victorydance

I was under the assumption that non-tenured profs rarely advise Ph.D. students. They might sit on a dissertation committee every once in a while but advising typically takes place after tenure. Maybe it's different in other countries/other fields though.

Well, how exactly did you prepare for the meetings with the professor?

Not good. http://www.lse.ac.uk/government/degreeProgrammes/programmes/phd/About-the-programme/Destinations/PhD-Destinations-1992-2009.aspx http://www.lse.ac.uk/government/degreeProgrammes/programmes/phd/About-the-programme/Destinations/phd-destinations.aspx I believe that in the last 20+ years they have not placed someone in a major research university in the USA (best placement in the US was at Northern Illinois). Does seem fairly marketable in Europe/Canada/Asia though. As a general rule, in order to break into the US market, you need a Ph.D. from a US school (obviously there are exceptions however, but they are rare). Of course, the US isn't the end all be all of the market, but it does cut you market virtually in half.

I am confused at what you are asking. Are you talking about the MSc Comparative Politics program? What exactly do you mean by placement?

The best time to look for apartments in Montreal is in mid-late June. Most leases end at the end of June. Craigslist is usually best, but there are others (kijiji, ect.). I would suggest to find a temporary place for the winter, then find a new place in the summer. You need to be in Montreal to find an apartment that is a good deal. I was renting a two-floor apartment with two other people for $400 each. It is possible to find many places in that price range, but be prepared to live in an old apartment and with multiple room mates. You can find cheaper if you go further. The best areas for a good price range are usually NDG, Cote-de-Neige, Parc LaFontaine and Mile-End/Upper Plateau. Anything downtown, lower plateau, ghetto, or around there is going to run for at least $600+. $15,000 is enough for Montreal. Besides rent being cheap, other costs of living are good as well, such as food and produce. For a city of its size, Montreal is one of the most affordable places to live in NA. No point in living in on-campus living in Montreal. There are so many apartments available it's going to be a rip-off. Secondly, Montreal is highly walkable and also has really great public transit.

Honestly, it really doesn't matter at all how 'smart' you are. There are always going to be people who know more than you do. The only thing that matters IMO for school and/or academia is how hard you are willing to work and how many sacrifices you are willing to make (as long as you are at some certain level of intelligence of course). I was of average intelligence in high school, average intelligence in my community college, and average intelligence in the top 2 university in my country. I finished first class honours and won awards for the best honours thesis. You know what I learned? The people who think they are smart and are 'all-stars' really aren't. The people who knew their limitations and worked to improve them are the real 'smart' kids in the class. If this feels like a 'if you work hard enough you can beat anyone' post, it isn't. The sooner you realize that everyone is smarter than you in a certain way, or on a certain topic, the better. Because at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter if you can beat someone in an argument in class, or know a bunch of stuff about X, Y, and Z.

Agreed. This is especially true for applicants coming straight from undergrad. If you haven't done any significant research work, how will they know if you have the chops? Everyone does an honours thesis. Undergrads who secure RA positions show they know what they want and they are driven to do research. Plus, these relationships often garner the best LORs. This may be more difficult to achieve coming from a LAC than a major research university, but you need to try to get a position as an RA. Target the profs who's interests align with yours and ask if they are looking for RAs over the summer or whenever. Also, don't spend too much of your time and resources on your English major or projects. This will not help you at all.

I only travel alone. No commitments, no sacrifices, whatever you want to do, you do. The thing that people don't realize is that you are never 'alone.'

I will be applying this upcoming fall. I asked my profs for letters for the next year before I left my university. Officially started the process this month. Already edited my SOP a number of times, sent it to people who have done grad school, and my letter writers. It will be constantly worked on until fall. Started studying about 25 hours a week for the GRE, will take in mid-late September. CV is for the most part done. My writing sample is for the most part done, just need to continue to polish it. Once applications open I will do everything necessary so that I can send a doc to all my letter writers with the links. This will probably be done by the time I write the GRE. Then I'll send those emails out. So really, all I am working on intensively is my GRE and SOP. I have the benefit of being independently financially secure, so I can basically devout all my time towards my applications. But there are a lot of them, should be sending out ~15 applications so I have a lot of work to do.

Definitely retake the GRE. Are you not a native speaker? I find it really hard to believe how you could get such a low verbal score. It's going to take some serious studying to get those scores to a respectable level.

It was a theoretical situation of ceteris paribus. Most top graduate students (ie, the ones you are competing with to get placements) don't do 'shit work.' That was my point. Saying 'yeah well, it really only matters about YOU and your work for placement" is false hope. The reality of the situation is that no matter how good your work is, there are dozens of other graduate students hitting the same market who did just as well as you.

I don't agree. In any given year, there are going to be hundreds of applicants for TT jobs who have just as good work and resumes as you do. You could write a bomb dissertation and publish two articles in AJPS during grad school, but at the end of the day, so did a bunch of other people. It's a combination of where you studied, who you studied under, your work, and luck. But the first two are what really matters in the end.

I have no idea how a quarter system works. But 2 + 2 is teaching two (approx.) 15 week classes each semester (these classes typically have 2-3 hours of lecture per week). So whatever that is comparable to in a quarter system is probably your answer. Not sure how it works at LACs. But there have been some studies on this subject (for research unis) that basically show that ranking has a huge effect, but any other factor is negligible or doesn't appear to have a large effect. Subjectively, I would say adviser plays a large role as well. But that variable is often hard to hash out because typically higher ranked programs have greater dissertation advisers on average.

I don't see any evidence to suggest there are large geographical factors. Some universities do have histories of hiring ph.d. students from X university, but that's about it.

It has a huge effect. Way bigger than it actually should. Many of R1 positions in the US are utterily dominated by top 5-10 schools.

If I am reading this right, you have three full-time semesters of withdrawals? As in like 15 Ws? If that is the case, you should definitely devout a sentence or two to explaining the situation in your SOP. One or two Ws on your transcript isn't a big deal, but having that many is a big red flag if you don't provide a valid reason (which yours is). Just re-read the last sentence of your post. You should be alright then.

I think it's just a way to compare dozens of applicants in a way that GPA does not provide (because it's so incomparable university to university).

^ What's your interests? I'll be applying for Pittsburgh next year because they have three solid profs who do work in comparative politics in Latin America.

Man, applying to science Ph.D.s seems a lot harder than many social sciences. It feels like there is an 'extra' step involved in the process because you have to actually get X prof to accept you. And that means either establishing a relationship beforehand, or nailing your interview. Sounds tough. That being said, next cycle I would spend a bit more time researching prospective schools and applying more broadly (don't read this as applying anywhere...there are definitely more than 4 universities out there that are good fits for virtually any field). Your application is pretty solid, but 4 schools doesn't leave much room for error. It also might help trying to be more aggressive making connections with potential profs beforehand.

Obviously no one here can answer this question. However, I would imagine the language requirement would be related to your research. For example, if you are studying (and especially writing your thesis) on X country's history, then you would need to show that you are competent in that country's language. Depending on the country, it's pretty hard to be able write a thesis (especially in history) if you cannot read or understand original sources.

On average, LAC positions are less desirable. Considering that the vast majority of Ph.D. students are interested in research, positions that place more emphasis on teaching are in less demand than more research based positions, such as TT positions at research universities. Whether it is 'easier' to get an LAC position is hard to quantify. Some people from even the highest ranked universities place in LACs. For example, last year two Harvard Ph.D. students placed in LACs. That being said, not all LACs are equal of course. Colleges like Swathmore, Amherst, Williams, ect. can provide a pretty nice standard of living for their professors, especially the fact that you live a much less demanding and stressful life compared to someone in an R1. I have never really understood the whole pretentiousness of Ph.D. students, like somehow if you can't nail an R1 TT job you are a failure. Sometimes, some people fit in more in a less demanding environment, and some people really just like teaching. On the flip side, Ph.D. programs open up a lot of possibilities in the private and public sectors as research trained people are always in demand. For example, getting hired as a high-level policy analyst for the government would be a fantastic job and is only really possible by attaining a Ph.D. in some discipline within the social sciences. Ph.D. programs may be more geared towards training people for academia. But the world has changed, research skills are highly regarded in the marketplace and there just isn't enough TT positions to go around.

I would think safety would be one of the last things to consider when picking grad schools. The chances of you being a victim of any crime outside of petty crimes is incredibly low, in any of these places.

It's not a big deal. Just say something like "I received other offers that I feel are a better fit, therefore after much thought I have decided to decline the offer at X school."

The problem is that there is nothing preventing people from better programs in doing the same thing. In fact, people in good programs have comparative advantages of publishing good articles because the quality of other graduate students in their cohort will be greater (ie, better pool of people to co-author with), and also they will be working with profs who are doing a lot of research and might have better connections. Getting placed at lower ranked universities is like being in a footrace with lead boots. You may succeed, but your chances are slimmer in an already ridiculously convoluted pool of applicants. It also depends just how 'picky' you are. Getting placed in a LAC isn't the end of the world, but some people think it is.

They won't care about your writing scores dropping. I think for the most part it is generally frowned upon if you get a worse score when you retake the GRE.