esotericish
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Posts posted by esotericish
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If your MPP is giving you good, usable skills it might help. Like statistics or econometrics or something. I'm not sure what you learn in an MPP. Either way, though, it's probably not worth the opportunity cost of applying. If you put together a good application with good research interests, the admissions committee might even give you a little bump because of your work experience.
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There are lots of people in these programs who value non-American academic experience. Don't sell yourself short and only apply to low programs. Also, living in DC on a stipend would be brutal.
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Don't rule out schools based on your GRE score.
Also, don't put that much stake in rankings. Yeah, if you go to Harvard or Stanford you'll be better off. But if you go to any decent program (whatever arbitrary cutoff you decide) and work with people who want to work with you, publish something, generally do well, you'll get a job. I'm at a top ~20 or so and the three people we have on the market this year are definitely going to get jobs. But they're also really good.
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Looks like you have a very good application. Curious as to why you're only applying to schools in the DC area? I think with your application you could do much better than those schools, and DC would be a terrible place to live on a stipend.
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No, not undergraduate journals. The coauthored paper is in a fairly reputable political science journal, and my solo authored paper is in a decent area studies journal.
Then you'll probably be fine! Nobody here can tell you what the score means, but they can tell you (quite obviously) that higher score = better chances. So if you really wanted to maximize your chances, and have the time and resources, you could take the GRE again. I'm not saying I would in your position, but a higher score wouldn't hurt.
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If you can get your Q score higher that would really benefit your application. While people will correctly tell you GRE score doesn't make or break an application, you'll see very few people in top 10 programs with a low Q score in particular.
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Not a ton of options. You're pretty much stuck between Time Warner and maybe AT&T Uverse. I don't think Verizon is there yet. I do know Google Fiber is currently being installed in some places in Raleigh.
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Ah gotcha. There are a couple people at the Emory program that study this -- Danielle Jung is definitely one.
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Have you looked at the literature in the field and then seen where the people teach who are writing that literature?
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(disclaimer: not a female)
My girlfriend is your age and works in a very professional environment. Her favorite places to shop are Marshalls and TJ Maxx, where you can get some really professional looking stuff for a good price (they're only really good for womens' clothing, though). Other than that, if you pay attention you can often find great deals on Banana Republic during sales.
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On 6/30/2015 at 9:44 AM, backslash said:
Is there a good resource for finding housing, other than craigslist? Heading to GWU this fall and trying to get a sense of what's available over the next 2 months. Thanks!
GW has a really good board for this.
Padmapper is also very solid in DC. Zillow is the other resource I'd suggest.
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Yes. All utilities have to be paid for (water, AC, electricity, gas, cable/internet). Since the time I've made my previous post, I've managed to find this site (http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&city=Washington%2C+DC). Based on that site, I'm 'guessimating' about $50/month for cable/internet. Then perhaps about 200/month for the rest of the other utilities combined. My apartment is only 790sq ft and it will just be me alone. So, I'm assuming $250/month all together...just to be on the safe side.
I'm actually going to be only 10 minutes outside DC in Arlington if that makes a difference (which can be on the high-end side a well). Feel free to correct me if those numbers are unrealistic.
Seems pretty reasonable to me, especially during summer and winter. Likely to be less otherwise. I am also in NoVA
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To those living in North Virginia or in the District:
Anyone here in a 1 bedroom apartment and has to pay for utilities? If so, how much do you normally pay for utilities? Does 250-300 sound about a good exact estimate? People like my mom keep saying 300, but if I'm living alone is that a feasible price range? I also know that certain seasons cause more utilities to be used more than others.Thanks a lot.
Do you count internet and cable in there?
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I live right on Hillsborough a few steps away from my department (well now I just remembered one of the core lessons I taught myself during my master's about separating work and home life lol oh well!). How about shopping and food in Raleigh?
Well, like I said you can take buses pretty much everywhere nearby state, and you can probably watch to most of your necessary shopping, but to get anywhere outside of the immediate campus area will be pretty much impossible without driving, unfortunately. Uber does run in Raleigh now so that's always an option.
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Oh boo. I'll be car-less while I'm there. Thankfully there is the wolfline (I hope it's a decent service)!
Yeah it's not bad if you stay in the immediate vicinity of NC state, but having a car is really the way to go. Pretty much every undergrad has one. Not having one definitely limits your options on where you can live, though.
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PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: Midwest state school (one more semester)
Major(s): Political Science, Economics, Mathematics
Undergrad GPA: 3.821
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: Don't remember, but not spectacular
Any Special Courses: Took 2 PhD PoliSci (A, A-), PhD Math Econ (A), Masters Microeconomics (A); will be taking 2 PhD economics classes (Econometrics and Macro) and 1 graduate math class (Knot Theory and Gen Topology) next fall
Letters of Recommendation: I imagine I have one really good one from a PoliSci prof with whom I took a PhD course with, but after that it is less clear: perhaps a good one with a prof with whom I've been meeting with and doing a small project under and then maybe another prof with whom I took an undergrad class with (we talked on many occasions about different research topics and he seemed impressed by the paper I wrote for his class). Then I have some maybes in economics and maybe one or two in math. All around not a great situation
Research Experience: Very little to none worth stating. Was an RA for a semester on two different occasions for two different professors but left due to course load. Then some long term papers that had original research (but pretty weak in methods in my opinion)
Teaching Experience: Economics tutoring
Subfield/Research Interests: Political Economy, Comparative, Authoritarian institutions, Regime transition and consolidation, Political parties, Formal methods
Other: Worked at state legislature for a semester.
So, my intention for a long time was to get my PhD in either polisci or econ and so I have spent my undergrad preparing for either depending on which I would end up choosing. This usually meant I was taking the coursework needed and taking it to the extreme. So, this left me with some great coursework, but little research experience or great recommendations. And then the previous year I really started feeling the effects of burnout and really lost a lot of motivation to the point that I'm not sure what I really want.
So:
1) Given my profile now, do you think I can get into a top 10? Or where do you think I could be competitive?
2) Would going and getting an MA be worthwhile? What are the chances I would get generous funding? I'm considering this option now in order to get the research experience and maybe pop out an article and get some recommendations, as well as to reinvigorate my interest.
As a note, I don't think I would like private sector work, so I still believe academia is the way for me to go.
Don't get an MA if you really think you want to do a PhD! It's not a good use of resources and you'll set yourself back two years. If you're not sure a PhD is for you, go work for a year or two, starting with internships -- make some money and see how you like it. It's pretty nice. And it won't hurt your application.
No chance to do an undergraduate thesis? that would really help. If you do well on your GREs, combined score of 330 or so, you probably have a good app. For your LORs, there's no reason you can't get good ones. Go talk to your professors and get to know them. I had two very solid LORs from poli sci professors whom I knew well, but I was told by a few adcom members that my best one was from my foreign language instructor, who I became pretty close with and wrote a very personal letter.
I think your economics background and (presumably) your quantitative skills that come from that is what a lot of adcoms like to see, so you have a good shot at good programs if you do some of the things I've said here.
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Definitely look to live real close to the metro, and take a look at how much that metro ride will cost you every day. It can get really pricey. Also, Columbia Heights is a really expensive neighborhood.
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After spending 4 days in D.C/NoVA and going through hell, I successfully found a place to live 3 hours before having to catch my flight back to my home area (16 hours away via car). I'll be catching the metrobus from Arlington (Columbia Pike) to Pentagon City and then hopping on the blue line metrorail to get my graduate program @ GW in Foggy Bottom. I also will not have a car.
welcome to DC
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How is commuting from Oakton to Georgetown?
Anyone have an idea on how much it will cost daily (metro+parking)?
If you have to drive, don't do it. Really. Not sure how much parking is, but metro during rush hour would probably be around $7 round trip.
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I think you might as well try to get your GRE up higher since you have time. It sounds like with the rest of your application you'd be a pretty good applicant...doesn't look like there's a good reason to rule any top programs out.
- shinigamiasuka and law2phd
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Hi everyone,
I was hoping that the gradcafe community might be able to provide some advice on the best timing of graduate school applications. My current dilemma is whether I should apply for the upcoming cycle this year, or wait to apply later in 2016 or 2017 after a one year program in political science. However, my concern is that, if I were to take a job after a masters program, I would be delaying a PhD program for potentially 1-2 years.
Basically, I am unsure if I would be competitive enough for this cycle, and hope that masters-level coursework, thesis, and letters of recommendation would be helpful in improving my applicant profile. Would waiting a few years to apply be advisable, or should I aim to apply later this year (and enroll directly after the masters program)?
Thanks!
Alternately, you could try some internships and the job market and see if you really do want to spend the next 6 years of your life in school. I did that for about 3 years and it was vital experience.
You really shoulnd't pay up to 100k for a MA just to figure out what you want to study.This exactly.
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Is a PhD really what you want if you have no interested in an academic job?
yeah, why get a PhD? you're better off just entering the work force now. Think about the opportunity cost of those 5-6 years in grad school, both monetarily and career-wise.
And yeah, Johns Hopkins is ranked in the 50s, and as far as I know hasn't had a decent placement in years. I'm not even sure where Tufts is ranked? Definitely not a top 50 school. You should really think long and hard about even considering attending a school outside the top 20-30.
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I'm more interested in the reputation of the department as well as research fit than overall prestige of the university.
I think you'll find a strong correlation between reputation and prestige. The unfortunate truth is if you don't go somewhere with a good name recognition, you're very unlikely to get a job. The places you list above have very poor placement rates. You should do some research into how well these schools place people into jobs and use that as a starting point.
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Open to suggestions as well - prestige of the school isn't that important to me.
why not?
Math/Econ Requirements for Policy PhDs
in Political Science Forum
Posted
Are you looking at one versus the other based on the math requirements?