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Thank you for the response! I'm interested in a political theory program; my major is in political science and my research is in political theory, which was done in my university's political science department. My UG is a T25 and my GPA is 3.9 at the moment; I'm set to graduate with highest honors. I've been narrowing schools down based on research focuses (analytic, Straussian, historical, etc), but have only been looking at T10 schools. Prospects for theory PhD's are... competitive. I'm sort of hoping my application package will make me a serious applicant, but I also think I need someone to tell me to be a bit more realistic. I just joined this forum and have just started looking for this type of advice - what type of information is generally acceptable to share on this forum?

Hello everyone, I apologize in advance if this is not the best location for this question. I am a 4th year graduating this spring term and am interested in pursuing a PhD program in my field. I am having trouble narrowing down a list of programs to seriously consider when I do choose to begin the application process (fall 2015 or 2016). The biggest obstacle to narrowing down programs based on rank is that I have not yet begun to look into the GRE. So far, I have been going off of my academic information; GPA, ranking of my UG's grad program, research experience and interactions with faculty, etc. I guess the biggest question among many is this: how is information such as GPA, experience, and awards/honors indicative of the type of school you will go to without controlling for GRE score, or at least assuming that my GRE score will be within some range comparable to those who also perform similar academically? I will not take the GRE for at least a few months and do not want to limit my search. Thank you!