pacificists

IRToni, you mentioned that your MA program helped you clarify your goals. Do you mind elaborating on that? Do you feel more inclined to go into academia now, or do you find that you might enjoy policy better?

First of all, thanks for everyone's input. It has definitely clarified some things for me. I'll be speaking with the department chair more about this later this week. Originally, my plan was to work as a research assistant for a think tank for one or two years and then apply for my PhD from there with the intention of going into research for think tanks, but a grad student has told me that there is a huge chasm between policy and academia, and that it's hard to move between the two worlds. I'm not sure which I would enjoy more at this point, and I'm not sure how exaggerated the grad student's claims are. Does anyone here have experience in policy and can elucidate the matter?

Hi everyone, I'm in my third year of undergrad and I'm hoping to apply to to grad school programs next fall. I'm concerned about whether or not my application will be strong enough as-is next year, especially because of my overall grades. Ideally, I don't want to close myself off to any of the top programs, but I wanted your opinion as to whether I'm competitive enough for those kinds of programs. If not, which programs should I be aiming for? Thanks! Ideal Programs: IR, focusing on East Asia Undergrad: University of Chicago Major: Political Science Minor: Statistics Overall GPA: 3.72 Major GPA: 3.86 Relevant experiences: Lots of research assistantships with various departments (psychology, behavioral economics, business school, law school, etc.) Started writing papers on China as an intern for a fairly well known think tank earlier this year. Languages (besides English): Chinese (native/proficient), Japanese (intermediate) No GRE scores yet. I don't know how well GPA and/or SAT scores correlate to GRE performance, but I do pretty well on standardized testing so I figured I'd throw those numbers out there for your judgment. SAT Math/Reading: 800/750 So my questions are, 1) What kinds of programs can I realistically hope to get into if I applied next fall? 2) What kinds of programs should I look into? 3) Is there anything I can do to improve my chances?