BinaryRelation

Straight to the point: I am considering a PhD in Political Science for one specific reason: studying the effects of financial capital flows and FDI on political institutions. More concretely: I'd like to see if portfolio capital produces different effects and effects with different magnitudes than those of FDI on political institutions and dynamics (especially political stability and democratization, in view of obvious endogeneity problems). This is to supplement the economic literature which has (tenuously) found that FDI produces some positive economic effects through technology spillovers and other channels identified in the economic growth literature. I have specific hypotheses, "puzzles", and research questions in mind, based on possible gaps in the existing literature, but don't want to bore you with unnecessary detail. It seems like this should be fertile ground for research, especially following the 2008 financial crisis- the associated capital movements (i.e. from Eastern Europe) are I think causing interesting political dynamics and we should have good data coming out to write lots of solid research in the next 5/10 years. However, I come from a 100% finance background. I studied in Finance in school and worked in financial firms (though I did spend a year at a national security think tank). My question is: even if I have concrete research interests in Political Science, will my finance background overshadow that and make it hard for Poli Sci committees to take me as a reliable candidate? Thank you!

MIstake: I meant U Texas - Austin instead of Johns Hopkins!

I'm interested in Chicago, Princeton, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and George Washington. GPA: 3.9 (4.0 last 60 credit hours), Major: Finance Econ Coursework: Intermediate Micro and Macro (As) Quant Coursework: 4 Stat Classes, 1 econometrics (As), Calc I-III (As) Research background and experience: 1 year at a think tank, assistant on two published papers, lots of internal research, published essay (not research paper!) in a European policy journal Work experience: 1 year in a private-sector job related to tax and public works LORs: two from think tank, one from a Department head, possibly also from intermediate micro professor widely recognized in the policy field I am interested in I have pretty specific interests and I think my personal statement will reflect that. I am also very deliberately looking for the rigor of an MPP program and will make sure I show that. Concerns: (1) no research publications of my own, (2) Finance major (although I am interested precisely in public finance-related sub-field), (3) not enough policy experience, especially for Princeton and Harvard. What do you figure my chances are? Haven't taken the GRE yet, but based on practice scores, expecting 163/164 on both sections. Also, how does the Finance major look? One of my finance classes were actually almost econometrics- we ran regressions, ANOVA, did model selection, etc. on economic data almost daily even though it was a finance class.