Ziz

Totally agree. 70 is a great mark; 75 is about as good as it gets - at least in humanities/social science. On the other hand, because classifications are so broad, I think UK grad schools take other factors more into account - LOR, research proposal, etc. etc.

Ok in the UK, you get grades in particular courses/exams but when you graduate you are given a classification. Order as follows: First Class Honours Upper Second (also seen as 2:1) Lower Second (also see as 2:2) Third Pass VERY roughly, a First is over 3.7 GPA, an Upper Second is 3.5 and anything under that I don't know because most PhD programs require at least a 2:1 so I haven't investigated what the lower classes correspond to. Also note that if they give you the grades required in percent, that that does not correspond at all to the US/Canadian system. In the UK 70% is a very good mark and is an A (First). So if they say they require a minimum of 70% they'll require a much higher mark from an American.

I've never been through the US admissions process before (this will be my first time) but I have done the UK version for my masters degree and am now applying for PhDs in the UK. If you are applying to an MPhil or MSc program you will likely not have to have a detailed proposal ready. Usually you just need a general idea of what you're interested in. Most universities will let you count your MPhil as the first year or two of your PhD so it's a good way of getting into a PhD without doing the whole proposal upfront. On the other hand, if you are applying to a PhD program, you will need a full proposal. Most programs require a masters degree so presumably that degree helped you narrow down what you want to study. Keep in mind that the nature of a British PhD is not as comprehensive as American programs. You don't have 2 years of coursework before you start writing your thesis (because you already did that in your masters) so you need to show that you will be ready on teh first day to start your thesis research/writing. My proposal is almost 4,000 words long and taht seems to be the norm!

Don't take this the wrong way, but do you think maybe you were too confident going in? You sound very confident in your abilities (justifiedly, I'm sure) so you may not have spent as much time preparing for the AW section of the test. A lot of people dismiss it and think 'I'm a good writer; I'll be fine' without bothering to study strategies that contribute to a good score - i.e. the typical high school intro, point 1, point 2, point 3, conclusion structure is all they're looking for. Change up your sentence structure, keep it interesting, but no points for flowery, showy language that takes too long to read. In case you're wondering, I was guilty of all of that myself. I was cocky about my writing ability until I did practice essays and got bad scores. I finally gave in, wrote the way they wanted me to and got a 6.0 on the actual GRE.

I know what you mean. I bought the Princeton Review book and was doing the practice computer tests beforehand, doing really really well (like 790 in both sections). I`m normally a very good test taker but something about the computer and the room and the headsets just made me panic and I wasted the first few minutes on one random math question that`s supposed to be easy! I was also recovering from a concussion and tried to reschedule but they told me it would cost $100 to reschedule, plus the accommodation and travel fees I`d already booked so I just did it injured. But in my opinion no test should cost that much money to change when you`re ill.

Do you have any academic writing samples you could send? I realize that you`re a journalist but it looks like the programme you`re applying to is academic. Since you`re planning to send 2 samples, I would send one article and one academic-style sample, ideally on an IR-related topic. The point of the writing sample isn`t just to see your writing style, but also how you analyze issues, think and express your ideas and to show that you are capable of graduate-level academic work.

Yeah I have a masters from LSE and got into Oxford for the 2007 start for a PhD but realized for various reasons that it just wasn't the right time/thing for me at the time. I don't know about the SSHRC masters rules, just that the PhD awards can be taken outside Canada - unlike OGS (if you're from Ontario)! I'm totallhy in the same boat - thought I had safeties until I found out they weren't safe at all!!

I did my undergrad at Queen's. I got full funding the last two times I applied to the UK so I didn't have to worry about external scholarships. But SSHRC is always a possibility, though I'm not sure I'll meet the deadline this year. There's also Bombardier and Commonwealth scholarships...

I know the concept of a 'safety school' - one you are fairly confident you will get into. However, not being from the States, I'm not all that familiar with the reputations of various schools and some places where I, a foreigner, would assume weren't highly ranked, turn out to be very well regarded (e.g. Ohio State - I had no idea!). So I'm trying to put together my list of schools to apply to and I'd like to include some safety schools, but I'm very much in the dark and was hoping you could help me out. My Stats: Applying to political theory GPA: Roughly 3.7 overall, 3.85 in the last 2 years of undergrad from a well-known Canadian school that I"m not sure anyone in the States would have heard of. Masters: From LSE, got a distinction which is the highest you can get, but I have no idea what the GPA equivalent of that is. GRE: 710 verbal (98%); 720 quant (75%); 6 AW I know a lot comes down to the writing sample, SOP and letters of recommendation, but as I am fairly confident about my writing sample (my dissertation which got the highest grade in my masters programme) and letters are good (I had previously been accepted at Oxford with the same letters), I'd just like a general idea of what my chances at American schools would be. It seems UK and Canadian programmes are much less competitive and as I've never applied to an American school before, I really don't know where to start.

As I was drafting my research proposal (applying in the UK where we don't do SOPs), I realized that exactly what I was trying to say at one point was basically a line from Spiderman - namely "With great power comes great responsibility." Would it be inappropriate to inject a line of humour into my proposal and reference it?

Right now I'm most interested in applying theories of justice to future people. But I'm also interested in applied ethics in all cases - non human animals, ethics of war, abortion, etc. etc. I also love metaethics and theories of moral motivation. So I sit on the ever-so-thin fence between political theory and philosophy as well. Most of the literature I end up reading for my research is by philosophers, but 'justice theory' is often housed in political science departments. Frankly I'd prefer a political science degree anyway in case I can't find an academic job at the end of this and I need to get a 'real world'' job. I just have a feeling that "PhD Political Science" makes people think you know things about the real world, whereas I think a lot of people see philosophy as belonging up in the ivory tower and graduates not having transferable skills. We all know that's not true, but it is the perception of my friends at least. The LSE masters was great, though I think it has veered away from the philosophical side of things a bit since I was there. At the time we did courses in 'methods' of politlcal theory which was essentially some metaethics, relativism, theories of truth, reasons, and a dash of epistemology. The substantive courses included quite a bit of applied ethics, multiculturalism, etc. but there was always the "Liberalist Theory" and "Theory of Voting" to appease the less philosophically-inclined. There were also political thought courses available - reading Plato, Aristotle, etc.

I would agree with readeatsleep about the benefit of a Masters degree. I did mine at LSE in Political Theory which ended up sitting nicely on the border between politics and philosophy.

Is BC really considered to be in the top 70-80 (30 places below 40-50)? I have seen it consistently ranked in at least the top 50.

I'd be nervous about that too! A friend of mine did his study abroad year at Oxford and his grades were converted into a GPA on his transcript. So when he got above 70, it translated to 4.0 which is much less misleading. I think if it were me, I would probably include a short explanation in my application ( not necessarily in the SOP) that explains that the following courses were taken in the UK where the grading system is different. My worry would be that they tried to do a cumulative average without noticing the fact that they were taken in the UK.

I had a good experience with someone from Edinburgh. She said she'd read my full proposal, give me advice on how to improve it, etc. etc. and then said she would be willing to be my advisor if I got in.

I would also point out that while there are always merits to living on the subway lines, the subway shuts down around 1:30am so if you're the type to be out until last call, make sure you're located somewhere an all night bus or streetcar goes to.

I graduated from LSE a couple of years ago so if anyone has any questions about residence/housing/areas of London this application cycle, ask away!

I think they probably are aware because so many applicants are either from the UK or studied abroad there. I did my masters there and we actually have a diploma supplement that's included in our transcripts that explains that a 70 is actually an excellent mark and actually equivalent to an A as opposed to the B- or C it would be in the US/Canada.

I think this is pretty rough (as you said). My school doesn't do GPA (we do percentage averages for everything) but if we followed these guidelines, the top student in the class would have less than a 3.0 because 85s just don't exist and 99% of the time the best mark in the class is lower than 84.