peternewman89

Can't say anything about common, but I'll be starting a Political Science program and have a full 5 years of funding, not coming in with a masters or anything. I talked with the other people offered admission and everyone, masters or not, had the same funding offer.

Could anyone speak to how feasible it is for a couple to live in Bellevue with just one car? My girlfriend will be moving down with me when I start my PhD this fall. She'll likely be getting a job at Vanderbilt Medical Center, while I'll be in Poli Sci at the Commons Center. We're looking for a 2 bedroom for relatively cheap (under about $1200 or $1300 at most) and as many features as we can find, but also safe, etc. I was just down at Vandy and a lot of the grad students recommended living in Bellevue or other fairly suburban areas out west. We will be getting a car gifted to us this summer from my family, but is it going to be possible to live out that far with only the one car? We'll both be on very different hours and we're both terrified of being basically stuck out in the burbs when something is happening. Any advice? Is it possible to find somewhere with halfway decent space in Hillsboro, Green Hills, Sylvan Park or the West End in the same budget?

I went to a prospective student visit this weekend with the potential members of my cohort at the school I'l be attending come fall this past weekend. It was quite an informational bombardment, and I'm still trying to take everything in. I was one of 2 theorists out of 13 prospective students, so my field is decidedly different from that of nearly everyone else. One thing that the presenters and faculty emphasized, though, was collaborating with faculty to publish, getting your name out there and having papers and posters to present at conferences. I'm just wondering how applicable that will be for me. I know that some work in theory that tends to straddle the lines between theory and other fields (primarily IR) can have some components where collaboration is possible, but my field is history of political thought, and the professor who will in all likelihood work as my advisor doesn't seem to have co-authored anything in 30 years, which makes sense given the subject matter of his work. Will this be problematic for me in trying to build a reputation, get my name out there, and build a decent CV? Is it feasible to public solo as a grad student in political theory?

Well I currently work in Boston (will be moving this summer down the Nashville, TN for my PhD), so I take the red line all the way to park st every morning, but really it's a quick commute, time from getting into the station to getting to Kendall is probably 10-15 minutes. I live about 5 minutes from Porter and pay split $1600 rent with my girlfriend for a 1.5 bedroom apartment. Unfortunately you'll need to have roommates with that budget, but that's definitely doable at any of the red line stops besides Harvard really. The toughest part will be finding somewhere before 9/1. Not sure how familiar you are with Boston, but it's the weirdest rental market setup in the country. Something like 80% of leases end on 8/31 and start on 9/1, so basically the whole city moves that day. It's utter hell and pandemonium, and it's almost impossible to avoid.

It really depends what you want to spend. You'll probably want to stay relatively close to MIT, though you can go further afield on the Red Line quite easily. Kendall itself is pretty boring but easy to get to from a number of areas. You can also live in East Cambridge by Lechmere, which is cheaper and not a bad walk to MIT. You can also move up or down the red line, depending on how comfortable you are with a subway commute. It's expensive to be close to the T anyway though, so you could be left with a 15-20 minute walk just to get to the T stop, which sounds fine before you remember what Boston's like in January. I live in Porter right now and it's nice if a bit dull (great for living needs, not great for enjoying life) and I lived in Davis last year, which I definitely preferred, much more alive. Really the whole area is great and interconnected no matter what, so tough to go wrong.

How would you say that graduate courses differ from their undergraduate counterparts? I've only had the opportunity to take one 200-level course, a seminar on democratic theory that was split between grad students and undergrads. That course, though, wasn't particularly different from any of my undergrad seminars, with similar quantities of reading, albeit slightly more advanced and specific in nature. I'm trying to figure out what to expect the differences will be as I get ready to start my PhD. Of course there will be differences based on institutional style and each specific instructor, but what other differences might there be?

I'll be starting a PhD in the fall with 5 years of funding. My primary field is Political Theory. That's what I want to teach and study and do. I know, however, that I also need to have a second field, both to make me more marketable down the line and due to program requirements. At this point I'm leaning towards American, but my undergrad experience in anything other than theory was fairly limited and I'm at something of a loss. I have essentially no quantitative experience, and really just don't know what academic study of the other fields focuses on or entails. Any help just wrapping my head around the other subfields of Political Science and getting an idea of what graduate study in that as a secondary field would be like would be great.

I had an interview that I wasn't quite sure if it was an interview or just an informational talk (they were ambiguous in their email) so I tried to do everything I could to prepare with about 3 or 4 days notice. Did a bunch of reading and research, but the main question that I had trouble with was answering "why here?" I didn't really have any huge strong desire to go to that school in particular, but it was a good school where I'd learn from decent people and teach smart kids. It was just one of 13 for me, and I had a couple I had not heard from that I was really excited about. Really, if it's not too late, think of why that school in particular. I ended up getting put in the top spot on the theory waitlist (I'm assuming at least) and getting offered admission a week later when they had one theory student turn them down, and that's the school I'm going to in the fall.

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Top 35 undergrad, outside of Boston Major(s)/Minor(s): Politics Undergrad GPA: 3.57 Type of Grad: Grad GPA: GRE: 165V, 158Q, 5.5AW Any Special Courses: Honors Thesis Letters of Recommendation: Three Professors, 1 in Political Theory, 1 in Comparative/IR, 1 in Political Philosophy Research Experience: Honors Thesis on History and Philosophy of Penal Reform Teaching Experience: None Subfield/Research Interests: Political Theory Other: RESULTS: Acceptances($$ or no $$): Vanderbilt PhD $$, UChicago MAPPS partial $$ (declined already) Waitlists: Rejections: Harvard, Yale, Penn, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Duke, WUSTL, UCLA, UCSD, UC-Berkeley, Stanford Pending: UVA (maybe waitlist? likely will decline even if offered) Going to: Vanderbilt (99% sure) LESSONS LEARNED: It's all just a crapshoot at a certain point, but what seems to have been important for me, at least according to the people at Vandy I spoke with, were my letters of rec, especially from my primary advisor, who's very well respected and thought I was cut out for this. I also had a good, well-polished writing sample (part of my thesis) and a pretty good Statement written up, tailored a bit to each school and written with help from my advisor and my girlfriend's father, who's a professor in another field in CA. As much as anything else though, I think it was just luck once I got my foot in the door. SOP:

I'll be staying at my job until late June/early July, then visiting some family around the country and heading to Nashville, where I'll be in school, with my girlfriend to find an apartment/condo and get a bit more of a feel for the city. In the meantime I'm catching up on journals and such, since I haven't been too much in the loops since I graduated 2 years ago, and even then was more focused on classics and major works than on modern academic writing.