PizzaCat93

No need to mention that in your SOP; it will not help, and will likely hurt. It's perfectly fine of a goal to have, but this is not what top schools are interested in. As for you, @resDQ, no, faculty at top schools are not interested in having their students at LACs, despite the realities of the job market. They are training you to do research, not to teach. Feel free to mention your goals, will not hurt you.

Looks like you have an excellent file and would be competitive for the top-10. Write a good SOP, and you should be good to go.

You're never going to be "locked in" to what you say in your SOP; it is expected that your interests will change. Unless you have an extremely niche interest, even if your interests do change, you will probably still have someone to work with, and if worse comes to worse, you can often have a committee member from another department or school.

What exactly do you mean by "things I want out of the program"? If it's something unique that the school offers that you will make use of in your studies and research, then by all means mention it. If it's your career goal, you can mention that too, briefly. As far as you saying you'd rather be rejected, if you articulate your research interests and professors of interest well in your SOP and application at large (writing sample, coursework, etc), they will not accept you if you don't "fit", so if that's what you're worried about, it's somewhat of a moot point.

Thanks, glad you like it. From what I can tell, having a master's helps as well; I think about 3/4s of my cohort has a master's or at least a year of graduate work, so that will likely offset the "weak research experience".

Purely anecdotal, but I got into 3 top-20 schools and 3 top-40 schools with a score of 166/159. Of course, other aspects of our applications will be different, so GRE is not the only thing that matters. There are people with near perfect scores who don't get into schools. However, I personally believe my quant score is a major factor that kept me out of the top-10. Since you did indeed get 160 the first time and believe you can get even higher, I think taking it again would be worth it. Adcoms are looking for reasons to ding you, so getting your stats as high as possible will keep you in the running.

Sorry to revive this thread yet again. I have a similar issue as above. My father and I jointly own my car. He will be staying in state A while I move to state B for my PhD. My program requires that we apply for residency after one year, but if the application is rejected, they still will continue paying OOS tuition. As such, since I am the primary driver of the car and will have it garaged in state B, I assume I do have to register it in state B, even if my father still has ownership of it and resides in state A? I'm concerned about both the legal ramifications as well as that of my residency application.

Can't help with fit because I'm not in IR, but you have a very solid application, imho. You should definitely apply to several top-10s and then some top-20s and 30s. It's a real drag and time suck, but you really just have to sit down and look through the faculty at the schools you're interested in and then make a list of who you'd like to work with. Why are you waiting another year exactly? If it's just because you think your application isn't strong enough, I think you'd be perfectly fine applying this year. If it's for personal reasons, then by all means, wait.

Does anyone know how significant of a boost one has in the job market with a GRF under their belt? In social sciences, btw.

From your past posts, it seems you're at an unranked program in PS? If so, to be frank, you really, really need to think about why you're doing this. Your chances of getting an academic job coming from an unranked program are exceedingly slim (unless you are planning to go back to your home country, that is). The boost of a PhD in the private/NGO/government sectors is small, and very likely not worth the time. Apparently your parents don't understand the realities of this. If you truly are only doing this because your parents told you to, as Fuzzy said, you need to grow up. This is your life, not theirs. Think of your career aspirations and think about whether your current path can reasonably get you there. If not, drop out. Since you've already got one year under your belt, maybe stay for the MA, but seriously consider dropping out after that.

Since you're interested in parties, you could viably do both. This is one of the only situations in which one may want to do comparative and American. As for which one you choose as your major and which one as your minor, it probably does not matter much, just a matter of personal preference. Comparative obviously gives you more options down the road in regards to countries/subjects of interest, but as far as the job market, as far as I know, neither of these has a distinct advantage.

Yes, full funding - tuition, health insurance, stipend, and a summer stipend as well.

Incoming student in CP, so I cannot answer your questions about life in the department quite yet, but I will say that the department does fund everyone it accepts. For most, this is in the form of TA work every year, although the first year consists of mostly grading, so not very time-consuming. There are a few university-wide fellowships available as well, so if you got one of those, you'd not have to TA. And always, you should try for outside fellowships too, which will be on top of department funding.

Congratulations! That's awesome.

I'll see you there in the fall!

Today is the day! What school did everyone choose?

I think you'd be hard pressed to find someone who gets absolutely no government assistance for graduate school (or undergrad, for that matter). If you go to a public school, you're benefitting from government funds, especially if you're a funded student. Loans are subsidized by the government, as well as health insurance, as previously mentioned. All sorts of grants are federally-funded, like NSF, NIH, DAAD, Boren, Fulbright, etc. The government funds things that it wants to incentivize. This does not mean that such things are a luxury. Private planes and large diamonds are luxuries, not graduate school, imho. I think the public as a whole, especially those who are not highly educated, are fairly anti-intellectual, so it's not surprising that this woman feels this way. However, I must say, it's nearly impossible to not be opposed to at least one thing that our tax money goes towards. I could make quite a long list myself. It doesn't mean those things are not worthy or not in the country's best interests necessarily... just that I personally am opposed to them. This is what it means to live in a democracy. In short, I don't at all agree with her sentiment, but it's fine that she feels that way. One woman's opinions are not going to end government funding of academia...

Just accepted my offer at UNC!

Use Khan Academy (for math).

Asia - okay. Asia is not my area, so maybe someone else can speak more to this point, but I would recommend at least choosing between East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, etc) or Southeast Asia (Indonesia, Vietnam, India etc). Since you're wanting to work on religion and minorities, you probably would want to mention what religion(s) as well. I second the above point about CU Boulder instead of CU Denver. Northwestern has people who work on ethnic conflict and religion, although I don't think they have anyone working on Asia. Ohio State has just hired someone who works on Cambodia, and they also have a few working on ethnic minorities and conflict. I don't know of anyone working on women, specifically. You may want to look into the U of California schools (although you said you mostly wanted East Coast), as well as Columbia and WashU St. Louis.

I would recommend telling them the truth, that you're waiting to hear back from a school you're waitlisted at. However, if you're reluctant to do this, maybe you can inquire with Program B how much of a chance you really have at getting off the waitlist and when you can expect to hear. Then based on what they say, tell Program A what's going on.

Hi! Sorry no one has gotten to this yet, usually the board is fairly active. I just went through the application process myself and ended up with 2 top-15 acceptances, as well as a few others, so hopefully some things I say will help. I have a few comments/questions - 1) How did you choose the schools you want to apply to? You have a decent spread of schools, but I would recommend applying to at least a few top-15/20 schools as well. When you're deciding where to apply, make sure you think about fit specifically (professors you can work with as well as general department feel). 2) Your research interests are fairly broad right now. I had the same issue, which was somewhat of a detriment to me, I think. I would recommend doing one of two things. Either pick one of your interests and really elaborate on it, or taylor your interests in your statement to each school you apply to, depending on how it fits. So one school may have someone working on ethnic conflict whereas another does not, but instead has someone working on religion and politics. Does that make sense? 3) Along these lines, if there is a specific region you're interested in working on, definitely say that in your statement. I was wavering between two regions when I applied, and from what I can tell, this confused a few departments, who assumed I wanted to continue with the region I studied in undergrad (which ended up not being true). 4) GRE - two points here. One, I would recommend taking a practice test ASAP to see where you stand. So there is an official GRE practice software called PowerPrep that is available on the ETS website for free. It replicates the testing experience exactly, so you should definitely check that out. Also, your school may offer a paper practice test at some point; mine did. Anyway, after finding out how much you'll need to improve, take some time (summer, if you're not busy) to really focus on that. If possible, I'd recommend taking the test earlier than October so that if you don't get the score you want on the first attempt, you have time to study a bit more and take it again before applications are due. 5) Make sure you have good recommendation letters as well as a good statement; numbers can only take you so far, and it's these two aspects that really set you apart from other applicants. In regards to your GPA, hopefully this semester you may be able to get it to 3.7, which would be a good position to be in. If not, you should still be alright for most places, I'd say. Hope this helps. Let me know if you need any clarification or have more questions!

Not to be an alarmist, but the fine state of Wisconsin has essentially done away with tenure at UW. (http://www.slate.com/articles/life/education/2016/03/university_of_wisconsin_and_the_aftermath_of_destroying_professor_tenure.html) This, coupled with general budgetary issues, as well as the apparently toxic department environment, should make anyone considering UW start looking elsewhere, if you have other options. I have no skin in this game and am saying this as a total outsider, but this is just my opinion.

I have the same question; however, rather than asking for an extension, is it possible to accept my current top offer on April 15, but later decline it if I get accepted from my waitlist school after that date? Do most schools make their acceptances on or prior to April 15, or is there a good chance it will happen after?

I don't know much about the program but got accepted myself (am going to decline). Three thoughts - 1) it's doubtful that they will be able to offer more funding. MAs really bring in the cash for schools. 2) Unless you are independently wealthy, it is not a good idea to pay for an MA en route to a PhD program. You really, really should not take out loans to do so, imho. 3) I have heard from a few people who've gone to CIR and are in the PhD program that Chicago has a sort of a hostile and uber-competitive climate, even among the masters students and that faculty aren't always willing to meet with you/help you. Was this your only acceptance this cycle? I would suggest either waiting and applying again or to find a low-ranked or unranked PhD program with a late deadline that you can apply to ASAP and attend fully funded. After a year or two there, you can apply to better schools and start fresh at a new program.