College freshman could use some guidance...

Graduate School
1

<p>I'm keenly interesting in getting a masters in something related to International Economics/Relations. However, as I'm sure most of you know, it is VERY difficult to find admissions statistics and information for grad school in general, much less specific programs. I am currently a college freshman and thus have little experience with grad school admissions; I can use all the guidance I can get.</p>

<p>Anyway, I am wondering if anyone has any experience with applying to grad school in International Relations or Economics. What was your experience? What was the most important part of the application? How competitive are admissions?</p>

<p>At the moment, I'm looking at these schools in particular:
GWU
Georgetown
MIIS
American</p>

<p>Once again, what are admissions like for these schools? How would you rank them in terms of academic excellence and acceptance rates? Thank you so much for your input! :D</p>

2

<p>Georgetown is definitely hard to get into if you’re talking about international relations. Remember though that work/research experience matters to get into any of that, and is sometimes weighted more heavily than grades/GRE.</p>

3

<p>@Dzheims‌ – I’m an IR student AU and a research assistant at SAIS and I’ve been chasing these questions for the past 3 years in my undergrad too. You’re kind of thinking way ahead of the game if you’re thinking about this in your freshman year haha. It would take far too much time to write everything out, so here is a cursory review of what I can offer…</p>

<p>First things first, the best DC grad school for IER is Johns Hopkins SAIS (Johns Hopkins SAIS is located in DC), by far better than GU, GWU, and AU. During your undergraduate career, you should attempt to take as many quantitative based courses because schools like JHU SAIS and Columbia SIPA require quantitative resumes. Georgetown is more focused on functional knowledge like security, etc… and you’ll find these types of traits for all IR schools… but most DC IR schools with the exception of SAIS is not heavily quantitative based. </p>

<p>One way to measure competitiveness for IR programs is to look at these schools’ respective websites and find out average/median GRE scores for their programs (trust me, you can find it on their websites and lots of times in their FAQ sections). </p>

<p>I can’t comment on applying to IR grad schools because I’ve changed my trajectory and won’t be going to grad school for IR. However, having studied IR and IR degree holders job outcomes for the past 3 years, <em>in my opinion</em>, I find that those who enroll in back-to-back IR programs with no special skills like quant. analysis or econ background (the list goes on… language skills, etc) are those who have the hardest time finding jobs. Since you’re doing Russian and IER I think you’ll have no problem though. </p>

<p>As an AU student, I can tell you that AU grad programs in IR are easy to get into. GWU is just a step up so I don’t think you’ll have too many issues. </p>

<p>FYI One piece of advice from someone who works at SAIS… There’s a reason why 40% of SAIS is international and there’s a better reason for why those international students have amazing GRE scores. Private tutoring in countries like China, Japan, South Korea, and India have GRE test prep down to a science. Look into that as well…</p>

<p>PS check out Grad Cafe’s forums and discussions on IR grad school admissions as another resource… sometimes more in depth than College Confidential in my opinion. </p>

<p>Edit: I’m not sure how much of this would have made any sense to me as a freshman in college. Trust me, over the next few years, research is your friend. I wouldn’t worry too much.</p>

4

<p>@bk4972b‌ Yeah, maybe I’m thinking too far in advance for a freshman. On the other hand, it’s always better to be well prepared in my opinion. Your answer was helpful. I will also definitely check out GradCafe, I haven’t looked there very much.</p>