<p>I graduated this week from Tufts University with a BA in International Relations. I'm excited to start a two-year gig as a reporter with a major newspaper (i.e. one you've heard of!), where I will try to focus, as much as possible, on writing the kinds of stories I want to forge a career out of—those that relate to socio-political issues, especially concerning immigration, hence my interest in IR.</p>
<p>After my two years of work experience, I want to head to grad school for an IR M.A. Schools such as Harvard's KSG, Tufts' Fletcher, JHU's SAIS, Columbia's SIPA, LSE, and the like, have been swimming around in my head for awhile, but I realize that my interest in studying international affairs is quite different from the average MALD/MPP/etc student—I don't want to work in an NGO, or be a politician or anything like that—I want to WRITE about international affairs.</p>
<p>As a result, I am trying to figure out which program would be best-suited for me. I might find out that any of the programs are, but I would love to hear from those of you who post on these boards who've graduated from some of these schools; or, alternatively, studied at other schools that I may not have thought of yet. An initial question, to start the discussion going: a public policy-focused school like KSG is probably not the best place for me, right?</p>
<p>I'd additionally like to ask about my chances at the caliber of schools I listed earlier. I have a 3.71 cumulative GPA (IR major GPA quite similar), great extracurriculars, this great (really, it's so great!) job lined up, and will certainly write stellar essays to match the recommendations I'll get.</p>
<p>There is also a joint degree with Columbia's journalism school, where you do one year of SIPA and one year of Jschool. For this program you have to be admitted to both schools.</p>
<p>I looked at your post just because I am just like you, dual majoring in International Studies and Poli Sci. But, I am a journalist at heart. Anyway, I saw that USC (I don't know the prestige about the program, I just saw it when I browsing the school's graduate programs), has a MA in Global Communication. It says you spend your first year in London too, at the London School of Economics and Political Science. I'm not sure if this interests you because its not IR, its a communications degree with more of an IR focus.</p>
<p>The Global Communications program also has another cohort between London School of Economics and Fudan University in China. That program is a Journalism based program. The one between USC and LSE is a Communications based program. For both, you start out at LSE then go either to China or California. </p>
<p>On the other hand, the SIPA program seems to be right up your alley.</p>