How to choose the most suitable option (grad)

Graduate School
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>After a advise I’m reposting my questions from International students forum to grad forum.</p>

<hr>

<p>In few days I will complete my M.A. in political studies in Poland (University of Warsaw) and I’m wondering if it is possible to start another studies - but in US. I’m especially thinking about economics, managment or other business related.</p>

<p>I’m planning to work for something like a year and take my chance in fall 2010 admissions.</p>

<p>Because I was starting for Fulbright Graduate Students Awards I have already done TOEFL (101 points) and preparing myself for GRE, but (like always) this stipend is very hard to get (but i get to the final top 15 candidates from my country).</p>

<p>So now question for You guys: how to look and choose the best university in US? I found many rankings, but their vary and are confusing…</p>

<p>Of course my main priority is money. Probably I will have to look around unis with rather smaller tuitions and costs of living.</p>

<p>Ok, so probably I should describe my person better:</p>

<p>I’m polish, but during my studies I attendend three different Universities:
University of Warsaw,
University of Matej Bel (Slovakia, I was a participant in Socrates/Erasmus Programme)
and University of Wroclaw (Poland, I was a participant of similar, but only polish student exchange programme). It is hard to transform my marks to GPA but in every Uni where I was attending I had around 80-85% of max possible results and got best studying performance scholarship.</p>

<p>In few days I will finish my M.A. with the final thesis about political scandals in Visehrad Countries - this thesis probably will be published as a book. I have publish article about role of information in negotiations (polish) and about Balkan economic transition (english).</p>

<p>In addition I have worked in NGO (Centre for Local Community Activities) and I’m member of AIESEC Poland. Have FCE, TOEFL (101/120) and EILC Slovak Lang Certificate. I’m expecting to get around 1100-1200 points in GRE general.</p>

<p>So - I’m not sure what I want to do next but, as said earlier, thinking about managment, economics or business related studies because I can see myself as a specialist (consultant?) in the area Central East Europe economy and development.</p>

<p>So please share with me your knownledge where (and how) to look to find most suitable second masters.</p>

<p>Could You give a hand with this issue? Thanks a lot :)</p>

<p>–</p>

<p>After a day of research I know that I have three grad options:</p>

<li><p>M.A. that probably will not provide as much stipend options (for international students)</p></li>
<li><p>PhD with need to do TA. And would be extremely hard to be admitted (is that true everywhere in US?), but with better financial assist. </p></li>
<li><p>MBA with virtually no financial assist</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Do I have any other options? Could You assess my chances or point out what I need to do to improve to have better possibilities?</p>

2

<p>Be sure that your masters degree in Poland is equivalent to a masters degree in the US. I know in the sciences, that Polish students often find that what they believed to be a masters is no more than a bachelors here.</p>

3

<p>Yes, I’m aware of that - in fact it was advised during Fulbright Programme procedure that it is high possibility we need to retake few courses or pass some kind of adaptation year before Masters.</p>

4

<p>In addition to (or instead of) the MBA, some universities offer a one or two year Master program in Administration, Finance, Management, etc. All of these are business programs, but the coursework is not quite the same as an MBA.</p>

<p>For public or NGO administration, you might want to look at an MPA program (Master in Public Administration).</p>

<p>But what you want to do in further graduate education really does depend on what your career goals are. I think you are wise to work for a year (or maybe more) and to think about what you want to do. When you know what you want to do, you will know what questions to ask.</p>