kajok

Everything besides your test scores are great and many US schools don’t even require GRE scores anymore. I would say you definitely have a chance, but it will depend on fit, interested professors, which subfield you applied to, and who else applied to each department. Applications are still up from normal because of Covid, so your competition will be stronger. If you happen to not get in, don’t take it as a sign of being unqualified. Good luck!

You seem very strong! If your focus is IR and conflict-related, I highly recommend applying to Michigan. Do you have a regional focus? Michigan is also looking for more Africanists. Otherwise, your list looks pretty good. Professors on the committees select people they want to work with so if you’ve been in touch with any professors or your work is adjacent to someone’s you might have a better shot. Also look at the current student profiles and the dissertation topics that your professors of interest have chaired and make sure there isn’t overlap but that your topics fit somewhat neatly into the kinds of topics the school is already covering. Do your letter writers have connections to any specific faculty or programs? Keep that in mind, too, because friends help friends. From my understanding, schools haven’t fully recovered from Covid and many people were in your same position last year so the admissions process will likely be challenging again this year. With your qualifications I don’t see any issues.