks watch* At this exact moment last year...)

[ir10]

I received my decision last year at 4:40 pm on the last day before Spring Break -- 3/6 (*checks watch* At this exact moment last year...)

I'm also still waiting to hear. Cornell07, do you know if the department offices are completely closed down for the next 2 weeks?

[Bob]

Does anyone have any idea when Yale will send out MA decisions this year? It looks like their historic notification dates have passed with no emails sent (at least not for me).

For that matter, does anyone know when SAIS sends out their MiPP decisions?

[ir10]

Looks like one person got an acceptance by email. Was it a personal or form email? Any others out there?

http://thegradcafe.c....php?q=yale&t=n

Edited March 12, 2010 by ir10

[irhopefull2010]

I got the email notice to check my online record a few hours a go!

I'm in!

[Bob]

Just got my email too; also accepted.

[irhopefull2010]

Question to those who were admitted, do your letters say that the snail mail acceptance letter contains the "details" of their "offer" I'm trying to gauge whether this means a money offer or if its just the same general letter to all of us.

Also, does anyone seem to have a personalized letter, i.e. one that states that your admission is based upon your performance/promise in particular field?

thanks for the heads up.

[Grad_Nov]

Hi, I'm applying for this Fall, and was hoping to find out first hand thoughts on the program. Its my number one choice so would be very grateful for any hints or tips that may aid my application. I feel like I am competitive but its all objective.

What were some of your stats like, if you dont mind me asking.

Thanks for the heads up.

[NObama]

Sorry to bump an old thread but I would love some information as to how students are enjoying the program, etc.