Grad School in International Relations with a concentration in Global Health

Hi, I was wondering if anyone could chance me for an MA in grad school. I am thinking about applying to American University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, and Johns Hopkins University. I have a gpa of 3.75, no real relevant work experience, I am a TA for two lower level undergraduate sections, I am double majoring in International Relations (focusing on global health and international development) and French at American University, I will have three strong recommendation letters and I hope my statement of purpose will be adequate for my application. I’m not planning on taking the GRE since it is not required for any application but I am worried that I won’t get in to programs because I don’t have work experience.

We can’t really chance people for graduate admissions. It’s not super accurate at the undergrad level, either, but it’s certainly not here - graduate admissions are holistic and idiosyncratic, and they really depend on a lot of factors. Plus, you gave a pretty broad swath of criteria: you just said an MA at one of these schools. Even if I assume that you want to go to graduate school for International Relations, American’s SIS alone has 13 MA programs (and 2 MS programs)

One thing I would advise, though, is checking out the average age of entry at each of those programs (or, even better, the average years of work experience). Some programs provide one or the other; some provide both. If admitted applicants are entering the program when they are 24-25 on average, and/or they have a few years of work experience on average, you will likely not be a competitive applicant. This varies a lot by program (some IR programs are more professionally focused; they will have higher values in these areas. Others are academically focused, and in that case it probably won’t matter).

American’s SIS:

Georgetown’s MSFS students have on average 4.6 years of experience.

Johns Hopkins’ MAIA students have on average 2 years of work experience.

Does this mean you absolutely won’t get in if you don’t have work experience? No, but you’d have to be an otherwise outstanding undergraduate, with something that makes you compelling when compared to applicants who worked at the State Department or in the JET Programme or at a foreign consulate or who were in the foreign service or with an international nonprofit…you get the idea. You don’t mention interning for an international organization that would get you close to that, and TAing is relatively irrelevant for a professional international studies program.

Were I you, I’d focus on trying to get relevant work experience.

If you’re open to applying to non US grad schools, there’s IHEID in Geneva. It’s got the advantage of incredible networking opportunities with practically every major IO, and they prefer fresh graduates who are academically inclined from what I heard (two of my seniors got in straight out of uni). I do think you’d need at least an internship for their interdisciplinary courses, but their disciplinary courses are more academic focused. You could try finishing an internship before their deadlines. Their MIA and MDev have specialization clusters in Global Health, and you can also apply for a dual degree with the University of Geneva, and graduate with an additional MSc in Global Health. Plus, Geneva is in Suisse Romande (French speaking Switzerland) which would be yet another advantage for you.

https://www.graduateinstitute.ch/programmes/master-phd-programmes