ILR Undergrad vs. MA

<p>Hey, I was wondering what the difference really is between the undergrad curriculum versus the Master's program. I'm currently at Columbia, transferring there over ILR a year ago as an undergrad, and I was thinking of the ILR master's program, does anyone know the differences in the classes and how rigorous this master's program is? Thanks</p>

<p>anyone know?</p>

<p>So you were a student in Cornell ILR, but decided to transfer to Columbia? But you have suddenly rekindled your interest in human resources/conflict resolution/labor economics and are considering going back for graduate studies at a school you already transferred out of once?</p>

<p>Generally speaking, the BS provided by the school is superior to the MS. Most ILR students take a fair amount of graduate-level courses by the time they are seniors, and students who are interested in human resources or conflict negotiation generally go on for a JD or an MBA. </p>

<p>The MILR program is nothing to write home about unless you are looking to get your foot in the door as a human resources manager and already have a bachelors degree. The quality of the student body and the quality of the education is significantly stronger at the undergraduate level. Cornell is generally known for its undergraduate education and PhD-level research. And the Ithaca location is what makes the undergraduate education so special.</p>

<p>For those with a keen interest in CR/HR/LR, a joint MILR/JD or MILR/MBA might be warranted, given the respective strengths of Cornell Law and the Johnson School. For those interested, you can develop a pretty nice program for yourself at Cornell as a graduate student in ILR, involving all sorts of different things -- public sector labor law, collective bargaining in sports, organizational behavior and employment law issues, etc.</p>

<p>do you want to get a masters from ILR because you want to? most professional graduate programs such as JD, MBA or MILR consider your work experience heavily and most people seek these professional degrees b/c that is the only way they can advance in their current job position...</p>

<p>i recommend that you work a minimum of 1-2 years and then apply to wherever you might reap the most benefits from...</p>

<p>i'm sure ILR wants to know why you WANT and NEED ILR..</p>

<p>the best thing to do is go back and earn the BS in ILR. The MS does hold some excellent weight in the employment world, but why pay the extra 2 years worth of graduate-level tuition after 4 years of tuition at another college?</p>

<p>No he got into ILR and Columbia as a transfer but went to Columbia. Just wanted to clear that up. (at least thats wat I took from it)</p>

<p>I took all graduate-level ILR classes this semester...they weren't particularly rigorous. They were interesting, though.</p>

<p>Bigred was right, I got into both and went to Columbia for the Core Curriculum. The tihng is, I want to go into sports, particularly basketball, and I liked ILR because of the opportuity to do labor law and collective bargaiaing stuff at an undergrade level, but figured I could do the MA thing if I really wanted to. I guess I plan on going to Law school and then doing this, I jsut thought the MA would help this specialized interest. I have no interest in Sports Management programs, I think they're worthless, and that this is broad enough and specialized enough - does anyone agree, or is this the wrong thinking? maybe applying for the joint program? or a MA and then JD or something?</p>

<p>You could do the MA thing if you really wanted to (the degree would be the Masters of Industrial and Labor Relations - distinguished from the research based MS in ILR). It would certainly help and ILR does incredibly well with sports-based careers. It's just an expensive degree, you might want to take a good look at some summer courses that are available through Cornell and the ILR school, or even through some of the outreach programs that the ILR school has throughout the NYC area.</p>