<p>Hi Yabanci,</p>
<p>My first question is why do you automatically assume that getting into a top school is impossible? You might think so because of your GPA, but admissions people consider the reputation of your undergrad school too. I mean let’s face it, a 3.0 from Harvard has a bit more weight than a 3.0 from the average state school. And in IR, international experience counts for a lot. If you’ve spent all of that time abroad doing interesting productive relevant things than you’ll be of great interest to IR programs in even the top schools. Should you have solid recommendations and are able to produce a fabulous statement of purpose I’d say you’d have a fair shot. </p>
<p>Personally, I’m almost done with my applications to George Washington University and American University for the International Development programs and George Mason is my back up. Now, I have 3.35 GPA from a rather reputable school in International Studies, great rec letters, I ended up with an A in my senior capstone project, I studied abroad in Moscow, and I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine for 2 years, which makes me competitive for sure. My GPA isn’t remarkable, but it’s pretty decent. The ID program requires development experience and foreign language proficiency, I have both. I do have some weaknesses though, I took the GRE a few weeks ago, it was a disaster, and I don’t mean “I only got a 1200” disaster…a real disaster. I’m taking it again in 2 weeks, I’m positive that as long as I do a little better I’ll have a fair shot. My friend’s fiance got a GRE score in the 1000s and still made it into GW, we all served in the PC together. Let’s say you do get that 1300 on the GRE, you’ll have a very good chance at a top school like GW or American U. Frankly, I’m tired of reading blogs where people call a score of 1200 mediocre or poor, it might be for some programs and if you’re right out of undergrad, but relevant professional experience and top notch writing in your purpose statement are key. Another weakness, I’m not sure if it’s really a weakness, but I’m always turning things around in my head about this, is that my first half of my degree is from a community college (a good one though). I’m not sure how that will look to a top school, although I ended up with a 3.95 GPA when I graduated with 2 Associates degrees in International Studies and Social Science. The one B that I got was in a class totally unrelated to my major, that was in my 1st semester when I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was also a member of Phi Theta Kappa, the international honors society for community colleges, it sounds good to me but who knows? </p>
<p>American University is something I’d look into, although at this point you don’t have much time, the deadline for Fall '11 is Jan 15, it could be done though, after the 15th your app could be considered on a rolling basis. To be honest I can’t really find out if it’s considered “better” or “worse” than GW, but it’s absolutely one of the top as listed by the Foreign Policy Association. GW is my dream, but at this point being stuck in Arizona with my parents working at a preschool I’d be ecstatic with an acceptance letter from any of the 3 schools I’m applying too, even George Mason.</p>
<p>Also, I can’t afford to pay for grad school at all, but that’s where federal financial aid comes in. There’s something called the GRAD PLUS loan that you’ll see when filling out the FAFSA, it covers tuition and provides money for living expenses. A friend of mine, also at GW, received 9,000 dollars just for living expenses over a 3 month period as well as the loan for the tuition bill. That’s what I’ll be doing, can’t do it without that. The move for me will be enormously expensive, but there’s nothing for me out here, so I have to get out to DC regardless of the astronomical amount of debt that I’ll be raking up.</p>
<p>You’ll get into Mason no problem, even with my crap GRE score I’m confident I’d get in. You should be as close to DC as possible for this field. I mean I can’t say anything with any certainty about this to you as I’m in the thick of it myself. But I’ve been very vigilant in my research and blog ■■■■■■■■, I’ve read lots about people with low GRE scores getting into this top school or that one, some with a not so great GPA but with interesting experience getting into that school…yada yada. Oh and also, admissions will certainly consider your over all GPA, but they’ll specifically want to see that your major related courses are solid. A bad grade in chemistry will more than likely be forgiven whereas as a D in a political science course wouldn’t. I got a C in one of my major courses, it was awful and I hated the professor, but I’m hoping that doesn’t look too bad against the rest of the solid work that I did. Ok, wow, well I rambled on and on, hope that provides a little more support or at least encouragement.</p>
Why do you say that? I have a friend who got into SIPA, for example, but not the MSFS program at Gtown. </p>
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