zapatos

Yes! Although I don't want to overload myself and am doubting my knowledge of methodologies and my ability to pick a viable topic, I really want to see what the process of writing a much longer paper is like and to really dig deep into one topic.

Hi gradcafe posters, I'm a junior who will be graduating after two more semesters from an Ivy League school. I'm majoring in political science, and I hope to go straight into a Ph.D. program in international relations (with another focus on political theory, too). I know that most people don't go straight from undergrad to a Ph.D. program, but I'm very confident that this is what I want to do and hope my college experience shows that. I've been doing relevant research with professors here since the beginning of my sophomore year, and will continue with it until I graduate. (My GPA is about a 3.94, if that matters). My question for anyone who knows more about this than I do is whether admissions committees would like to see that I've done, or am working on, a senior thesis through my department. Because of scheduling, I cannot apply for the normal honors seminar at my school that would allow me to fulfill requirements and write the paper at the same time. So, I'd have to contact an advisor on my own and write it independently of my class schedule and current research assistant positions. Is it worth it? Does it look that good to have a 60-80 page paper under my belt, even if I'm already assisting with professors' research and have been writing 25 page term papers for my classes already, which I can use for writing samples in my application? I should also add that I hope to apply to top programs, such as Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and Harvard, and that I'm taking the GRE this summer after intensive studying. Thank you in advance for your help! I'm really confused about this right now.