ghstx22

Hey guys, I'm also mostly a lurker, but I saw a video today that I thought I'd share. I haven't gotten any replies from schools yet, but I think anyone (i.e. all of us) who will face rejection over the next two months or so could probably use a preemptive pep talk. In short, if what you want is to become a professional researcher/professor/any other job for which a PhD or MA serves as preparation, you will get there, but not without a hefty load of failure. If one, or even all, schools reject you, you've got to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, embrace the failure, and keep at it. I hope this helps a bit.

Hey everyone, This is just a classic "what do you think my chances are" post, so just tell me what you think. I am applying to PhD programs for political theory. As a note, I attended two undergraduate institutions as a dual degree student, receiving a BA and a BM at the respective institutions. GPA: 3.61 (BA)/3.60(BM) GRE (V/Q/W): 167(98%)/157(70%)/5.0 (97%) I have a good amount of research, including some funded research over the summer, have 3 solid recommendations, one of which came from my summer mentor who is tenured faculty at a top 25 undergraduate school. I have no publications in academic journals, but I am doing a senior thesis that is a continuation of my summer research and have a foreign language publication in a school journal. I'm sure there are many important things I am leaving out, but please ask if you are wondering. My interests are primarily in religion and politics, supranational governance, and democracy, as well as ethics and international politics. Let me know what else you might need to tell me what you think. The schools that I have applied to are: Yale, Columbia, NYU, Princeton, Brown, Duke, UChicago, Rutgers, CUNY Graduate Center.

Thanks for the responses. Although I do have a secondary interest in the sub-field of comparative politics involving democratic institutions, one of which (one may argue) is religion, as the title indicates, I meant religion and politics in political theory. Some of the major areas of religion and politics in political theory are the establishment and separation of church and state, toleration and accommodation of religious belief and practice, etc. So to clarify, I am primarily looking for political theory faculty.

Hey everyone, I've started to narrow my research interests a bit and have settled on religion and politics as my main interest for my SOP (I've done a research project that was kind of half religion and politics and half history of western political thought). I have done some preliminary research on schools, but can anyone suggest a few schools/scholars to look into that have similar interests? Thanks!

I do have a list of schools to which I think I will apply, but I was just hoping that you guys might be able to suggest schools that I perhaps haven't yet strongly considered. My desired subfield is political theory, and my research interests are generally in History of Political Thought, more specifically (though of course still fairly broadly) in enlightenment philosophy. I do hope to stay in the northeast for personal reasons. The schools that I have considered so far are: Yale Brown NYU Columbia Princeton Rutgers The New School CUNY Grad Center Any thoughts/additions/reductions/general comments would be much appreciated.

Thank you guys for responding. Just out of curiosity (and I really hope this does not come off as rude since I am just stressed and looking for answers), were both of you fairly successful in your own applications?

So I will be applying for political theory, but at my undergraduate school there are not that many political theorists. I have a great relationship with one, with whom I have done research and who I will definitely ask to write one of my letters, and I have a fairly embryonic relationship with another, though I have only taken one small class with him fairly recently. I have other professors, such as my advisor, who is a comparativist, and another professor, who is an economist, that I am confident could write me good letters of recommendation, but if I need 3 letters, who should I ask? Will it be looked down upon if I have 1, or even 2, letters from professors who are not political theorists given that that is my chosen field?

Thanks for responding! I was kind of worried, but I am writing a thesis and am doing a good bit of directed research alongside two of my professors (2 semi-, but not directly, related projects), so I'll try to incorporate that into my SOP.

Hello everybody, My interest is mostly in enlightenment political thought, particularly Smith, Hume, and Rousseau, and I have lately found myself mostly doing research on themes such as liberty, religion, and happiness as they relate to people in society. I am in the early stages of thinking about my SOP, and my question is, how general/specific is ideal? Would it be best to focus on one aspect of my research interests, or should I try to give a comprehensive view of my research interests? I am afraid of coming off as too unfocused given that most of the programs to which I am applying want a fairly short SOP. Thanks!

Hey everyone, I will be applying to political science PHD programs for political theory this year and I recently took the GRE, 167 verbal, 157 math, 5.5 writing. Do you think that this math score will hurt me much since I am doing political theory?