peternewman89

What are you looking to do after getting a PhD? I just started a program as a theorist, and job prospects 5 years down the line are fairly grim even with some methodological training and a second area of concentration (outside of theory) that I can use to market myself. Not to say there's no chance, but carving yourself such a tiny niche would likely leave you nowhere to go after you finish schooling. I'm in the midst of my first stats course now, alongside a course on general methodology, and I'm not enjoying it, but it's giving me enough that the department will be able to say I'm competent enough in this stuff down the line. Yes it's useless and has nothing to do with my eventual dissertation or future research, but it's the sort of thing I just have to grin and bear.

Just starting my first year in a PhD program and I am drowning in all of these meaningless numbers. I'm a political theorist so I have a different approach to the discipline altogether and something of a predilection against the quantitative approach, but I tried to come in with an open mind. The stats I've been getting, though have just been so mind numbing and I can't for the life of me see how any of this has anything to do, not with political theory, but with any sort of political science in general. Its all just a mess of variables and functions and subscript and doesn't make a lick of sense. I sort of get it enough to get by but I just am left seething at the fact that this is what I'm taking my time to do. It also doesn't help that we're getting empirical methodology shoved down our throats and nobody can stop talking about how we aspire to be scientists, which is not at all what I'm looking for. I'll never be considered for an NSF grant and I don't go about research in the whole question-hypothesis-method-data gathering-analysis way that most of the department (the non-theorists) say is the only way to think about anything. I want to be a thinker, not a scientist. Its just an altogether frustrating enterprises thus far, though not to the point of making me think of give up; the teaching that I've done has been too rewarding for that, and I haven't even had the chance to do any theory coursework or expire my own original ideas. Just looking for ways to persevere and rationalize all of this.

It's not that bad; I'm teaching instead, which is probably better in the long-run, and I'll now have 2 service-free semesters to use down the road rather than 1, so I'll be able to devote an entire semester to dissertation-writing, no teaching or classwork to distract me. From what people have been saying, though, it's probably a good thing I'm not in that class, as it's been quite tough with loads of readings along with STATA work in the first week with elections data-sets. Not at all my forte.

I started classes this past week, though Math Camp actually started almost 2 weeks ago, and maybe my expectations were just for it to be even worse than I could imagine, but so far things haven't been too tough. I've finished up all but about 50 pages of my reading for the coming week and am getting a lecture ready for Wednesday for a class that I'm TA'ing but the prof will be away at APSA. The biggest twist for me was that I wasn't even supposed to be a TA this semester at all, but due to unforeseen circumstances the department needed a theorist to TA and I'm one of 2, so I'm now the TA for a 50+ student class and am leading 3 discussion sections a week. Had to drop one of the classes I intended to take as well. Luckily the course isn't too bad in terms of work I'll have to grade, so I won't really feel the crunch until after all of my work is done and we get their finals in. I am nervous about statistics and all of the methods work that I'll have to do, as it's nothing I've ever done before and is completely outside of the vein of political science that I come from and believe in, so that might be the difficulty, but I'll do what they want for now until the prof who I'll work most with and learn from comes back from leave next year and is able to guide me more for real theorist work.

Luckily this isn't the first class, it will be the third session, so they know the professor and know that I'm the TA. At this point, I haven't gotten any sorts of past notes or any sort of presentation that was used in the past, though we did spend a bit of time while we were going over the syllabus on this lecture specifically, talking about what the aims of these readings are and what the students are supposed to get out of it. That's all I'm going on right now though (that and my knowledge of Mill).

I'm a 1st-semester PhD Student in Political Theory, and the professor for the course that I'm TA'ing this semester will be at APSA next week and asked me if I'd like to give the lecture next Wednesday. After asking around a bit and hearing nothing but urging to do it, I told her yes. Does anybody have advice on giving a first lecture? Anything I should keep in mind or plan for? This course is primarily for freshmen or student who have no experience in political theory, so very introductory in nature. Thanks!

I'm a first-year PhD Student in Political Science, and the Professor teaching the course that I'm TA'ing this fall has offered me the chance to lecture next week while she's away at a conference. I took her up on the offer after everybody that I asked urged me to do it as a great introduction to teaching and an opportunity to build my CV from the very start. The readings that this lecture deals with are topics that I'm comfortable and familiar with, so that doesn't really concern me. Additionally, and luckily for me in this case I think, the course is taken by primarily freshmen. Any tips or advice on preparing for a 1st lecture? I've got a bit less than a week to put this together and prepare.

I'm a Political Science PhD Student because I hope to study and contribute to Political Theory and Political Philosophy as our world continues to evolve and new challenges arise that challenge the older paradigms that govern our lives. What I do has nothing to do with Economics or Sociology, or any Social Science really. The other place I could have gone was to a Philosophy program, but the questions that I deal with are the sort that fits into either vein, with Philosophy often handling the more esoteric aspects of a question while PoliSci deals with the more applied aspects of it (though that's a sweeping over-generalization). As to the differences, I'm just getting started, but there's a much greater emphasis in coursework on methods and statistics (you can probably guess how useful I feel that is) as well as a far heavier workload in each course. Standards are much higher, and especially later on we're expected not just to consume work but to create new research and (for people in other subfields mainly) partner up with faculty for joint research to present and publish. The end-goal for basically all of us is some sort of tenure-track position in academia.

What's your goal with a PhD? What subfield would you be applying for? And what happened with CUNY that you went for a year and then stopped to go to law school? What's going to matter for PhD admissions is not your legal experience but research experience and research potential, which law school won't really speak to. Do you have a strong writing sample? How well do you know professors from undergrad, and how well would they remember you? The GRE you'll likely have to take again unfortunately, but that is just a matter of getting over a certain minimum bar rather than something that would push you over the top; get over 75th percentile in both and you're fine, though a higher Quant is better. One thing you'll certainly have to explain though is why you went through law school and now want another degree.

You really should have another option in this for living with an SO. I'll be moving down south with my girlfriend and we've got a nice little 2 bedroom place for ourselves. I lived with roommates in college and then for my first year after graduating and never particularly enjoyed it, especially when a replacement roommate, a 30-somehing alcoholic unemployed lawyer, started to get rowdy and tried to be a bully. After living with my girlfriend for the past year, I really can't imagine living with roommates. She's applying to med school herself now to start in about a year, and if she does get in somewhere else and moves away, I'll move to a smaller place that I can afford on my own since I just wouldn't want to feel constrained living with roommates again, sharing personal space and everything else.

I haven't started my program yet, but I'll surely be taking a number of classes outside of my department. My primary field will be political theory, and to expand on that I will need to go into course-offerings from the Philosophy department. My interests can range at times to the more philosophical side of political philosophy, and to create and analyze the underlying metaphysics of an ideology the poli sci department might not cut it. I'm actually planning to get in touch with a few people in my department in the next week or two to see about the advisability of taking outside courses during my first semester, as we won't have any theory offerings.

I've taken tests at 2 centers in the greater Boston area. I took the GRE a few years back (senior year of college) at a Prometrics center in Lexington. It seemed pretty standard, they had headphones, dividers, nice enough staff; no issues at all that I was aware of. I later retook the GRE (and took another test a year or so before for something else) at the Prometrics office in South Boston, just on the other side of the river from South Station. There, also didn't have any issues. They had headphones, dividers and all, staff was not as nice and they seemed to take all the procedures and whatnot more seriously, annoying as that is. There's one other place to take the GRE in the area that I know of, on Comm Ave by BU, but I avoided that one to stay off the Green Line and away from all the BU kids. No idea what that one's like. Hope that helped.

Just curious how large everyone's cohorts are. I'm starting in the fall and I'm all but certain that there will be 7 others starting with me in the fall; one other theorist, 1 or 2 Comparativists and 3 or 4 Americanists. How are everyone else's cohorts?

If by going for the BA you have the chance to do a major writing project, a thesis or something of that ilk, then that should be all that you need provided you've established some decent relationships and will have at least 3 people to write you letters. The MA could look nice, but if you have a strong application otherwise then I really don't think that would push you over the top. Just have a good writing sample, either from the BA or an MA, showing you can do serious, long-term research.

For me that's still a bit up in the air; my girlfriend and I are in a community in Bellevue right on 70S with a bus line running right to the Vandy area. We'll have one car, so I'll definitely be getting a parking pass. My girlfriend is looking for work at this time, preferably at the Medical Center where she has some connections, so at first I'll probably be driving, but luckily we'll have flexibility. I've been taking public transit since I was about 11, so bus isn't at all an issue, especially since it's free with the Vandy ID. I might just end up taking the bus at times to avoid stress driving, catch up on some reading, and save on gas costs. I had really hoped we'd be able to find a place that was actually within walking/biking distance of campus for our budget, but we couldn't find anywhere that had 2 bedrooms in that budget that didn't give us a bad/unsafe feeling (ie found needs on the ground, badly tilted floors, etc.), so we just decided on a community we liked out in the burbs and are going to save a hell of a lot of money, especially compared to our current Boston rent.

Maybe I'm coming from different expectations and experiences, but my move is actually going to cost a lot less than I had thought it would. My girlfriend and I are going from Boston to Nashville, taking 2 beds and a bunch of other furniture, along with books and clothes and assorted other things. I had been terrified what the costs might be, but my school is giving me a small moving stipend that will cover almost everything. We'll have to pay a few hundred to cover the rest, but that's a whole lot better than paying $2500 on our own. It's only a little more than it cost us to move in together in Boston. Without needing to schlep all of our stuff down to Nashville in a truck, that's a price I'm happy to pay.

I got an email with info about orientation 2 days ago, and now have access to the whole student account thing along with my course catalog. Can't sign up for anything until 7/24 though,

I'm not sure exactly what direction I want to go just yet; I have a 3 year old Macbook Pro that's basically working just fine, and will get most of its pep back with a full cleaning and installing an SSD. At the same time, I'm not sure how it will hold up through my 5 years of school, and I'd really rather avoid any major technological changes while I'm in school if they can be at all avoided. What I'd really like to do is make my Mac my home computer and have another system, preferably something more akin to a tablet, that I take with me and dock at my carrel. I've been endlessly debating whether to go for a full-on Core system (Thinkpad Helix or something like that) or a slightly cheaper and not as good core system (Surface Pro), or to go for a cheaper Atom setup that will mostly work for now, will save me money, give me good batter life but will become obsolete and may or may not work well with the stats programs I'll have to use. At this point I'm leaning towards the 1st choice, waiting for any more new products that might come out of the electronics show in Taiwan this week. I really want something with the convertible form factor, so that I can do serious work sitting down but can also use the machine as a tablet when I'm just sitting around, doing reading or whatnot. Add in a digital pen and it's an incredibly useful all-around device.

It's definitely possible to commute from the Porter area to Brandeis every day; I went there for undergrad and a lot of the grad students and faculty were in Cambridge. Being close to Tufts will be more of an issue though, as that's a good half hour walk from Porter, if not more. There are bus routes that work to get there though as well. You're going to have big trouble finding a 2-bedroom apartment in the area that's anywhere close to affordable. The majority of leases start on 9/1, and everyone tries to find a new lease as quickly as they can. The supply is already pretty low and costs are outrageous, and worst for 2-bedrooms, as there are just so few. You'll probably have to pay a realtor's fee equal to a full month's rent, and be prepared to front up to 4 months rent total (1st, last, security and fee). It's an awful, awful rental market.

Found a place and moving in July 28! Ended up in Bellevue but should be really nice, very excited for this all to be starting. Just gave my 2 weeks notice at my job and am going to take a month or so off to just relax and spend with family and leisurely get myself back into the academic way of things. Nashville seems like a great town, got a bit of a feel for the place and the roads during my short trip down. Can't wait!

I just went through this, focusing generally the same era, and came away with one funded offer out of 13 applications, so I'm not how successful you can say I was, but my goal in my personal statement was to show that I had passion for the field and show what I had done already. My work and the points of interest that I brought up demonstrated what I was interested in and what era I would focus on. I was concerned more with showing my competence through past work and my passion for the field, my drive that would be what keeps me going through uncertain times and difficult placement struggles. I talked all this over with my undergrad advisor, and his advice was to do just that, to come in with out too defined a focus, as they want a student who can be molded and is open to some change rather than someone dead set on studying one particular thing. To study political theory means that you have to be open and have an encyclopedic knowledge of the field. You'll have to do your own research of course, but if you have any major work that you've done (a thesis, publication, etc.), you'll show you know how to do that. I named a few ideas for papers I had and some other things to show that theory really does dominate my mind and constantly run through my head. That's what you have to show I feel; the passion and the mindset. The rest can change but that is what remains.

I can't speak for everywhere, but I got very similar numbers (165V, 158Q, 5.5) and will be starting a PhD in theory this fall. I didn't get into the top-top schools I applied to and was hoping to make, but I'd guess that was likely due to my somewhat lower GPA rather than GRE. Really, as long as you show you're not completely hopeless when it comes to math and that sort of reasoning, it's just a hurdle you need to pass and then you're over and can be considered based on your actual theory qualifications. What really will matter are your rec letters, writing sample, and personal statement.

For Poli Sci, you'll need more than just a chromebook. I'm starting in the Fall in a PhD program and we'll be doing a lot with R and Stata and who knows what other statistical programs. Those won't run on a chromebook. You'll need to have a full Windows or OS X system unless you plan on doing any and all statistical work in a computer lab.

Any other theorists out there? I'll be starting in the fall, and at my program all 1st-years are required to take a research design course along with Stats 1, and beyond that Stats 2 and possibly even 3 are "highly recommended." Now I'm coming into this with very little true knowledge outside of theory, but does this coursework and all the statistical tools that I'll 'add to my toolbox,' as they were so very fond of saying, have any utility for a political theorist specializing in the history of political thought from ~1700 to the present? Any advice?

Just my view, but methodology and political theory (which I study) are basically diametrically opposed to one another, and could for all intents and purposes be parts of completely different disciplines. Theory isn't really even qualitative, it's a leap into logic, rationality, and postulating. It is concerned with the ought rather than the is. It also, unfortunately, has very little utility outside of academia (unless you want to bungle a Canadian election). It's much more akin to Philosophy really, at least as I practice it, but it must consume you, not just be a part of interests.