Help for future transfer student Seattle

sovereigndebt
Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:19:25 +0000

Let me be blunt here, my friend. You will not likely get into Georgetown. They get tens of thousands of applications a year, including transferitis kids who dream of going there, but who DONT HAVE THE STATS. Sorry. Plus Georgetown is extremely political and has a lot of legacy admits, and then diplomatic admits and so forth.

You would be WELL ADVISED to stay at UW which is a very good program, get your arabic degree or Middle Eastern Studies and then go to graduate school in the east. Save your money for graduate school, you will need it.

If you can live at home and commute to UW in Seattle, that is optimum, to save money. Or share an apartment off campus with friends.

The field you want to enter is extremely crowded. Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, the Ivy League and such only take the creme de la creme…kids with incredible stats and often incredible hooks to go with them. Same even at George Washington University in Foggy Bottom.

Focus on getting your undergraduate degree and doing a semester abroad, in an arabic speaking country that is safe and not war torn, like the Emirates or Morocco. Egypt is not safe anymore. Lebanon is beyond unsafe. Even Jordan is not safe. Saudi Arabia is a special place and not very friendly to westerners and foreign students.

Most people pursue graduate work in Middle Eastern Affairs, and either teach or work for a think tank in DC, or the UN in New York or Geneva. Or work for the US Government. But they DONT work overseas unless its a petroleum company or State Dept.

I dont say this to offend you or hurt your feelings. Nothing wrong with dreams and aspirations. But be realistic. You have good stats, not uber high stats. A community college wont get you into any prestigious eastern university. Period.

Btw, Fordham has a very good Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic program at Lincoln Center and you may qualify for that. But its very, very expensive.

Again, I recommend staying home, going to UW, which is very respected, and save your money for graduate school, which you will need anyway to get anywhere in that field.