kronos16

All the responses so far have hit it pretty well. The hardest thing for me personally was narrowing down what my "fit" actually was. Once you know what you want to work on, finding schools that "fit" you is much easier. Try to narrow down your research idea to 2-4 very defined topics, then find articles that are similar to your idea. By doing this you find professors that you could potentially work with. The tricky part is finding programs that have multiple people that have people that are working on similar topics as your research ideas. For me I started as IR, then security, then terrorism, and then came down to this idea of threat/risk. Any school can teach you IR, most schools can teach you security, some schools can teach you terrorism, not many schools do work on threat/risk.

So the thing I recommend is trying to narrow down your research focus. I know its hard but that is the best way to narrow down your school choices. Pretty much any school can teach you IR/security, but even "non state actors and their effects on local and global levels" is still kind of vague. Id suggest looking up articles on non state actors, and find a few that you like. From there you can check out the authors, and their CVs to see who else they work with. This way you can find a decent amount of people working on the topic you like from many different schools.

Basic game theory, stats/regression, and R. These 3 things will give you a leg up and make the course work/reading much easier. Where are you going if you dont mind me asking?

PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Large Southern State Uni (R1) Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science w/ double minor Security and History Undergrad GPA: 2.7 Type of Grad: Large Southern State Uni (R1)MA Political Science (Major: Methods, Minor: IR) Grad GPA: 3.3 GRE: 156v/155/q Any Special Courses: Heavy methods (game theory, time series, MLE, Causal/Inference, ect) Letters of Recommendation: 1 IR (Very well known), 1 Method (multiple classes taken), 1 Mentor (known for 4+ years). Strong letters Research Experience: 1 national conference presentation, 1 paper currently under R&R for a subfield journal Teaching Experience: No class room, but tutoring at learning center on campus Subfield/Research Interests: Conflict and Security, methods minor Other: Several workshops (IR and Methods) and several internships (campaigns at the city/state/national level) and nonprofit/think tank work RESULTS: Acceptances($$ or no $$): Kentucky($), Ole Miss(pending) Waitlists: Rejections: ASU, Kansas State(security) Pending: Texas Tech, Alabama Going to: Good question LESSONS LEARNED: Grades arent everything, a well thought out research plan can make up for less than stellar GPA. Be realistic with where you apply, fit is just as important as prestige. Contact the department and potential advisors before applying, this gets you on their radar and will help when the admissions committee meets. Build relationships at every chance you get, a professional network will be a huge benefit down the line. Also highly recommend using a quantitative writing sample for your submission. Showing that you have the ability to properly use basic/advanced methods shows that the methods sequence will not be an issue for you. This gives the committee confidences that you will be able to handle what they throw at you. SOP: This is crucial. Your SOP can make or break your app. Emphasize how you and your research agenda will fit into the department, as well as how it fits with the professors you are interested to work with. Show that you add value to the department, and show how you can progress towards your goals with the help of the department. NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING YOUR SELF INTO WHEN YOU DECIDE TO GO FOR A PHD. You will spend 4-6 years doing this. I didnt know what I was getting into when I went for my masters. If you are not a math/stats kind of person I would recommend a different path.

They require 62 hours of course work beyond a masters. Which is absurdly strange, almost unheard of. Outside of that I don't know much, but would like to hear more myself

Ideally I'd like to look into what influences military spending at the state level and the alliance level where applicable. Tying military expenditures into conflict studies seems like a reasonable idea, as it opens me up to being able to work with more people. Of course this area of interest also has an institutional component as well. Most of my work thus far has been on the quantitative side(Time series/panel analysis). Hope that helps

Thanks! Rice is on my short list thanks to Leeds

Looking for some suggestions for potential IR programs for my PhD. Ideally ones that focus on or have multiple advisers that due research on conflicts/alliances/diplomacy. I know its pretty broad but this is just for a preliminary list, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Currently at a decently ranked MA program with solid grades/GRE/LoR/Thesis. Preferably looking for an R1 but realistically not looking at the top 10. Any help would be great, can provide a bit more info it will be more useful as well. -K