StrengthandHonor

All of the above have good advice. If you're either in a quantitative field or have quantitative classes to make it through your first year, knowledge of statistical programming and linear + matrix algebra will make your life much easier. If you are weak on academic writing, it helps to brush up. Nota bene, there is a big difference between "good writing" for an undergrad, and the particular styles and conventions of academic writing for political science journals. Above all, take some time to go outside. I spent much of my last summer travelling with my spouse, camping, and backpacking. I also spent plenty of time indulging in intellectually stimulating reading that was only somewhat related to my work. Once you start the term, your time will soon become entirely eaten up with the various tasks of graduate school. Enjoy the break while you have it. It's also a good time to make sure that you have entrenched healthy lifestyle habits regarding sleep, nutrition, and exercise.

I was referring more to the gap between top-15 programs and 20-40th ranked programs (or lower) instead of the gap between different t15 programs.

I think the rankings issue is still in-play, as many (hopefully, all) of you will be choosing Ph.D. programs to attend. That being said, here are a few thoughts: 1. Productivity matters. You will likely get a job based on your publications and the quality of your dissertation (as well as teaching effectiveness). So prestige/program quality makes a huge difference in the quality of your methodological training, in the quality of your peers, and the faculty around you. That being said, I have friends in CHYMPS programs that have "famous" advisors who hardly give them the time of day. Go to the department that you believe will enable you to write the best damn dissertation you possibly can. 2. Letters of recommendation/connections from faculty members will be important. This is the same reason that students from higher ranked schools often do better in graduate school admissions. If you are choosing between two college seniors/two newly minted Ph.D.'s with similar profiles, you will (in that high noise, low signal environment) prefer the one who is recommended by a scholar you know, or whose work you know to be of high quality. So it's helpful to attend a program with well-connected, well-respected faculty. That being said, if you do truly excellent work at a lower ranked program, you can likely find at least one recommendation outside of your institution. 3. Productivity is actually everything. Productivity is also affected by more things than we tend to think. Your environment and your happiness will affect the quality of your work. A student from Princeton may have a leg up, but if I'm happier living where I live and he hates living in NJ, then I'm going to produce better work, and I will take his job. So don't consign yourself to miserable living situations for the sake of rank. Be prepared to make lifestyle choices because few graduate programs are well-payed, but just be aware of the situation. If you have Seasonal Affective Disorder, you probably will not work up to your potential in Chicago. If the stipend is unreasonably low compared to cost of living, and you have to spend 5-7 years eating ramen in an unheated apartment, you probably won't do very good work either. So yeah. tl;dr, more than rankings, focus on what universities will give you the best training and the best shot at producing good scholarship. That is correlated (but not tightly) with the USNWR rankings.

I'm no expert on the comparativists here, though I know they they and Americanists dominate the department (IR and Theory students and faculty are rarer). Strengths in social movements, Latin America, and Eastern Europe/post-Soviet studies, I think. My (rather) uninformed opinion is that they're competitive with any other top-15, non CHYMPS school.

RDU airport is no JFK, but it's only about 15-20 minutes drive from UNC, and flights tend to be pretty affordable. It's a big hub for Southwest. Also, Chapel Hill/Carrboro is a lovely place to live.

Can confirm that this is the case. I received an offer from UNC on January 12 of last year. UNC has a number of University-wide fellowships that have an internal deadline for departmental nominations in late January. So historically UNC makes offers to like their top 5 candidates in early-mid January, so they can nominate them for university fellowships. The rest of the decisions follow a fairly standard timeline, with offers often showing up in a batch in early February, a batch in early March (once some top candidates decline) and then occasionally people off the waitlist in April. Also, I'm a current UNC grad student. Feel free to message me for information on Chapel Hill/Carrboro, the program, or anything else--especially you theorists!

I'm currently living in east Chapel Hill. My wife and I got a steal on a 1 br/1ba apartment (about 600 sq. ft.). Once you bundle in what we spend on a shared internet connection with our downstairs neighbor and water/electric we're about $650/month--in a house on a residential street less than 1.5 miles from campus. There are definitely a few apartments like ours in the area, but it might be hard to find them. Most people I know spend $700-$1200 a month. There's a development of duplexes near us that run $800-1100/month for a three bedroom. I remember looking at some 2br 1.5ba townhomes that were in the $700-800 range too. As @neuronfire94 said, there are some new "luxe" developments which charge extortionate amounts, and many of the well-advertised communities are expensive as well. It's easily imaginable to have your monthly rent+utilities+internet under $500 (or even under $400)/mo. if you shop around and have roommates. Be on the lookout, as well, for finding an apartment that is conveniently on the bus line. Google Maps will let you see what a typical commute by our great (and free) local buses would look like. I have a 7 minute ride to campus, which is absolutely glorious. I hope that helps somewhat, and good luck getting into UNC! If you end up in Chapel Hill, send me a message and come up to the third floor of Hamilton to say hi!

You're obviously competitive. But as @Comparativist said, no one on this forum can offer a better response than to say "You're competitive--good luck." Unfortunately, a lot of perfectly qualified and competitive people get rejected each year from any halfway decent program. Good luck. Also, cool work on political theology and Machiavelli. I've got some interests in that direction.

I'm a current Ph.D. student, but I just thought I'd drop by and offer my well-wishes to all of you as you are waiting! Take my advice and don't let the waiting ruin your spring. Go on lots of long walks, and whatever you do, don't think about it too much.

As others have said, any disadvantage you have for having one non-academic letter is essentially, equal to the disadvantage of being out of academia for a decade. Most schools would rather have a recent letter from a non-academic recommender who can attest to your recent work/qualities, rather than three letters from people you worked with most a decade or more ago. Don't stress about it.

Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Michigan, Princeton, Stanford. Historically, the top programs in political science in terms of prestige. There are many other amazing programs in or near the top-10 (Berkeley, Duke, UNC, MIT, etc.) but they are second to the CHYMPS schools in terms of prestige.

Yes, it matters. This is true for a number of reasons. It's also true that you can succeed coming from a lower ranked/unranked school. It's just an uphill battle. "Prestige" in this context involves a lot of things. First, it signals (almost certainly unfairly) that you are a brighter student/had a better education. Second, you likely had better training, or at the very least, training that was more "recent" and in tune with current trends in research. Third, you may have had better access to research funding, grants, etc. Fourth, your recommenders are much more likely to have national or regional recognition, or relationships with professors at the schools you apply to. These are all things you can overcome. Anecdotally, I'm currently enrolled in a very good Ph.D. program (not CHYMPS, but close), and I graduated from a tiny teaching LAC. I had the unanimous recommendation of our Political Science faculty, because there were only three of them (none of which have published significant research in (literally) decades). I counteracted it by working my butt off to have a good GRE and GPA, great writing sample, conference presentations, and having the sorts of academic relationships that led to glowing recommendation letters. It's not impossible to overcome the bias towards higher ranked programs that carry more cachet, but it can be hard.

I've written and published fairly extensively in a wide variety of avenues-- from white papers for policy organizations, to articles in prestigious magazines, to blog posts/web articles for different outlets, in addition to a peer-reviewed journal article I coauthored. All of these publications are useful signals for adcoms and potential employers, but they signal different things. In academia, the most important type of publication is peer-reviewed journal publication, but the other things make a difference too. I worked for a year for a well-known magazine with similar standards for publication as the New Yorker or The Atlantic. Most of the articles published therein were by academics (including very well known academics). That is a valuable signal. I separated these things into separate sections on my C.V. So, Peer Reviewed Publications: blank blank blank journal of blank. Other Publications: I listed here a couple of selected articles, plus "other articles appearing in blank, blank, and blank."

Hey. I assume that if you are applying to a Political Science program, you'll be applying as a Political Theorist. In that case, your undergrad in philosophy should not harm you, as long as you have an SOP and letters that strongly indicate your interests and strengths in the study of political theory. I would advise that you do a significant amount of reading in the literature both in political philosophy, and political theory. I think it's reasonably fair to say that political theory has a far higher interest in continental philosophy and historical philosophy, while the field of political philosophy right now is much more focused on analytic philosophy. Read work from both fields, and try to figure out which field is doing work in the area you wish to work in. Chris Blattman (of the Harris School at U Chicago) has told people interested in political economy to find the people doing the work they want to emulate, and then see whether they are political scientists doing poli-econ, or economists doing poli-econ. I'd suggest you do the same. All that being said, the job market is probably stronger in political theory than political philosophy. At the very least, as a theorist you will usually be in a department with better funding (we usually would get the same funding offers as our more empirical cohort-mates), and your department probably has better grad placement resources. Additionally, political science departments (generally) have better hiring budgets than philosophy departments, when you're on the job market. One more thought from my experience in political theory: it seems that broadly speaking, the field is widely divided between generally right-leaning Straussians who are interested in close reading of historical political thought, and left leaning postmodernists who are interested in critical theory, deconstruction, etc. If you don't fit into (or at least, find yourself marginally aligned with) one of those categories, it may be hard to find a "home" in political theory. I hope that helps. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

To follow up on the advice of the others, the main weakness with your profile (at least, among the limited information you've shared) is that your multiple programs of study may signal that you lack focus or a coherent career arc and research agenda. Coherence and focus are essential parts of the admissions process, because the committee needs to know that you are prepared to dedicate yourself to several closely related research projects over a 5-7 year period of time. Strong letters, and a very strong and focused SOP are going to be the key for you, I believe.

I had no trouble renting an apartment in Chapel Hill. They did a credit check (I do have good credit), and then I provided a copy of my offer letter from my Ph.D. program.

I'd say that you'd have a strong chance at any of those schools (of course, pending excellent recommendations and a solid GRE. Take the time to write an excellent SOP, too. EDIT: I'm headed to UNC-CH with a similar profile (albeit, different subfield).

Hello, I am just speaking from my experience + what I have gleaned--YMMV. If you are applying to a theory program, your quantitative background is usually unimportant. I had a very strong quants background (good GREQ, a published quantitative paper, a double major in economics, and lots of classes in advanced methods and econometrics, etc). The DGA at several of the programs I applied to (T10 programs, too) informed me that they didn't really care about it, and that I could have left it entirely off my application and seen no difference. Generally speaking, theorists care about your ability to read difficult texts and return incisive and interesting writing about it. That being said, it doesn't hurt to demonstrate that you are broadly talented. A school will probably always prefer a great theorist who also has some quantitative chops to a great theorist who is numerically illiterate. Also, regarding your interests, you might look into Boston College. They have a strong and well-respected theory program and a great deal of interest in religion and politics.

Hey, First, I agree with dagnabbit--don't stress over your GPA. It's more than adequate. There seem to be three areas that you need to work on, though. 1. Your GRE. Honestly, you have a very heavy quantitative background (and good grades in quants courses), and that isn't reflected in your GRE score. Where it is, now, you may be struggling with some departmental cutoffs. Study for the GRE and try to boost those scores. 2. Have an excellent writing sample. Write a new paper or take an old seminar paper, and work that thing until it's pretty darn near perfect. An excellent writing sample can also help overcome a low GRE verbal. 3. Solidify relationships with letter writers immediately. Choose people who know you well, know your work well, and can speak honestly to your potential and capabilities. good luck!

To throw in one more piece of advice.... For the love of God, once you've submitted your applications, DO NOT READ ANY OF YOUR APPLICATION MATERIALS. That way lies madness. Seal those things away in a dark little corner of your hard drive, and only look at them if you decide to apply again in the next cycle.

I'll throw my oar in here as well. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: No-name LAC. Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science, Economics (double major), Philosophy minor. Undergrad GPA: 3.99 Type of Grad: -- Grad GPA: -- GRE: V170, Q161, AW 5.5 Any Special Courses: Of course, lots of econ stuff and philosophy stuff. 3 stats classes, econometrics, etc. Letters of Recommendation: 1 professor emeritus (retired at the end of my Junior year, but I took 3 classes with him and worked as his TA/RA for a year), 1 tenured professor, 1 visiting professor who I coauthored with. Not much choice, in a department my size. Research Experience: RA for 2 years, research fellowship/internship one summer (but policy-based), and two senior theses (1 poli sci, 1 econ). 1 peer-reviewed paper (coauthor, but I'm the primary author). Presentations at a number of regional conferences, including one "Best Undergraduate Paper" award. Teaching Experience: 2 years as a TA for political science--assisted with a wide range of courses and course tasks. Subfield/Research Interests: Theory, constitutional law and development, legal theory. Methodology and statistics. Other: Some language training, including classical languages. RESULTS: Acceptances ($$ or no $$): UNC-CH ($$), Boston College ($$), Baylor ($$), Chicago MAPSS ($$) Waitlists: - ND, UVA (I accepted my offer before they decided). Rejections: Duke, Northwestern, U Chicago Ph.D., Committee on Social Thought Pending: - Going to: UNC-CH LESSONS LEARNED: - Start revising your SOP early and often. Honestly, I believe that my SOP was a weak point in an otherwise very strong application. Unfortunately, I'm the first student in nearly 20 years to graduate from my program and pursue a Ph.D.--and most of my professors are long out of graduate school--so I had very little support for how to tailor my application for today's market. GradCafe was very helpful in that regard. I (sadly) feel that my SOP may have been a deciding factor in how my application was viewed at some of my top choices. - Avoid sharing useless information. I received a lot of feedback from professors at the schools I did get into that indicated that my economics background, for instance, was interesting but largely irrelevant, and I could have used that application space to discuss something more relevant to my intended course of study. It's good to remember that the broad and widely varied training some of us may have received in a LAC, at this point, needs to become razor sharp and specialized. - Have good relationships with your LOR writers. Several of the acceptances I received mentioned specifically the strength of my LORs. For those of us who are coming from a no-name school/have LOR writers who are completely unrecognized in their field, it's possible to overcome the stigma by having quality work and excellent LOR. - If you can, take the GRE twice. I test poorly, and the second time I took it, I improved my composite score by 6 points without ANY additional study--just being more comfortable with the testing procedures. - Don't be crushed by rejections. I know (firsthand) that it's hard to feel like your entire life was weighed and found wanting, but the process is arbitrary enough that there are a multitude of reasons you may (or may not) get into your program of choice. Don't set your heart on any one program, but be willing to be wooed by any program that admits you. - Do your work, do it well, and then try your best to relax. Only check GC or your email periodically, go on long walks, and spend the waiting time well.

Congrats!

I just accepted an offer and declined several others. I hope that helps some people who are waiting on waitlists!

I know a guy (theory) who received a formal rejection on Friday as well. I, as of yet, still have no news from them. I'm happy enough with my other options with but I'm not finalizing anything until I hear back--I wish ND would administer the coup de grâce promptly!

Congrats!