polisciphd

Well, I worked full time (40+ hours a week) while I was getting my MA at the Elliott School at GW, which was the only way that I could afford to be in DC. ESIA made it easy though, all of their classes are held after 5pm at night. Wish all grad schools were like that. Now, I don't actually remember seeing a bed in those two years, but who needs sleep anyway...

Some programs actually forbid you from working an outside job, either on campus or not. Some others restrict the number of hours you are allowed to work, particularly during the portion of your phd that you are ta'ing. I would check on Columbia's policy, see what they say before you start making plans.

Rejected from Michigan. This was posted on wolverine access The Graduate Admissions Committee wants to thank you for applying for graduate study in the Political Science department. We regret to inform you that the Graduate Admissions Committee is unable to recommend you for admission as a graduate student this fall. This year, the Department was only able to accept a small number of applicants. There are many excellent students whom we have been unable to accommodate. We appreciate your interest in our Department and extend our best wishes for the future.

Everyone can start checking wolverine access for their status. They posted the following this morning The Graduate Admissions Committee wants to thank you for applying for graduate study in the Political Science department. We regret to inform you that the Graduate Admissions Committee is unable to recommend you for admission as a graduate student this fall. This year, the Department was only able to accept a small number of applicants. There are many excellent students whom we have been unable to accommodate. We appreciate your interest in our Department and extend our best wishes for the future. Darn, I really wanted to go there. Now I will just have to root really hard against them in football, damn you Rich Rodriguez...

ESIA is sending out stuff now and in the next few weeks. You will find more MA folks over in the government forum...

I know Richard Betts at Columbia, he would be great to work with. However, Yale has a new initiative on Order, Conflict, and Violence which looks very interesting and could provide some great research projects. Order, Conflict, and Violence Possible concerns: revolution, riots, civil war, genocide, international war and peace; what makes conflict more or less violent; classical theorists of order and conflict such as Thucydides, Machiavelli, Hobbes, or Kant; the evolution of national; non-national, or transnational political orders; the politics of crime; the legitimation of order; or the state as an instrument of political order.

I'm going to say this last thing and then stop posting about this. For those of you who got into top 10 programs, just be happy about it. Don't come on here and put other people down just because they weren't as lucky as you, if they even wanted to get into those schools in the first place. There are plenty of people ecstatic they got into their number 22 or 34 or 46th ranked school. Just say congrats and go on about your merry way. If you want to have a place where you can act like a harvard educated snob, then just wait until you get there and you will get plenty of it in spades.

. I'm sorry to keep hammering on you, but again your advice is somewhat flawed. A really impressive think tank is not going to hire someone for a job if they have an unrelated undergraduate degree. There are plenty of people with the perfect degree out there for them to choose from. I know, I worked at one for two years (as you say) and helped hire several research associates. We would get 100's of resumes for one spot. This holds true for working with important researchers (usually found at think tanks or at universities). And my work experience at a major think tank didn't get me into any programs in the top 20, even though I published there, had a letter of rec from my boss there, and want to do the same kind of work as a phd student that I did there...

Grades and performance is another thing that really bothers me. My first three years of school, I studies electrical engineering. I HATED EVERY SECOND OF IT. But, coming from a very poor family, the prospect of being able to make 50k my first year out of school was extremely appealing. However, the fact that I hated it showed in my grades. I had a 2.6 gpa after my junior year. You have to understand, I had one B throughout high school, the rest were A's and A-'s. So I realized that there was a major disconnect. So I switched majors to something as far away from EE as possible, Asian Studies. I LOVED EVERY SECOND of Asian Studies, and had one B for the next five semesters I was in undergrad. I then went to the Elliott School at GW where I had two b's in 2 years. So cumulatively for the last 4.5 years of school I have had a total of 3 b's and the rest A's. The problem is that even though I have shown that I can kick some major butt when studying something I actually like, my undergraduate gpa only got up to a 3.02 by the time I graduated. There is nothing I can do about that, what's done is done. Now, I got into UIUC in spite of my low gpa, but I have already been told by two Iveys that I applied to that my low gpa was what kept me from being accepted (I know profs at both Yale and Cornell from working at a think tank in D.C.). So you tell me what kind of a system that is...

So what you are saying is that for those of us who can't go to a top 20 undergraduate, whether due to a lack of resources (in my case) or just bad luck when applying or having to work full time to support a family or any 1000 of other reasons, then we have no shot of getting into a top ten phd program, and therefore our hopes of being a successful political scientist are useless? Or is it that because I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life at 19 years old, as you suggest, then I am now screwed at age 29 when I have finally figured it out? Or is it because I have been out of school now for a while and scored less than 650 on the verbal section of my gre and therefore must be incompetent, or unintelligent, or unable to write or speak clearly? (I assure you this is not the case) What you are describing is a flawed system, a system set up for those rich, very lucky people that can afford to go to top 20 schools. Try being raised in one of the worst public school systems in the country (rural mississippi), pay for your way through both undergrad and grad, and them come back to me with this ivory tower bullshit.

Man, yall are gonna get me in trouble.

alegriapura, I know you have gotten into some higher ranked schools, but are you planning on going to UIUC to visit? I am heading up on the 23rd to meet with the IR folks.

Yeah, got carried away with trying to hide what I was really saying and added in an extra consonant, was so flustered I couldn't even curse correctly...

And I have decided that I am going to go to my 20 something ranked school and rock the joint. And then let's see who won't hire me because I went to a school that may or may not be "acceptable" so that I can say "thank you very much, but now I get to reject you as#ho$es!"

Then I don't suppose you could go to 2000 Penn, drop by el burro, order me a black bean burrito, and fedex it to me from the mailboxes etc. that is right next door?

Yeah, that helps alot. Thanks!

I can tell you right away that if you are not planning on living in foggy bottom, you should look at the stops along the orange line in NoVa (Northern Virginia), look up falls church, balston, fairfax, merrifield (where there is some pretty affordable housing, 800-1000 for a 1 bdr), or rosslyn (if you have 2 grand to spend on a 1 bdr apt.).

Guys, I don't know if you realized this or not, but this thread was from March of 2007...

That is so awesome, congrats. If you have any questions whatsoever about GW, please ask. I worked and went to school there for my masters at the Elliott School and could answer probably any question you could think of, from either the student side or the administration side.

Very interesting stuff. Thank you for your input. The situation that I am finding myself in is that I got into a top 25 school (number 22 on US News) but am wondering if I should not accept the offer and try again next year, with the hope of getting in a higher ranked school. The only thing I can reasonably change in my application package would be my gre scores, I have a 1290 now but was scoring closer to 1370 on the practice exams beforehand. My only worry is that I turn down my current offer (with which I have a full ride, stipend, fellowship, etc) on a gamble. Would it matter, say, if I managed to go up a few spots on the list, maybe up to 17 or 18, or should I go with what I have? Thanks.

Congrats to whoever just got the WUSTL acceptance posted on the survey board. The campus is georgious, and I am hoping that in five years I will be able to get a job there. Check out a restaurant called Charlie Gitto's On the Hill, best Italian you will ever eat.

Well crap, guess my email was just slow. No Princeton for me...

I still haven't gotten anything. What does it mean?!?!?!?

Atlanta has the worst public transportation system that I have ever seen, while I would say that Washington D.C. has the best by far...

Yeah, I would think that Chinese and Japanese nationals would probably rank Harvard and Stanford as #1 and #2, with preference given to which coast they preferred, with UCSD closely behind. I was thinking more in terms of the study of Asian Politics (particularly China with regards to Lieberthal). Japanese politics is more difficult to rank, altough UCSD and Hawaii are national resources in that area. Middle Eastern Studies is out of my perview, although I have been told that that field has changed so much in the last few years that hardly anyone gets noticed for doing more "theoretical" work, as policy analysis has kind of taken over since 9/11.