ArchieLi
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Posts posted by ArchieLi
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In UK and Australia, finishing a political science PhD in four years is fairly possible: you take less coursework prior to conducting independent research than US PhD students do.
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13 hours ago, TakeruK said:
I think the best thing to do is to just ask the school. You can ask the central Graduate School, not the individual department and you don't have to identify yourself so they won't trace it to your application. They would not do this anyways, but if that is a concern, then just don't give your name.
I also encountered a lot of applications that say only transcripts from schools from which I received a degree was necessary, however, they had an exception that for international students, all post-secondary transcripts were required.
Thank you very much! I have contacted those schools and they did ask me to submit vocational school transcripts, guess I'd better do so.
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Figured I should give this post a bump. As I'm nearly finished with my applications, I noticed almost all schools I apply for asked for transcripts from colleges where I "received degree". I earned not degrees but certificates from my vocational school, so I'm quite confused here. My undergraduate transcript specifies that I received 1 year credit from vocational school.
Would it be regarded as dishonest if I don't submit my vocational school grade?
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You can submit your application first then have your latest GRE score reported to schools you are applying for within two weeks after the deadlines. Double check this with the grad admissions.
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33 minutes ago, Determinedandnervous said:
I wouldn't worry about the finishing your bachelor's degree early part counting against you. I'm finishing my degree a year early as well, and I've been told that it has little effect either way. With your experience in mind, you are definitely in the running for top programs, so definitely apply. Your verbal GRE might be on the lower side, but the high quant will likely make up for it. If you have any publications or manuscripts in the works, that would also be a plus for you.
Thank you for your reply! Now I'm a bit more confident!
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Greetings everyone. I have just finished my master degree and applying for fall 2016 admission. My advantage is my political science background - I majored in politics and International Relations in my bachelor and master degree, and I have conducted an independent research on policy analysis as my master's thesis and received a decent grade.
My biggest concern is that as I went to a vocational school before university and received some credits, I finished my bachelor degree in only two years (16 courses) and got relatively less training than other applicants. My GRE Verbal and Analytical Writing score is also a weakness (English is my second language). Also,I earned both my bachelor and master degree in Australia, whose stringent grading policy might place me a disadvantage, and I don't entirely trust WES GPA calculator. I'm just wondering what my chances are for getting into first class US political science programs, or should primarily focus on second or lower tiers.
Profile:
Type of Undergrad Institution: La Trobe University (2015 QS ranking 151-200 in politics & international studies)
Major: Politics
GPA: 71.8% (3.82/4 as calculated by WES)
Type of Grad Institution: Australian National University (2015 QS ranking #7 in politics & international studies)
GPA: 75.3% (4.00/4 as calculated by WES)
GRE: v160 q168 aw4
Letter of Recommendation: Three strong letters, one from my master's thesis supervisor, two from master coursework senior lectures.
Research experience: a 15,000 words master's thesis on policy analysis, received 77%.
Teaching Experience: N/A
Research Interests: International Relations, Comparative Politics, with a focus on China.
Publication: N/A
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You should follow the instructions on the application as they are stated. Some ask for all post-secondary transcripts and you should submit them in this case. I would not be worried about the low GPA there though because it does not sound like your vocational school work is relevant to your PhD application? Also, your more recent academic performance would be considered much more highly than these old grades.
Thank you for your response! Guess I'd have to follow the instructions and submit these transcripts. But I'm less worried now.
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Hello,
Before I went to university, I studied at a vocational school for four semesters. I did not fail any course and received two diplomas, but the grade look bad. I received 1 year credits from these two diplomas when enrolling in university. I did quite ok with my bachelor and master degree and my GPAs was 3.82 and 4 respectively, calculated by WES.
My question is, as I'm afraid that the grade of my vocational school is going to be a significant shortcoming in my PhD application, what would happen if I don't submit the transcript? Now I can 1) submit neither my transcript nor the diploma; 2) submit my diploma but not transcript and 3) submit both.
I received all the diplomas and degrees in Australia.
Thanks.
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Hello all,
I wonder if I should include my grade/GPA in my CV (not Resume), or just indicate the class of degree I received?
Thank you
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15-18 programs is a little bit more than the numbers I see (at least for my field) but it's not an overwhelmingly large amount. Maybe it is too much for other reasons (i.e. are you really finding 15-18 programs that are good fits?) but not for letter writing annoyance reasons. I'll just focus on how to work with your letter writers when you have 15-18 requests!
The amount of work to submit 18 letters is only a little bit more than 1 letter. When their graduate students apply for jobs, some people apply for dozens and dozens of jobs and that means they write dozens and dozens of letters.
However, I think they would be annoyed if they didn't know to expect 15-18 letter invitations. I would highly recommend talking to each of your letter writers in person and letting them know the following information that you are applying to this many schools. Personally, I worked closely with my letter writers (who were also my mentors) in selecting the schools to apply to and we iterated through the list a few times.
I would supply the letter writers with a neat and organized table that summarizes the key points they need to know for each letter. Because it is likely that your letter writers will write one generic letter and then cut/paste out the names of schools and programs, you should provide them with all of this info in the table. So, for each school, I supplied the deadline, the school name, the exact department name, the exact PhD program name, and the names of 2-4 professors at that school I would work with. The list was sorted by deadline.
I also had a short summary of various numbers like GPA, GRE scores and a 2 sentence description of my research goals at the top of the page.
Then, during the talk with each of the letter writers, we also talked about how they would like to be reminded of these deadlines. Different people will have different preferences. Most of my letter writers wanted me to group these requests in two week chunks, so I sent all the letter requests that are due Dec 1 - Dec 15 on Nov 15, and then the ones due Dec 15 to Dec 31 on Dec 1 etc. That way, they won't get 18 single requests! Also, we agreed that I would send them a reminder for any outstanding letters 2 days before the due date using the application's built-in reminder system instead of just an email since the automated reminder contains links to the right form!
So, I think the key idea when you have this many letters is to communicate with your writers to find out what they want. Make their lives as easy as possible! A piece of paper or other note/reminder of what you talked about (like I said above) is also a good idea---don't rely on them remembering what was discussed.
Thank you so much for your response! I didn't realize how important it was to make this process easier for the letter writers. I'll follow your suggestion and make a summary of the schools I plan to apply to.
And yes 18 grad schools sounds more than a student would normally apply to, but I did find the programs of these schools related to my research interest - at least not in a far-fetched way, and I was advised more than once by US professors to apply widely.
Thank you again!
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Hello all,
I have been advised to apply widely as I thrive for my PhD program and I plan to apply for about 15-18 programs. My question is, as I only have three professors writing me LOR, would they feel annoyed as they will be contact that many times and somehow become less willing to help?
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I personally didn't find it accurate - it converted me about .5 lower than what I actually am (according to 3 different schools). However, if you're happy with it's conversion...
Have you tried using a few different GPA calculators and seeing if they're comparable? Additionally, email the admissions contact for each US school you are applying to with your grades from Australia and ask if you meet the cut/what is their GPA conversion policy (this is what I did from the UK and everyone replied saying I was good, and with their own school converted GPA which is a lot more accurate).
Thanks heaps for your reply! Yes I have tried the calculator of Foreign Credits as well, it converted my undergrad grade to 3.38 whereas WES converted it to 3.81, which made me incline to choose WES to do the job... Foreign Credits also converted my master grade 0.09 points lower than WES did. Which online GPA converting services have you tried, may I ask?
Emailing graduate schools with my grades do sound like a good idea. I was concerned the US grade inflation was going to make my grade look less competitive, but it didn't seem to bother you. I'm going to contact the grad schools now.
Thank you again!
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I would appreciate any feedback on my SOP for an application to a political science Ph.D. program. I edited out the names (school, professor) but hopefully it will still flow nicely. Please let me know what you think, I'm especially curious if you feel my description of prospective research project is too vague. Additionally if you would like any feedback on your SOP please send me in a private message or post to this topic.
Statement of Purpose
Long been preparing to step into academia of international relations, I have achieved my Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Master of International Relations (with Honors). While accomplishing these two degrees, besides familiarizing myself with essential knowledge in this area, I also became acquainted with conducting independent research by doing my master thesis. I strongly believe it is a timely decision to strive for a doctoral degree.
In lieu of a formal introduction of my research interests and aspirations I offer a summary of my master thesis, which is entitled “X”. As indicated by the title, this project engages with the immediate debate over whether Beijing’s hardening diplomatic posture represented a significant change in China’s policy towards North Korea, after the latter conducted its third nuclear test. By juxtaposing audience cost theory with China’s domestic situation at the time, I forged an intriguing but underemphasized approach to understand this puzzle. My argument is that a clear causal connection between attitudinal change and policy cannot be made on the grounds that Chinese foreign policy statements were strongly influenced by domestic public opinion rather than a shift in strategic interests. In brief, my research tempts to identify Chinese intentions and use it to explain China’s seemingly paradoxical rhetoric and policy toward North Korea.
This first venture into serious political analysis has affirmed my passion for analyzing China’s foreign-policy strategy in Northeast Asia; and it has given me the confidence to apply neoclassical realism theory in this process, in regard to study the perennial problem of clearly identifying Chinese intentions. Continuing along these avenues of research in Ph.D. program, I would like to use my thesis as the basis for a future dissertation. Though I remain wary about committing myself prematurely to a specific topic of research, I am also eager to study China’s future Asia and the Pacific strategy under the influence of its ongoing internal political and economic transition. Indeed, many of the conclusions reached in the thesis, such as my claim that China’s strategy interest and regional policy in Northeast Asia will remain consistent for a long period of time, serve as starting points for future research and study.
On a more basic level, doing this project not only gave me the chance to make my modest intellectual contribution, but also gave me the chance to get better accustomed with the essential of political analysis. Longing for identify Beijing’s intention behind its attitudinal shift, I navigated the sea of primary and secondary sources, from the end of the Cold War to present, in pursuit of identifying if multiple perspectives of China’s regional strategic interest have changed. As my analysis indicated such change did not occur, I then turned my focus to Chinese domestic situation and judiciously utilized audience cost theory. From deciphering esoteric intention behind political behavior to developing an awareness of the importance of time and funds, I experienced the mundane realities of research that inevitably stunt the political scientist’s aspirations, and thus had myself better prepared.
The project I wish to pursue in the doctoral program, as I mentioned above, is to study how is the interplay of international and domestic politics, or the ‘two-level game’, influences China’s political behavior in Northeast Asia. On international level, my research would primarily concern the impact of the bilateral relations between China and US, Japan and both Koreas, the US-Japan-Korea strategic triangle and the overarching US ‘Pivot to Asia’ strategy. On domestic level, my research would focus on the impact of China’s ongoing political and economic evolution under the present administration, as well as the increasing influence of public opinion. These are the themes and issues I would focus along doing both my coursework and research.
I should also stress that at the heart of my specific research concentration lies a more general interest in the evolving political landscape in Asia and the Pacific. To date, my knowledge of strategic rivalry, international political economy and foreign policy making in this region has been informed and sustained by an array of relative courses. My personal penchant for this area stems largely, I believe, from my training in policy observation and analysis. Also of crucial importance to a professional career accessing and analyzing data is my fluency in Chinese.
University S’s political science program looms large in my mind, largely because of its outstanding faculty and the program it provides. I was thrilled to learn that Professors A, B and C taught at University S. Professor A articles on North Korea and Northeast Asia have provided important inspirations on my previous and prospective research, especially his coauthored article, “Y”, which comprehensively introduced me why engagement, rather than sanction, is more likely to elicit North Korea’s cooperative behavior. Together, Professor A’s cutting edge research, B’s knowledge on Chinese military and Professor C’s expertise on politics of Chinese Communist Party would make my experience at University S a challenging and enjoyable one.
In addition, University S provides an ideal climate for me to develop my multi-subfields interests of political science. In my own quest for a suitable graduate program, I was thrilled to find that University S offers an interdisciplinary doctoral program in political science and international affairs. My research interest, regional focus and my academic training, as I mentioned previously, all fit closely with this program. The comprehensive subfields options of University S’s graduate program would broaden and enrich my research as well as my general knowledge of these particular aspects.
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I have received my bachelor and master degrees from Australia, where universities don't use 1-4 scale grading system, so I'm looking to convert my grades to US GPA. I am aware of it's not compulsory and graduate schools would eventually check my transcripts if interested - however I've read an article from an associate professor in Columbia suggesting applicants don't leave GPA field blank: http://chrisblattman.com/about/contact/gradschool/
I searched for GPA calculator online and found WES (wes.org) and I was pretty happy with its converting output. So, I'm here to ask if anyone have any idea about how credible is the GAP calculator of WES regarded among US graduate schools, especially the high tiers ones?
Thank you in advance.
Welcome to the 2015-2016 Cycle!
in Political Science Forum
Posted
I'm sending off to 14, all US ones.