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Yaya IR PhD

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  • Application Season
    2014 Fall
  • Program
    Political Science, IR Focus, PhD

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  1. I am also applying to poli-sci programs and have similar questions and concerns. Some people on this forum post that their low 160 scores in V or Q saying they are not good enough for top-tier political science programs. Other people say they are happy with the same scores. Here is a little bit of what I learned or was confused by after reviewing the threads and I hope this helps: 1) Generally, if you have scores below a certain cut off at a school they throw it out. For example, if you get less than 50th percentile on either they don't even bother with the rest of your application. Different schools suggest different cut offs on their sites. Northwestern says most applicants have at least 160v and 148q. Princeton says at least 160v and 160q otherwise admissions is very unlikely. 2) The GRE has more weight at public universities. More often at these schools funding decisions are based on a standard algorithm designed by the graduate school administration. If your undergrad GPA and GRE don't equal some magic number... well... funding might not be in your cards even if the program wants you. 3) Your GRE scores value depends on your reader. Some professor might have accepted someone with less-than-average GRE scores a few years ago and they performed excellently under them. Consequently he overlooks or undervalues scores in the admissions process. Easily, the exact opposite could happen. Problematically, this cannot be predicted. 4) Some schools explicitly say low GRE scores will not break an application. I think people should take them at their word. Could they just want to scoop up the application money? Meh! I think of all of the components of your application, the GRE never ranks as most important. This simply means (except the extreme situations where scores don't qualify as graduate ready) that if you impress or amaze in other aspects, you will be able to overcome blah scores. 5) Know your program. Some programs are known for the quantitative focus and obviously put more value in your quantitative score. 6) Know yourself. If your research interest is entirely qualitative, a less than stellar quantitative score won't be as contrarian or damaging as a poor verbal score. And a little bit of general advice. If you have to ask a question, you know the answer. How much more confident in all of your apps will you be if you take it again and bring you q-score up past 160? One thing I can tell you is I promise you at Duke or NYU or UCLA, many applicants are applying with higher GRE scores. I don't mean this to sound harsh. And I certainly sympathize that this forum has provided a lot of contradictory information on GRE scores and their value and blah blah blah... but I believe that is because there is no certain answer, no magic formula for admission and no real way to guess your odds. There have been some great posts on people who get rejected from some school not even in the top-30 and accepted into Princeton. There have been some great sounding profiles that don't get accepted anywhere for multiple cycles. Simply put - if you can do better, just retake it. If you don't do better, don't send the scores. Best of luck and I hope that helps!!!
  2. Hey Ciarrai300! Thanks for the response. Well, we can only hope that this is something everyone will struggle with and consequently our concerns and our final decision will not end up being too problematic. I think people generally share similar struggles with their opening. There is no right or wrong answer and anyway you do it can be perceived as boring or cliche. I'm just hoping that there is enough meat in the middle of my SoP to have already gotten my file thrown into the right pile by the time the reader gets to the conclusion.
  3. Thanks in advance for your consideration and responses everyone! So I'm applying to a wide variety of programs 5 in the top-tier, 3 in the middle and 2 in the bottom. I've constructed what is a solid SoP... but the opinions of certain professors I've asked to review it disagree on what should be included as well as its division. CURRENTLY: - Unique hook relating to what triggered my past/current and probable future research transitioning into a brief background of my specific subject matter (10%, 1st paragraph) - Description of the specific problem I attempt to analyze and address in my research (5%, 1 small paragraph) - Actual process in which I've gone about researching my interests. My collaboration with my mentor (a well-known professor who is co-authoring and co-presenting with me in the near future) and some of our more critical findings. Elaboration on our approach and its potential consequences transitioning into the importance of the theoretical and practical findings. (20%, 2 paragraphs) - How my research has helped me develop the prism through which I appreciate IR as well as the values I have and intend to place in all of my research. (15%, 1 paragraph) - A special collaborative project with multiple research institutions identifying my commitment to pursue novel means of shaping the scholarship in my field. (10%, 1 paragraph) - SECTION DIFFERENT FOR EACH INSTITUTION - enough room to mention 1 or 2 POIs and how their interests and contributions are similar to mine and why I want to work with them. Identify similar program priorities as well as beneficial, associated research institutions where I could grow and my contributions would be valuable. (35%, 2 paragraphs). - Closing few lines, TBD, can't figure out a way to do this nicely. DISPUTES AND REQUESTS FOR HELP My undergrad gpa was bad... ok more like garbage. I do not mention it all because all of my contributions have come from my MA with an excellent record of success. I actually don't mention my MA gpa either. Thoughts on not addressing an obvious problem? I don't want to take away from flow. I also received a few substantial awards and recognitions for my work. Upcoming publication, upcoming conference (maybe 2), scholarship headlined by an important person... All of these are mentioned on my CV so I wasn't sure if it was necessary to mention it. Could I highlight it, yes! And I could do it without being arrogant? Hopefully. It would just add another 200 words to what is already an SOP of 1000 (including section for each school). How the hell do you close without sounding unprofessional or anticlimactic?
  4. Thanks so much guys. I really appreciate all the helpful responses. I think I will expand the top-tier schools I am applying to based on your suggestions. I guess I'm still stuck in the undergraduate mindset that Harvard and Yale are their own animals (but I'm definitely feeling silly about thinking Princeton doesn't fit into that category). Lastly, the top-tier schools all explicitly say not to contact their professors with emails. This prompt however is insufficiently broad. Obviously I wouldn't reach out to a renowned professor at a top school to ask them trivial stuff about the application process. I would however like to share information with them about my upcoming publication submission and my blog affiliated with the research institutions I work with in order to help convince them I'd be a great fit for them specifically. So many people advise that having a personal connection with a professor in the program your applying to is enough to clear the admissions hurdle - i.e., if someone important wants to work with you, you are in. I don't yet have, and don't know if it is possible, or too late in the game, to try to develop such relationships. Worse, I don't want such an email to be indicative of my inability to "follow application directions"... Thoughts? Advice? Also thanks again for your past and future responses - I really needed the help.
  5. Thanks for the advice Gnome. With Princeton I found a few professors that had very similar interests and from the research I've done it seems they get about 100-200 less applicants than Harvard. But as you point out, it is probably trivial. Some people suggest that top schools, to limit the pile from 500+ applicants to 100-200 (something manageable for these top programs), you are simply plugged into an algorithm. I just figured that if this is true, even the highest M.A. GPA and better than decent GRE score would not be able to save me from this initial cut. If there is any truth to this, do you think I should send an email to the graduate chair asking them to review my app holistically (obviously it will be more professionally written)? I do address my undergrad GPA in two sentences in my SoP but I feel an additional email might be harking too much on my baggage. Then again, if they never even read my SoP cause of application overload, what is the point...
  6. Hi all! Thanks in advance for reading and responding. I graduated in 2010 from a T-20 LA school in the northeast with an International Studies degree. My GPA - 2.8 - i.e., total and utter garbage. I did write a 60pg thesis to graduate which received an A-. The reason for the bad grades, I started my own company in healthcare databasing and got an excellent job in big pharma. Two years later I shifted my focus, went to get my M.A. in Government at a very reputable school in Israel (because my interest was in conflict) and will graduate with the highest GPA possible and recommendations that are insanely strong from impressive professors. I have a blog affiliated with two world-class research institutions. I was also hired as a research assistant for one of these institutions. GRE scores will be 85%+ on both. SoP has been reviewed by many academics and was well received by all. I am presenting on a panel at a very prestigious conference in a month (before apps are due). I am also co-authoring an article with a renowned professor but it won't be submitted by the time of most of my applications (she is writing one of my recommendations). I'm thinking of applying to Princeton, Cornell, and Northwestern (I figured Harvard and Yale would be too far out). I have a few "more reasonable" schools I am applying to as well, but these programs are small. And I've seen that sometimes they only accept 2-4 people - i.e., Brandeis. Thoughts on my chances? Advice is much appreciated.
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