awesolow

after about an hour or so of going through all of the past two year's posts i finally came to the end!

anyway, i definitely learned a lot and was glad to see that the small amount of research i had done was very similar to what most people were posting...but i also was curious about a few other schools...

i graduated from ucla with a poli sci degree in june and now im in portugal teaching english and will be for at least the next year or so...this summer im hoping to get an internship in england but we will see how that goes...and im fluent in portuguese...my gpa was pretty low...3.0 so im pretty worried that i wont be getting into the top tiered schools so i was curious to see what the opinions were for the next 10 below the list we have been looking at...and i still haven't taken my GRE so im planning on doing that this summer...if i apply for next fall...basically im up in the air right now thinking about what to do with my future but i know that i want to do international relations or maybe conflict resolution because i really want to eventually get into international law...

anyway, so my long winded point of all of this is how are schools like university of denver, george mason, university of pittsburg, catholic university, institute of world politics, seton hall, carnegie mellon, university of maryland, and fordham as far as their international relations programs?

if anyone has any input on any of those schools it would be greatly appreciated...and if any of those are considered unreputable please also let me know! OR if i just basicaly have no chance also let me know! haha thanks so much!

CaliforniaLawyer

UCLAri-

Greetings again, and Happy New Year.

So you're a quarter down. What are your impressions of UCSD after going through the first quarter? Do you have any more insight into the West Coast/East Coast dispute, i.e., any regrets yet? At what point do people start scrambling to get internships between their 1st and 2nd years? I ask this because when I was in law school, most hiring decisions for legal jobs between first and second year were based almost entirely on 1st semester grades.

Basically, how does the process work at this point? When do you start trying to land the "big jobs." What are those "big jobs"? What kind of pedigree/grades/experience do you have to have to get those jobs? Is it supercompetitive (like law school) and miserable because everyone around you is stressed out, or is it pretty laid back and fun?

Cheers,
California Lawyer

UCLAri

California Lawyer,

My impressions are that the program is challenging, informative, and quite enjoyable. I have no regrets choosing this program. Not only did I get an offer for an internship with the State Dept., I've had plenty of help along the way getting there. People here actually start scrambling for internships their first year-- especially if they want to do work in the government-- as the summer looms over our heads every day. The IR/PS career center is constantly prodding and pushing us to stay on the ball, get an internship, make contacts, do this, do that. It's tiring, but they sure have gotten me off my sorry butt.

This is an impossible question to answer, really. For me, it's the federal government. For my roommate, it's a big corporation in supply chains. For my other friend, it's with one of the top NGOs working on Latin America. In a way, this is pretty nice because it reduces rancor between students. Why compete over something when there's nothing to compete over?

For me it's been pretty easy getting what I want. For others...not so much. Those who want to go corporate find themselves competing with the MBAs from UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Harvard, etc. Not always fun. For me, it's great because the State Dept. knows our program and seems to have tons of respect for it.

I doubt that you'd find it supercompetitive after law school, by the way. That's nice, but it also let me slack off a bit this first quarter. That wasn't good.

renoirbleu

Hello, UCLAri!
thank you for your comment first.
Well... today I got the official announcement of Exchange Student Programme(ESP) and I found that there is NO U.Penn ESP this sememster. how frustrating... instead, University of Virginia is still available and as someone commented above, I decided to delete UMSL from my list.
but still I don't know what I can do....
I found that "Science Po" and "Univ. of Edinburgh" are also available.
I am simply so nervous to choose which university would be better for me to enhance my english ability and provide some new IR course that I couldn't get at my home uni. but stilll going to europe seems very difficult to me.

because I've been reading all the comments here, I'm very well aware of good US grad schools for IR program. the problem is that I have an extremely limited list to look up. phew~

I think if I go to science po I would be able to learn French (which I learned two years ago and suddenly stopped). but I'm not sure if that decision can be better than to apply for UV first. I need to prioritize my decisions.
I don't want to go to Edinburgh and all I'm thinking of is just UV or science po.
as an IR student, I'm very shameful... because I have no excellent second foreign language ability. so I think... maybe if I go to Science po, it would be a great chance to learn French better than EVER.

aarr...... what do you think?
do you think if I go to UV, it would be easy to get access to DC for everything great? you know what I mean....

studying in france and US would be totally different I think even though it is one year length program... I think it will infleunce my further study interests and as well as my grad school selection.

so confused thesedays....

could you guys give me advice please? i_i

UCLAri

You're an undergrad, right? I'd go to France and work on another language, if I were you.

Disclaimer: This is just my opinion and by no means the word of Providence.

CaliforniaLawyer

As if you hadn't figured it out, lawyers are trained to follow up every answer with another question!

First, thanks for staying in touch with this board and providing your constant insights even after getting into the school you wanted to attend. Not often we see this kind of follow-up on message boards.

I think you and I might have roughly similar career goals. The State Department, as well as the alphabet agencies, would definitely be on my agenda if I start studying up for the GRE to go down this road.

What kind of internship are you going to be doing at State? Are you going into that internship with the ultimate goal of working in the Foreign Service? What hiring criteria did the State Department base their decision on--i.e., I'm assuming your grades hadn't come out prior to you getting the thumbs up, so it sounds as if your previous educational/work experience coupled with your current studies pretty much got you the job. Is that accurate? What kind of grades do you think the State Department/alphabets require to hire you on full-time after you graduate?

Regards,
CaliforniaLawyer

UCLAri

I'll be working at the embassy in Tokyo doing similar work to an FSO (foreign service officer.) Well, provided that I get a security clearance in time. Darn things are bugger hard to get in time, and if I get dinged...well... And oddly enough...no. I do not want to be an FSO in the long-term. I want to actually work in something more counter-terrorismy. Like the FBI. Actually, the FBI exactly.

But that's a different story.

To be honest, I don't think grades really make the difference. The State Department/et. al. are interested in skill sets- language, accounting, economics, finance, Excel, Excel, more language, even more Excel. After the 3.3, it all comes down to experience, name dropping, and how good your Arabic is.

To be honest, you'd be a shoo-in at most agencies. With your JD, the FBI would gobble you up in a heartbeat.

CaliforniaLawyer

I've actually submitted an application to the FBI. Given the snails pace at which the federal government moves on hiring decisions, I'm not waiting by the phone.

I'm also passed the FSWE last summer, and am scheduled to take my oral assessment in February. This will be my second time making it to the oral assessment--bombed it the first time. Turns out that most successful applicants to the State Department's FSO program are second and third-time takers. I think the written exam is no sweat (after the California Bar, I fear no standardized tests!), but most people say it's pretty hard--ex-girlfriend of mine has a masters in international relations and has failed the written exam three times. State is changing the format this year and moving to a more conventional hiring approach, so we'll see how that plays out.

A problem I have (more for the alphabets than State, I think) is that my wife is a resident alien. She's not from Islamistan or anything, but I've heard the FBI and CIA are extremely cautious regarding applicants with foreign brides. *sigh*

UCLAri

Ah...yeah. That's tough. I'm not going to sugarcoat this one: you're practically screwed. There was some story a few years back where a general (y'know, the top brass kind) had no problem with his clearances while in the military, but once he got out he was dinged because of a Canadian wife.

Hearings were had. Names were dropped. Papers were filed. And nothing changed.

I think you'd be best off either getting the wife to become Ms. American ASAP or looking into State or even NGOs with similar goals. I'm in enough trouble having lived abroad, let along having a foreign national as a significant other.

I got to the exam portion of the FBI hiring process but decline because I'm not sure I want to try right now. I don't need more stress on top of school at the moment.

CaliforniaLawyer

LOL. Yeah, you gotta watch those Canucks! Sneaky bastards.

I'm in the same boat--the living abroad stuff and all. Don't you find it pretty retarded that the CIA and FBI actually see living abroad as detrimental (insofar as it makes it harder to get a security clearance). I find that extremely odd. It would seem to me that the CIA and FBI would much rather have properly-vetted people who have lived abroad and know how to adapt to foreign cultures than homebodies who have never lived outside of the US of A. Doesn't make a bit of sense to me. I'm sure when I was drinking gigantic steins of beer at the Hofbrau house in Munchen that I was secretly scribbling down my plan for world domination on the pretzel napkin. Dumb dumb dumb. Seems like they should focus their resources and attention on seeing to it that Mohammed Atta doesn't get his student visa approved AFTER crashing into the WTC. Call me crazy.

In any event, I have told my stubborn, lovely wife several times that her foreign citizenship is going to kill me during this process, but she is reluctant to "become" an American. She didn't come here fleeing persecution or for economic opportunities, and was, by most accounts, quite happy living where she's from. Maybe the fact that we bought a new car this weekend and I completely caved on the choice of model will make her soften up a bit.

Just curious...what NGOs with similar goals to FBI/CIA are you thinking of? That might be interesting.

Cheers.

California-Bolt

How "Math Intensive" would an undergrad poli sci/IR program be?

UCLAri

Probably not terribly so. I can't see most undergrad programs wanting much beyond stats or calc I.

Yeah, I've tried to figure this one out too. The logic is that while foreign experience makes for better employees, it also might lead to ties to anti-US organizations and whatnot. Plus, what if we go to war with your wife's country, and you have to take actions that could conceivably lead to harming her family and friends? That leaves you open to being compromised.

But then again, the same organizations are spending millions a year on the polygraph instead of looking for real moles.

Well, for intelligence gathering there's the Economist Intelligence Unit. They don't do counter-intelligence or espionage, but with all the open source gathering the CIA is doing nowadays, it's no wonder the EIU has been sourced by the CIA!

There's also CSIS and all the other thinktanks that would get you into that world as well. And it's hard to really break into, but the UN has some interesting work available for those who don't want to be rich.

renoirbleu

Thanks again, UCLAri!
I've been thinking about it myself and I just couldn't stop thinking that
science po for this time may be the last time that I can study French well in my life. cuz I know that I will barely go to my gradschool to France.....

hehe
thanks for your comment!

awesolow

Hi,

Can anyone tell me the reputation of the following schools' IR programs please?

university of denver, george mason, university of pittsburg, catholic university, institute of world politics, seton hall, carnegie mellon, university of maryland, and fordham

Thanks!

UCLAri

Grad?

Denver and Mason are good, as is Pitt. Don't know much about the rest in detail, but Maryland is generally good, as is Fordham. I've not heard much CMU's program.