Orlien

Good luck with everything. Rejections hurt but they need not stand in your way of a happy life Plus even if you don't get in there are things like Skype and whatnot that make communicating easier.

Try Bartels, "Unequal Democracy" I second coachrjc w/ NOMO - really can't go wrong with that one. If you had a prof who taught a class on this subject (or even just any americanist you took a class from), you could email them and ask for reading recommendations.

Hi guys, I'm applying for poli sci PhD programs this fall, and I think my application is pretty good, except for one major issue. Because of the way that my university education was funded, I had to get a degree in one of the natural sciences, rather than political science. Essentially, I got to campus my freshman year, realized that I wanted to do poli sci, but by that point, it was too late: I could either continue on my current campus (top 3 dept) and graduate without any debt as a science major, or transfer to my local state school, accumulate very significant amounts of debt (basically, pay for my education entirely out of pocket with no financial aid), and graduate as a poli sci major. I ended up staying, and will be applying to poli sci grad programs with a middling GPA (about avg for my institution), and a science major. My poli sci grades are great - never gotten less than a solid A in any of the 5 classes that I've taken in my subfield (also have spent a significant amount of time investing in learning stats/methods, and gotten good grades in those classes as well). I've done lots of RA work, will have great recs from 3 or 4 people, and have good GRE scores (170V/165Q/5.5A). My only problem is my major. My science grades are abysmal (somewhere in the B/B- range). I need to figure out how to address this in my SOP. I've heard that you shouldn't focus on your weaknesses in the SOP, but this one (major/overall GPA) seems to be too huge to leave out. At least one of my recommenders is going to discuss this in the letter, but I need to figure out how to address this (how much should I talk about this; should I mention it up front or towards the end?)

I've heard that your GPA becomes less important the further you get away from undergrad.

Hm. I've heard that the writing sample isn't hyper-important, at least in comparison to the SOP. I feel like it would probably be better for me to focus on revising one good paper instead of churning out several mediocre ones. And also, I think it would be best for me to focus most on my SOP and making sure it's a good fit for the institution. I haven't had the chance to write too many long poli sci research papers in the past (non-social science major - my thesis is going to be an interesting hybrid of poli sci and my actual major discipline). The one I'm planning to use as my writing sample isn't exactly what I want to study in grad school, it was just a cool idea that I had in my seminar and it turned out pretty well (it is the same subfield, American, but it's focusing on behavior rather than institutions).

RE: writing sample idk, I'm just using a term paper that I wrote for a poli sci class. How long are they generally supposed to be?

I can talk a little about it - I'm a ugrad in the department, but I've taken grad classes so I have a bit of an idea of what goes on. At least among the first years in my cohort , the atmosphere is pretty good. People do help each other with psets and whatnot, and I can't imagine people doing the book thing you were talking about. Maybe it changes over time, but the atmosphere doesn't seem too bad right now, at least for the first years. When I talk about applying to grad schools, the response I get from graduate students is "you should apply to Princeton", so they seem pretty happy with the program. That said, as a ugrad, I'm pretty sure that the department isn't going to be airing its dirty laundry around me. I've read some stuff on PSJR about faculty politics, but I haven't personally seen/heard anything within the department to confirm. If it exists, I'm not sure as to the extent that it affects grad/ugrad students. And as for faculty, it's like in any other department - some are great, some are not so great. I was very lucky to meet a fantastic professor early on in my ugrad career. I know that there are definitely some great people around (I haven't really had any overwhelmingly negative experiences, but again, I'm a ugrad, so I'm sure most profs wouldn't bother).

Hi guys, I'm also going to be a first time applicant this cycle, too. I'm interested in American politics, especially Congress and Congressional elections. I haven't compiled the list of programs I'm applying to yet, but I will soon. I'm going to be working on my SOP and writing sample over the summer. I'm a little nervous because I'm not a social science major, and my overall GPA isn't fantastic (my poli sci grades are good, though).

re: misogyny look up Theda Skocpol on that website. Lesson learned: if you're a prominent female political scientist, you'd also better look like a model, or else your colleagues are going to say/think straight up awful things about your appearance and judge you accordingly (hell, probably goes for not particularly prominent political scientists as well).

From what I hear (as of tuesday) they haven't made any decisions yet...

Congrats to all the new admits!

PSJR scares me... like, actually.

from a future congressional researcher (hopefully!) I hope this helps: http://archive.org/search.php?query=publisher%3A%22Washington%2C+The+Congress%22 I've found archive.com to be incredibly useful, both for congressional stuff and state legislatures. For earlier stuff, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lawhome.html is also invaluable. And as a last resort, there's always google books.

Dream school? Strong American, good methods, and above all, one that can help me get a tt job after I'm done. I don't care if I have to live in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere and eat shit for 7 years, I can take it. and @chaetzli: Princeton's campus is, indeed, absolutely gorgeous.

I'm a science major (molecular biology) at a top university that (unfortunately) practices grade deflation. My GPA is a 3.3 (about average at my school) I'm planning to apply to poli sci PhD programs in the fall. My poli sci GPA is a 3.9. GREs: 170V/165Q/5.5AW LORs: great, from two professors I've RA-ed for, plus a third who I've taken multiple classes with (all poli sci profs, obvs). All top scholars. Interests: American, focus on Congressional/Race/Media politics. Good methods skills (taking grad stats sequence), plus very significant RA experience (for both quant-y and qual-y people).