what schools should i apply to?

[rileypep]

i want to get a M.A. in international relations and i was wondering what schools should i appy for that fit my application profile. I really want to get into columbia, johns hopkins, or gtown ssp. Are these schools too far of a reach? is american and gwu more realistic

Comments

[lotuslion]

Realistically... SAIS, SIPA, or Gtown are going to be a reach. Those are the top 3 schools - SAIS in particular is very, very overapplied, and your stats, while not bad in any way, are not going to wow them either. They get 1800 applications that are very similar. That doesn't mean you shouldn't apply - your LORs or SOP might really stand out to them. (Also bear in mind that Gtown and SAIS are $50,000/year, are located in a very expensive city, and offer very little funding.) I'd say apply to them as your reach schools, but pick some other schools as targets and safeties.

I spent a year at ESIA at GW, before transferring to the Korbel School in at DU. ESIA is a very good program, and I think you're likely to have a pretty good shot getting in there, so maybe that could be one of your target schools. It's still really expensive, and still in DC with its high cost of living, but it's a great program. I transferred because we wanted out of DC and I changed my focus (from international security to international administration and public policy), but you won't hear me say anything bad about it. American is... okay. I've known some people that had some bad experiences at American, but a few anecdotes do not a data set make.

Decide what subfield you want to study - IR is a broad, broad topic, and some schools have strengths in certain areas over others. ESIA has a strong security program and a pretty decent international economics program, for example; DU is very good with human rights and IDev. Some other schools to think about are Syracuse (Maxwell School), Tufts, DU, Pitt, UMD... if a terminal, professional IR Master's is your goal, check out APSIA's website to get an idea about the schools.

It you want to study Asian affairs, the above suggestions of MIIS and looking on the West Coast are good options (ESIA, for example, has some good Asian affairs courses, but is somewhat lacking on language study - there are no Japanese classes at the graduate level.) The Jackson school at U Washington and UCSD are some good options in that area.

Figure out why you want this degree, and what you want to study. It will be of enormous benefit in not only sorting out which schools to apply to, but also making sure you're in the right program/subfield. Don't just apply to SIPA, SAIS, and Gtown because they're "big name" schools if they don't get you where you want to go.

[roseofjuly]

I would say the same about SIPA's costs and cost of living - New York is so damn expensive, and SIPA is not known for being heavy on the financial aid.

I also agree that you need to diversify your school outlook. Apply to other IR schools and consider taking a couple of years off to work and gain experience, since all of those schools have a higher average age than 22 and generally look for people with some work experience who are coming to hone their skills.

[lotuslion]

Yeah, that's definitely true on both counts. I didn't address SIPA specifically because I didn't apply there and haven't lived in NYC, so I didn't want to speak outside of my experience, but yeah, you're right. :) I don't think the APSIA schools in general give a lot of funding, unfortunately.

I'd agree with you too about the work experience. The average age of incoming students for GW and DU is like 25 or 26 I think, and I only know a couple people that got in straight from undergrad. There are a lot of RPCVs at both schools, and many of us who just spent a couple years toiling away in the work world, haha.