Fred's Second: Orientation (getting pointed in the right direction)

So this past week and a half was orientation; a several day long process by which we get acclimated and familiar with the IR/PS program. Specifically we had a brief introductions with a) some of the faculty, b) the courses proper that make up IR/PS, and c) our fellow students, both first years and second years.

Let's start with the faculty. With half a hope that fluffing over the professors will benefit me somehow academically in the near future, I think the best most concise way to describe the collection of genius here is just "wow." Googling the names of professors I learned what a 'curriculum vitae' was and just how incredible the level of expertise and experience is here at IR/PS. Leading edge researchers, authorities in their respective fields of study, advisors to some of the highest tier positions in government ~ they're all here.

Faculty members are also advisors to IR/PS students themselves. The professors will keep track of our progress and make sure we stay pointed in the right direction. We were assigned to professors generally by our regional focus and career track ~ I say "generally" because in my case I was assigned to Professor G. Hanson, one of the Economics professors here at IR/PS and an expert on foreign investment, immigration, and international trade. We're able to switch to another advisor if we so choose (perhaps one that is more familiar, more similar in focus, etc.) In my case, Prof. Hanson is neither a Southeast Asia-oriented professor nor one who was focused on International Politics, but he was still pretty helpful and gave me input on my course load this coming quarter.

All first year IR/PS students generally have the same course load, at least for the first quarter. This is kinda nice because all of us incoming new students get to know each other throughout all our classes. Except for languages, all first year students take the same IR/PS core (IRCO) classes unless we petition out of them:

IRCO 400: Policy Making Processes
IRCO 401: Managerial Economics
IRCO 412: Globalization, the World System, and the Pacific
IRCO 453: Quantitative Methods I

I considered petitioning out of Globalization (IRCO 412) because my undergraduate courses basically revolved around the matter. After speaking to professors Haggard and Naughton about it though, I decided I'll probably be better off staying in the class. Maybe it'll be a slightly low-impact class in my otherwise pounding schedule and it'll be a good chance to get a better grasp of the quantitative side of case studies in globalization, something I'm admittedly pretty crappy at. According to the second years, the first quarter is by far the most difficult and demanding quarter so having a class that "feels like home" will be a bright spot in my schedule.

Probably the best part of orientation were the opportunities to meet a few of the second years; those students who were standing in our shoes last year but can now give us blunt and honest impressions of the program. Throughout the course of orientation, we were able to hear from second year IR/PS students about the classes, internships, the professors, and opportunities that we shouldn't miss.

Orientation finished off with a Dean's Reception social. First year students mingled with second year students and professors. After a week-long orientation it was a relaxing way to round off our introduction to IR/PS.

--Fred--