oasis

Being too strategic about your research interests is never a good idea. If you don't love what you're doing and have a genuine interest in it, you're not going to be happy or productive.

What I meant was, if you intend to apply for PhD programs to start Fall 2012 i.e. the deadlines are Dec 2011/Jan 2012, you only have eight months to prepare. If you apply Fall 2013, you have another year. If you apply for a terminal MA (to start Fall 2011, this September), which would give you one semester's worth of coursework by the Fall 2012 deadline, and allow you to finish the MA by the time you apply Fall 2013, the deadlines for those are very very soon. Like, this week. I'm not a theorist so I can't speak to which MA programs are best for that, but in general, some usual PhD feeder programs are Chicago MAPSS/CIR and Columbia QMSS, along with the usual terminal MAs at NYU, Columbia etc. These will give you a broader exposure. You should note that PhD admissions committees are holistic, that is, you might win over the theorists, but you have to impress the comparativists and IRists on the committee as well to make the cut. Some terminal MAs have funding available, typically some kind of discounted tuition, offered on a competitive basis. In some rare cases they offer a full scholarship and stipend. In some other cases, you can apply for a TA job to help cover costs.

Don't feel too bad. Admissions in normative political theory is ridiculously competitive. You have a couple problems: 1. You applied to 4 schools, which is far fewer than the norm (All my advisers said to apply 10-12). 2. As a foreign student, you are further disadvantaged in normative theory admissions, which in my opinion is heavily dependent on LORs from known quantities in normative theory. It is really unfair, but that's how it is, and I'm thankful I'm not a (normative) theorist. If you were a formal/positive theorist, that's a different story. 3. Your undergrad in PSIR sounds more practitioner-oriented, and your CLC major, doesn't make it clear to me that you have a background or interest in normative political theory that shows you know what the subfield is about, what the current debates are etc. If you want to try again for normative theory in Fall 2012/2013, it is not too late (I think the deadlines are end of this week or next?) to apply for terminal MAs, which may help fix problems 2 and 3, depending on where you go and how you do. You'll also learn more about the theory world and figure out more places you're a good fit for, fixing problem 1. You may also find that you like the other subfields of political science and make a switch, which would make your life a lot easier. I would give you better advice if you told us more about your expectations and preferences.

Your question isn't being framed well. Of course the faculty is good and the MA can help for future PhD apps. The question is, compared to what? What are the other options?

Try to identify more people at each place that you might be interested in working with, not just the famous scholars. You don't have a lot of time to form these relationships if you apply for Fall 2012. Seriously consider Fall 2013. You may also want to consider other career options available to you if you decide later that you don't want to apply for PhD programs. Columbia may be better in that regard, but I don't know for sure what their MA placement is like.

I think you need to have an honest conversation with the phd program dgs about what your plans are, and whether they are supportive of that. This needs to happen right now. If you go there and spring this on them later, it might be better to have not gone there at all.

I would also add that LORs are perhaps the least meritocratic criteria, since pretty much everyone has glowing letters from people that think the world of their students, and thus are all heavily discounted unless the writer is well known to the adcom. That is why I would caution against taking up the MA to apply in the next round (F'12). Assuming you don't already have great connections at BC, you wouldn't even have one semester to make those connections at NYU. If you want to develop them within that timeframe, you have to start Right Now somehow. If not you may have to wait another cycle.

The way to get into a good polisci program is to show that you will be a successful political scientist, and the best way to show this is to actually try to be one right now. Read the latest articles, look at conference working papers to see what the cutting edge stuff is in your area. And then start doing that. If you don't get a journal pub out of it, at least you'll have a good writing sample and a strong sense for the SOP. You'd be surprised how few MA students do this - they tend to treat grad school just like undergrad, go to classes get good grades and that's it. That's not what its about.

My impression is that admissions in theory is probably much more LOR based than any other subfield.

EITM at WashU and also in Europe. ECPR also has other summer methods stuff.

If money is no issue, go to NYU. You could get letters from faculty known to adcoms, and could also get a practitioner type job afterward that would be a springboard for top 10s. If money matters, go to HK and take the scholarship, planning to do the coursework and leave early with an MA/MPhil. Use that time to prepare your apps for the top 10, though you would have to work harder at getting in with renown scholars and publishing somewhere.

One would hope that the first thing you learn at the top programs is humility and tact.

He is clearly referring to applicants who are Chinese in the sense that they are applying directly from universities on the mainland (beida tsinghua etc), and not by their ethnicity or nationality. Of course your MA in the states would obviate those concerns. The usual caveats apply: reputable school, relevant program, doing well, getting good letters etc. As for TOEFL/GRE, the scores probably come with test center codes or test dates that fall within your MA period. Finally, chill out. It is still February. Let the sorting process trickle down and you should see some offers materialize sometime before Apr 15. Realist and PHiggins can probably tell you that people do get offers off the waitlists in late March and April and beyond.

One would think that fraud would be done in a more convincing manner. Identical scores, letters, essays and statements? That's just sloppy. Whichever agency they paid to manage the admissions game is ripping them off big time.

Certainly, I totally agree about how idiosyncratic and individual-specific this process is (and should be), but for some given applicant, knowing whether his/her profile merits a reasonable chance of success, can mean saving a few thousand dollars of application fees and months of wasted effort into the app process as well as heartbreak. I guess what I'm asking is, what does the median admit at your program look like. Knowing full well that the stats on paper do not fully capture their unique qualities.