PoliSwede
-
Posts
299 -
Joined
-
Last visited
-
Days Won
1
Posts posted by PoliSwede
-
-
I think that this is a tough question for someone else to answer. Ideally, your research interests should guide the subfields that you eventually select. For example, my main specialization is war and conflict, but I am also interested in low-intensity conflicts such as protests and and social movements. It is therefore rather natural for me to pick IR and CP as my two subfields.
As for what makes a political theorist "marketable", I really don't know. I know of Political Theorists who do both American and CP and they seem to be doing fairly well with that.
-
Does it matter where I go for my Master's? I'm planning to attend a CSU college in California to earn my Master's before applying to the PhD program again.
I can't place enough emphasis on how important it is that you carefully research and select the MA programs that you're interested in. Some programs will be structured similarly to a PhD program and provide a great deal of help for improving your PhD application. Not only that, but some MA programs will also be willing to send/take students to conferences so that they get to see what academia is like. For example, in my MA program we visited a conference during my first year, and in my second year I presented a research paper at the same conference.
Best of luck!
-
I'm going back home to Europe for 1-2 months (during which I will continue to work on papers).
-
Again, I am sorry if I came off poorly I did not mean to do so, all I can say is that is what I was told.
No worries! I hope I didn't come off as a jerk either
-
I would be careful about Iowa. One professor who I know and trust has told me that the Americanists at Iowa run that department and they have a bad reputation in denying tenure to CP and IR professors so they may have a lot of turnover.
Wait, what?
As far as I am aware Cameron Thies, IR, is the current department head (although he's leaving in the fall). Sarah Mitchell, also IR, is the placement director and full Professor in the department. Kelly Kadera, another IR professor, was tenured at Iowa and is still there. Brian Lai is another associate professor as well as Director of Graduate Studies.
As for Americanists, I've only ever met Tracy Osborne briefly and she seemed like a lovely person.
Not saying that your professor friend is wrong, but that definitely isn't the impression that I have of Iowa.
-
I hope it goes well!
-
I'm having trouble parsing this: I had NO options! good or bad!
Ohh. I didn't read it right! I thought those listed in your signature were acceptances. Sorry!
-
Congratulations! Although, it's not like you didn't have bad options to choose from already.Im at rutgers! my application status has been updated! No word on funding yet!
-
Congratulations!! I am sure you will love it! As for your question, I'll message you.Officially headed to the University of Iowa w/ full funding. Stoked! -
I considered Rutgers, but it didn't make my final cut. Considering how long you guys have to wait, I'm happy about that. I hope you all receive good news soon from them!
-
When I started my MA in the US I decided, for the first year, to live in graduate student housing on campus. The university had a match-making service to find roommates and I ended up living with another international student (we became really good friends).
It is, however, my impression that on-campus/near campus living generally is more expensive. As an international student who can't visit the area and look at the apartments, it's a bit of an risky option to pick an unseen apartment off-campus though.
-
A very brilliant person that I know and that currently holds a tenure position told me that in his case out of 11 applications, 9 came flat-out rejections, 1 wait list and 1 acceptance. That's frustrating and consoling at the same time.
My mentor told me that "one is all you need" at one point during this process. It was (at least a bit) comforting to think of it that way.
-
I don't really know that it's wooing, per se. Contacting people is just a win-win. You get a sense of who we are and the promise that we see in your research agenda, and we often get a better sense of what your concerns are and where you stand so that, if we can address questions, we will.
This makes much sense.
I'd also want to add that I think it can make all the difference in the world (especially if the prospective student is attempting to make a choice) if "wooing" takes place or not. A department that actively encourages their faculty/students to get in touch and offer prospective students to answer questions about the program/town is going to be looked upon much more favourably than a department that doesn't.
-
It strikes me as difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether one should attend a program based solely on rank. Especially if we're talking about programs within a specific range. As BFB said, there are excellent scholars and mentors at lower ranked programs who you would love to work with. Fit, rank, funding, placement record, departmental culture, and everything else(!) should be taken into account when someone makes their decision.
So I'm not saying that rank isn't important (I'm sure that we all agree that it is), but there are other things one should consider as well
-
The clickcha stopped working (I think). Try poliscirumors.com
-
Is it kosher to inquire about a visit day when on a wait list? No info about any recruitment day in the letter.
I know that some schools invite their wait-listed candidates to the open house/visitation weekend, but not all.
I don't see the harm in asking, but I wouldn't count on them providing funding/etc. for a visit if you're on the wait list.
-
Now that I've taken my visits, I can say with some confidence that I will be attending Iowa in the fall.
I have a friend who is a first year Ph.D student at Iowa! You probably met him during your recent visit
-
Did they pull the new rankings? I visit the link and it says 2009.
Edit: Nevermind. I hit F5 and it shows results for 2013.
-
Just got news that I've been accepted at Georgetown!
Congratulations!
Yes! And of course now I'm focusing on the waitlist scenarios.... not sure how likely it is to get off the waitlist, but it would certainly impact my decisions.... Is your cycle over?
It is. I have to decide between the two, and I'm almost sure which one I want to accept! But still not a 100%.
-
-
also, in at Temple! funding decisions still being made and will be finalized over the next few weeks.
Congratulations! Seems like you will have a decision to make.
-
Type of Undergrad Institution: A Swedish, regional university
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science
Undergrad GPA: N/A (I still can't figure out how to convert it to American GPA)
Type of Grad: MA in Political Science from an American university
Grad GPA: 4.0
GRE: 168/153/5 (V/Q/AW)
Any Special Courses:
Letters of Recommendation: Tenured IR Professor with an endowed chair (former department head), Tenure-track IR professor, associate professor in CP (All of these are people I worked with in the MA program)Research Experience:Two conference presentations, one summer and one semester as a research assistant, one article that is a work-in-progress together with a faculty member from my MA program
Teaching Experience: One semester as a teaching assistant, three semesters teaching individually while in the MA program. One year as an adjunct/lecturer.
Subfield/Research Interests: International Relations/War and Conflict
Other:
RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): Michigan State ($$) & University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ($$)
Waitlists:
Rejections: University of Pennsylvania, University of Michigan, Pennsylvania State University, Yale, Ohio State
Pending:
Going to: ??LESSONS LEARNED: Oh dear, where to start? First, you are going to receive a lot of different advice during your application process and it might be difficult to sort out exactly what advice that you should take. There's good advice on this site, make sure you use it to your advantage. But be aware that what applies to one discipline doesn't have to be true for politicla science.
Second, one thing you definitely should do is to take advantage of your current professors. Ask if they know people at other institutions, what their graduate experience was like, and if they might be able to put in a good word for you. Some will do this, others will not. It all depends on the professor in question and you know your own professors better than I do.
Third, apply to a lot of programs. It might hurt your wallet, but do not limit yourself to 1-3 programs. I ended up applying to 7 programs and that might not even have been enough. The process is, to a certain extent, random. You are competing for a very limited number of slots against a ton of students who all have excellent qualifications and many excellent candidates will be rejected.
Fourth, If you want to find programs/institutions, use the NCR and the USNews rankings to find programs that might interest you. I started out with the top 100 programs from NCR and then eliminated programs based on location and fit. In the end, I had about 14-15 programs that I considered to be really good fits in locations where I could imagine living for 5-6 years. Then I made a last cut because of financial restraints, etc.
SOP: I'm not going to post my SOP (mainly because I think it's crap). Some advice though: You can't rewrite it too many times. I didn't rewrite it nearly enough or spend enough time on mine. I hate to so it, but I'm fairly sure that I would have been admitted to some of the schools that rejected me if I had spent more time on it. As others have, or will, tell you, the SOP is the one thing over which you have complete control. You want to send strong signals to the people reading it that you know what you're getting yourself into, that you have a clear idea about what you want to do, and that you are good fit for the department to which you're applying.Good luck, and have a happy time applying!
-
We can do the profile stuff in your thread instead.
So if you want to post your profile/advice/etc, head over
-
For those of us still around, I thought it'd be interesting to see where everyone decides to attend (if we're lucky enough to have a decision to make).
So where ya heading?
If you feel like sharing information about your own application and qualifications, you can use the template below:
Profiles and Results, SOPs, and Advice (Fall 2013)
in Political Science Forum
Posted