Foreign Service Officer?

Well, if you want to go now, take it. What's the worst that will happen? You don't pass and then you'll go on to grad school.

Grad school won't hurt, but it's hard to say how much it will really help with the exam either. Of course, maybe it will make you feel more confident for the oral later, if you pass the written. But the exam is scored on a curve, so if 100% of the people taking the exam are Einsteins, 90% will still flunk.

Real world experience certainly helps on the job. Not sure how much it means onthe exam.

Yes it is difficult. The off the shelf answer is that with a masters degree you will bomb the entrance exam the first time you take it and pass the second.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.