August 2, 2012

“I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why.” – Kyle Wiens – Harvard Business Review

“After all, sloppy is as sloppy does.” – Kyle Wiens, CEO of iFixit

Do you agree with this sentiment? Would you hire (or not) someone who uses poor grammar in their application? How do you feel about those who don’t know the difference between “there”, “they’re” and “their”?

via I Won’t Hire People Who Use Poor Grammar. Here’s Why. – Kyle Wiens – Harvard Business Review.

July 10, 2012

Top 10 Universities in the World

It makes me very proud to see Princeton among the Top 10 Universities in the World:

Princeton University, USA: This Princeton based private university houses 180 buildings spread over 500 acres provide education via various faculties including social sciences, humanities, engineering and natural sciences and draws international students for higher studies in America.

Kudos to the other institutions of higher education who also made the list: Cambridge University, England – Harvard University, USA – Yale University, USA – University College London, United Kingdom – MIT, USA – Oxford University, UK – Imperial College London, UK – Chicago University, USA – California Institute of Technology, USA

 

Source: http://toptensbest.com/top-10-universities-in-the-world.html/

February 19, 2012

The Top Ten International Relations Undergraduate Programs | Foreign Policy 01/2012

The Top Ten International Relations Undergraduate Programs | Foreign Policy.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/03/top_ten_international_relations_undergraduate_programs?page=full

Where to start your fast-track to running the world.

JAN/FEB 2012

These rankings are part of the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey, conducted by Paul C. Avey, Michael C. Desch, James D. Long, Daniel Maliniak, Susan Peterson, and Michael J. Tierney. All additional information provided was added by Foreign Policy and is not part of the survey results.

1. Harvard University

Student-faculty ratio: 7:1
Tuition: $39,849
Website
http://www.gov.harvard.edu/
Campus international relations organization: 
Harvard International Relations Council
Why go to Harvard? 
You get to rub elbows with some of the most prestigious academics in the world, from FP contributors like Joseph S. Nye and Stephen M. Walt to Harvey Mansfield. Not only is it the oldest center of higher education in the United States, Mr. Bartley’s — just across the street — cooks a mean hamburger.

2. Princeton University
Student-faculty ratio: 
6:1
Tuition: 
$37,000
Website:
  http://wws.princeton.edu
Campus international relations organization: 
International Relations Council

Why go to Princeton? President Woodrow Wilson’s convictions were forged in its halls, and the university’s tradition of impacting how the United States approaches foreign policy is carried on today by former Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter. It features a range of other outstanding thinkers on foreign policy, from G. John Ikenberry to former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer. Bonus points: The hospital that appears in the opening credits of the hit TV show “House, M.D.” is actually Princeton’s University Medical Center.

3. Stanford University
Student-faculty ratio: 
6:1
Tuition: 
$40,500
Website:
 http://www.stanford.edu
Campus international relations organization: 
 Society for International Affairs at Stanford
Why go to Stanford? The Hoover Institution — which counts Condoleezza Rice and Fouad Ajami as fellows — is the premier conservative public policy think tank in the United States. Drive an hour north to San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury District for some serious cognitive dissonance.

4. Columbia University
Student-faculty ratio: 
6:1
Tuition: 
$45,290
Website:
 http://www.studentaffairs.columbia.edu
Campus international relations organization: Columbia International Relations Council and Association

Why go to Columbia? The only way to get closer to the intellectual debate that animates the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a 5,000-mile plane flight. The late Professor Edward Said’s intellectual home has long been the scene of contentious debates over the conflict — Norman Finkelstein and Alan Dershowitz are just two recent combatants. University President Lee Bollinger has also proven not to be someone to shy away from a fight, inviting Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2007 to address the university in free intellectual debate. Not everyone was convinced.

5. Georgetown University
Student-faculty ratio: 
10:1
Tuition: $41,393
Website:
 http://sfs.georgetown.edu/
Campus international relations organization: 
Georgetown International Relations Club
Why go to Georgetown? 
In the nation’s capital, you get to learn at the feet of the men and women who don’t just theorize about international affairs — they practice it. From former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to fresh-out-of-government former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Colin Kahl, its faculty is full of professionals who know all about the hard work of translating theory into policy. If you imagine yourself as the next Bill Clinton, this is the place to meet thousands of other students who do too.

6. Yale University
Student-faculty ratio:  
6:1
Tuition: 
$40,500
Website:
 http://www.yale.edu/
Campus international relations organization: 
Yale International Relations Association
Why go to Yale? 
Its foreign-policy student group has the top-ranked model U.N. team and a whopping operating budget of $250,000, which is uses to send its members across the globe during school breaks. When you’re not traveling to Singapore or Honduras, a faculty that includes famous thinkers such asBruce Ackerman and Robert Dahl may also know a thing or two.

7. University of Chicago
Student-faculty ratio: 
7:1
Tuition: 
$42,783
Website:
 http://cir.uchicago.edu/
Campus international relations organization: 
University of Chicago Model United Nations Team
Why go to the University of Chicago?
 If you have a grim fascination for understanding why the world economic system is in a state of collapse, this is the school for you. The University of Chicago’s Department of Economics has fielded more Nobel Prize laureates than any other university — a fact it is not, and should not be, shy about pointing out. FP contributors Robert Fogel and Raghuram Rajan will tell you why China is rising, why the global financial system is collapsing, and what we can do about it.

8. Dartmouth College
Student-faculty ratio: 
8:1
Tuition: 
$42,996
Website:
 http://www.dartmouth.edu
Campus international relations organization: 
Dartmouth Model U.N. Conference
Why go to Dartmouth? 
If you’re looking for small-town New England charm and an Ivy League intellectual pedigree, it’s hard to do better than Dartmouth. The college is also home to experts who know all about closed regimes: There’s Libya expert par excellence Dirk Vandewalle and Jennifer Lind, who currently has her hands full trying to figure out what’s going on in Kim Jong Un’s North Korea. The school’s Greek life was also the inspiration for the antics in National Lampoon’s Animal House — so rest assured, you’ll have a good time.

9. George Washington University
Student-faculty ratio: 
13:1
Tuition: 
$44,148
Website:
 http://elliott.gwu.edu
Campus international relations organization: 
George Washington International Affairs Society
Why go to George Washington? 
It’s where FP Mideast Channel editor Marc Lynch hangs his hat!Nathan BrownAmitai Etzioni, and a whole slew of other professors can also show you how Washington’s foreign-policy machinery really works.

10. American University
Student-faculty ratio: 
13:1
Tuition:
 $38,071
Website:
 http://www.american.edu
Campus international relations organization: 
American University International Politics Student Association
Why go to American University?
 Students here take their politics out of the classroom — since 2006, it has been named by Princeton Review as the most politically active university in the United States three times. It also has an active international presence, falling within the top 10 of all universities for number of students studying abroad and joining the Peace Corps.

Methodology: The authors are researchers with the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) project at the College of William and Mary. The fourth wave of the TRIP survey explores the views of international relations (IR) faculty from every four-year college and university in the United States, as identified by U.S. News & World Report, for their views on various international issues. The results include the responses of 1,582 faculty members, representing more than 40 percent of IR scholars in the United States, collected between August and November 2011. The parallel survey of practitioners surveyed 244 current and former policymakers who served from 1989 to 2008 in national security decision-making roles at the level of assistant secretary, director, and designated policymaking groups within several U.S. government agencies.You can find complete results from the survey of U.S. IR scholars here.

February 19, 2012

The Best International Relations Master’s Programs | Foreign Policy 01/2012

The Best International Relations Master’s Programs | Foreign Policy.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/01/03/top_ten_international_relations_masters_programs?page=full

The top 10 programs for those looking to run the world.

JAN/FEB 2012

These rankings are part of the Teaching, Research, and International Policy (TRIP) survey, conducted by Paul C. Avey, Michael C. Desch, James D. Long, Daniel Maliniak, Susan Peterson, and Michael J. Tierney. All additional information provided was added by Foreign Policy and is not part of the survey results.

 

1. Georgetown University

Program size: 500-600 
Program cost: 
$41,056/year
Star professors:
 Madeleine Albright, Daniel Byman, Victor Cha, Charles Hagel, Paul Pillar

Georgetown offers a variety of master’s programs within the IR field, including an M.S. in foreign service and a program in security studies. The extremely selective School of Foreign Service offers a two-year program in which course work is supplemented by mentorship from IR professionals; notables in the past have included former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former USAID Director Andrew Natsios (a Georgetown alum).

Website: http://sfs.georgetown.edu/

2. Johns Hopkins University

Program size: 600
Program cost: 
$36,962/ year
Star professors: Zbigniew Brzezinski, David Lampton, Michael Mandelbaum

Johns Hopkins offers an M.A. from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, an interdisciplinary program that allows students to concentrate on a particular area of the field, such as international development, or a particular geographic region, such as African Studies. The two-year program also emphasizes language skills, offering courses in 16 languages.

Website: http://www.sais-jhu.edu

3. Harvard University

Program Size: 568
Program Cost: 
$43,212/year
Star Professors: 
Joseph S. Nye, Richard Clarke, Stephen M. Walt

The highly selective master of public policy program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government includes an option for a concentration in international and global affairs, geared specifically toward students seeking to join the ranks of international policy wonks. The all-star faculty list includes multiple former presidential advisors.

Websitehttp://www.hks.harvard.edu

4. Princeton University

Program size: 165
Program cost: 
$38,620
Star professors:
 John Ikenberry, Robert Keohane, Anne-Marie Slaughter

The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs offers not only offers a top-notch program, it also prides itself on generous fellowship funding to help students offset costs. Students also benefit from its many affiliated programs. For example, the World Politics journal is published by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Websitehttp://wws.princeton.edu

5. Tufts University

Program size: 279
Program cost: 
$37,344
Star professors: 
Stephen Bosworth, Daniel W. Drezner, Leila Fawaz, Alex de Waal

Tufts’ Fletcher School offers a variety of programs spanning the school’s three major divisions: International Law and Organizations; Diplomacy, History, and Politics; and Economics and International Business. The programs range from 1-2 years and can be supplemented through joint partnerships with Harvard Law School, among others.

Website: http://fletcher.tufts.edu/

6. Columbia University

Program size: 900
Program cost: 
$41,472
Star professors:
 Jagdish Bhagwati, Jeffrey Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz

Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) offers a master’s of international affairs that stresses real-world application, including proficiency in a foreign language, a robust internship program, and workshops that present real assignments for students working for different organizations. Theinternational fellows program, open to all graduate-degree programs at Columbia, provides a unique opportunity for students to “examine the origins of the current international order” during a two-semester seminar that includes discussion groups and trips to the United Nations and Washington, D.C.

Website: http://sipa.columbia.edu

7. George Washington University

Program size: 640-700
Program cost: 
$26,530
Star professors: 
Martha Finnemore, Karl F. Inderfurth, Marc Lynch

The Elliot School of International Affairs offers a variety of MA degrees, including a masters of international policy and practice degree for professionals looking to increase their marketable skills. The school also partners with the London School of Economics and Political Science (#9) to provide a master of international studies degree to students of both institutions.

Website: http://elliott.gwu.edu


8. American University

Program size: 800+
Program cost: 
$25,764
Star professors: 
Amitav AcharyaPhillip Brenner, James Goldgeier

AU’s School of International Service provides a dedicated international peace and conflict resolution program, which began after students requested more conflict-resolution classes in the 1980s. It’s a fitting move from a school that declared its mission was to prepare students to “wage peace” globally upon its founding in 1957.

Website: http://www.american.edu/sis

9. London School of Economics and Political Science

Program size: 461
Program cost: 
$27, 256
Star professors: 
Jeffrey Chwieroth, Katerina Delacoura, Christopher Hughes

One of the oldest international-relations departments in the world (as well as one of the largest), the London School of Economics and Political Science’s IR department provides a number of master’s programs, most based in London. The school also runs a joint program for a master of international studies degree with George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Website: http://www2.lse.ac.uk

10. University of Chicago

Program size: 60
Program cost: 
$44,568
Star professors:
 John Mearsheimer, Robert Pape

The oldest IR graduate program in the United States, the Committee on International Relations focuses on the more intellectual side of international affairs. Programs are capped by a rigorous M.A. thesis, and courses are focused on producing “intellectual leaders” in the field.

Website: http://cir.uchicago.edu/