karitha

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Selective private non-Ivy research institution Major(s)/Minor(s): International affairs Undergrad GPA: 3.98 Type of Grad: UK masters Grad GPA: Distinction GRE: 170 V / 163 Q / 5.5 Any Special Courses: Masters was in area studies with a focus on politics. Some econ in undergrad and masters. Letters of Recommendation: 1 undergrad professor, 1 grad professor, current supervisor (with a PhD but not working in academia) Research Experience: undergrad research for a prof, undergrad and masters theses, current work is a research position Teaching Experience: n/a Subfield/Research Interests: Comparative politics, authoritarianism, political economy, area studies Other: RESULTS: Acceptances($$ or no $$): 8 all with full five-year $$. 6 of the 8 are top-10 schools. Waitlists: none Rejections: 2 Pending: Going to: TBD LESSONS LEARNED: My biggest piece of advice that might be useful for some to hear: I am so, so, so glad that I waited as long as I did to apply to PhD programs and did other things first. I graduated undergrad in 2009. I feel more mature and confident than I have in any prior year, I know what I want to study and why, I know what I do NOT want to study and why, I have many more ideas for interesting questions to research, I have more highly developed professional skills, and I have such a better grasp of how the "real world" works than I would have if I had gone into a PhD earlier. There's still tons I know that I don't know, but I know a hell of a lot more than I did when I was 22. I also hope that it means that if I decide a few years in that academia is not for me (though I am pretty sure that it is), I will not see switching out of grad school into some other track as a failure--just a change of plans. My biggest concerns entering the process: Weak quant background. Far and away my biggest worry. My quant GRE score was fine but not exceptional. I took college-level stats and calculus in high school, but I basically have not taken math since then (10 years ago!) I took several econ courses in college, but not econometrics. Writing sample that did not demonstrate quantitative analysis--because I have not done research that uses quant analysis before. Basically, my application screamed "QUALITATIVE." And I wasn't sure how many places would be into that. Apparently enough! My biggest strengths going in (either objectively, or things that I think helped): Strong stats and already highly developed area knowledge and language skills (going into CP) Prestigious scholarships on my CV and a history of finding and going after money to make my own research possible 3 strong LORs--people who knew me well and/or had worked closely with me and who are impressive themselves An SOP that made clear why I want to go into political science and how my past experience has prepped me for what I want to study Best advice I got / most helpful things I did as I prepared my applications: **Number one most helpful thing I did: set aside a day or two to read the abstracts of every. single. article. that has been published in the top 2-3 poli sci journals and/or journals in my subfield in the past 5 years. That will give you a sense of the current hot topics, how people are framing things, etc. From that you will find a handful of articles whose lit review sections and bibliographies you can mine for pieces to cite/draw from in your SOP. I cannot overstate how helpful this was. I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to say in my SOP, but going through this process allowed me to articulate it in relation to recent literature and in the proper vocabulary. This was especially helpful since I had been out of school for a few years. (especially in CP): Frame your SOP in conceptual terms, not regional terms. Your region is what offers up cases to study conceptual issues. Show that you have broader interests than just the region or policy area you have focused on. Show that you know you will be spending a lot of time learning and using math, and indicate that that is one reason why you want to do a political science PhD. Your SOP is not about why you want to go to grad school. It is about what areas you are intellectually interested in broadly, what question you want to research, and why you are prepared to enter a PhD program to start researching it. You need to sound confident, but not arrogant. And you have to demonstrate that you know what political science research is all about. This is a common piece of advice, but worth repeating: write early, write often, and run your SOP by lots of people. I started in July and had a piece of shit SOP until it got ripped by a couple of people in October and I re-did the whole thing in response. When I rewrote it and it got good, I knew. What I would do differently / what surprised me: Not apply to as many schools. One of the schools I got rejected from, I shouldn't have applied to. It was not a good fit. But it was a top school so I applied anyway. That was a waste of money. On the other hand, I applied to schools that I thought might be a terrible fit, and they ended up taking me, so clearly they knew something I did not. SOP: Not sharing with anonymous people on the internet, sorry.

I second that advice. There is no need to rush, and if you are not 100% certain that a political science PhD is for you--based on a lot of research into what it involves and some serious thinking about why you want to do it--you will probably not put together a very good application and if you go, you will be more likely to doubt whether you want to be there when the going gets tough. I have been thinking about applying to PhD programs since I was in undergrad--six years ago. I finally jumped this year, and I'm so glad I waited as long as I did. I've built up a lot of other experience and knowledge that helped me feel confident that this is what I want to do and put together a much, much, much better application than I could have six years ago or even 2-3 years ago. I suggest trying to get involved in some research, getting some work experience, and then potentially going for a master's unless you are sure that you want to try to end up in academia.

I think the Harvard posts are probably fake. Duke and Chicago sent out acceptances a few weeks ago, so if you haven't heard yet it's probably not good news. I haven't been following UCLA so not sure on that. According to posters above MIT is just starting to notify now.