Censorry

Seems a huge amount of people are waiting for BU, including me, which tells you about the size of their "waiting list". I think it would be more accurate to call that "the list of people we will reject later."

ze yes you are very right. Well if you are highly ranked on the waiting list of such a school your chances of getting admission are probably quite high. The question of course is whether you should accept

I think I am also on an unofficial waiting list, they told me they would let me know by next week, but it might take longer if the initially accepted students take a long time to decide. I am wondering, would be it okay to ask about your ranking on the waiting list? Also, statistically speaking, what are the chances of getting admission if you are on a waiting list (considering my uni is not top 25)? Also about the size of these waiting lists: I mean if they have room for example for only 15 students, it doesn't make sense to have a waiting list of 15 people since there is no way that all the accepted students would decline the offer. I would guess the ratio to be 2/3 or so, I mean for 15 accepted people, a waiting list of 10. What do you think?

Hi Berna, I am also a Turkish citizen applying to PhD programs in the U.S. I think your profile is perfect outside of the GRE, and don't worry about the GRE at all because it only serves as a cut off point. That is to say, as a preliminary elimination. Those cut-off points are considerably lower for non-native speakers, I learned this directly from the admissions committees themselves. My GRE is high but it probably won't bring me anything. If you have a good SoP and writing sample, I think you are in. Best of Luck to you.

hah I must say, your analysis is not bad at all, if this was written in the English language, it is very probable that you would have gotten a high mark.

Oh I think it means this: you can never distance yourself from the present, however, you can distance yourself from two points in the past and make a connection between them. For example in 2020 you will be distant from both 2000 and 2010, therefore - according to the absurd logic of the GRE question - you will be able to understand how 2000 influenced your decisions in 2010. So this means you can never connect the past and the present, you can only connect two points in the past, since then you will have distanced yourself from both points. __________2000_______2010________present (you making the connection between 2000&2010) __________2010_______present______future (you will be able to make the connection between your old present which has now become your past and 2010) I don't agree by the way.

Your scores are so good that I want to sleep with them, My scores were 164 Verbal and 161 Math, with 20 days of preparation and 3 hours of sleep before the exam which probably destroyed my math score. I am also non-native, I don't think it makes much of a difference if your English is good, I actually think they should have tougher cut-off points for non-natives. I also scored 4.0 on the AWA, Issue essay destroyed me, I was like, what the hell is this dumb question, before I knew it the time went by and I ended up writing the shittiest essay I wrote in my life. The second argument essay is real easy though. I think I scored like 3.0 on the issue and 5.0 on the argument. It would be great if we could know that. Also, the guy in the exam threatened to report me in the middle of the exam because I had forgotten to take my i pod off. Then he did not because I obviously did not have headphones to use the I Pod, but it still destroyed my morale. That was some day.

Hi I would happily exchange SoPs with you. I am also done with my preliminary version (until tomorrow I will be), let me know if you are interested

Ok thanks for the feedback!

Okay, here is what I am interested in, international financial institutions and private aid allocation, which are both clearly IPE subjects. CPE is the study of how political context affects economic policy choice and outcomes. But that is also something I want to explore. Furthermore, I did an MA in international relations and have a strong theoretical background there. However, I also want to EXPLORE, if I am accepted, the comparative method as the Unis I am applying have strenghts there. So if I say I will choose CP as a major field and IPE as a subfield, does that sound weird? Or can I jjust mention IPE and also that I want to explore comparative politics. I mean we have damn 2 years to decide! I really don't like these arbitrary boundaries.

IPE is sometimes included as a sub-field of international relations, for example that was the case in my MA program. In some US universities too, IPE is included as a subfield of IR. On the other hand, some universities do IPE with a comparative perspective, and include it as a subfield of Comparative Politics. Boston's IPE class for example is listed under comparative politics. So when I say in my SoP that I am interested in comparative politics, particularly IPE will that be a problem? To make matters worse, there is also something called comparative political economy the subjects of which differ from IPE. I am interested in exploring both but have way more experience with IPE. So when I am choosing a major field, I wanted to choose comparative politics and IPE as a subfield. Please answer if you know what you are talking about. Thank you

Thanks I will look into it. Well if you apply to 15 schools obviously you spread the risk and your chances are better. But you may also spread the risk by having a couple of back up options. Or if there is sufficient ranking difference between the schools you apply.

Thanks for the feedback! I was always of the opinion that if I can't get into any of these 4, then there is probably something wrong with my application. Also, I asked for all my LoRs, but I will consider your suggestion, maybe I can squeeze two more applications in. How many schools did you apply? I was feeling confident about my applications due to my GRE scores as they are quite competitive considering I am an int. student (verbal :164 / quant:161) But I keep reading that GRE scores don't matter much and that SoP makes all the difference, which does make sense. So I am buying this Ashton book.

Hi, I will apply for a political science PhD program as an international applicant. I am making 4 applications and I have realized that my below list doesn't make much sense. 1) Boston University 2) Duke 3) George-Washington 4) Georgetown I am considering taking Georgetown out because I heard getting funding is really difficult. In fact, I have no idea why Georgetown was on that list except for the presence of someone whose work I am very interested in. I am interested in questions of both comparative and international political economy. What do you think about the other three choices? I love how Duke's program is organized, but getting admitted is of course not that easy. Boston is a bit far off in terms of ranking, but I like the city, and I hear the program is re-organizing itself and getting better. In any case, I would love feedback on Boston University if anyone has any inside knowledge. Also, if you have any suggestions with regards to the list, please feel free.