Comments on my profile for PhD in Canada

[boruchan93]

Hello everyone,

So I am applying to PhD programs in Political Science in Canada as an international student. I already sent most of my applications but wanted to get some opinion from other people about my chances. I was accepted to all these schools that I applied for Master's two years ago but I couldn't attend since they did not provide funding for international students. I am trying again for  PhD this time which is way more competitive than Master's programs. I would appreciate any kind of comment about my profile and possible chances.

Undergrad/Grad: Top Research University in Japan (I am an international student here)

Degrees: LLB in Law and Political Science, LLM in Law and Political Science (most universities in Japan teach law and politics together so this is not uncommon)

Undergrad/Grad GPA: 3.94 out of 4.30. I don't know my major specific GPA but it is probably higher than this; Grad GPA is not assessed like my undergraduate but I received top marks from all classes except for one. I'd guess 3.80 out of 4.00. 

GRE: Schools that I am applying do not require it

TOEFL iBT: 102 out of 120 (R:25, W: 25, L: 26, S: 26)

Experience: TA for two Political Science related classes; internship at a leading think tank in Turkey for 2 months in which I began co-authoring an article, did fieldwork for my Master's thesis and other admin stuff; 2 internships at 2 large corporate law firms in Turkey and Japan during my undergrad years

SOP: I think it is good. I outlined my research within 500 word limit and related it to my previous studies and showed how it fits to faculty's research interests.

Writing sample: I am worried about this one. I haven't started writing my Master's thesis because we have to do this Joint Research in which we design a project, conduct a research and present the findings at a conference. My papers written in other classes were not really related to my proposed study. So I decided to submit parts of my undergraduate thesis which was well structured and won the faculty prize for best thesis. It is very related to my proposed research so I thought it would be better than submitting something unrelated and not as good.

Recommendations: 1 Canadian professor who is well known in the area of political economy and published extensively on the subject matter (1 single authored, 3 edited books this year). He was my undergraduate supervisor and my aforementioned TA experiences were under him. We will start working on a commentary to be submitted a journal.

1 from a Turkish professor teaching in Australia whom visited my faculty for a visiting professor job in my final year as an undergrad. I took 2 classes and aced them both. She read my thesis and aware of my research. She has a lot publications in her own research area and is quite well known.

1 from a Turkish professor that I worked with during my internship whom I began co-authoring a paper with. He knows my research abilities.

1 Japanese professor who is my current supervisor. She is aware of my research and published internationally. 

Publication: One piece in Japanese published for a business journal during one of my law firm internships

Scholarships: Merit based scholarship throughout my undergraduate years which basically covered my tuition fees. Full funding of approximately 24,000 USD for my Master's with 5000 USD of travel grants for internship and research. It was renewed for my second year.

Presentations: None  I got accepted to two but did not receive the invitation letters on time thus I was denied for visa (one was in Canada, the other was in US). I will present my Joint Research in a conference; however the date it is not decided yet.

Programs: York, Carleton, Toronto, McMaster, Victoria, Alberta, Queen's, Western Ontario, Dalhousie, Simon Fraser (PhD in Political Science)

Field: Political Science with a focus in comparative politics and global political economy. I am basically combining my knowledge of law and politics to look at issues related to neoliberalism. I will use Turkey as my paradigm case for analysis.

Languages: Turkish (Native), English (Fluent), Japanese (Advanced)

[amripley]

Your profile is impressive. Obviously admissions panels must take many factors into account, but I don't think you'll have any difficulty getting acceptances at most of the schools on your list. I'm surprised you're not considering McGill, UBC, or the Balsillie School in Waterloo -- they all have strong programs and faculty interested in your field. 

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

9 hours ago, amripley said:

Your profile is impressive. Obviously admissions panels must take many factors into account, but I don't think you'll have any difficulty getting acceptances at most of the schools on your list. I'm surprised you're not considering McGill, UBC, or the Balsillie School in Waterloo -- they all have strong programs and faculty interested in your field. 

I'm guess this is because they all require GRE scores? I think all three of these programs would offer competitive funding and a good fit, given your research interests. A number of the programs you listed don't have that many renowned faculty working on CP/IPE issues related to Turkey, or the middle east. Your profile looks great, but it's worth it to look into program fit, and to really sell yourself as an ideal student for prospective faculty at each program.

[boruchan93]

On 12/16/2016 at 11:41 PM, amripley said:

Your profile is impressive. Obviously admissions panels must take many factors into account, but I don't think you'll have any difficulty getting acceptances at most of the schools on your list. I'm surprised you're not considering McGill, UBC, or the Balsillie School in Waterloo -- they all have strong programs and faculty interested in your field. 

Thank you for the comment. McGill and UBC were out because they require GRE. I have tried to prepare for it for a while but I realized I was wasting my time since my practice scores were terrible. I haven't realized Waterloo and might apply to that now that I had the chance to analyze the program. Thanks for the heads up!

 

On 12/17/2016 at 9:04 AM, CarefreeWritingsontheWall said:

I'm guess this is because they all require GRE scores? I think all three of these programs would offer competitive funding and a good fit, given your research interests. A number of the programs you listed don't have that many renowned faculty working on CP/IPE issues related to Turkey, or the middle east. Your profile looks great, but it's worth it to look into program fit, and to really sell yourself as an ideal student for prospective faculty at each program.

Thank you for your comment. Actually the programs I applied (especially York, Carleton, McMaster and Toronto) have great supervision on "new constitutionalism" which is the concept that I will use as the basis of my research. That was the main reason why I picked these schools. York has the professor who coined this concept. All other faculties that I am applying have some faculty member that conducted extensive research on this topic. I tried to highlight how I will implement the theory to my research in my statement of purpose to show that I fit into program. 

[amripley]

The Balsillie School programme is interesting -- definitely a bit unconventional, but extraordinarily well resourced and supported by some top-flight faculty. Waterloo the city is a bit of a snooze (grew up there, pretty suburban), but academic life in town could be lively and pretty fulfilling intellectually. Because the school is so new (est. 2007) it's hard to say what their placement record looks life. My understanding is that they gear their grads to policy/NGO/business careers rather than TT jobs, and that their alums are accordingly quite successful in those areas. Again, unconventional -- hard for us to use the same metrics we'd use for a more "traditional" programme like U of T or Western.