cooperstreet

She's in an entirely different circumstance, because if she is a military officer, the standards are much lower. She doesn't need to bust her ass to write a disseratation that is going to get published and land her a TT job at an R1. She just needs to get out and graduate so she can be a military officer with a PhD. 3 years is unheard of, 4 years is very rare, and 5-6 years is the norm.

Why do you want a PhD in political science?

Your GRE-Q and GPA is very low. Are you paying? Then you have a chance. But what do you want to do with an MA from these programs?

I hope this is the case with some lower ranked schools. Programs that don't fund their students and don't provide them with enough training to get a decent job after graduation aren't respectable IMO. I doubt the top ranked schools will see a lower applicant pool

That sounds bonkers to me too. So does this: It does matter much. Everyone needs to be familiar with an understand quantitative methods. 151Q score is low for political science PhD programs. Moreover, an SOP isn't a research proposal. And the relative easy with which students are admitted to subfields is entirely dependent on the program.

in between theory and AP

You want to study conflict and aren't applying to Columbia? Stanford?

I second this. People in my cohort who are taking the math methods classes during the same semester as the social science research methods classes are having a much harder time. that being said, what is helpful is conceptually grasping calculus. No one has been asked (or will be asked) to integrate anything by hand.

Yes this will hurt your application.

Your GRE will likely kill any chance you have. How many times did you take them? the quantitative GRE doesnt really test math knowledge since it is all high school math. The good news is that you can fix the gre score

calc. linear algebra. If you want to get ballsy, real analysis. If you got an A in real analysis I bet that would allay some of the adcoms fears about your math skills.

dudes and dudettes, most adcoms don't meet until january or feb. they are totes cool with rec letters being late. after all, they would give themselves leway too.

Five in my cohort had publications either before they applied or they appeared shortly after the semester began. Two were chapters in edited volumes, two were co-authored publications in poli sci journals, and one was a single authored peer-reviewed publication in a cognate field. They are bonuses, to be sure, but they are absolutely not necessary or even the norm nor are they expected. I think my cohort is an anomaly.

OP is presumably in the US and wants to study religion in IR. I can count on my thumbs the number of PhD candidates who do exclusively qualitative work in IR--especially when one isn't doing theory--who get TT jobs when they graduate. OP will need to understand math and take quant classes to even understand much of the literature that she will be engaging in. Do whatever type of research you like and whatever is the best tool for the job, but knowing quantative methods is just flat out necessary for studying religion in IR in the US.

"math just really bores me and it has been tough to stay focused and motivated in my math courses" I hate to yell but.... THEN WHY DO YOU WANT TO DO A PHD IN POLITICAL SCIENCE!!!!!!!! You will be in math courses. Yes they will be methods courses but it is math. Thats what you will be doing. Moreover, your research will be with math. MATH MATH MATH MATH MATH NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS NUMBERS. Thats mostly what we do. All day. Every Day. Coding in R. MATHMATHMATHMATHMATHYMATH. Go open the ASPR. What do you see? MATH!

Just use interfolio. Most schools do accept them. The ones that dont require a questionnaire.

Get a PhD if you want to become an academic. Don't get a PhD if you don't want to become an academic.

Why did you fail Trig? What type of research do you want to do?

You're going to have a very tough time getting into a funded PhD program. Your GPA is very, very low. It would need to be explained in your SOP and even then it will still hold you back. How about an MA? If you kill it (4.0) you'll have a better chance.

Your GREs are low. You would be well-served to re-take and get them higher if you can for next year.

For example, Mala Htun has two books with CUP and a APSR article, she could easily go somewhere else.

I disagree. You will need more than one scholar studying this at your institution, for a wide variety of reasons. However, if you want to have comparative politics be your focus, and also study women, just one scholar in the political science department may work, if there are others in other departments. If you put on your SOP, "I want to study women in politics" and the adcom is all like, "we only have one person doing that and they are primarily a comparativist", then you're in trouble.

There is some chance, but its less. And lower ranked schools can't train you as well as higher ranked schools. If they could, they would be higher ranked!

I mean, lower ranked schools graduate students with much worse job prospects than higher ranked schools, they also have funding problems. So just apply. Its just money.

It also signals that you either don't read directions or think that the rules don't apply to you, either way not a good signal to send to an adcom