applicantZERO

As a person who was not at an Ivy league school who was accepted to some top programs including Harvard, I back what this statement about letters of reference. Additionally important is senior level coursework -- like cross listed graduate undergraduate seminars that you took. Also good is if your profs writing letters have names that committees at least recognize. Finally, the statement of purpose should really be designed to make a potential advisor of yours, sitting on the committee, have as easy a time selling you to the others as possible. Political science, with its subfields, has a lot of horse trading in the admissions process. So make it easy on them: show fit, but also that you can work well with a few profs. Show preparation. Show you want to be a researcher and scholar, that this is your central goal, above all others.

There is no question: go to Columbia. It is a gold standard for IR and security studies, has a better name than Chicago and a way better name that Syracuse, which is a solid Masters program but a so-so overall school. Plus: NYC.

Well, his numbers are perfect except a low CGPA (with 3.7, a solid GPA, in major). So we can never really know how much of a bump he got. Are you going to Harvard ivy league dude?

As someone who is going to start a PhD next year, I was very interested in Realist's advice. Realist's advice is extremely obvious. It is easy to verify. Why, if there are so very few tenure track jobs, are there so many departments awarding PhDs? What is going on here? It is obvious what is going on: PhD's get paid about 1/2 of the national average salary in most cities in which they live, to teach and help teach undergraduate classes. This is a great thing for universities great and not-as-great. There is no formula for getting a tenure track job. Whether you should go to a school to work with one individual is a question each person must decide. It is a risk, but going somewhere where there is no clear advisor is also a risk. All those who berate Realist for being an elitist are laughable. He is a "realist." Tenure is one of the very last "sure things" in the modern economy. It is given by insiders who are obviously protecting their turf. And numerically, it is easy to see there are easily four times more PhDs than there are jobs. The ivory tower is no less professional than any other area of modern America. Get used to it.

Ok Georgetown applicant people, I have inside information. First, I was accepted to political theory with funding. I have declined the offer. That bumps, in theory, everyone up the list one spot. Second, arrangements for visiting students are now being made. If you have not even heard about admissions, it is unlikely you will be admitted at all (but still possible), but it is very unlikely you will be funded in the end. There are 8 or so people who got funding offers. Then there is a short list of alternates. All these people are being contacted. Sorry if this is bad news for some.