My name is Noel Walker, and I am in the
Master of Arts in political science
program so I came to Western University
for my graduate degree because it's
already known as a talk to your research
institution the program in particular is
very well known for teaching and
research I came particularly because of
a faculty everybody is a researcher in
their field as well as an expert in
their field so I was able to take
courses like quantitative methods
diplomacy negotiation communication and
strategy as well as theory and everybody
who I worked with I had spoken to you
beforehand and they really gave me a
sense of what the program would be like
I am studying the basic income it's
become a bit of a political hot topic
since then I'm doing a theoretical
defense so I'm looking at how basic
income fulfills the requirements of
justice fairness as well as equality of
opportunity and how it fulfills you know
the sense of real freedom that we can
get from having a basic income so I
would say that it is that the research
atmosphere I've been able to study
exactly what I wanted to as well as the
support that I've gotten from faculty
specifically for an example in my
supervisor Charles Jones dr. Jones and I
met him in line at the Tim Hortons and
we spoke about basic income and by the
time we inch towards the front he'd
already accepted me on as a student to
supervise so you know very easygoing
atmosphere very supportive and a lot of
freedom the best thing about being a
Western graduate student is a sense of
community that you get from being
Western incredibly supportive colleagues
as well as the sense of freedom that you
get as well as the sense of confidence
moving forward knowing that you're
coming from a top-tier school I would
definitely say reach out to professor's
beforehand it is a very versatile
program you can take whatever you want
in international relations theory
research methods
and or you can really focus in and have
more of a specialized degree talk to
professor's beforehand make sure that
you're studying exactly what you want to
study and also get a sense of what
you're suited for or what programs may
be suited to you because your
perceptions could absolutely change
after a few really good conversations
