zudei

I would say a>b>c a: because it is a weekend, and I will be forced to go to the schools I really am interested in. So it's good for signalling purposes, win-win. Moreover, I work and I don't get much paid leave (and my financial position is not so great so if I can avoid unpaid leave, the better for me) so a weekend would be best in those terms as well. b: because it's better than visiting in Feb. IRToni outlines my reasons pretty well. c: Feb-end is rush rush at my work so for me personally it would not be a good time. Plus above reason.

Thanks a lot, Professor!

This really reassures me for some reason

Thanks! Just to clafiry, would you suggest that I contact them before-hand?

This isn't a helpful one, but being poor enough to worry about other things works marvellously for me Btw, great scores! I wish I had broken the 90th percentile for Q

I am sort of glad I have a shit load of work in December and Jan... Never thought I'd say that!!

Haha, I don't think the GRE counts for much in the end, just I wanted a 90th percentile plus on Q for my ego. Also I will "major" in methods so I think a higher score is needed, I presume? In any case, it's time to polish the SOP, the only source of control still left as you aptly pointed out, and then forget about it all for two months (if we can)!

Thanks mate, the other scores were not bad, 163 Q and 166 V. Hoped for a 165 Q but I'm going to stop complaining (I find myself becoming increasingly French!) It sucks I can't score a fee waiver, will need to shell out 1000+ USD, but that's the game I guess. Hopefully it will be worth it

I'm getting a lot of last minute doubts, but the GRE results are officially out and I scored a decent (5.0) score on writing, so that brought my spirits up a bit. I've just made two apps so far (that cost me 250 USD already...) but working on the next bunch for this weekend. It's go time. Good luck everyone! I hope to read a lot of happy news in Feb-March on this forum (and hopefully give some out myself!)

Dear Professor, I was wondering if you could give me your opinion on this conundrum. I am mostly interested in formal theory applied to political behavior (elections and voting) with a behavioral approach. There are some departments where I am applying where my POI's who study electoral behavior don't exclusively work with formal theory, or if they do they work on other substantive topics (IR etc.). While working on my "fit" section of the SOP I outline that certain POI's work on topics of my interest and others work with the methods of my interest, so suggesting that overall the department is a good fit for me, even though there might not be a POI who does EVERYTHING that I am interested in. Is this something that would make the admissions committee think that I am not a good fit for the program? Is it a good idea to apply only to the departments where there is someone who is a perfect fit to your interests? Thanks a lot for all your help on this forum. I've been lurking around for quite some time and your posts and especially this thread have been very helpful!

welcome to the group welcome to the group! i'm applying in methodology (formal theory). are you as well?

I always thought it was red white blue green for some reason... Is it?

Haha thanks! It wasn't actually a Polisci app: Stanford Political Economics. But hey it counts! How are you doing with yours?

Just submitted my first app... First barrier surmounted!

I don't know why they do that, but I would advise you to not read too much into it. I am sure there are people who got into top programs with a Q score lower than 160. If you did well on your math classes, they can help offset your GRE Q score because they are a much better signal of your quant abilities. If your writing sample has some math it's even better.

I'm inclined to think that this can only be a (very small) problem if you mention in your SOP that you really want to focus on quantitative methods. I was very worried about my GRE score as well, especially because I want to focus on formal theory. But in general if you look at http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_guide.pdf page 31 you'll see that you are in fact doing much better than the majority of the people listing political science as their intended graduate major. Now I know this isn't a clear cut answer to your question, but it's the best I can provide you with! Good luck with your apps.

Ah thanks! I had Axelrod on my POI list and I've read his papers and books but I did not know that Scott Page has worked with Network Theory. That does sound very promising! At Princeton, while there are no senior theorists working on behavioral stuff in the Politics department, there are quite a few at Woodrow Wilson School, Roland Benabou is probably the biggest. In the department of Politics itself there are a few younger theorists who work on behavioral stuff, Matias Iaryczower for example. I also remember reading a paper by Kristopher Ramsay with Mark Fey of Rochester where they investigated mutual optimism and war and had one section on bounded rationality (non-common priors).

Wherever it's possible to put methods as a first choice, I'm doing that. For the relatively small subset of schools where they ask you to add a substantive field in addition to methods I'm thinking of adding comparative, since my POI's are mostly working on comparative. Thanks! Well there are quite a few people modelling electoral competition using bounded rationality, at Stanford GSB there's Jonathan Bendor, at Caltech there's quite a few people, at Michigan there's Arthur Lupia, many theorists at Princeton Political Economy, a good programme on behavioral game theory at FSU etc. All that's at the top of my head, I've done my research though. Even if my POI's don't really work on behavioral game theory per se, I think it's still worthwhile for me to work with them, and I could bring in a fresh perspective. For electoral violence I was thinking of modelling a network game, and there's a lot of people doing work in that as well (given a lot of it is on civil war or ethnic violence, but my idea is to combine with electoral competition). I think I'm going to put Comparative whenever applicable as well; it makes more sense. Thanks for your help!

I just pored over that thread and found that post. That calms me down a bit I guess I will not stop worrying till end Dec, so I might as well enjoy the ride... Hope you guys are doing well in your applications!

Haha, exactly! All fields are interlinked after all! I do agree with you both though, CP seems like a more fitting field. I'll rework my letters around this then.

In general. But one never knows. I can certainly say that American elections, while very interesting, are not my main interest. I am more interested in the questions of why and how people vote, how political parties induce people to vote etc. The only problem is that some departments term comparative politics as the "empirical" study of political phenomena across boundaries, and then I am confused again.

I'm following the "nothing makes you more productive than the last minute" philosophy ^^ More seriously, with work and the lack of liquidity in my bank account till two more days, I'm cutting it quite thin for the Dec 15 deadlines. More prepared for the few Jan ones.

To cut the story short, I'm a little confused to the distinction between the two. I am mostly interested in formal modelling of elections, electoral violence etc. using behavioral game theoretic tools. I would term my interests as political economy or positive political theory. However, for departments where these fields are not explicitly listed I am at a loss. Would my (substantive) interests be inclining towards American Politics seeing that I want to investigate electoral behavior? However, I am not (that) interested in American Political behavior. On the other hand, I don't think my interests fall under Comparative Politics, since I am, at least as of this moment, not thinking of a comparison between different countries/systems, or focus on a particular country. Is there anyone with a similar problem? While I will list Methodology as one of my interests, I think it makes sense to have a substantive interest in political science as well. I just can't get the ideological divides between the fields though; it all seems connected...

Thanks all. Overwhelming evidence in favor (notice the American spelling? ) of changing so that's settled!

The caps do help haha. Thanks!