Dear friends! I am interested in apllying for PhD in political science in 2016 fall. My major focus will be institutional analysis, economic development and environmental governance. I am an international student (Chinese national) now studying in a US university for my master degrees. Type of Undergrad Institution: a college in Mainland China Major: English and Economics (double degrees) Undergrad GPA: 3.7 (converted by World Education Services) Type of Grad: MPA and M.A. in Economics (double degrees) in the University of Southern California. The MPA program has a good rank, not so much for the Econ program. Grad Focus: development economics, environmental policy, institutions Grad GPA: 3.87 GRE: 157 V, 170 Q, 4.0 AWA Any Special Courses: basic maths for econ majors (calculus I&II, linear algebra, probability, statistics, real analysis), multivariate statistical analysis, operations research Letters of Recommendation: All three letters come from full professors. One comes from my thesis advisor at Econ department. He also taught me a graduate course (A, second highest score in the class; the highest is a PhD student) and we are now coauthoring a paper (undergoing). Another one comes from my faculty advisor of MPA program; he taught me for 2 semersters. I am his RA and he promised to write me a strong letter. The third letter comes from the former dean. He taught me an environmental policy course, and I got an A. This letter will not be as strong as the previous two since we do not have further connections besides the course and few offcie hour meetings. Research Experience: 1. master thesis undergoing; it was presented at a workshop at Peking University this summer chaired by Prof. Justin Yifu Lin. 2. a working paper coauthored with my advisor about Chinese industry associations and their influence on the economy and firms' behavior. I am responsible for the data work and empirical analysis. 3. RA for my another advisior for his book project. Teaching Experience: one semester TA for a graduate course (operations research) Subfield/Research Interests: institutional analysis, economic development, environmental governance, political economy of China Other: native in Chinese My target is to get into a top 30 political science program. My major disadvantages are: (1) GRE is below the average, especially for verbal and AW, but I think this is the best score I can do... (2) My recommendation letters come from Econ department or public policy school. I do not have a letter from a political scientist. (3) I do not have formal training in comprative politics or political methodology. Questions: (1) I am now a little confused about statement of purpose. I wish to be specific about my research perspective and hence write it a little bit academic (since I cited some academic work) and people advised me not to. I am not very clear about the function of this writing. Given that I have some shortcomings in my package, I would love to get some advice on this writing to improve my chance of getting into a top program. (2) Please recommend some programs to me or tell me which programs are 100% sure out of my reach. Here are the programs I am interested in: Stanford, UCB, U of Michigan, MIT, Cornell, NYU, U of Wisconson-Madison, U of Washington in St Louise, Indiana University (3) any thoughts about improving my application is welcome! Thanks!
Hi! You are right about my GRE grades. I think that is what I have and will not retake it. I will take your suggestions for SOP and talk about my passion for the research.
