thegradstudent

The partial received is strictly to let you know that your transcripts have been received but that your complete undergraduate transcripts have not been received (i.e. you haven't graduated from your undergraduate institution yet). It will remain like that until your final transcripts are received in May/June (once you graduate) if you are accepted of course. B/c if you were denied, there would be no reason to send complete transcripts.

The previous posters are correct. Just hang tight and decisions will be coming out shortly. I think you have a good shot at some of those so you shouldn't be too worried. A couple of suggestions for ways to pass the time: 1) US vs. Honduras soccer friendly tonight at 8pm on Fox Soccer Channel 2) Liquor - good time for a Manhattan 3) Thomas Schelling's "Micromotives and Macrobehavior" 4) Take a stab at making "Steak au Poivre" 5) Go for a run - Spring break is about 7 weeks away If you'd like a book list, I'd be more than happy to put one together for any of you depending on your subfield. Seriously, no sweat.

I think you have a good shot at getting admitted to two or three of those, which is not a bad batting average out of 10 total apps. And the 1.2 is no biggie, especially since you must've had a 3.2 or above every semester thereafter to pull that up to the 3.0 that you finished with. Shows an upward trend, plus the 3.7 in the MA program shows that. I think you have a decent shot. I agree with Aunuwyn that you're on the bubble at a lot of those places, but I think you'll be on the right side of the bubble at at least a couple of them.

economic statistics and calc 1 without a doubt. it's not even close. you're going to get probability and stats your first semester of grad school. the economic statistics and calc 1 background will make your life easier and better every semester thereafter.

I moved to Milwaukee for undergrad to attend Marquette after being born and raised in Miami, FL. Milwaukee is an absolutely fantastic city. Great culture, music and the most underrated culinary city in the country. As for the public transit, I actually found it incredibly useful and reliable. I didn't have a car for the four years I lived there and had no problems getting around, shopping/groceries, or going out. The busses run pretty late and have good coverage in the downtown, lakefront, marquette and east side areas. I think you'd be fine with the bus/bike/feet combo. The city has some hills (not very big) but I wouldn't call it "hilly." It's your typical downtown area with a waterfront. Pretty flat for the most part. I've visited Minneapolis a handful of times during the winter months and the winter was comparable. Not much difference in temps or snow to be honest.

When I applied a couple of years ago, my fall back was either to move to DC and work in Congress as a staffer, try to get a job at a lobbying firm or a DC think tank and try to plug that one year gap before I could re-apply and try to get in. Luckily I got in the first time. Best of luck with your app. Grad school sounds wayyyy better than the army.

Not even grad students read the APSR during their spare time. Esquire, ESPN the Mag, Nature or Cosmo (depending on your interests of course) would be way more interesting spare time late night reads! The APSR puts me straight to bed, even after a 10 hour slumber and an extra large coffee.

cpaige, hawk and readeatsleep are all spot on. really good analysis and good logic. Ferrero is completely wrong. as for hobbeslocke, your stats are very good for theory. your verbal score is in the 96th percentile which is fantastic. remember that applicants to all sorts of programs take the GRE so the distribution of scores is not solely based on those applying to political science programs. 96th percentile is kickass. Your quant score isn't very important to be honest since you're doing theory. The SOP, writing sample, letters and fit will make or break your application. Your GRE scores have already put you in the mix.

Good question. Thanks for posting an example with hard numbers. A 680 is in the 66th percentile; a decent score. The A will show the adcom that you have both attempted a quant course and excelled in that course. It shows a previous track record of performance which is good. But I'd argue that the effect is not as dramatic as the effect of a top quant score to offset a lower grade in a course. They will still see the two C's and that will hurt your app, but some of it will be offset by the high quant score (but not all of it!). Your example shows ability but I don't see it making that much of a difference or as much of a difference as the higher quant score. Remember that applicants with A's and a higher quant score will have a bit of a leg up on both of you. This analysis will only benefit you at the margin when your app is stacked up with similar ones. My argument and analysis is based on cetaris paribus. But as I've said in previous posts, let's not worry too much about the differences between a 680 and a 720. It's just not that important in the grand scheme of things.

I'd agree and disagree with what ipsqq wrote above: I think it'd really help your application if you took either a stats or an applied social stats course and it'd also help you once you get into grad school. Those that had prior exposure to calculus and stats had a much easier time adjusting and doing well in methods courses once in grad school. I took Calc 1 and 2 (from the math department) and stats (from the econ department) and it was incredibly helpful. Like one of the other commenters wrote above, this will definitely depend on what type of program you decide to enroll in. But I would say that virtually all of the top 15-20 (and maybe a bit farther down the rankings) programs are now quant oriented and make you take at least 2-3 methods courses (intro to stats, linear regression and then at least one of the following - game theory, generalized linear models, time series regression, bayesian analysis or increasingly popular is networks) as well as a generic research methodology/philosophy of social science course. They definitely value qualitative work, but they want you to be proficient in both qual and quant methods and everyone is required to take the initial methods sequence. Where I agree with ipsqq is in the advice to brouhaha. Those C's may very well come back to bite you in the rear. They will look positively upon you for attempting to take those classes while an undergrad, but the scores in those courses will be looked at unfavorably. But, I will qualify this. If you have a sufficiently high GRE Quant score, those two grades will be dramatically less important. So if you have a quant score of let's say (and this is arbitrary) over 730, I don't think it'd hurt your app much.

You have some good choices and nice variety on that list. Looks like you want to stay on the east coast (with the exception of Madison), so I'd also recommend Duke and UNC as two other options for Comparative. Both top notch schools, especially for Europe.

I completely agree with hawk. Adcoms are going to look at the classes you took, how you did in those classes, the strength of the letters, the writing and strength of your SOP and your writing sample. Don't harp so much on the "prestige" of your undergrad institution or the relative level of your GRE scores. You're doing political theory - quant doesn't matter. Your verbal score, AW score and writing samples are substantially more important. Most of the schools you're applying to probably won't even make you take a methods course b/c you're in theory (typically they exempt theorists from those classes). So a 600 quant is more than fine. You look to be in pretty good shape. It's gonna be tough at Yale, Columbia and NYU but I see your application doing well at the other schools on your list.

Yes, definitely. Those SAIS/SIPA programs are policy-oriented and meant for those who want to immediately go and work after graduation. Rigorous research-oriented Ph.D. programs don't really care whether you are an applicant with a BA or an applicant with a SIPA M.A. because academic Ph.D. programs are so different from SIPA MA. If you're unsure of the Ph.D. route, a terminal MA from a research oriented program with strong feeder ability into top Ph.D. programs would probably be your best route. I know that Marquette and other research oriented MA programs also have some funding available for terminal MA programs as RAs to the faculty so that may help offset some or all of the cost. If you have any other questions, feel free to pm me if it's info you don't want to put on the boards.

Don't apply to terminal MA if you know you want a Ph.D. If you need time to figure out what you want to study and how you want to study it then an MA may be useful. But it seems like you know you want the Ph.D. Following up on what others have said above, in polisci, it doesn't matter if you are coming straight from undergrad or have taken time off. I came in straight from undergrad (as did a handful of others in my cohort) and we all did well during the application process. Your stats are good and I'd also agree that you should probably throw in one or two top 20 schools.

Yeah, I agree with natofone. It's evident to the adcoms. The problem with studying organized crime, corruption, crime and other illicit activities within the subfield of IR is that it is very difficult to find data in order to study these topics empirically. Most of the scholars that do work on these topics are already tenured and have the time, resources, and name to delve into these topics without needing to publish their work on things illicit in top journals. So I see this as the fundamental weakness in your application. You need to sell HOW you are going to be able to accomplish the research that you want to accomplish. Not just what you want to do, because what you want to do may not be possible to do empirically (and we all know that methods and quant work matter greatly in IR, especially at top programs). As for programs, I know that you already applied to terminal MA programs a while back and your prof recommend doctoral programs, but Marquette (with Dr. Friman) would be a good option as a terminal MA. Marquette is a major feeder into top Ph.D. programs and a year or two at a terminal MA may help you figure out what specifically you want to do and how to approach your research questions. As for other programs, Duke and UCSD are two other good options.