adaptations

Gotta love the expected utility analysis.

It seems to me that you are including more categories than necessary, or are perhaps being redundant with some. For example, "internships" and "professional projects" could probably be part of "professional experience." I assume that if you are including a professional position you will include a couple key descriptors of your position, which would presumably incorporate some of the professional projects. I also don't think you need to have sections for "seminars," "related courses," and "undergraduate projects." The admissions committees will have your transcripts, so they will know what courses/seminars you took, which means all of these could go under education. If all of your honors are academic, they could probably be included under education, and listed with the corresponding institution/degree. Remember, when faculty CVs are many pages long, it is typically because they have 3+ degrees, have taught at numerous schools, and have published many articles. Since you're early in your career, they won't expect to see all of those things, but that doesn't mean you should try to make your CV longer by including every small detail. Assuming you have less that 5 years professional experience and don't have a string of peer reviewed publications, you should probably be able to keep your resume/CV to 2 pages.

I wouldn't stress too much about the C+, mostly because there is nothing you can do about it. I would focus on parts of your application you can actually improve, such as your statement of purpose. Worrying about a grade that can't be changed just sounds like a waste of time. If it is a big enough problem down the road and you don't get into the program you want, then you could consider taking additional courses in the same area and making sure you get really good grades, which would demonstrate your ability and commitment.

Typically the fellowship comes with no strings attached. For example, if you are on fellowship your first year, you would receive whatever stipend amount the fellowship is for, but would have no additional obligations (such as being a TA or RA). A research assistant just means that you would be the research assistant to a professor. Being a RA you will be alloted some amount of money, but will be required to work for a faculty member (typically around 20hrs/wk). The time commitment and workload for being an RA can vary quite a bit depending on the faculty you work with, although most schools provide general guidelines for this.

And since this thread is really about past experience and applications, I'll join that conversation too. I will be applying PhD programs in Political Science with a focus on international relations (IPE) and formal/quant. methods I'm applying to a long list of schools (15). This is my third time applying. The first time, I got one PhD offer (unfunded), but decided to do the master's in CIR at Chicago largely because they gave me a good funding offer. While I was in CIR, I applied again and had much better results (accepted to OSU, UCLA, GW, U. of Washington, and wait listed at Michigan). Due to some personal reasons, I decided not to attend and moved back to DC. I've since been enjoying my life and job in DC, got engaged, submitted an article to a top tier journal (still under review), and am eagerly waiting my return to academia. Best of luck to all the applicants this cycle!

Although the previous poster brings up some very good points that are all worth considering, I will also offer my two cents. I finished my MA in IR from the U. of Chicago (CIR) in the spring of 2009. There were approximately 55 students in my cohort and at least 1/3 of us decided we wanted to get jobs in DC. To my knowledge, all of us succeeded. Most of us were able to find policy or non-profit jobs and a number of students who were PMFs got government positions, while a few more went into the foreign service. There were certainly a few students who struggled with finding something, especially something full-time that paid well and was actually what they were really interested in, but most had jobs by the Fall following graduation. Having spent 4 years of my life in DC, I think one of the best parts about the city is its job market and regular turnover, meaning lots of positions open up. You certainly will have to work hard to get a position, and actually being in DC makes a huge difference, but even in these tough economic times working in international affairs in DC is still a relatively promising field in my opinion. Best of luck to all.

Wow - way to plan ahead! Some applications are available in August, most become available sometime in September and a few are not available until October. Good luck.

I've seen successful SOPs in single and double spaced formatting. I think Times New Roman 12pt font is standard. As for your CV, you should probably reformat it so that it follows the goals/priorities of academia. It definitely should not just highlight work experience as would be the case for a job application.

Keep working on verbal. There's no reason you can't beef up your vocab in the last week. All it takes is recognizing a couple more words on test day and you've got another 50 points.

Out of curiosity, is this thread geared to master's, PhDs, or both?

My two cents is that you'll be competitive at each of them. There are no guarantees in this process and a great deal depends on non-quantitative factors such as your LORs and SOP. There are no "red flags" in your numbers, so you don't have to worry about that. Your GPA may be slightly on the lower side of the generally admitted group at some of the schools, but certainly not a problem. (To place my comment in context, everything else I would say would be the exact same if you had a 4.0 gpa. You're competitive, but there are no guarantees.) Best of luck!

Given the length of this conversation, I will admit up front that I didn't read all the responses. I do know of a recent situation where the same thing happened. The student who decided she made the wrong choice contacted her potential advisors at the school she wanted to transfer to. It may have been a unique situation, but the advisors were happy to have her and they worked with the department and arranged for the transfer. She did not have to start from scratch and the process went relatively smoothly. I only mention this because I know it can be done, although I am sure this is a rarity. Good luck!

Based on my reading of the eligibility requirements, i think you're OK. The only confusion I see is whether your one grad course prior to your current program changes anything, but I don't think it does. That's my two cents, but I'm certainly not an expert on this.

I agree with the previous post, and certainly think it is important to find somewhere that is a good fit for you. We all talk about the fit of a program with our research interests, but we rarely talk about the social fit of a school, city, etc with our lifestyles. I think it is important to find somewhere that provides both the academic and social fit so that you can devote yourself to your studies, while being in a place that also provides a good environment for you to live and prosper.

I would just write the best SOP you can, but not include any comment about your GRE. Your SOP (and then your writing sample) is your best place to convince the adcom of your overall abilities and demonstrate to them your writing abilities. Good luck.

I would go with the professor, unless you are applying to a professional program where work experience would matter more.

I'm inclined to think that your other scores are strong enough to compensate for the low AW. It's a small blemish, but I think your near perfect scores in other areas will off set the low AW. Also, make sure you have a strong writing sample to prove you can make a good argument. Best of luck.

It seems to me that if your professional LORs are going to be much stronger than the academic letters, than you should go with two professional LORs. I could be wrong, but given it is a professional program, that seems logical to me. Plus, I like fuzzylogician's suggestion of adding a fourth if you can.

I suggest getting away from academia, unless of course your PhD program has requested/suggested you engage in a summer program. My personal favorites include road tripping with my dog, chilling with relatives that live in fun places (cheap entertainment), and going backpacking.

I keep hearing that Thunderbird has a good Int'l MBA program (although I still think their name is a little ridiculous). Otherwise, I think true IR programs are more likely to focus on the theory of IR rather than practicing international business. You may be better suited by looking at more International Affairs programs instead of IR.

I wouldn't worry about this, and I don't think you need to ask to see the letters. For one, they are already being submitted, and two, unless you plan on having them write LORs again, there is really no reason to see them.

Well done!

I don't know how relevant this is, but when I took the GRE I finished the test and thought very seriously about canceling the scores. As opposed to my many practice tests, I didn't feel confident. I felt like the math was much harder than I anticipated, and I was really worried it would be well below my expectations. That said, I sucked it up, submitted the scores and they were the highest aggregate score I had ever had. My point is, at the end of hours of high stress testing, you are in no position to objectively judge how you did. If something really out of the ordinary happened, there are reasons to cancel the score, but I don't think "feeling good" or "feeling bad" about how it went is a good measure of what your actual score will be.

I think your questions are probably best answered by the websites of the schools. For example, I just took a few minutes to look at FSU and UF's programs and found the following information. It looks like you are on the lower end of their spectrum based on GPA/GRE alone, so everything else will have to be stellar. As for financial packages - most schools provide info on this on their websites or you can find out by contacting the program's graduate administrator. Best of luck. FSU: http://polisci.fsu.edu/graduate/prospectives/doctoral/requirements.htm UF: "The average M.A. student had a GPA of 3.6 and a GRE score of 1250. The average Ph.D. student had a GPA of 3.8 and a GRE score of 1270." http://www.polisci.ufl.edu/graduate/gradfaq.html#question15

For technical issues with the application you need to contact applyyourself, not the school (in general). Second, apply yourself tends to function better with explorer or googlechrome - it doesn't seem to like firefox very much. So try a different web browser and see if that helps.