Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

International Relations Masters

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The Boosh

are you not forced to publicise yourself online then? so many universities are advertising their academics now.

Well they haven't been very forceful as yet. I don't mind putting up my research interests and my publications, but I don't think my CV is something people need to know unless I'm apply for a job with them.

Reply 61

Niccolo

The Boosh

i never used to, but i'm starting to come round to the idea. i do find it really, really wierd when academics have their whole life story online. somethings are just too personal and best left alone.

Yeah, it's really jsut not cricket to have seedy, personal sexual information like that visiting fellowship to Oxford back in '89 up for all to see; or that filthy, indiscreet Summa Cum Laude from way back in '78; keep an English stiff upper lip, I bloody well say! Chuff chuff!

fair enough.

yeung3939

Chengora, thanks! I also want to pursue qualitative postgraduate studies (hopefully Phd) in IR and I would like to know how difficult it is to get into good US qualitative IR Phd programmes. The fact that most 'job candidates' listed on the US top departments' websites got their first degrees from top unis worries me.

Do I have to possess an undergrad degree from Oxbridge or LSE to stand a reasonable chance? If yes, can a LSE IR master 'compensate'? I fully understand it is impossible for you to provide me with definite answers. I just want to know how unrealistic my goal is. Thank you very much for your help!!!

Sorry sorry sorry for my 'hijacking' and the inconvenience caused.

Hey Yeung,

Sorry I haven't replied sooner - lots of traveling.

I don't think it's necessary to have an Oxbridge or LSE degree to get into a great U.S. Ph.D. program. I mean, you're right that a good undergrad university helps, but it's only one of many factors. And I think much more important than uni is your drive for the degree and how you couch your undergraduate experience. It should be an asset: a period where you can demonstrate your passion for a particular topic, however you pursue that. An LSE master's, say, will definitely help in your Ph.D. applications, but you'll need to fit it into the larger narrative of your career and academic goals.

As for how hard it is, well, I've been told some rather disheartening things. One prof. I talked with applied to 20 schools and got into 3. He was applying straight out of undergrad though. Another applied to around 15 and got into maybe two. He's actually a good friend, exceptionally intelligent, and does lots of work with DOD. But he got into Columbia on the strength of a good recommendation, after somewhat lackluster grades in undergrad.

It's hard to get in, but it's important to keep in mind that much of the difficulty in getting in comes from things out of your control. You don't know who will be reading your application, you don't know if they took in a lot of IR people the year before and now want to take more political theory students to balance it all out. Or it could be funding restrictions, and if you don't get in one year, you can probably get in in the same places the next. Either way, there's just so much that you cannot do anything about. So, you really should only worry about the stuff you can control. I'm increasingly discovering that the whole process is a real crap shoot, which is kind of a liberating feeling actually.