<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>Apologies in advance if I’m posting this in the wrong forum/thread. My questions are not about an MA in IR per se, but about the best way to pursue my IR interests at this point, which may or may not involve an MA in IR. I wanted to post this here because I’ve seen so much great info in this thread and would like the opinions of some of the people posting here.</p>
<p>quick background: My college career started poorly. There was a lot going on in my life, but to save you my life story, I stopped attending classes after the 2nd week and dropped out. I worked a number of (menial/insignificant) jobs for a couple years, and last year decided to return (I’ll be a Sophomore this Fall). Since returning I have a 4.0 in everything, however my dropped classes from before are still on record so my overall GPA still looks ugly.</p>
<p>My ideal job would be to become a FSO. However, after reading about their selection process, it’s clear that I need to have a contingency plan. I would also be interested in working in some capacity at the UN, but being an American that also seems a bit iffy. If I was unable to land a job with either of these organizations, I would still enjoy working for an NGO or a think tank. Consulting etc. in private sector could be interesting too but I don’t know much about those jobs and I’m guessing I’d need a fair bit of experience first anyway. I’m fluent in Spanish, and am considering trying to learn something like Arabic/Mandarin/Urdu.</p>
<p>So, anyway: I’m currently attending Minot State University. My tentative plan is to transfer to the University of North Dakota next year, because MSU doesn’t have an IR program, and their Political Science dept. doesn’t offer majors. In other words, I’m transferring from a crappy school to a slightly less crappy school that has the programs I want. The upside is that tuition, which is already cheap here, is nearly free after financial aid. Also there’s my background, and beggars can’t be choosers I suppose.</p>
<p>I have no debt and it would be cool to keep it that way. That said, given my goals, would it be worthwhile to attempt to leave the state and get into a halfway decent school (either for finishing my undergrad or potentially for pursuing an IR MA)?</p>
<p>One other thing regarding my grades: I recently found out that if I re-take the courses I dropped out of I can fix my GPA completely. For ex: one of the classes I previously dropped was called Business and Technology. If I retake it and get an A, my record still shows that I dropped it from a couple years ago, but only the A is averaged onto my GPA. However, if I did this for all the classes I dropped back then I would basically have to take an extra year of school just to take classes that I mostly don’t need for my degree. I don’t know if that could be worthwhile or not.</p>
<p>It seems like an IR in MA doesn’t matter for the Foreign Service, but how about positions with NGOs, think tanks, Congressional staff jobs, etc.? Right now I’m leaning towards not getting one but I’m not really sure.</p>
<p>Finally, it seems like internships and experience are important for getting into a lot of these careers, any advice with regards to this? I know the State Dept. has internships at embassies/consulates, I can’t seem to find much info on how tough they are to get into though. I’ve also thought about going into the Peace Corps after I finish undergrad. I think I would likely enjoy the work, but 2+ years seems like an awfully long commitment for something you don’t get paid for and receive a minimal stipend for.</p>
<p>Wow that was longer than I anticipated. Greatly appreciate feedback on any or all of my questions!!</p>
