Fall 2016 Political Science PhD - How can I improve my application?

[billythekid72]

Dear Grad Cafe,

 

I am planning on applying to a few graduate school programs to pursue a PhD in Political Science starting in Fall 2016. I plan on studying Comparative Politics with a secondary concentration on Methods I wanted to share my profile to see if anyone has any practical advice on how to strengthen my application.

 

Profile:

Undergraduate Institution: Top 10 US Public School

Major Political Science   Minors: Human Rights and English

Cumulative GPA: 3.85  Major GPA: 3.9

GRE: Will take in September (Took a Kaplan GRE prep course)

Honors College - Honors Scholar

Undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis: IR related topic, presented at two conferences

Graduated May 2014

 

Post Graduation Experience:

1 year AmeriCorps Vista: Economic development, disaster relief, and humanitarian assistance.

State Government Human Rights Department : Current employment

 

Awards:

College of Liberal Arts and Science Deans List: All semesters

University Leadership Scholarship:1/2 tuition scholarship for all 4 years

University Scholar Award:Maintaining at least a 3.7 GPA for two consecutive semesters

University Social Science Research Grant(Spring 2013)

Human Rights Research Grant (Summer 2013)

Political Science Honors Department Research Grant

Alpha Lambda Delta National Freshman Honor Society(Fall 2010)

Golden Key International Honour Society, which signifies that I am in the Top 15 % of my class (Spring 2011)

Sigma Alpha Lambda National Leadership and Honors Organization (fall 2011)

American Political Science Association (APSA) National Conference:Poster Presenter 

USAFA Academy Assembly Delegate

Naval Academy Foreign Affairs Conference Delegate

 

ACTIVITIES:

Research Intern and Project Lead at respected Foreign Policy Think Tank (Washington DC, Summer 2013)

Honors Research Assistant for Respected Professor In Poli Sci Department (Fall 2013- Graduation) - Lead to a publication in POLI SCI journal

Research Assistant for well-known Public Opinion Institute (Spring 2014)

Research Intern at HKS (International Development) (Summer 2013)

Research Intern at International NGO in Middle East (Summer 2014)

University Model United Nations Director (UNICEF and Human Rights Council)

University Newspaper - Staff Writer

Political Blog:- Foreign Affairs Staff Writer

University Student Government- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Senator

Residential Hall Association: Vice President

University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Student Representative on Board of Directors

Community Outreach: Alternative Spring Break Trips to New Orleans, Louisiana and Tampa, Florida

University Medical Center- Volunteer

International Relations Society : Secretary

 

Quantitative Courses:

Micro Economics(A) Macro Economics(A) Calculus 1 (A ) Statistics 1 (A) Stat 2 (A) Poli Sci Quantitative research methods(A) Graduate Statistical Analysis Course at Duke University(A)

 

Additionally Information:

Languages:  French (Fluent), Arabic (Beginner) - two semesters of college course work

Computer Skills: Microsoft Office, Minitab, R, STATA, and SPSS.

 

Future Career Aspirations: Academia. Possibly transition into the policy world later on in my career.

 

Graduate School Programs: Currently finalizing my list based on program and faculty fit.Predominately considering schools in the Top 15.

 

Thank you in advance for your help!

Edited May 9, 2015 by billythekid72

[esotericish]

You have a much better looking application than I did. Make sure you have good recommendations, a good SOP and high GREs and you'll be good to go.

[billythekid72]

Hi esotericish! Thank you so much for your response. I have four excellent recommendation letters from POLS professors, I will begin drafting my SOP over the summer, and I am hoping to take the GRE in September.

 

Will you be entering a PhD program in Political Science in the Fall?

[esotericish]

Hi esotericish! Thank you so much for your response. I have four excellent recommendation letters from POLS professors, I will begin drafting my SOP over the summer, and I am hoping to take the GRE in September.

 

Will you be entering a PhD program in Political Science in the Fall?

 

 

Yeah I'm starting one in August. With your application if you do really well on the GRE I don't imagine many schools would turn you down. Might be worth taking it a bit earlier so you have a chance to do it again if necessary

[billythekid72]

Congratulations esotericish! Thanks again for the advice. I am not sure if I am will fully prepared and ready to take the exam before September, maybe August the earliest. Would i not be able to retake the exam in the end of October or the beginning of November?

[victorydance]

Congratulations esotericish! Thanks again for the advice. I am not sure if I am will fully prepared and ready to take the exam before September, maybe August the earliest. Would i not be able to retake the exam in the end of October or the beginning of November?

 

You have to consider the logistical hurdles.

 

For one, you have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks to retake the test. Of course, you also have to consider that you still need to book that reservation again which may not be available after taking the test once, depending on where you live, spaces can be booked through well ahead of time and especially during the heavy periods like the fall.

 

Secondly, you have to send your scores and it takes approximately a month for them to reach your intended universities. 

 

So it is certainly possible to do it as you outlined but it depends on how busy the testing center is and if there is enough time to get the scores to your universities by their deadlines.

[billythekid72]

You have to consider the logistical hurdles.

 

For one, you have to wait a minimum of 3 weeks to retake the test. Of course, you also have to consider that you still need to book that reservation again which may not be available after taking the test once, depending on where you live, spaces can be booked through well ahead of time and especially during the heavy periods like the fall.

 

Secondly, you have to send your scores and it takes approximately a month for them to reach your intended universities. 

 

So it is certainly possible to do it as you outlined but it depends on how busy the testing center is and if there is enough time to get the scores to your universities by their deadlines.

 

Thank you for the heads up victorydance. Hopefully I will only have to take it once but I will make sure to keep all of these factors in mind when planning a retake if necessary. Most of the deadlines seem to be early to mid December.

[MastersHoping]

You have a very, very nice profile. A good SOP and solid GRE scores should land you at some top 20 programs. I'm also applying to Political Science Ph.D programs for Fall 2016...hope we're not applying to the same schools cause I'd hate to have to compete with you for admisson, haha.

[billythekid72]

You have a very, very nice profile. A good SOP and solid GRE scores should land you at some top 20 programs. I'm also applying to Political Science Ph.D programs for Fall 2016...hope we're not applying to the same schools cause I'd hate to have to compete with you for admisson, haha.

 

Thank you very much for your response! I wish you the best of luck on your PhD applications. Have you already narrowed down your final list of schools? I will probably be applying to no more than 6 or 7 programs. 

 

Additionally, are you planning on studying Comparative or IR? (it seems you are doing a Masters now in Asian Studies)

Edited May 14, 2015 by billythekid72

[MastersHoping]

Hello! I am interested in Comparative. I'm looking at Johns Hopkins, GWU, American, University of Washington(JSIS), Tufts (Fletcher), maybe a few others. Regionally, I am interested in, of course, East Asia. What about your list? We should help each other out during the application process!

[billythekid72]

Hello! Sorry for the last reply. Interesting list. I haven't finalized my list completely but about 6 of the Top 15 programs. We don't seem to have any schools overlapping.

 

I would recommend looking into UCSD, they are known for their regional strength or focus on Asia.

[PizzaCat93]

Why do you list "academia" as your career aspiration here, but in the governmental affairs forum, you state that you would like to work for a think tank or in the foreign service...? 

[billythekid72]

I am considering going to an IR school but I am no longer interested in such a program. I plan on obtaining a PhD and going straight to academia. I will consider transitioning into the policy-world much much later in my career if I am inclined to do so.

[PizzaCat93]

Fair enough. Best of luck, it looks like you have a strong application. Just make sure that your LORs and SOP are equally strong. 

[billythekid72]

Thank you! I know most schools only request 3 LORs but I have 4-5 excellent LORs at my disposal. I am also working on my SOP over the summer and will make sure to have several pairs of eyes read over it as I revise it.

[BSILVXV]

Im almost certain you will get in to pretty much any school of your choosing. Good Luck!

[MastersHoping]

Hello! Sorry for the last reply. Interesting list. I haven't finalized my list completely but about 6 of the Top 15 programs. We don't seem to have any schools overlapping.

 

I would recommend looking into UCSD, they are known for their regional strength or focus on Asia.

 

Thanks for your suggestion!

Are you applying to 6 schools total?

 

Btw, je parle francais moi aussi. How did you become fluent in French? Are you native or did you learn it? Though it has been useful for me, I still wish I could trade it for Japanese or Korean, seeing as how I want to do East Asia comparative politics. 

[kaykaykay]

Thanks for your suggestion!

Are you applying to 6 schools total?

 

Btw, je parle francais moi aussi. How did you become fluent in French? Are you native or did you learn it? Though it has been useful for me, I still wish I could trade it for Japanese or Korean, seeing as how I want to do East Asia comparative politics. 

Ok so you do not speak any Asian language , you do not even know whether you want to study Korean or Japanese and you want to do study East Asian Comparative politics? sounds like a bad approach. If you want to deal with more than one East Asian country -try IR. Comparative is not regionally focused. If you are interested in CP look for a topic that you are interested in. If one of the East Asian countries has a political/ social system like that, you can bring it to the comparison. Usually even then you compare the country with other countries in other regions. Even then, you need a firm grasp of language usually.

 

Also your list of schools looks very arbitrary, more diplomacy MA focused.  If you are interested in diplomacy definitely IR is the way to go.

Edited May 26, 2015 by kaykaykay

[billythekid72]

Im almost certain you will get in to pretty much any school of your choosing. Good Luck!

If only, haha, Thanks for the support!

[billythekid72]

Thanks for your suggestion!

Are you applying to 6 schools total?

 

Btw, je parle francais moi aussi. How did you become fluent in French? Are you native or did you learn it? Though it has been useful for me, I still wish I could trade it for Japanese or Korean, seeing as how I want to do East Asia comparative politics. 

No problem. I would also suggest looking at the job placement records of the schools that you are interested in applying for. This is very important if you are looking to work in academia.

 

Yes, I plan on applying to 6, perhaps 7 schools. Fortunately, many schools have application fee waivers for AmeriCorps volunteers. I know people who applied to 10 schools this past cycle and it just seemed like a waste to me. I have a group of 5-6 schools that really match my research interests and they are also institutions where I can see myself spending the next 5-7 years at.

 

I studied french in school from a young age and my parents are both native speakers. Have you studied any Asian languages?

[billythekid72]

Ok so you do not speak any Asian language , you do not even know whether you want to study Korean or Japanese and you want to do study East Asian Comparative politics? sounds like a bad approach. If you want to deal with more than one East Asian country -try IR. Comparative is not regionally focused. If you are interested in CP look for a topic that you are interested in. If one of the East Asian countries has a political/ social system like that, you can bring it to the comparison. Usually even then you compare the country with other countries in other regions. Even then, you need a firm grasp of language usually.

 

Also your list of schools looks very arbitrary, more diplomacy MA focused.  If you are interested in diplomacy definitely IR is the way to go.

I definitely agree with you on MastersHoping's list of schools. They all have particularly strong IR policy schools for individuals interested in obtaining a professional masters degree. 

[victorydance]

Ok so you do not speak any Asian language , you do not even know whether you want to study Korean or Japanese and you want to do study East Asian Comparative politics? sounds like a bad approach. If you want to deal with more than one East Asian country -try IR. Comparative is not regionally focused. If you are interested in CP look for a topic that you are interested in. If one of the East Asian countries has a political/ social system like that, you can bring it to the comparison. Usually even then you compare the country with other countries in other regions. Even then, you need a firm grasp of language usually.

 

I'm sorry but this is simply not true. Theory building and small N studies are predominantly done on a regional basis. If your are using the most similar method of comparison, it's a lot easier to compare say Chile and Argentina rather than Chile and South Africa. Only with large N studies does comparative politics really start to cut across regions. There are some overlaps on either side of the spectrum but for the most part that's how it works.

 

There are countless comparativists that are regional focused and a look through any department will show this. 

[kaykaykay]

I'm sorry but this is simply not true. Theory building and small N studies are predominantly done on a regional basis. If your are using the most similar method of comparison, it's a lot easier to compare say Chile and Argentina rather than Chile and South Africa. Only with large N studies does comparative politics really start to cut across regions. There are some overlaps on either side of the spectrum but for the most part that's how it works.

 

There are countless comparativists that are regional focused and a look through any department will show this. 

sure. .....replace everything there with North East Asia. China is not comparable with anything in the region. You are left with Korea and Japan. Still not very comparable cases bc of the different political system in the last 50 years.(maybe on some level you could compare them- like political economy but then you still have to look for more cases even for a small n study).

If you want to do IR, fine, a lot of interesting issues in NEA, but as for comparative not so much. Also the language barrier is pretty high and separate for all those countries. One of my cases is one of the above countries that is how I know. If you want to focus on one country and compare it with another region that could work.

S.America is doable because the political system of the countries is actually similar, not because (or not only because) they are in the same region. Language is similar that helps.

Edited May 27, 2015 by kaykaykay

[victorydance]

sure. .....replace everything there with North East Asia. China is not comparable with anything in the region. You are left with Korea and Japan. Still not very comparable cases bc of the different political system in the last 50 years.(maybe on some level you could compare them- like political economy but then you still have to look for more cases even for a small n study).

If you want to do IR, fine, a lot of interesting issues in NEA, but as for comparative not so much. Also the language barrier is pretty high and separate for all those countries. One of my cases is one of the above countries that is how I know. If you want to focus on one country and compare it with another region that could work.

S.America is doable because the political system of the countries is actually similar, not because (or not only because) they are in the same region. Language is similar that helps.

 

I agree that East Asia is a bit of a messy region for comparativists as opposed to placed like Western Europe, MENA, East Europe, or Latin America. However, I have seen a lot of studies that compare Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, or any combination thereof. There is also quite a few studies that compare East Asian countries with SE Asia which is technically cross-region but not significantly so. However most comparative studies on East Asia are single case studies, which points to it's lack of comparative qualities. 

[kaykaykay]

I agree that East Asia is a bit of a messy region for comparativists as opposed to placed like Western Europe, MENA, East Europe, or Latin America. However, I have seen a lot of studies that compare Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, or any combination thereof. There is also quite a few studies that compare East Asian countries with SE Asia which is technically cross-region but not significantly so. However most comparative studies on East Asia are single case studies, which points to it's lack of comparative qualities. 

I just wanted to point out that  MastersHoping may be somewhat lost in their interest and their choice of schools. I was too at this stage. MastersHoping you should read a lot of literature, clarify your interests (is it possible that it is not "NEA", but more a topic that NEA is a good example of? , is it possible that it is not even comparative ?) and research the schools based on your interests before applying.

Edited May 27, 2015 by kaykaykay