hupr

For those who applied for this during their first year, did you get faculty from your new institution to write letters for you (even though they probably don't know you that well) or did you ask the same letter writers as for your grad school application?

This new project might be of interest to you: https://sites.google.com/site/honestgraduatenumbers/

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Off the top of my head, Northwestern (Mahoney), U Chicago (Wedeen) and Berkeley (Collier), but you might want to take a look at people involved in CQRM: http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/cqrm/Faculty_Bios_2011_Institute/

I did undergrad degrees in philosophy, psychology and French and then went on to do two MAs abroad, the first in comparative literature, the second in linguistics with a focus on African history. I went 5 for 8 for applications in political science and 0 for 2 for area studies this year, and while I can't really say what went right (or what went wrong for the other 5 schools), my feeling is that in order for a diverse background to be seen as an advantage instead of an obstacle, one needs to create a narrative in which it's logical (or even inevitable) that one would go from point A to point B -- in my case from psychology, philosophy and French to comp. lit and linguistics and finally to poli sci. If one isn't careful, such breadth of knowledge can probably be interpreted as a lack of focus -- all arm and no follow through. So the key, to my mind, is to have your personal statement describe exactly how these other fields fit together to lead to the apex of your academic pursuits. It's not really important that the narrative of how this happened be true, strictly speaking, but it is important that it be compelling and feel like a logical progression toward your goal, rather than isolated attempts in different directions. Like I said, the admissions process is a bit of a black box for me, so take my advice for what it's worth.

You'll probably want to live either on the South Side or in Homewood. You'll have to have a car, because there is little to no public transportation to speak of. I don't think there are really many apartments or houses for rent in ritzy places like Mountain Brook, although there are some in Vestavia and Hoover. You can rent a big house on the South Side for pretty cheap compared to prices in most of the rest of the country. As for things to do, I'm sure there's a decent sized university community, but since it's in the city, don't expect there to be a whole lot of campus life. Birmingham has sunny weather that's really hot in the summer. There's an ok music scene and a reasonable amount of restaurants but don't expect much of a cultural scene. It's a pretty average city with an average selection of things to do given its size.

I''ll be going to Northwestern next fall, so my wife and I will be moving this summer. If anyone knows of a sublet (studio or 1-bedroom) for the month of August, please message me, since I think it'll be better to sublet for a month and then look for a place for September than to accept something sight unseen.

The way I look at it is that it's just not the correct training. Doctoral training is very specific and not necessary for most jobs outside of academia. You wouldn't need an MD to be a nurse or work for an insurance company. Likewise, you don't need a PhD to do most UN work. For instance, I worked for several years at a UN agency, so it wouldn't really make sense for me to spend 5-7 years on a PhD just to come back to the same sector with new skills that don't really help me do my job there. I'd also like to see more connect between academia and policy, but the fact of the matter is that as a profession, journalism probably has a lot more influence on policy today than political science does. In the public conversation about politics in the middle east today, for instance, you'll notice that with a few exceptions, most of the people involved are not PhDs, much less political science PhDs. The discipline's flagship journal isn't even open to the public, and even if it were, the majority of the literature isn't really accessible even when the topics it's ostensibly covering are relevant to the public conversation.

You probably shouldn't do a PhD then. For all of the things you're listing, an MA would be what you need to do. A doctoral program is professional training for academic work, so if you're not really interested in that, it would be a waste of your time and effort. Apply to SIPA or one of the other policy MAs instead.

I got 5 offers this season, and I've never taken a political science class before, so if you understand what the current discussions are in the subfield or about the issue you'd like to research and can put together a coherent narrative about what you'd like to work on and how your past academic/professional path has led you there, I think you'll be fine.

I'd say concentrate on getting your course work done first. Cart and horse and all that.

I sincerely doubt that this would affect tuition wavers, but I know that UW folks are expecting the insurance plans to double in price. Luckily, they're a fantastic deal (and great coverage) at $12 per month for a single person and $44 a month for a family plan, so a doubling wouldn't be the end of the world, although I suppose there's nothing to stop the prices from continuing to rise.

If money is a concern, as it is for most of us, you might want to keep in mind that the cost of living is a lot lower in Chicago than it is in New York...

I think that if one is going to do anything, working on language skills and/or brushing up on some calculus would be the best options.

Me too.

These guys seem to be notoriously late for sending results. I haven't heard anything from them one way or the other. Rashid Khalidi is here in Beirut tomorrow, though, so there's that.

Here is the new set of NRC rankings: http://chronicle.com/article/NRC-Rankings-Overview-/124714/

I know a few people who have done MAs there and one who has just finished his PhD and has been doing well for himself in the think tank world. The latter is American, the former are British and a South African. All were in the military.

I'd say also check on the two funding offers. Most departments I'm familiar with (humanities and social sciences) don't let you double dip, although many will top you up if the outside funding is less than what the department would be offering. I've also heard of some schools even throwing in a bonus of a few hundred dollars a month for outside funding that is more than you would have gotten from the dept. They do this to encourage you to loo for outside funding, since it saves the dept. money and in some cases (Javits, NSF, etc.) even brings in some money for the dept.

You can't really go by overall prestige; you'll need to do some homework on departmental and subfield reputations. I'm not familiar with English departments or your subfield, but for what it's worth, here are the rankings for African-American Lit.: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/african-american-literature-rankings Rutgers clocks in at 15, tied with Emory and U Michigan, which is pretty damn good. GWU seems to be 71st for English overall, but that'll surely be different for African-American Lit.

It was kind of late notice, and I've already got another visit scheduled the same day...

I believe there are a few MA programs from US universities that are in annexes in Paris. Otherwise, AUP might have something, but for French institutions, the only one that's going to offer classes in English in poli sci is Sciences Po. Some schools like EHESS are open to students writing a thesis in English, but the language of instruction is French.

Don't underestimate how big of a difference this can make on your application season. You may not be aiming for Harvard or Yale the second time around, but there are plenty of good schools with really respectable placement that you could apply to. An additional year will help you improve your GREs, improve your SoP and come up with a new writing sample that may help you better focus your search of where you'd like to apply. In the meantime, you could also try to find some work or at least an internship that would be relevant to your application while giving you another letter writer. You also shouldn't underestimate the severity of the job market, which is really, really competitive these days and is likely to get worse. Go have a look at the people who are teaching at the smaller liberal arts schools and where they got their degrees from. I think you'll find that many, if not most, of them got their degrees from top-25 schools. So don't ask yourself if you're willing to settle for not teaching at Harvard; ask yourself if you'd like to be teaching at the schools listed in NE's placement record, keeping in mind that those are the best the department has to showcase and that other graduates may not have been able to find academic work at all. At the end of the day, if you're not even sure that teaching, research and publishing papers is what you'd like to do, you might want to reconsider doing a PhD.

I think it really depends on the department and the country, but in many fields in the US, those with Canadian or European doctorates are at a real disadvantage on the job market. Likewise, if not moreso, in France. Things may be different in the UK, although I'd imagine there's likely a preference there for British degrees, too. That said (and again with the caveat that it depends on the field), I feel like an American PhD has more cachet in Europe than the other way around.

Stranger things have happened, but I think it's very unlikely that they'd allow a deferral from the waitlist. If you get in, you can probably take a leave of absence later without losing your spot. If you're not ready to go to school, then do yourself a favor and go do something else for a while.