testingtesting

None of LORs are from UG. All are MA faculty at different university...

It's not very noticeable because our transcripts do not list a semester-by-semester or year-by-year GPA, only overall cumulative. Of course they will see the grades, but it's perhaps useful to make VERY clear so they don't overlook....or disagree?

Do I mention upward GPA trends in my SOP, an additional attachment, CV, where? On most applications (political science PhD) I can only enter overall GPA. I have included a line on my CV breaking down my GPA by upper-level courses, last 2 years, cumulative. I have thought about mentioning it in my SOP, but some places only want 500 word SOPs. Maybe an additional document upload? Worried about it getting lost then. My first 2 years of GPA were nearly a 3.1 while my last 2 years were nearly a 4.0. Therefore my overall GPA is around a 3.5 but if you exclude my first year or two, it's very competitive. Thanks.

In. Anyone have any advice for the below 4 questions (cross-posted elsewhere) on my candidacy? __________________________________ Undergraduate in Political Science from middle-tier university with MPP from elite British university applying for PhD in Comparative Politics/Political Economy for 2015. Nearly all post-grad work was in Economics, Statistics, or Government departments, effectively giving me an MSc in quantitative social research methods plus an MSc Public Policy. (1) How should I treat poor performance in my 1st year of undergrad in my SOP/CV? My overall GPA was 3.5 but was 3.70 over my last 2 years. Additionally, my overall Political Science GPA was 3.59, but exhibited a massively upward trend: excluding my 1st year it was 3.74, with a 3.71 over the last 2 years. (2) Do I opt for 4 letters or drop a strong letter from a academic in sociology and pick up an okay one from someone in comparative? I have 3 amazing letters but only 2 of them are from political scientists and none are in my subfield. The 3rd is a tenured sociologist. I can get a good-but-not-amazing letter from an assistant professor who is a rising star in my field of interest but not tenured because VERY young. (3) Would I be competitive in any of the following tiers (see qualifications below)? Tier 1: Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale Tier 2: Columbia, MIT, Berkeley, Michigan Tier 3: UCLA, WUSTL, NYU, Duke Tier 4: Wisconsin, UNC, Cornell Tier 5: Rochester, Northwestern, Texas, Minnesota (4) Is it appropriate to list non-academic publications in my CV (i.e. published NYTimes Op-Ed or many short WSJ letters to the editor)? _________________________________________ UGrad GPA: Overall: 3.50 / Last 2 Years: 3.70 UGrad Political Science GPA: Overall: 3.59 / Last Year: 3.92 / Last 2 Years: 3.71 / All Years But 1st: 3.74 MPA (Public Policy) GPA: ~3.65-3.67 (Graduating from British system with a 70 average [4.0] but largely because I have marks in the 80s and 1 mark of 59). GRE: 168 Quantitative, 168 Qualitative Graduate-level statistics coursework: econometrics, statistical computing, simulation methods Mathematics: Completed through Calculus II Research Experience: 1 RAship in economic research center at elite university, 1 RAship on interdisciplinary project across politics and social policy department at elite university, 1 year as government health policy researcher, 3 policy research internships in think tanks. Accomplishments: Won Best Paper Award at international public policy conference, 4 small merit-based scholarships and awards ($250 to $5,000) from non-profits and academic centers to attend invite-only seminars/conferences. Publications: Nothing peer-reviewed. Wrote a large technical report for a government department (can't share report, but can acknowledge I wrote it and my name is on it) and MA thesis in comparative politics (serving as writing sample). Submitting a research note to AJPS next month... Many letters (and an op-ed) in newspapers like New York Times. Presentations: Have made formal presentations of my research at graduate student conferences, undergraduate conference, and before UK government, and international organizations (OECD). Letters: 4 letters by young elite university faculty under 40, 3 good and 1 likely generic but from comparative politics: -1 from well-known, tenured methodologist jointly in politics and statistics departments -1 from tenured formal political theorist, not particularly well-known outside of the field I am applying to -1 from non-tenured comparative politics faculty who is seen as a rising star in the field (very young) -1 from tenured professor jointly in sociology department Affiliations: Member of PhD comparative politics research seminar, APSA, university-wide faculty interdisciplinary research group Research Interests: Broadly, political participation and comparative political economy. Specifically: Class-based inequality of political participation, electoral turnout in hybrid regimes, redistribution in new democracies, political determinants of state fiscal capacity.

Bump to see if anyone else has any thoughts.

Stokes, Swensen, and Rosenbluth are decent enough at Yale. I was very interested in working under Heinmueller at MIT because he just does EVERYTHING but he just left for Stanford. Rochester is on the decline however, and their obsessions with formal theory makes me averse to applying. While I enjoy all of the old Riker stuff, I imagine I don't have the mathematics background necessary to become ah davy formal theory user. Also, Washington University in St. Louis has an amazing placement record and some decent faculty since Doug North attracted lots of faculty at the intersection of politics and economics.

Thank you very much for your reply. I'm just trying to get a sense of whether I even have a shot at a place like Stanford or whether I shouldn't apply. I am very busy this summer and don't think I can submit 20 perfect applications, but could submit 8 perhaps. I am very interested in two areas and my research proposal will link them both: (1) Voter Turnout. Specifically: class-biases in cross-country electoral turnout. Two areas I'm very keen to explore following my MA dissertation, which examined this phenomenon in national elections, are the causes of class-biased turnout in hybrid regimes and in European Parliamentary elections. (2) Political Economy (emphasis on redistribution). In particular, exploring the role of capital mobility in shaping voting and redistributive institutions post-democratization. Methodologically I feel comfortable with basic formal theory but I would be interested in learning more. My strengths are cross-national quantitative modeling however and I hope to do more research in that area. Hate qualitative research. The biggest problem is that I don't really have a specific region I want to focus on because (1) I don't have existing expertise in a region, (2) my language abilities are limited, (3) my focus has been on methodological training rather than topical knowledge, (4) I'm interested in cross-national research where 1 region alone is not sufficient sample size. My interests are in Switzerland and most of Latin America for their unique political institutions and Eastern Europe for democratic context. Those tiers took a couple of consideration into account. Tier 1 are automatic. I think Columbia and Berkeley are the best programs for my interests in Tier 2, but the other 2 universities (while on the decline) are too reputable to place in Tier 3. I'm a bit obsessed with NYU but it has a terrible placement record and WUSTL/UCLA are excellent in Tier 3. I'm not impressed with Duke's comparative but I am not well-informed. The Tier 4 and Tier 5 universities have faculty I would be very interested in studying under but poor placement records or I don't feel the department itself has many strong faculty in my research area. For example, Barry Burden at Wisconsin is great, but I'm hesitant about their whole department. Am I mistaken in my beliefs?

Undergraduate in Political Science from middle-tier university with MPP from elite British university applying for PhD in Comparative Politics/Political Economy for 2015 or 2016. Nearly all post-grad work was in Economics, Statistics or Government departments, effectively giving me an MSc in social research methods. (1) How should I treat poor performance in my 1st year of undergrad in my SOP/CV? My overall GPA was 3.5 but was 3.70 over my last 2 years. Additionally, my overall Political Science GPA was 3.59, but exhibited a massively upward trend: excluding my 1st year it was 3.74 and my last year I had a 3.92 in-major. (2) Do I opt for 4 letters or drop a strong letter from a academic in sociology and pick up an okay one from someone in comparative? I have 3 amazing letters but only 2 of them are from political scientists and none are in my subfield. The 3rd is a tenured sociologist. I can get a good-but-not-amazing letter from an assistant professor who is a rising star in my field of interest but not tenured because VERY young. (3) Would I be competitive in any of the following tiers (see qualifications below)? Tier 1: Stanford, Princeton, Harvard, Yale Tier 2: Columbia, MIT, Berkeley, Michigan Tier 3: UCLA, WUSTL, NYU, Duke Tier 4: Wisconsin, UNC Tier 5: Rochester, Northwestern, Texas, Cornell, Minnesota _________________________________________ UGrad GPA: Overall: 3.50 / Last 2 Years: 3.70 UGrad Political Science GPA: Overall: 3.59 / Last Year: 3.92 / Last 2 Years: 3.71 / All Years But 1st: 3.74 MA (Public Policy) GPA: ~3.7 (Upper 2nd in British system, little grade inflation) GRE: 168 Quantitative, 168 Qualitative Graduate-level statistics coursework: econometrics, statistical computing, simulation methods Mathematics: Completed through Calculus II Research Experience: 1 RAship in economic research center at elite university, 1 RAship on interdisciplinary project across politics and social policy department at elite university, 1 year as government health policy researcher, 3 policy research internships in think tanks. Lots of other irrelevant experience. Accomplishments: Won Best Paper Award at international public policy conference, 4 small merit-based scholarships and awards ($250 to $5,000) from non-profits and academic centers to attend seminars. Publications: Nothing peer-reviewed. Wrote a large technical report for a government department (can't share report, but can acknowledge I wrote it and my name is on it) and MA thesis in comparative politics (serving as writing sample). Submitting a research note to AJPS next month. Many letters (and an op-ed) in newspapers like New York Times. Presentations: Have made formal presentations of my research at graduate student conferences, before UK government, and international organizations (OECD). Letters: 4 letters by young elite university faculty under 40, 3 good and 1 likely generic but from comparative politics: -1 from well-known, tenured methodologist jointly in politics and statistics departments -1 from tenured formal political theorist, not particularly well-known outside of the field I am applying to -1 from non-tenured comparative politics faculty who is seen as a rising star in the field (very young) -1 from tenured professor jointly in sociology department Affiliations: Member of PhD comparative politics research seminar, APSA, university-wide faculty interdisciplinary research group