gr22

Not sure how much help I can be, but here's my perspective... I know very little about JDs, but re: PhDs, the short answer to why I chose this path is that I couldn't see myself doing anything else. I got an unusual amount of research experience at my undergrad institution and loved it. I want to continue doing research of this kind for a very long time. I do plan to stay in academia. The job market for PhDs is tough, of course. Though my impression is that it's pretty tough for anyone, so I think people are generally best off doing what they are best at and what they love (hopefully those happen to be the same thing). I'm happy to take a grad student stipend over a higher salary for alternative job paths I could pursue, because there is nothing else I would rather be doing. People going to top grad schools are smart and capable, meaning they probably could have gone a different path on which they would be making a lot more money. I think it's important to really love what you're doing to make that sacrifice worthwhile.

http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_conventions.pdf p.6 http://www.ets.org/s/gre/pdf/gre_math_review.pdf p.7 Based on these, it sounds like "from" is considered inclusive and "between" is considered exclusive

Yale has reading lists for their field exams posted here which may be useful: http://politicalscience.yale.edu/academics/graduate-program/field-readings-lists-requirements-and-exams Based on a quick look at their comparative list, I didn't see anything by O'Donnell...I would certainly recommend reading some of his work as well. The Annual Reviews can also be a good way to get a quick introduction to a topic, while also getting a list of frequently cited articles in that area to add to your reading list: http://www.annualreviews.org/loi/polisci The Oxford Handbooks can also be a good way to see what kinds of questions people in a particular field are asking (I know there's one for Comparative, not sure about IR) You might also look up syllabi for intro comparative/IR courses at the graduate level and see what they're reading.

I agree with the posters above. You are probably best off taking some time before applying. When you do apply, you will have to articulate your research interests in a particular topic (or set of topics) within one of these fields (or sometimes at the intersection of a couple). What you've listed here is most of Political Science. As PrinicipalAgent suggested, you should read Political Science journals. Read as many articles as you can make time for and after getting an idea of what these fields look like, pick the topics/approaches/authors that most interested you and delve into them in greater detail. Read other articles by the same author. Read the articles they cited. It's a slow process, but a necessary process for figuring out where you want to make contributions to the field (not to mention, it's not a bad idea to make sure you aren't bored by endless reading of this type before deciding to go to grad school). Also, you mention that two of your Political Science professors are "supposedly well-known" in Political Science. Look up their CVs and read their articles too. Familiarity with their work/areas of study can't hurt your chances of landing an RA gig with one of them. When you're reading the articles, it may be tempting to skip/skim over the methodology sections to focus on the theory, results, and conclusions. I would recommend really taking your time with the methods sections and trying to understand exactly what the author is doing to test their hypotheses and why. At first, some of it will probably make you feel like you are listening to the Charlie Brown teacher, but some of it will stick, and it will start to make more sense after a while.

Those who have received acceptances to Yale: did you all get personalized emails/phone calls? I just got an email with information about visit days and a form letter of acceptance addressed to "Prospective PhD student." The email didn't contain any funding information, and I'm eager to share the news with my advisor, though with recent mishaps of accidental admissions emails, I'm plagued by the fear that this email was sent in error (which isn't helped by the fact that it's a form letter without my name in there anywhere).

I'm comparative as well and have not heard. Though I would be very surprised if I had an acceptance coming from them as it wasn't one of my best fits.

Has anyone been waitlisted at NYU? In past years it looks like they've sent out acceptances followed by waitlists a few days later, and then rejections after that. I'm seeing a couple rejections on the results page but no waitlists...

Does anyone know how frequently visit days tend to conflict with each other? I was accepted to WUSTL today and would like to tell them I will be attending the visit days, but should I wait to hear back from other schools to make sure they aren't the same days? The email indicated that we had until February 20th to let them know, but also that we should tell them as soon as possible. I'm thrilled with the acceptance and very interested in their program, so I don't want to send the wrong message by waiting too long to respond re:visit days, but if any of them conflict, I'd like to be able to consider my options. Any input appreciated, and best of luck to those of you still waiting.