moe8

Just received a UCSD admittance, after a UC Berkeley rejection and (probably?) NYU rejection. I am ecstatic!

Wow this is the second such thread where I've seen people just post "wrong forum". That's not gonna be much help to someone who couldn't find the forum in the first place... OP This is the forum you want http://forum.thegradcafe.com/forum/11-government-affairs/ Who moderates this website? Maybe they could sticky a post that links to the proper forum

At the PhD level, International Relations is one of the main subfields of Political Science (the others being Theory, Comparative Politics, and American politics). IR focuses on the interaction between states (and non state actors, and more...). Political Science is a mainstream branch of academia filed under social sciences (along with Economics and Sociology etc). People get a PhD in PS typically to become professors. Not to be confused with graduate schools of International Relations/Affairs/Diplomacy/whatever such as those offered by SAIS/Georgetown/Columbia SIPA/Tufts Fletcher, etc. Usually offering an MA or MS degree. Those are professional degrees for people who want to work in government, international organizations, NGOs etc. I would liken them to an MBA. To the best of my understanding, they don't have to write theses, often do internships or even work full time while taking coursework part time. Emphasis more on networking and gaining some practical skills. Public affairs seems to be often used for MA degrees similar to the professional degrees, but I believe at some schools you can get a PhD in Political Science focusing on Public Administration. Is that what you're thinking of? Either way I'd say Public Affairs tends to focus more on the actual workings of government, like figuring out how to provide better public education or regulate businesses etc.

Thanks for the nice comment. I posted the numbers because everyone else is, but I strongly suspect they're the least important part of the application when compared with other qualitative factors. I started my studies at community college and had to send those transcripts too... am picturing a bunch of fancy professors scoffing at my humble beginnings More importantly: Interviews? Maybe if those getting interviews were worried about publicly posting they could post them anonymously to the gradcafe survey?

Also throwing my hat in the ring. Applied to over 15 schools, mostly top 25 with a few select others, 170v/160+q/6, 3.9 GPA, but also a couple weird factors (extensive overseas experience, first gen student). Interests at the intersection of IR and CP. Currently in complete despair mode. The entire Christmas holiday was spent trying to gently explain to my entire (non college educated) family that I probably won't be able to "just go to the local school" since I'm from Boston so the "local school" means... well...