Circumspecte

This is not an apology. For whatever reason, I feel it's important that this not be an apology, because then it would be premised on my not fulfilling some agreement or another. It's not an apology. Rather, it's an admission. Or better yet, a confession. I'm back in school for what shall inshAllah be the final year of my MA program with Johns Hopkins SAIS. I could very well make the excuse that I'm extremely busy , which I am,  but that wouldn't be the entire truth. The core truth is that for a while now I've been struggling to (re)find my "voice" in the bevvy of activity that the blog world has become. I've been caught in a storm of "should be's" that was not there before, and since we're spilling all the truths, many times I've contemplated shutting this whole thing (blog) down. Why? I wish I could give a one-sentence response, but it's complicated. Believe me though, it's not you (the reader), it's me....

Dear Prospective Graduate Student, After "officially" completing my first semester at JHU SAIS in Bologna, Italy, I figured it might be helpful to share some of my insights with you, especially since quite a number of your counterparts have already approached me in that regard. So, what are the bolts and nuts of opting for graduate school? Well, I don't have all the answers, and I'm certain responses differ with each person but here are some of the main things I have to say. 1. Know Your Status By your status I'm not talking "HIV/AIDS". I'm talking know your legal status in the country you'll be studying in and the corresponding do's and don'ts. Knowing your status should also make it easier to figure out what financial options you have, whether you qualify for certain scholarships, if you can undertake an internship or do some work while studying, all of that. The ideal case would be to know your status before you apply to a gi...

Now that I have finally completed my personal statement for a graduate program, I think I can do this post on how to write a good personal statement, without feeling tinges of guilt (at not finishing mine). It's application season, and more often than not, recruiters require a personal statement. Whether its for graduate school or for an internship or job (they call those cover letters, but essentially, it's a personal statement, albeit a more technical/reserved one). So, this post will be based mainly on my own experience with writing personal statements, and also from reviewing and editing those of friends, colleagues etc. I hope you find it helpful, and if you have any other tidbits or questions, please feel free to leave a comment. Here goes: What's a personal statement? In my opinion, a personal statement is exactly what it says it is. A personal statement. Some people think they need to be very removed and technical in their personal statements, but that's b...