ThisGuyRiteHere

Are you going unfunded if accepted?

You are probably not going to get funding afterwards at OSU...there is no guarantee. All you can get is Dissertation funding or a TA and there is no guarantee. IF you want to take the risk, go. IF you dont, then dont. You could do the 2 yrs and leave with a MA and reapply if you already do not have a MA. Or why dont you just message BFB...i am 90% sure he was talking about you and your MArch 25th deadline for USC in the Faculty Perspectives thread. OSU is higher ranked. So assuming you get funded for the first 2 yrs, and then pay for the last 2-3 yrs that is probably 80k in loans, but for a high ranked degree. You need to decide whether it is worth it to go to OSU or not. I feel like you are over complicating this a little.

This will work with well endowed schools...if they are not, it may not change...I tried this also

Remember that there are people on the waitlist who are waiting to hear from all of these schools. If you know you will not go unfunded, you should give them up, some people will be willing to pay for unfunded programs, but cannot because you are holding them. Now I can understand taking time to make decisions between UVA and USC... I would think USC does more work with Asia, most of the california schools do...

You should ask Ohio state if there is a chance of funding after the 2nd yr. BFB already said in the faculty perspectives that just because they dont offer you funding does not mean they do not want you to come, they just dont have the funds.

Jackpot! haha.

I give you a lot of props for pursuing this. Your dedication to the subject will be your guiding light. You are going in, have thought the pros and cons of the situation and have made an informed, rational decision. I respect you for it and wish more people would adopt your mode of thinking.

Is it one of the good programs for theory? I thought the theory market was horrible?

.I am thinking the same. It is a long time to commit for a job that may not be there in 5 yrs. And that is assuming you even make it through the program in the first place. It was this, get a job or go to law school. Job - I find business trivial, I used to want to just own a business and make a lot of money. But you make money, then you make more, and then you make more and then your 65 and its time to quit. And that is assuming you even like your job in the first place. Law - I would make a really good lawyer, I mean a really good one. However, the job market is the same for PhD in poli sci (50/50 chance) and taking on 100K+ of debt for a 50% chance to make 40-60k is not worth it at all. So no law. So here I go. i am losing 5 yrs of earnings where i could be making 40k ($200,000 total), however, I will not be paying for tuition, will make a small salary and study what I can say I love. I have never studied what I love 24/7 so this will be new to me. Plus, I know I would make a darn good professor too. Worst come to worst, I have already been looking for a job in the summer and when you tell people you are a PhD Student, EVERYONE outside of academia automatically assumes you are super smart lol.

/what is the difference between IPE and CPe

Ok so you are definitely going to want IR. CP is for more of a focus. I will be doing my minor in CP so I atleast have the building blocks to analyze different govs, etc. Since you have a 3.8+, I would recommend Top 50 and up. The ones that jump out immediately are: CHYMPS, UW-Madison (especially if you want to build on Africa), Duke, Berkeley, Maybe Rochester/NYU. Basically a good starting point is go through the top 20, look at the profs work and see if you can find 2-3 that do what you want. Remember a PhD is an apprenticeship...you need to find people who can teach you their way of doing research and their expertise

Ahh now we are speaking my language. This is closely aligned with what I may want to do myself. I was told this, if you want to focus on a region of the world, it will be comparative. If you just want to do it with different areas, it would fall under the IR blanket as IPE. The fact that you have consulting experience will be of some aid understanding all of the economic actors that may influence such activity. so the next question is, is there a specific region of the world you want to focus on? Then I could advise a few programs, since I investigated the top 100 for PE.

My goal is to write a dissertation that is good for academia and for NGO's/Gov. I realize only 50% of us will be TT profs, and I am not going to do the adjuct circuit. My original idea was to do something towards development in Latin America and the Caribbean, but I dont know if that is flexible enough to get brought on by Government...if needbe. I am sure NGO's may like it, but I don't want to be so focused that I "focus" myself right out of a job. The big hitters in government tend to be discovered because they are doing research on pressing issues of the day. Conflict will always be something the government will be interested in, NGOs and i guess academia will be too. IPE is liked in the private sector, NGO's and academia, so combining them would get me the best of both worlds. Or is my mode of thinking incorrect?

If you want to be a conflict guy, do you think you can combine that with IPE, or do you think that it is something that cannot be merged. I am thinking of doing Conflicts affect on PE...I dont know if that is too much of a massive undertaking though

Tess is right. The only thing that is employable is Economics, which I have. I got a job 2 weeks after graduation because everyone who heard i was an econ major said "economics? ewww thats hard, he must be smart). However, most econ majors, depending on the school and grade inflation, do not have super high grades. Listen to Tess. She knows what she is talking about. And take math and stats classes. I met a Investment Banking Analyst who was a poli sci major but a mathematics minor and the math is what got him in the door. He was going to go to law school..Hope he turned out ok :/

http://chrisblattman.com/2008/03/01/which-is-for-you-mpa-mpaid-or-phd/

That international experience is going to look really good on your applications, no matter what you decide to do. I agree with looking abroad, you maybe could try and go to the top British schools, etc. I guess before anyone else can give you more advice, the question is, what are your research interests???

1. Do you want to be a prof? IF not, what are you going to do with a poli sci degree? 2. Study hard 3. Read textbooks, write papers What are your goals, what do you want to do with it, what ranked school are you at? All of this matters

1. Do you have a decent writing sample? 2. Have you done research for MBB or for the African Development firm? From reading your post, your experience will scream Harvard MPA/ID. To get into a good uni (Top 20+) you will be competing against people who have research experience. I would advise you against doing a MA, PhD's are free (if you can get funding), unless you really feel like you need one. You should ask other people on here who got into top schools, but it is my belief that a UG degree is all you need. To crack top 10, your MA could be a hindrance (a signal that you couldnt do it with a BS alone). One way you could do it is if you got a MA in econ, but I believe you said you were a IR major, so you may not have the math chops. You could do a top MPA, MPP and then do a PhD in Political Science or Public Policy.

This is really good discussion! So can anyone tell me the different types of "conflict" there are? What is everyone finding (or has found) in their past research?

That is an epic list. I appreciate it.

Conflict. I have a basic idea of my other area (IPE).

Any ideas on what books to read for IR or journal articles. My intro IR Class, we read the Lord of the Rings and talked about Realism and Idealism :/ that was it.

Do you need to learn a language to do IR? I know in comparative it is probably essential to do so, but in IR studying IPE/Conflict between nations, do you need to learn the language for the region you want to study? My language experience is next to nothing..and I am worried

If you havent heard from Bama, you may be out. They were making decisions in late January. Interesting you applied to Case, I almost did, but they said they have an extremely small dept and i didnt think it was worth the risk. Did u apply for the UCF security studies degree? It looked real good.