victorydance

I like both. My favourite part of research is research design. I really like doing literature reviews, organizing sources, collecting data, and building my theory and hypothesis. But I do like analyzing data and the composition phase as well.

May be he didn't feel like your project was good enough as a dissertation? I don't care how many hours you put in, no one finishes a bomb ass dissertation in three years these days.

This is a good thing, not a bad thing. I will say though: only emphasize what is relevant to the programs/research interests in your SOP. Don't go on and on about every RA position you had, but just list them on your CV and say you have extensive research experience in your SOP.

Sorry, I made an assumption (wrongly I guess) that statistics was similar to most other graduate programs where your research interests have to be relatively defined and you need to craft some researchable questions.

I don't have any working papers and obviously no publications. If you have presented at a conference or something, then yeah you could have a section for articles.

My sections are education, research experience, research interests, language institutes and languages, and awards/grants. It comes out to two pages. I didn't 'expound' on anything. Everything is just titles and dates, no descriptions. Anything that is especially relevant is mentioned in my SOP.

Some childhood story or random anecdote as a hook that has really nothing to do with anything.

A year living in Spain could easily bump you to an intermediate level if you don't shy away from speaking Spanish, but you need to both converse and take some Spanish classes. I would advise finding Spanish roommates and particularly looking for a Spanish girlfriend.

^ Yeah, it's definitely possible with those types of frames.

This is perfectly correct.

No one expects you to know exactly what you intend to pursue for your dissertation. However, your research interests should be narrowed enough to find some kind of gap in the literature and present some questions that you might investigate.

I would never buy a second-hand mattress. But the chances of bedbugs in a frame (particularly a standard metal one) is null. Frames have no ability to host bedbugs if they are cleaned properly.

No, you don't. It's up to you whether you do or not. Many won't reply, the vast majority of emails will not lead to anything. In political science, faculty members have no say in the admissions process (unless they are on the admission committee of course).

I have never been asked to turn on anything.

Bed frames are incredibly easy to get second-hand. Why buy a new one?

I think for a few reasons: 1) Too many people apply to academic/doctoral programs without even knowing what research is really about. People with research experience have a much better understanding of what research is, and if they want to do it. 2) Many RA positions are competitive, particularly for undergrads (and especially in the social sciences). Therefore, if you have passed that barrier that means that you were a good student and a professor hired you because of that reason. 3) While many entry-level RA tasks are pretty mundane and simple-minded, you need to build these skills early so that you learn them before you are a grad student. If there are grad students that come into grad school not knowing basic literature review skills and data collecting skills, then they are way behind the curve. 4) Simply put, it is experience. Any job or applicant for something always has a leg up on others if they have experience. And to be fair, while the majority of my almost year of RA work has been mostly simple tasks that many people could have done, a good chunk was quite specialized as well. There were tasks that required a specialized knowledge in my sub-field that other people just don't simply have. One of my professors leaned on me pretty hard for one of his papers and said it wouldn't have been as good as it was if it wasn't for me; I wouldn't have been able to do that without a heightened knowledge of the literature and intricacies of his sub-field.

I don't put any descriptions in my CV. My personal feeling is it looks amateur. Secondly, CVs are supposed to be precise and quick to read. Any explanations of what I did/what I learnt from my research experiences that are relevant are put into my SOP. Besides, I think admission committees have a pretty general idea of what a "research assistant" position as an undergrad looks like (read: virtually nothing substantial). I really don't have to mention that I did literature reviews or collected data for professors on my CV, it's pretty much assumed and not that noteworthy in the first place.

No offence, but if you got 60% average in a MA program at a low-ranked school, what makes you think you will be able to handle a Ph.D. program at a top ranked program?

I am more concerned with academics and laypeople calling everything under the sun as plagiarism. There is nothing about this that can qualify as plagiarism.

What do you mean accredited? It needs to be American for it to be accredited. As far as accepted, yes, of course it is. It is considered as the best university in Spain in many publications/rankings. It depends exactly what you mean by 'useful.' What exactly are you using your MA to leverage for?

Know your sub-field > Know the best scholars in your sub-field and related fields > find out where they are > look for universities with multiple potential advisers > apply there.

Thinking about possibly buying a condo/studio/one-bedroom apartment if I get accepted into a ph.d. program in a place like South Bend or New Haven. Have about 70K in savings and I have a family member who is willing to match that for an investment. Don't want anything to do with a mortgage whatsoever. The only reason I would do this is because with a stipend and other funding, that would put me at somewhere between 20-30K salary with relatively no living costs which would be great.

Usually once a year, for a week or maybe two for the last 5 years. Sometimes I go a couple of times if I need to see a specialist or need to do something bureaucratic in person. But usually only once a year at Christmas time.

Any backpack with a separate area for a laptop in the main compartment or a separate one on the outside that can fit your laptop is fine.

Get into the mentality that your home is where you are. But as far as myself, no, because I don't really have a "home." I live a pretty vagabond lifestyle.