UCL MSc International Public Policy 2013-2014

Hello, I'll be in the IPP program in September as well. I'm 25 and from the US. Super excited to meet everyone!

Well there's still a month of dissertation to go, but for September I've managed to get an internship with the OSCE based in the Hague.

There's a real mix across the course though - a few of my friends on the course have managed to secure internships/grad schemes with NATO, NATO Defense College, various embassies or high commissions, UNESCO, an environmental development think tank, an education charity, and an international development NGO, to name a few off the top of my head! There's also a few starting PhDs, and some more on the job hunt.

Is there time to do work experience whilst studying the IPP Msc, in your opinion?

Definitely. I and many of my coursemates had internships or part-time work throughout the course.

Due to the way the course is structured, you'll have one semester that's busier than the other (8 hours p/w as opposed to 6 in the other). This will depend on what electives you pick. I did an internship for 2 days a week during my (less busy) spring semester and it was absolutely fine. The only time it became a problem was when we hit April, when you have all essays due in for the end of the month, and exams to start thinking about - so I left at that point.

I'd definitely recommend trying to find something - there's plenty of time to play with as long as you possess some basic time management skills!

Thanks for the insight. I was also wondering about the dissertation and whether students had a clear idea of their topic/area beforehand or if this was somewhat influenced by the classes you took and your adviser?

Hello

Sorry for intruding on the thread. I am currently on the IPP programme at UCL, I did it part-time over 2 years and have just submitted my dissertation.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the programme if you want! I also have a few books I want to sell that you may need/want for the course. I've listed the books under the relevant courses.

Quantitative Methods
- Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences 4th ed. - Agresti & Finlay (£25)
- A Gentle Introduction to STATA 3rd ed. - Acock (£25)

Public Policy and Economic Analysis (PPEA)
- Economics of the Public Sector 3rd ed. - Stiglitz (£25) - this book was a must for the course, pretty much every weeks reading was from it, i assume it will be the same again unless there have been major revisions to the course.

International Security
- Contemporary Security Studies 2nd ed. - Collins (£15)

If anyone is on the course and had a look at the required reading list and want to purchase the books feel free to private message me. I am based in London and won't be starting work till October.

Hi,

I'd appreciate any tips and thoughts you had about how to best succeed on the course, things you might have approached differently if you could do it again etc. Also, what are you moving onto now?

Hello

Sorry for intruding on the thread. I am currently on the IPP programme at UCL, I did it part-time over 2 years and have just submitted my dissertation.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the programme if you want! I also have a few books I want to sell that you may need/want for the course. I've listed the books under the relevant courses.

Quantitative Methods
- Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences 4th ed. - Agresti & Finlay (£25)
- A Gentle Introduction to STATA 3rd ed. - Acock (£25)

Public Policy and Economic Analysis (PPEA)
- Economics of the Public Sector 3rd ed. - Stiglitz (£25) - this book was a must for the course, pretty much every weeks reading was from it, i assume it will be the same again unless there have been major revisions to the course.

International Security
- Contemporary Security Studies 2nd ed. - Collins (£15)

If anyone is on the course and had a look at the required reading list and want to purchase the books feel free to private message me. I am based in London and won't be starting work till October.

Hi,

I have just seen this post, I was wondering if you still have the agresti book?

Hello

Sorry for intruding on the thread. I am currently on the IPP programme at UCL, I did it part-time over 2 years and have just submitted my dissertation.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the programme if you want! I also have a few books I want to sell that you may need/want for the course. I've listed the books under the relevant courses.

Quantitative Methods
- Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences 4th ed. - Agresti & Finlay (£25)
- A Gentle Introduction to STATA 3rd ed. - Acock (£25)

Public Policy and Economic Analysis (PPEA)
- Economics of the Public Sector 3rd ed. - Stiglitz (£25) - this book was a must for the course, pretty much every weeks reading was from it, i assume it will be the same again unless there have been major revisions to the course.

International Security
- Contemporary Security Studies 2nd ed. - Collins (£15)

If anyone is on the course and had a look at the required reading list and want to purchase the books feel free to private message me. I am based in London and won't be starting work till October.

I chose KCL in the end. UCL's links with employers are pitiful, I emailed them about their links and they basically said they didnt have any. War Studies department has much better links with think tanks, and international organizations

Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone else will be attending the International Public Policy (IPP) MSc program at UCL this fall- where are you from and old are you? I will be 27 when I start the program.

Hi there! I am from Hong Kong and I am 24. Can't wait for the programme to start

Hello. I'm from Ireland but currently living in Korea. I have a place for September but I'm still deciding whether to defer it or not .

Yeah. From Barrow-in-Furness originally, but have lived in Columbus, Ohio, USA for 13 years. Will be 22 at start.

I will be 23 when I start. I'm from the U.S.

Hi, I'll also be doing IPP at UCL in September. I'm 20 and studying International Management in Cardiff at the moment, but I'm actually from London

I declined an offer for an MA in War Studies at KCL for an MSc in Security Studies at UCL -- I'm considering switching to PP or IPP, but am pretty happy with security studies -- because the KCL MA is just too general, academic, and light on methods. That said, I wonder every day if I've made a mistake.

In regards to KCL connections: How are they in regards to international (specifically US) connections to think tanks and the like? I made a decision that alumni network didn't really matter either way, since I'd be returning to Washington D.C. upon completion. What's your opinion on the matter?

Oh that's a big change :-) congrats. Why this course though? What do you plan on doing after?


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Anyone after course books for this, I am selling:

Stiglitz - Economics of the public sector (for Public Policy Economics Analysis)
Acock - A gentle introduction to Stata
Agresti and Finlay - Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences (both for Quantitative Methods)

All in excellent condition! Message me for details

Hello, I'll be in the IPP program in September as well. I'm 25 and from the US. Super excited to meet everyone!

If you ended up at UCL, especially with the IPP course - what modules would you recommend? (Easiest to Hardest to pass).

Any tips for those of starting this fall?

Thanks in advance.

What do you mean pitiful? I'm finding it a bit hard to believe that UCL doesn't have any links to think-tanks or ngo's, non-profits, IO's.

Plus, war studies at KCL and IPP (I'll be going for regular PP unless LSE comes through) are rather different. The PP course seems to have a fair amount of econ/stat's, so i'm finding it disconcerting to hear that getting a job is tough.

Now I have the same problem, can't decide and wonder your decision at that time. Thank you

Hey guys,

I am an applicant of the MSc IPP of UCL for 2015-2016. I received my 2nd reference confirmation letter at Dec 11th, 2014. And today I received an E-mail as follow:

"We have recently received your application to MSc International Public Policy.

Due to the large number of high quality applications received by Political Science it has become necessary to consider applications in gathered fields. This means that you will not receive a decision immediately as the consideration period will be longer. However we hope to have a decision ready for you by 28 February.

If it becomes necessary to consider you in a further round we will let you know and will continue to keep you informed of your progress.'


I am wondering what happened to my application and is that means I have been put on the waiting list?

Worries a lot about this, hoping to see your guys' reply ASAP.

Hi, how difficult is the Maths for the economics based modules? I am a little worried... are there extra classes for support?

If any of these books are still for sale I would happily purchase them all.

Also, what are you doing now since graduating?

Hi I've been accepted to UCL for MSC in security studies which I will be starting in sep 2014 I was wondering if it would be possible, once there to switch to the msc in international public policy

Hi,

I have just seen this post, I was wondering if you still have the agresti book?

Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences 4th edition - Agresti & Finlay

I sure do and its still for sale. Yours for £25.

Hi,

Were there any elective courses that you particularly enjoyed in the program?

Also, I know in North America we have something called ratemyprofesser.com, where you can discuss a professor's teaching/marking.. Is there a similar website in the UK?

Sure

I particularly enjoyed International Development and Health Policy out of all my electives. To be fair I wished I could do more electives rather than the compulsory ones but the course is pretty rigid. Though I guess the selection is pretty broad to capture a wide variety of interests. These two were my fave because I have a particular internet in development, especially in relation to HIV AIDS. Luckily the course leaders were also pretty awesome making the lectures and seminars worthwhile.

I don't think there is a rate my professor type thing over here, but the department gets us to rate the courses every year so there is some feedback albeit after you finish the programme. Not sure how much feedback is taken on board but there are elected student representatives as well.

Hi

In my opinion the course is relatively straightforward and there are few surprises. The levels of the courses are not much harder than at undergraduate level, though I guess the strain comes from having to do your dissertation over the summer which is a little tougher.

My advice would be to make sure you balance out courses assessed by essays and those assessed by end of year exams. I would say don't have too many of either as that will make your year a lot tougher. With the essay subjects as well, as soon as the questions for the paper are released I would start on it straight away. I know you're paying a lot of money for the masters and you should really do all the reading to make sure you contribute to all the seminars, but to be fair I learnt very little from the seminars and concentrating my efforts on the essays earlier on helped reduce the workload and stress through the year. The seminars are mostly in groups of 10-15 and can be pretty pointless in my opinion (I came from an undergrad degree with supervisions of 1-3 people which were much more intense and productive).

Also, as probably mentioned already, start on your dissertation as early as possible. In terms of topics, just start exploring avenues of research and project possibilities early on, as doing the leg work and reading round the subject is critical to narrowing down a dissertation project. I would happily recommend doing dissertation reading rather than course or seminar readings (for the courses that are assessed by essay), though thats me.

Exam wise, I think UCL are pretty lax. They don't require references in the essay, so to be fair any coherent argument seems satisfactory. The key being a well laid out and sign posted argument.

I applied for the Civil Service Faststream, which is the graduate scheme for the UK government and will be starting as an analyst in the Cabinet Office in October. Though I'm sure many others are going onto more exciting and relevant jobs.

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Hi,

I'd appreciate any tips and thoughts you had about how to best succeed on the course, things you might have approached differently if you could do it again etc. Also, what are you moving onto now?

Hello

Sorry for intruding on the thread. I am currently on the IPP programme at UCL, I did it part-time over 2 years and have just submitted my dissertation.

Feel free to ask me any questions about the programme if you want! I also have a few books I want to sell that you may need/want for the course. I've listed the books under the relevant courses.

Quantitative Methods
- Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences 4th ed. - Agresti & Finlay (£25)
- A Gentle Introduction to STATA 3rd ed. - Acock (£25)

Public Policy and Economic Analysis (PPEA)
- Economics of the Public Sector 3rd ed. - Stiglitz (£25) - this book was a must for the course, pretty much every weeks reading was from it, i assume it will be the same again unless there have been major revisions to the course.

International Security
- Contemporary Security Studies 2nd ed. - Collins (£15)

If anyone is on the course and had a look at the required reading list and want to purchase the books feel free to private message me. I am based in London and won't be starting work till October.

Some people may have, but the majority of people came up with an idea for their dissertation throughout the year, influenced by interesting classes or lectures they'd had. You select your own supervisor based on your proposal.

I for one hadn't worked out the exact direction of my dissertation until my second supervision meeting! The important thing to remember is that even after you submit your proposal (Jan/Feb time) and start meeting your supervisor, your topic/question will probably change a million times before you hit something viable.

So if you have an idea, great - it will probably change slightly. If you don't, also great - you can go in with a really open mind and see what grabs your attention during the year.

Thanks for the insight. I was also wondering about the dissertation and whether students had a clear idea of their topic/area beforehand or if this was somewhat influenced by the classes you took and your adviser?

Any more thoughts on the course and I'd be happy to hear, since I have to make a choice between this and KCL.

Hello, where are you from in the U.S.? I've been in Ohio for the past 14 years.

Definitely. I and many of my coursemates had internships or part-time work throughout the course.

Due to the way the course is structured, you'll have one semester that's busier than the other (8 hours p/w as opposed to 6 in the other). This will depend on what electives you pick. I did an internship for 2 days a week during my (less busy) spring semester and it was absolutely fine. The only time it became a problem was when we hit April, when you have all essays due in for the end of the month, and exams to start thinking about - so I left at that point.

I'd definitely recommend trying to find something - there's plenty of time to play with as long as you possess some basic time management skills!

Is there time to do work experience whilst studying the IPP Msc, in your opinion?

To the original post, I'm 25 and from the SW of England. Still deciding between KCL (PP) and this course however. Did anyone else have this dilemma?