cooperstreet

Yeah if a school cannot offer you money there is nothing unethical about applying to other programs. There's nothing unethical about applying to other programs even when you are admitted and attending a program.

Here's my thought: your numbers are low. GPA and Quant GRE will hurt you. One or the other can be compensated for in other fields (which you do have), but, a 3.2 GPA at a liberal arts school in a liberal arts major? That's may hurt. Maybe have your letter writers explain that if they can. Who would you work with at Penn State? Columbia? Columbia doesn't have a tenured Middle East scholar, and the untenured one, Dan Corstange, does heavy quant stuff. UPENN is a mostly qualitative comparative program, but even a 152 Q score is low for them. Plus their Middle East admissions are very competitive and they usually take one or two people every OTHER year. IMO, no one cares about the AW score.

contact the departments

yes! anonymously of course.

Why not?

Eric Davis is at Rutgers,and I don't know who they study with, but I do know a lot of grad students at johns hopkins study the Middle East. If you're applying for comparative programs that focus on the Middle East, you will be up against people who have lots of Arabic/Hebrew/Farsi experience,, which will be difficult. Also, Don't forget Michigan, which has probably the best program out there for this stuff.

What about Rutgers? Princeton? Johns Hopkins? Also, how are you language skills?

Are you an IR or a comparativist? Is the publication single-authored in a peer reviewed journal? That quant is going to keep you out of the running at top programs. Who at NYU and rochester do Middle East? At stanford? I don't think Lisa Blaydes is tenured.

I do know that ISA's annual conference says that they reject hundreds of applicants, so that counts for something.

Hi all, I have a number of papers that I have worked on. One is finished (published) and the others have or will be presented at conferences. Rather than spend time detailing the contents of these papers, would it be advisable to put the abstract on a CV? Thanks.

get your GRE higher.

I honestly can't believe why anyone would attend a PhD program unfunded.

Take math and statistics classes. They will help you.

Why not just take a graduate course or two in PS at the best university in your area? Cheaper than a full MA, your courses will transfer if you get into a PhD program, etc etc. Try for a seminar that will be small and let you connect with a prof and write a research paper. That seems to me a better bet than a full MA.

Is that regarding acceptances or for funding info? Tomorrow is their admitted students day.

Ok, great thanks. Maybe I'll reduce it further and haiku up my paper. If my funding falls through then hopefully a presentation will boost my admission chances next year.

I just got accepted to do a poster presentation at APSA. Is this a big deal? How excited should I get?

Yes, that is correct! I'm in. No word on funding.

that sounds like a great idea, and the e-IR website is great!

Haha, yes. I mean something *supportive*.

Where do we go from here? Where can we, as PhD students, discuss political science issues, theories, trends in data, conferences, etc etc. Something like gradcafe. I mean other than the Duck of Minerva comment sections.

Formally? No. I don't have a Poli Sci degree, and I got in. It may have harmed me, but I don't know. My BS was is Economics too--knowing about formal models and how to do math helps. Many PS undergrad courses do not teach this. But lemme ask you this: I don't know anything about that Oxford degree, was it a professional degree? Are you completely switching fields? That may raise a concern. As long as your research interest is firmly in the discipline of political science, I don't see the problem.

I'm having trouble parsing this: I had NO options! good or bad!

Im at rutgers! my application status has been updated! No word on funding yet!

Another one up!