Thinking About Graduate School? Well, Think Smart.
There are several reasons for attending graduate school, but regardless of the reason, you
must start by asking what you will get out of graduate school. If you attend an accredited
graduate school you can earn one or more of several degrees in Political Science and
related fields. There are Master of Arts (MA) degrees in Political Science, International
Affairs, Public Policy, and Public Affairs. There are MS (Masters of Science) degrees
offered that include extensive amounts of empirical and quantitative analysis work.
There are Masters of Public Administration programs that award the MPA degree and
some even offer Doctors in Public Administration (DPA) degrees. And of course, there
is the finishing line for pursuit of degrees in Political Science, the Doctorate of
Philosophy in Political Science (PhD).
You must also ask what purpose the degree will serve for your desired career path. A
graduate degree actually narrows your areas of qualification for work because it
represents a specialized body of knowledge and specialized skill set that has been
achieved by the recipient. So, know what you want to do with your life before you
choose a graduate program. You need to be as specific as possible in this assessment.
For instance, it is not enough to say that you want to be an intelligence analyst. What do
you want to analyze and how? If you want to analyze a country or a region of the world
as opposed to a particular issue area, this will most likely require different programs of
study.
Not all graduate degrees are academic degrees. An MA in Public Affairs or in
International Affairs is usually not an academic degree. An MPA is not an academic
degree (but a DPA is an academic degree). These degrees are professional education
degrees designed to help people pursue jobs in bureaucratic management and with any
number of government and private organizations that are involved in government related
business. Look for buzzwords in the program title: “affairs”, “policy”, “applied”, etc.;
which are usually telling about whether or not it is an academic degree or a professional
degree. Be aware that certain careers will require academic degrees and others do not
require an academic degree.
Ask yourself this question. If 25 people apply for the same job and all 25 have the same
GPA and degree, and in almost every respect are identically qualified, who will get
hired? Unless there is a specific need to hire a specific person from a specific population
group based on region of origin, gender, race, ethnicity, etc. this decision will likely come
down to a different pedigree. Here I mean your academic pedigree. Where did you go to
school? Rankings and reputations do matter. So when you look at graduate schools,
don’t just look at the ones that are near your home, dear to your sports psyche, etc. Take
the time to figure out what you want to study and then find out what schools are ranked in
the top 100 in that area of study. Also, look at the overall rankings of that particular
university, which are telling about graduate programs when you cannot find specific
rankings for the individual program. Then decide where to apply. While you may not
like the apparent ideology of a school, Harvard and Yale are better choices than Texas
Tech and Alabama.
Now, you must actually choose schools to send applications. Applications are usually
not cheap. They are a necessary evil of the process. One way to look at this process is to
pick out the top 20 programs and apply to 5 of those schools, pick out the next 40 and
apply to 5 of those schools, and pick out the last 40 and apply to 5 of those schools. As a
failsafe, if you do not believe you will academically qualify or score high enough on the
GRE to qualify for any of the top 100 programs, find five others that you have no reason
to doubt will accept you. You can always improve your standings for other programs by
spending a year or two at a lesser program and doing well academically in that setting.
Now that you have choices, because of being accepted at several schools, you have more
work to do. You have to apply for financial resources available at these schools through
graduate assistant positions, research assistant positions and graduate study grants. Some
good news is that many of the top 100 schools will often not accept more students than
the number to which they can at least provide partial funding.
In short, do not sell yourself short. You are graduating from a solid academic setting.
Many of you will graduate with high GPAs and score highly on the Graduate Record
Examination (GRE). These are two of the primary consideration for graduate schools
admissions committees. There is no reason for you to accept attending a second rate
graduate school.