<p>ECMilan-go with the professors who know you best and who have something important to say. As jessiehl said, that doesn't necessarily mean the ones who gave you As, sometimes a rec that says you worked especially hard in a class or were particularly interested in a topic even if you didn't get an A is better.
As for undergrad vs. grad professors, try to get to know your grad professors but if you don't think they can write you a rec. then go with undergrad. I would recommend though having at least one from a grad professor. I was in sort of a similar situation but it turned out great, I found several professors who were able to write me nice recommendations even though they had known me less than a semester. What about your graduate/thesis advisor? Perhaps he or she would know you better than a professor who only has you in class.
In terms of MA vs. Ph.D, you can apply for a Ph.D even if you aren't sure you want to complete it and can drop out with a masters after the first stage if you decide that is what you want. As for not knowing an area, do you have a preliminary idea or no idea at all? No one will hold you to it if you pick an area and later change.
If you do work, policy-related is obviously better and I wouldn't take a job that has nothing to do with your intended graduate work, but I think there are many types of jobs that would relate in some way (theme, skill-set, etc.).</p>
<p>josephine,</p>
<p>Going into a PhD program and dropping out to get an MA is not the same as getting the professional master's. Nor is it a good investment of time, money, and energy. </p>
<p>ECMilan,</p>
<p>It sounds strange, but there's a perfectly good reason for it. The MAs are professional degrees, and as such, look for people with professional trappings and experience. PhDs tend to be research degrees and are much more interested in scholarly potential. Your lack of research focus, however, is a problem.</p>
<p>My final suggestion? Just go work for a few years. It'll help you to congeal all your various interests.</p>
<p>Well, I know a number of people who quit Ph.D programs and just have a masters and their degrees have been treated exactly the same as if they had been in a masters program.</p>
<p>josephine,</p>
<p>Depends on the program.</p>
<p>josephine - thats the problem, that i only recently decided to switch over into IR, since last year i applied for all pure economics programs - and then decided that i wasnt upto that kind of math focus, and rather wanted to go into something based on international economic policy.. now my research interests arent very well defined as yet - maybe in terms of geographical areas i'm interested in or broad issues, but nothing beyond that. </p>
<p>UCLAri - one of the main reasons for my wanting to continue education is that i dont know if on giving the GREs again i'll manage such a good score or not :) and also, do you think it'd be hard to come back to education from work or is it easy?</p>
<p>Everyone - thats why i'd been thinking of applying to SAIS, because of all the top programs its the only one that has a clear focus on economics as at least one of the major specialisations.. in the others i couldnt find any such thing. Does anyone else know of other programs where such a focus is to be found? i.e. IR-related degrees that have the option of specializing in economics? I know the Harvard PhD in Political Economy and Government is one such degree, but thats a PhD program..</p>
<p>ECMilan,</p>
<p>If you're interested at all in East Asia, IR/PS has a clear quant/econ focus.</p>
<p>Personally, after working for a bit I couldn't wait to get back to school. But I'm weird, I suppose...</p>
<p>can anyone suggest good masters programs in IR that do NOT include Harvard, JHU, etc. I am not saying I am not qualified, but I think I would like to see a bigger range of schools instead of the top 10 all of the time. I am looking for a decent university that has a good location, but not exactly the hardest to get into ( i can't apply to all reaches straight out of graduate school). Denver looks like a good program ( i just spent about 2 hours on the website) that isn't impossible to enter...any other suggestions?</p>
<p>Read</a>, please.</p>