Hi,
I am an applicant in the 2016-2017 cycle for a PhD in Political Science. I chose my programs by faculty interest (nationalism studies/ethnosymbolism/Russian studies). If anyone can evaluate my profile and give some advice, I'd really appreciate it.
Undergrad: Top 50 National -- Public school in the South
Major: BA in Government/Russian Studies
Undergrad GPA: 3.3-3.4 from a community college; 3.83 (probably higher when my marks come out) from my main institution. Gov GPA: 3.9 Russian GPA: 3.8
GRE: 161 V/147 Q/ 5.0 (I know the Q is bad--my biggest concern)
Experience: President/founder of a polisci club, editor of an undergrad law review (weird), RA for arch. engineering (studying Russian buildings in Russian [for the language skills]), study abroad in Moscow for a summer, and an understudy to a Political Theory PhD student (have frequented conferences and such). I have proficiency in Russian
SOP: It is pretty decent. 2 pages, covers all of my interests and motivations.
Writing sample: I have one quantitative piece on the rise of the far-right and anti-Romani violence (I submitted it for a poster presentation at MPSA and some symposium and am waiting to hear back). and/or a qualitative piece on my actual ethnosymbolist interests. Both are around 20 pages.
Recommendations: 1 professor of Russian, 1 applied-research methods in polisci professor, 1 from my over-study (mentor?), 1 well-known Russian studies professor. All of the know me very well and can attest to my proficiency in the subject matter.
Publication: none
Presentations: none but pending acceptance to those two stated above...
Programs: BU, BC, Georgetown (PhD Gov/MA Russian), UMich (Reach), GW, and UPenn
Field: Political Science -> Comparative Politics -> Nationalism Studies -> Ethnosymbolism | Modern Political Theory | Russian/East European/ Eurasian studies
I am mainly concerned about my low Q on the GRE (But it also must be said that the range of my research is all qualitative), lack of presentations/publications, and my community college GPA. So, I'd love some feedback. Thanks in advance