MyWay

Tbh, it is really weird to me that one can nail 6 advanced methods courses while getting a 153 in the quant section. I would seriously consider retaking GRE as one might start to question the academic rigor of your program. 

EDIT: Forgot to note — I graduated in spring 2018, and took a year off in between undergrad and grad to work as an RA
PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: SLAC known for sending students to PhDs
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political science
Undergrad GPA: 3.67 (my school is known for major grade deflation, tho — this GPA put me in the top 10 percent of the graduating class)
GRE: 166 V / 156 Q / 5.5 
Any Special Courses: I took a lot of political science classes and had a 4.0 in my major (around 10 classes, most of which were 300+ level), and I took five grad-level research seminars (i.e., you read 6000000 pages a week and produce a large paper at the end). Also took upper-level Econ courses and intro stats + data science classes. 
Letters of Recommendation: Presumably pretty good. I knew all three profs very well and took multiple classes with all of them.
Research Experience: Aside from my senior thesis (mandatory for all seniors), I worked as an RA with a visiting prof my second year and our paper was accepted to ISA (I wasn't there to present, though). I worked in a think-tank in a former Soviet country as an RA for a summer. Also interned at a public interest magazine and wrote freelance print articles for them for 2 years afterwards. Worked as an RA for a global humanitarian non-profit/NGO. Worked remotely as an RA for a federal agency in a former Soviet country. Currently working as a super data/quant heavy RA at an academic dept at an Ivy League but not within my own major or specialty.
Teaching Experience: None but I worked like a million on-campus jobs.
Subfield/Research Interests: IR first, CP second. Conflict studies, mostly.
Other:  Native fluency in another """strategic"" language and can read in two others. 

RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): Duke $$, Columbia $$
Waitlists:
Rejections: Stanford, Yale, Northwestern
Pending:
Going to: Most likely Columbia     

LESSONS LEARNED:
Firstly, this is super obvious but like...research schools and programs as much as you can. I went into this super blind and clueless (I'm first-gen) and knew for sure I had a #1 choice but was having a hard time figuring out the rest. Come January, I was definitely regretting not applying to more schools and would have DEFINITELY regretted it if I hadn't gotten into my top choice. I'm not recommending applying for more schools just to apply to more schools (like, I applied to Yale but have no idea why really), but make sure you know exactly all the programs that might fit well for you and consider them all seriously when applying.
Second, I really think connections are incredibly important. Ask your profs where to apply and where they know people — aka so they can personally put in a good word for you.
Third, STUDY for the GRE as much as you can. Again, I kind of went into this blind and clueless and did not study for the GRE as much as I should have. I had maybe a week of serious studying before my exam. I decided not to retake it but I had a pretty low quant score. My writing sample (a quant-heavy thesis) and my current job and skills hopefully offset that low score, but this is one thing you can do to even out the playing field for yourself a bit. 
 
 SOP: PM me! It starts with a relatively quick anecdote about my personal history to explain why I'm interested in poli sci (and IR and CP specifically) and then I go straight into my research interests, then my current job, then my thesis, then other research, and then a paragraph about fit. 

Notre Dame has Perez-Linan and Coppedge now and Scott Mainwaring will be returning next year. Seems like a no brainer for me...

As someone with similar experience, I completely disagree. And if you've never seen a student with linear algebra come though... I'm not sure what to even say to that.

As a general statement Re: withdrawing from schools, I don't think it's fair to be pressuring others into doing so because of "others on the waitlist." People don't have a responsibility to those on the waitlist. Applications cost a lot of money, and people are entitled to a decision from the schools to which they applied. There are people on the waitlist every year, and others get accepted, and that's just how it is. Trying to guilt others into withdrawing applications on behalf of people they don't know is, well, selfish in my opinion.
Also, rushing into a decision is almost always the wrong way to go. Patience, as they say, is a virtue - it can't hurt to wait to see all your options laid out.
This process isn't easy, especially if you've been allowed the privilege to agonize on the waitlist for the next couple months. But people should be able to make their decisions without feeling guilty for not withdrawing.

Michigan State does the Afrobarometer. It also has a strong Africa focus in its comparative subfield, if I remember correctly. 
If you apply to a top school with a poor fit, it probably won't turn out well. Apply to places (top, middle, and safety) that have Africanists. If a top 5 has a good fit, that's not a waste of a fee. If it doesn't, then yes, you're wasting your money. A program won't accept you if you're a bad fit. Even if it did, you would have a hard time studying Africa with no Africanists.

Cornell-Pepinsky
UMich-Slater
Slater's work is not heavily quant but my take is that your 154 GRE-Q might keep you out of most programs...it is a threshold.

Not a theorist but my piece of advice would be that do not identify yourself on these online forums...

Hey all, this isn't my application season (post in last year's thread here), but I did want to impart a bit of advice. It is likely that your research interests overlap somewhere with another member of this forum. While you're all still on this forum (as most of you will likely never return after the beginning of grad school), I encourage you, if you are comfortable with doing so, to talk to each other privately and de-anonymize. Networking is a huge part of how you fare on the market, and it does not hurt to start today. So turn to each other and start talking, arrange to meet each other at conferences, and possibly co-author something once you feel ready to do so.
This is not empty advice. I am currently co-authoring a project with a (former?) active user of this forum, who I will leave nameless unless they wish to announce themselves, and it's looking promising. The type of people who self-select into GradCafe are usually ahead of the game, and all of you this year were no exception. So get networking!