MA in Intelligence and International Security

OP

Thank you very much! Haha no I know for sure that it is not guaranteed that I will get an offer, so no worries :smile:

Which program are you in??

Reply 4

I'm doing International Peace & Security - known to be the most intense MA in the dept (which I only found out about once I'd enrolled...sneaky buggers :tongue:

) Have you applied to other universities as well? Or is King's your main choice?

Reply 5

OP

That sounds interesting as well! Well I applied to five other universities (Nottingham, Oxford, London metropolitan, warwick and cambridge) most are in international security. However, king's is my first choice. I already got a conditional offer for warwick and london metropolitan :smile:

unfortunately, i found out today that i submitted my application to kings with a big mistake; i referred to kings as king's college, instead of king's college london, so i think my chances of getting an offer there are pretty small atm :frown:

Reply 6

Well done on your offers so far (I had also applied for International Security at Warwick - not a bad place to end up at all!)

Ahh don't worry too much about what you referred to them as (it's not like you called them UCL...that might be a mistake :tongue:

) Besides they refer to themselves as KCL/King's/King's College a lot (more often than writing it out in full) so it won't stand out to them as an error. I referred to them as KCL in my PS, if it helps :smile:

Reply 7

OP

Thank you! I felt it might come across as showing a lack of interests or something.. But thanks, I am a little less scared now haha :smile:

So how do you like King's? And why did you choose King's instead of Warwick? Did you apply to other universities as well?

Reply 8

Overall, I'm enjoying my time here - there was a bit of an organisational nightmare with not being informed of what time my first lecture was supposed to be but that was more because they were transferring to a new e-learning system than anything else! :tongue:

Met some really lovely people here (students and staff alike) which I was a little worried about at first. It's been work from more or less day one but at the same time it doesn't feel too daunting. I was worried I'd feel a little out of my depth but it isn't majorly different to my BA in terms of difficulty (well, I say that now...that might change when I get my marks back :tongue:

)

I also applied to Birmingham and UCL (the latter took ages to respond especially compared to the others - ~2 months vs 2 weeks!) I chose King's because it was the one course that seemed the perfect fit for me. I was aware of the dept's reputation and its excellent connections which was pretty important to me (they have a dept careers team and they're really good at informing us of networking events/careers panels/job or internship vacancies etc. plus they are very helpful in giving tailored advice). Also, it's in central London! :tongue:

Giving that the majority of internships are in London...makes it a little easier especially compared to Coventry/Birmingham :biggrin:

Reply 9

alexmc92

Hi,

I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. I am in my penultimate year of law in Ireland, do you think this would be an acceptable degree as far as entry requirements go? Also, what are the employment stats like for those graduating with this MA??

Thanks in advance,
Alex :smile:

Reply 10

OP

thank you very much for your answers! I would choose to go to King's as well, if I get an offer of course :wink:

I hope King's will respond soon, but my referees just finished their letters, so I think I have to wait for a while! Also, I was wondering if you are an international student or are you from the UK? And do you happen to know how many people apply for a MA at the dept. of war? I am sorry, I just really want an offer haha. I really like the intelligence part, which, I believe is kind of unique..

And Alex, I am sorry, I can't answer your question because I don't know.. Sorry!

Reply 11

Original post by alexmc92

Hi,

I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions. I am in my penultimate year of law in Ireland, do you think this would be an acceptable degree as far as entry requirements go? Also, what are the employment stats like for those graduating with this MA??

Thanks in advance,
Alex :smile:

Law should be fine - just make your interests in the course clear :smile:

I'm not entirely sure on employment stats but the dept has very good links with a lot of organisations (if you plan to stay in the same field)

Original post by 01Jessop

thank you very much for your answers! I would choose to go to King's as well, if I get an offer of course :wink:

I hope King's will respond soon, but my referees just finished their letters, so I think I have to wait for a while! Also, I was wondering if you are an international student or are you from the UK? And do you happen to know how many people apply for a MA at the dept. of war? I am sorry, I just really want an offer haha. I really like the intelligence part, which, I believe is kind of unique..

And Alex, I am sorry, I can't answer your question because I don't know.. Sorry!

Sometimes they respond quite quickly, sometimes they take forever - so just relax and try not to think about it (easier said than done, I know :tongue:

) I'm a UK student :smile:

It's somewhere within the hundreds for each MA - there are about 500 MA students in the dept as a whole although do bear in mind the people who don't take up their offers/don't meet the offers etc. so more offers given out than there are places

Reply 12

username1076056

Having a bit of a mayer deciding on which postgraduate course to accept and since this thread is related thought I would post.

I have just got an offer today from KCL.

KCL Offer: MA in Intelligence and International Security Studies
Conditions: Conditional on attaining 65% or above
Must reply by 31/01/2013
Application was sent on: 11/11/2012
KCL offered: 1/12/2012

I have also received an offer from Durham:

Offer for: MSc in Defence, Development and Diplomacy
Conditions: Conditional on attaining a 2:1
Application was sent on: 1/11/2012
Durham offered: 2/11/2012 - literally 15 hours after my submitting it!

Ive always had a love of both Durham and St Andrews- but I understand the KCL War dept being a bit of a spook/ military training hub.

I am awaiting on UCL which I've applied for the Masters in Security Studies and St Andrews Uni for the M.Litt in International Security Studies- which I know for sure from St Andrews postgrad admissions that they do not send out offers until after the deadline of Jan 14th.

So my questions really which one do you think is the best to go for. Vague question I know, but other opinions would help me on this one.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

Original post by MarcoFr

Having a bit of a mayer deciding on which postgraduate course to accept and since this thread is related thought I would post.

I have just got an offer today from KCL.

KCL Offer: MA in Intelligence and International Security Studies
Conditions: Conditional on attaining 65% or above
Must reply by 31/01/2013
Application was sent on: 11/11/2012
KCL offered: 1/12/2012

I have also received an offer from Durham:

Offer for: MSc in Defence, Development and Diplomacy
Conditions: Conditional on attaining a 2:1
Application was sent on: 1/11/2012
Durham offered: 2/11/2012 - literally 15 hours after my submitting it!

Ive always had a love of both Durham and St Andrews- but I understand the KCL War dept being a bit of a spook/ military training hub.

I am awaiting on UCL which I've applied for the Masters in Security Studies and St Andrews Uni for the M.Litt in International Security Studies- which I know for sure from St Andrews postgrad admissions that they do not send out offers until after the deadline of Jan 14th.

So my questions really which one do you think is the best to go for. Vague question I know, but other opinions would help me on this one.

This really depends on a) which course appeals to you the most and b) what you plan to do with your MA.

Though the War Studies Dept isn't a military training hub - the Defence Studies Dept has more military types (which is, in all fairness to you, part of the War Studies Group :tongue:

) (I couldn't tell if you're considering the military/spooks type jobs or you want to stay away from them!)

You could always wait until StA get back to you (as well as UCL) and use this time to consider which one truly appeals to you - what would your order of preference be? It's perhaps worth saying that these are all good universities and none would be a hindrance to you which gives you some leeway in going for what you'd really want.

Reply 14

username1076056

Original post by aeterno

This really depends on a) which course appeals to you the most and b) what you plan to do with your MA.

Though the War Studies Dept isn't a military training hub - the Defence Studies Dept has more military types (which is, in all fairness to you, part of the War Studies Group :tongue:

) (I couldn't tell if you're considering the military/spooks type jobs or you want to stay away from them!)

You could always wait until StA get back to you (as well as UCL) and use this time to consider which one truly appeals to you - what would your order of preference be? It's perhaps worth saying that these are all good universities and none would be a hindrance to you which gives you some leeway in going for what you'd really want.

Well, I'm thinking that my first choice may be St Andrews if I get an offer and then perhaps Durham- as the offer only requires a 2:1, Ive averaged in my second year 67.5% so I'm thinking that meeting that shouldn't be too much of a problem. KCL's course does look fantastic in terms of interest levels it seems quite intelligence focused in comparison to most security studies courses, which in my books makes it all the more interesting. However, St A's IR school is widely acclaimed. Like you said there all great uni's that's why I'm muddled right now, but sound advice nevertheless.

I will of course be waiting to see what St Andrews says, but expect UCL will be saying yay or no pretty soon. I'm not 100% on which direction to go career wise, the civil service i.e Treasury or FCO or military not sure just yet. I was just curious as to the reputation of each uni's respective dept, and reputation in general, such as which uni will open the greatest doors?

Reply 15

Original post by MarcoFr

Well, I'm thinking that my first choice may be St Andrews if I get an offer and then perhaps Durham- as the offer only requires a 2:1, Ive averaged in my second year 67.5% so I'm thinking that meeting that shouldn't be too much of a problem. KCL's course does look fantastic in terms of interest levels it seems quite intelligence focused in comparison to most security studies courses, which in my books makes it all the more interesting. However, St A's IR school is widely acclaimed. Like you said there all great uni's that's why I'm muddled right now, but sound advice nevertheless.

I will of course be waiting to see what St Andrews says, but expect UCL will be saying yay or no pretty soon. I'm not 100% on which direction to go career wise, the civil service i.e Treasury or FCO or military not sure just yet. I was just curious as to the reputation of each uni's respective dept, and reputation in general, such as which uni will open the greatest doors?

With regards to your possible career options - they're all pretty much on par. In fact, the Civil Service Fast Stream (if you'll be applying for that) don't particularly care where you got your (undergraduate) degree from or what it's in for that matter, let alone whether you have an MA! (Not suggesting that an MA would be useless for this - it's always valuable knowledge that could be put to good use). (That's probably not helped you decide much...)

Just to add though (because I can only really comment on King's), they have an excellent careers service (specific to the dept so you don't get those standard graduate scheme type jobs clogging up your inbox :tongue:

) You get careers panels, course-specific sessions, individual advice and there are a few opportunities within the university to build up experience. (Though the other 3, I'm sure, would do similar things)

Good luck with your decision!

Reply 16

trungnguyen

Original post by MarcoFr

Having a bit of a mayer deciding on which postgraduate course to accept and since this thread is related thought I would post.

I have just got an offer today from KCL.

KCL Offer: MA in Intelligence and International Security Studies
Conditions: Conditional on attaining 65% or above
Must reply by 31/01/2013
Application was sent on: 11/11/2012
KCL offered: 1/12/2012

I have also received an offer from Durham:

Offer for: MSc in Defence, Development and Diplomacy
Conditions: Conditional on attaining a 2:1
Application was sent on: 1/11/2012
Durham offered: 2/11/2012 - literally 15 hours after my submitting it!

Ive always had a love of both Durham and St Andrews- but I understand the KCL War dept being a bit of a spook/ military training hub.

I am awaiting on UCL which I've applied for the Masters in Security Studies and St Andrews Uni for the M.Litt in International Security Studies- which I know for sure from St Andrews postgrad admissions that they do not send out offers until after the deadline of Jan 14th.

So my questions really which one do you think is the best to go for. Vague question I know, but other opinions would help me on this one.

Hi Franco, this not relating to the topic but for the academic reference, did you have to submit the reference yourself to Durham, or did you just give them your referee's email and they just contacted him by themselves? Thanks (Btw congrat on your 15h offer! Im also applying to MA in IR at Durham)

Reply 17

username1076056

Original post by trungnguyen

Hi Franco, this not relating to the topic but for the academic reference, did you have to submit the reference yourself to Durham, or did you just give them your referee's email and they just contacted him by themselves? Thanks (Btw congrat on your 15h offer! Im also applying to MA in IR at Durham)

Thats fine!

Well I just emailed my referees with the Durham postgrad admissions email address. I told them to quote the course I was applying for in the email, and obviously to state the candidates name. Thats the only way to do it I'm afraid. Durham do not email your referees directly like St Andrews and KCL and the like!

Good luck with the application!

Reply 18

OP