<p>Hi dear everyone,</p>
<p>First of all, I know there are countless similar threads this forum, and I think by now I spent innumerable sleepless nights reading most of them... :) And I also know that you don't have all the answers, but I am going through a little bit of a crisis right now and would be incredibly thankful for some objective advice.</p>
<p>I am 23, female and from Germany. Ever since high school I dreamed of studying in the USA (how original, I know). However, for my BA I only applied to German schools, but now also for my Master's I kind of backed down, which I now regret. For international students I feel like it is quite hard because the systems are so difficult. Then again, this is a lame excuse.</p>
<p>Anyhow, now I have two questions, one concerning my chances to get into a good graduate program in International Relations, the other one about the GREs. If you could find a few minutes to read through my self-doubting rants and try to help me out I would be very very happy and grateful.</p>
<p>Next February I will finish my Bachelor's in Political Science and Public Management at the age of 24 (quite normal in Germany, we have 13 years of high school, I went abroad for a gap year before studying (also common), and my BA takes four years). My grades are mostly very good. My school is one of the best for Poli Sciences in Germany, but not very internationally renowned. I studied abroad in Tel Aviv and at Sciences Po Paris, and I interned for six months at the UN in New York during my BA. I also have some more work experience, but only two two-months internships. Regarding research, no publications or anything, but I have been working as a student research assistant at a chair of my department for a few semesters now. Also I have been giving tutorials for freshman students accompanying a Political Theory lecture.</p>
<p>I speak German and English fluently (normally my written English is also better, but I spoke French the whole day and am generally a bit out of everything lately, I think too many future-related fears), French and Hebrew well and Spanish very fair. I have a lot of extracurricular activities, but I heard they do not really matter.</p>
<p>So my question is: How would you see my chances to get into a good IR program? I think my resume looks decent, but so many people have good grades and nice sounding internships. It is so often said that U.S. grad schools care a lot about work experience, but I know one person who got into SIPA with not much more experience than I have. I would totally not mind working for a year or two, but in Germany it is almost impossible to get a real job when graduating with a Bachelor's in the social sciences, and I do not want to do unpaid internships for the rest of my life, so I kind of need to start grad school right away. I also thought about applying for jobs in the USA, but I guess you have enough college graduates on your own :)</p>
<p>My other question is about the GREs: I did quite well in my TOEFL two years ago, and since then my English definitely still got better (I had 115 out of 120 points in the internet-based test). But seeing GRE sample questions I totally freaked out. I had thought that math would be the challenging part as besides for some micro and macro and of course statistics I did not study any math for the past four years, and I have never liked it a lot in hight school, but the language section is just as hard. If I would decide to apply for 2012/13, do you think it is realistically still possible to study for the GREs and get good results? I do have about a month in the summer where I could only focus on that, and then two more months where I will have to work full time (but nothing which counts towards work experience, just making money...) but could study in the evenings and the weekends.</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your help. It would be great if you could take your time for some advice. I do have American friends with who I discussed this already over and over again, but they are all in different life phases or completely different fields, and are also getting quite annoyed with my "I totally need to study in the USA, but am too scared of failing to even try attitude" :)</p>
<p>Oh, funding is another issue, and certainly a tough one, but at the moment I would first like to know if I have any chance of even getting in. Also, I think I will manage to write a good statements of objectives. Well, maybe, I never tried. Getting good LORs will be difficult as German profs are not really used to doing it (I often had to write mine myself), but should somehow be possible.</p>
<p>THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY VERY MUCH!
Mascha</p>