Shadow70

meteora: Im not British. But if you are asking about my command of English I am considered bilingual by most people and institutions (actually I was reprimanded by my undergrad uni for appearing for the pre-enrollment test and acing it. They said it was a waste of everyone's time).

Hi there. I am an International applicant (from Europe) applying for PhD programs in the United States. I have the following profile: Undergrad: A research intensive UK uni (top 5 in Political Science in the UK) Major: BA Politics Undergrad GPA: Class I (Highest) Grad School: Same uni as above Grad Program: MSc International Relations Grad GPA: Merit (second highest classification, lost distinction by 2%) Quant Prep: an optional Economics class during my BA, Research Methods training, Political analysis (models), Advanced Research Methods (including Econometrics and advanced models), STATA, R-Studio Research Experience: BA project (equivalent to honor thesis), MSc thesis. GREs: 155V, 155Q, ?W (scores are unofficial still, I'm a bit gutted at how I did but don't have the chance to retake unfortunately) Letters of Recommendation: Faculty at my uni (2 IR), my thesis supervisor (comparative-IR), one political theorist. SOP: Still working on it, hope it will turn out to be good. Writing Sample: Parts of my MSc Thesis Publication: Paper in my university's multi-discipline journal. Presentations: 2 presentations in UK Conferences: 4 major conferences (academic and professional) Fellowships/Scholarship: University scholarship to study MSc. Professional Experience: Research positions (current and previous employment about 1 year now total), internship at my country's ministry during presidency of the EU, army service including special training in intelligence, part-time RAship (unpaid) Programs I'm Looking At: Princeton, MIT, NYU, Minnesota, Northwestern, WashU, UPenn, Rochester, Georgetown Field: IR, security, asymmetrical threats, terrorism, alliance building. Questions: Do you think my GRE scores can destroy my chances? I humbly believe the rest of my profile is decent. Given that I am applying to all sort of schools - from top 5 to top 30 do I have a good chance of getting at least 1 admit? Thanks for taking the time to read through my profile

Your profile looks very good so I think you can relax. Talking to faculty both in my previous university and universities I am applying to, it seems after admitting numerous European students year after year ad-coms at American universities understand our grades and the classifications, so no need to worry about that either. And they know that students from European universities don't have enough chances to conduct independent research except if we write an honor thesis or we do a Masters. But Europeans we are certainly in a better position than non-US, non-EU applicants (I don't mean to underestimate universities elsewhere -there are amazing universities in Asia and Oceania as well, but it's the truth that in academia usually it's USA alongside UK, then rest of Europe, then rest of world). Btw your GRE score is certainly better than mine and you seem to be confident about what you are going to do if admitted. Good job on that!! Just out of curiosity - seeing that you wanted a more methods intensive program and you being from Germany have you ever checked the double masters program of Kostanz and University of Essex? I remember faculty sorting out the details when I was doing my MSc at Essex and they were going on about how intensive it was going to be.... In any case 'Viel Gluck' in your applications! I need to finish mine as well