Habermas

Haven't heard anything but looking at past data on interview dates it doesn't seem unfeasible. Looks like Madison routinely interviews people in the last three years in the first two weeks of January.

Does anyone want to speculate or provide insight on how COVID might impact when we hear back?

Ahhh, I see. Are there any other strengths that I should be aware of when applying for comparative? I have a really strong sense of 4-5 faculty I would want to work with but again, these "departmental traits" are eluding me somewhat.

Having scrolled around to similar threads, I'll summarize what seems to be the consensus: "[it doesn't really matter. Schools are going to make their own assessment of where you stack up relative to the cycle's pool and will act accordingly. This is just for schools to collect data on general trends.]" My personal take: I don't really see how they could use this data effectively on the scale with which they operate. At best, they MIGHT be able to glance at it if they're really on the fence, but what would it really tell them? Everyone has their own reasons that go into "the list" and its pretty hard to guess what they are unless its literally just the top 10 ranked schools, or all the schools in one particular state or city. That being said, I put my top choices for most schools and then a more varied list for my quasi-safeties. I don't think it matters though. Hope this helps.

Hi everyone. I am sitting down to finalize my SOP for Michigan when I realized there is a note included on their site about speaking to departmental fit. "We encourage applicants to write about their specific area of research and discuss how this research fits into the larger department as a whole. Although you are welcome to reference faculty members with whom you share research interests, we strongly discourage you from giving superficial reviews of their work. “Fit” is an important criterion when reviewing applications so we encourage you to focus on your own personal academic “fit” and strengths." Summarizing a professor's work, particularly their recent work--and drawing connections to one's stated interests--seems to be by definition how one proves fit with a program. Department strengths seem really hard for someone outside the program to describe without talking about faculty work. Anyone wanna take a crack at what to make of these instructions?

Does the page limit most schools give include or exclude figures? Its obvious references/bilbiography are not counted, but how should we count figures when they can add up to 2-3 pages? I've reached out to multiple programs with this question. Those that have responded seem not to be too strict on length, but some schools with low page limits haven't gotten back to me.

Thank you so much for this feedback. I will say its not a very high-level course (level 500), but point well taken. My SOP signals mixed-methods but certainly makes no promises by way of cutting edge quantitative models or anything of the sort--and I focus a lot on the qual skills I bring to the table. It also bears note that very few schools are actually going to request fall grades, so this may be moot if this cycle pans out for me.

I'm a current M.A. student applying to PhD programs this cycle. Things have fallen into place and I'm feeling quite good about my chances, COVID-cycle application odds aside. I am applying to about a dozen of the top schools. The one issue is my current semester's quant course. Its my second intermediate grad-level stats course I'm taking to try and demonstrate a non-hostility toward quant methods despite going into a relatively qual sub-subfield of comparative politics. My strategy was to pair these two courses with a 162Q and some basic stats in my writing sample to show I was ready to be a quant-literate scholar who would go on to at least do simple multivariate regression work to pair with my qual focus. Studying for the final, I'm not confident I'm going to be able to pull off the A or A- in this class, for a variety of reasons that won't affect my ability to do well in a full quant module during PhD. The rest of my graduate coursework has been stellar--including an A in another stats class. Am I better off declaring P/F than risking a B/B+? Tldr; I have a strong application I feel good about except for my upcoming stats final. Should I P/F a course that I might get a B in?

Currently a Senior double majoring in Political Science and Middle East studies at a third tier university (think GW, Syracuse, UMass, that league). I am planning on applying for Political Science PhD programs next December. I'm looking specifically to do Comparative Politics with a focus on the Middle East. I will probably graduate with around a 3.68 (cum laude) and a 3.9 in my major. I'm currently abroad in the Middle East on a Boren Scholarship where I've been studying Arabic and conducting research for my senior thesis for the past six months. Strengths Senior thesis will likely be strongly tied to research proposal and its a reasonably impressive piece of work for an undergrad Letters of rec should be pretty good Lots of experience living in the Middle East I'm taking a gap year, so lets assume I'll have time to nail my GRE Fluent in French, strong foundation in Arabic Weaknesses No quant experience (did poorly in my mandatory math class) No research experience outside of my thesis GPA is kind of a bummer Where I need help What are my realistic prospects for schools? Is a top 25 something that's within my reach? Does anyone happen to know schools outside the ivies that are really strong for my area of interest? I decided to take a gap year only because I wanted to focus on Arabic while I was abroad instead of grad school apps, so my time is wide open. Is there anything I can do to strengthen my application with this time? Thanks in advance for the advice.