bobafett

Also, Peter Evans is a sociologist. If you go outside of poli sci proper (as you said it yourself), bunch of top 10 schools have Marxists. 
But I believe you're quite wrong. There are a lot of Marxists in poli theory (yes, the mystical 'top 10' even). Most critical theorists are heavily influenced by Marx and have studied and used him extensively & have supervised dissertations on him/related to him. 

Also, it's funny how you say " Is there a single Marxist that is at a top 10 department?" even after I listed those names. Yes, yes there are. 

And what does it mean to be trained in "Marxist theory" - No one is expecting 5 classes in Marx to be offered during the 2 years they are taking classes. No one is expecting that in any type of theory. But if you're a prospective grad student in theory who wants to study Marx, as with any history of poli thought figure- you have to find a program where there is a scholar (or two) who you can take classes with and write a dissertation under. Someone who is interested in this thinker as you are and can help you become a true scholar on the topic. That's it. You don't need 3+ scholars in theory in the same department who do the same figure (that would be impossible for almost any thinker in his of poli thought) and who all teach classes on that figure (which would make no sense). 

Let's take an example of UChicago (a top 5 program) --> if you're a theory student there who wants to study Marx there (as people have already done) --- You can study it under Patchen Markell (who has taught 2-quarter class on Capital and is an expert on the topic & has mentored both MA & PhD students on the topic) + there are at last 1-2 other faculty members in theory there who can easily be on your committee (who use a lot of Marxist theory) + you can also take a class with Moishe Postone (history dept) who is one of the top figures in Marxism today (interdisciplinary). And btw, you can do both postcolonial and feminist theory at UChicago poli sci department (theory subfield) in a very similar way with equal success. 

That is how grad school in theory works. There is no mythical "marxist theory" program, same how there is no "Hobbes theory" program. There are top scholars who study Hobbes and you go there and study him with them in a similar way as I described for Marx above. That is just how history of poli thought works on a grad level. 

 

I think it's really funny just how little you actually know about political theory subfield, scholarship, and the scholars you are talking about (which is very evident from your last post), yet you are "not in the business of giving prospectives bad advice." 

You are completely wrong on several points there, but I really don't want to drag this on forever. 
I guess you just insist on being the authority on all things on this forum related to political science - even though theory is obviously not your forte - so I'll be happy to indulge you and leave this be.

Have a great day.
 
 
P.S. careful, there might be a Marxist at your department too!  (they might even have USSR flag in their office and their every publication has the word "Marx" in the title - to be more 'searchable' for non-theorists, of course)
 

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

I read this thread with a little concern and wanted to add my own perspective. I am presently in my fourth year, recently defended my dissertation prospectus, and am preparing to start gathering data. Prior to my PhD program, I worked as an attorney and taught practical courses at two law schools. In this thread, I’ve seen three related, basic concerns: job prospects, strategies for maximizing job prospects, and the work load. Take my advice as a current student with a grain of salt, but be aware that the path to success in this field is idiosyncratic enough to doubt that tenured faculty know how it works, either.
Job Prospects
BigTen is right here, and the attempt to rose-tint the job market issue by noting that an important number of tenure track positions at research universities are held by graduates from 10-25 ranked schools ignores the struggles faced by the vast majority of student from those programs. It is frankly unconscionable that faculty at 50+ ranked schools encourage graduate students to attend. I truly believe the emerging consensus that a number of graduate programs exist to fill the egotistical and labor needs of the department rather than because they provide reasonable employment opportunities to graduates. Evaluating job prospects and placements by reading placement boards provides some information. Watching your colleagues graduate and fight for positions provides another.
Attending a PhD program outside the top 10-12 is a real gamble. Most students in this range seem to place at universities or outside jobs that at least provide standard of living and a reasonable connection to the questions and research that drew you to study social science in the first place. But the plight of Visiting Assistant Professors who make minimum wage is real, and in most cases the PhD does little outside the academic/think tank world other than convince employers with no idea about the academic job market that you’d leave. After the 12-14 rank, most graduates have fewer tenure opportunities, period. They certainly face uncomfortable constraints on the region and pay they must accept for any measure of job security.
If your passion or self-assurance prompts to take the risk of attending a program outside this range, do yourself a favor and pay special attention to the advice in the following section.
Securing a Stable Job
Publishing: Ask yourself an important question over and over again (and ask your advisors): can some part of the questions that animate me be answered in a compelling, novel way with data that exists on the internet? If the answer is yes, you need to work on publishing. If the answer is no, then you need to focus on generating compelling research and data collection designs. When you graduate, hiring committees will have an opinion about whether it should have been possible to publish on your question during school, and often times the answer is. Often times (especially in comparative politics), the more promising candidates are the ones that generated awesome data sets.
Networking: I promise you this works. Every week during your first three years of graduate school, find two non-academic employers that have jobs you think you might like and be qualified for, then email a person that has 5-10 years experience in one of those jobs asking for advice. Ideally, you would get 15 minutes to speak with them about their own day-to-day (like you’re interviewing them about whether you want the job) and what skills the job takes (as though you are preparing to interview for it).
This means you send out 300 networking emails in three years. You’ll get maybe 40 people willing to speak with you and 10 that like you. Find excuses to stay in touch with those people, and 1 or 2 will have a job for you when you graduate. This job worked for young law school students I mentored and seems to be working for MA candidates I work with now.
Grants: Winning a grant is easier said than done, but it can be very beneficial. Winning a grant that pays you to research frees you from needing to work and sends a signal to future grantors and employers that you are promising and talented. Winning grants for research activities achieves the latter. 
I have not won any of the general work-replacement grants, but those I know who have burst ahead of the rest of us. They have zero distraction. This is part of why students from private schools like Harvard and Stanford outperform equally talented students at Michigan or UCLA. They work less.
I have been fortunate enough to win a couple of small but prestigious-sounding grants to fund research. It has completely altered the way senior colleagues view my work and promise.
Work Load
I think the gallows humor about reading in the shower is part of what makes for bad graduate students. It is absolutely true that you cannot read enough to stop feeling behind your classmates or (heaven forfend) the faculty teaching you. So why bother?
First the saccharine advice: if you are an interesting and curious enough person to attend a decent PhD program, there is very little in the world, and nothing at school, worth the sacrifice of five to seven years of your personal growth and exploration. I don’t care if you end up teaching at fucking Harvard, your colleagues will never look at you with the wonder your friends do when you serve them a perfectly seared scallop or play them Fur Elise on the piano after you eat someone else’s scallops. They won’t know you like your mother or your husband or your son.
Here’s an inconvenient truth: 90% of you want to go to grad school in large part because you want to feel smart. Your colleagues will rarely make you feel smart, even though you are. The whole enterprise is about identifying flaws in even the best work (in order to improve it) and on some level, this is miserable. Don’t believe me? Ask students at the schools you were admitted to how they felt about the process of drafting and defending their prospectus.**
But your friends and family will make you feel smart, especially if you turn your substantial talent to excelling in at least one thing they can relate to. You want to feel proud and useful and cherished and special? Learn to give people something that gives them instinctual pleasure. (Usually not an AJPS article.)
Now for the professional advice you won’t ignore: You will have plenty of pressure to read deeply and critically and to learn method. I don’t suggest ignoring this. But the best ideas and the best careers don’t seem based on picking apart the causal identification of a key article. Great insight requires time to rest and percolate, and inspiration comes from wondering why people haven’t solved real world problems more often than it comes from replication data.
Models don’t provide insight. They describe it.
Good ideas require some amount of travel and art and philosophy and debate and REST and EXPERIENCE and EXPOSURE. If you want to have any hope of avoiding the scholarly lament that “my research and my life talk to twelve other people” you have to set aside some time to be out of the literature and out of the methods.
I’m not suggesting you spend every Saturday smoking weed and reading Batman comics. Maybe baseball games and 30 Rock marathons are rare indulgences now. But don’t cancel your subscription to the New Yorker or stop seeing your friends, because politics is about real life and on some level no one trusts that the academic without work experience, without family, without friends, without hobbies, has any insight about what animates actual people. 
Good luck with everything.
**Setting aside the problems with political science as a science, while this process of critique and revise makes everyone feel stupid and insecure, it does help you eventually feel proud of and defend your work. But to scratch the itch of feeling competent, you’d be better off having kids and teaching them to camp or make great spaghetti sauce or something.

Not sure about LGBT question but as for the latter.  One way is to fly into Newark Liberty international airport, take the airtrain at the airport to Newark airport station, buy a ticket towards Trenton and ride the train up until Princeton junction. From there take the dinky to Princeton Station.  

This is the cheapest way to get to/from the airport, and it's what most grad students do. Your only other option would be to book a shuttle or a taxi. Also, I would not recommend flying into JFK/LaGuardia/Philly.  I also rely on the train, which should take no more than an hour and a half to get from the Dinky to the terminal. Few delays, schedules are well synchronized, and it's as cheap as you'll get. For these reasons I typically recommend the train, but it depends on how much you're willing to pay for the comfort of not having to lug your bags around. Shuttles will be $50+ and can take almost as long as the train, depending on the number of pick-ups/drop-offs. You won't have to worry about handling your bags on the airtrain, Trenton line, or Dinky, however. Taxis are the fastest and most comfortable option but will cost $100+.

Congrats to everyone who got good news today!

Claiming another Columbia acceptance. Jumping for joy!!

Claiming another Columbia acceptance. Jumping for joy!!

Claiming another Columbia acceptance. Jumping for joy!!

Claiming another Columbia acceptance. Jumping for joy!!

Wow! I'm sorry you had to go through this. It sounds like a really toxic department culture and like things really sucked. I haven't posted or visited this place in maybe 8 years since I was applying to grad school but this post made me want to share some thoughts. I've now finished my Ph.D. (at a top USNWR 5 place) and am now an assistant professor at a very nice place. Yes, I got very, very lucky and my experience is not representative of the typical applicant. But here are some thoughts:
1. I picked dissertation committee members based partly on their not being jerks. I did not work myself to the bone. Mostly, I worked the equivalent of 9 to 5 hours. Nine hours of real productivity and focus (i.e. with absolutely no internet, email, etc) is probably more than enough for most Ph.D. programs. The tough part is getting that focus. There are exceptions of course: when there was a tough game theory problem set due or the last frenzied two months of dissertation writing.
3. I made sure to give myself options. I came into grad school a qualitative scholar and left with some hard data science-type skills and I worked hard to hustle some consulting gigs. I don't really agree with the previous posts about consulting (at least after coursework is over).
4. I am not sure what field BigTenPoliSci is in, but to me the description of a star-focused job market sounds more like American politics and less like Comparative.
I wouldn't try to actively persuade anyone to go to graduate school, given the probabilities involved, but at the same time if you want a lottery ticket to the TT and you have a funded offer from a place in the USNWR top 10, you're probably not making a huge mistake.

You can ask, but some schools may not allow you to use that travel allowance for the moving trip. But other schools are explicit about this (one school that accepted me said that I have a $1000 budget that I can use for any combination of travel to the admitted students day or moving expenses, however I wished). So it's worth asking but be aware that many funding sources have restrictions on how the money is spent, so they might not be allowed to use the funds in this way even if they wanted to.

I did not contact any POIs prior to submitting my applications. My take on it is that professors at top schools probably receive a ton of emails during admission seasons, and they can't possibly learn about my research agenda in a meaningful way within the confines of short emails. Like mstama123, I used the program's website and read up on faculty members' research interests, publications, etc. to identify potential people I'd want to work it, wrote extensively about that in my SoP, and selected a writing sample that clearly demonstrated my interest. So far, I've been accepted at a top program, and every single professor I named in my SoP, as well as a few others whose research interests are close to mine, have sent me personal emails to discuss those overlapping interests. On the other hand, I've also been rejected by a lower-ranked program. I'd say you shouldn't give up hope yet! The season is far from over, and you might hear some good news soon. Good luck!!

Just went through my inbox and unsubscribed from every mailing list I ever signed up for, since every time the count for unread messages goes up, I have a mini heart attack. This waiting game is absolutely brutal!

Just went through my inbox and unsubscribed from every mailing list I ever signed up for, since every time the count for unread messages goes up, I have a mini heart attack. This waiting game is absolutely brutal!

Just went through my inbox and unsubscribed from every mailing list I ever signed up for, since every time the count for unread messages goes up, I have a mini heart attack. This waiting game is absolutely brutal!

Just went through my inbox and unsubscribed from every mailing list I ever signed up for, since every time the count for unread messages goes up, I have a mini heart attack. This waiting game is absolutely brutal!

Also claiming a Davis admit! Nice confidence booster after a few rejections. Big congrats to everybody who has received good news so far. Another thing - the congeniality and camaraderie displayed by the people in this thread makes me feel optimistic about our field. Here's to hoping that we all become friendly acquaintances, collaborators, and even coauthors in the future.
The only schools left on my list are Stanford, Columbia, and Michigan - obviously an admission from any of these would make my decision an easy one, but I am very content with my current options. Good luck to everybody still waiting for good news!

I have 10 more here. Expecting rejections from at least 6 after yesterday. 2 are great fits, two are lower tier schools. I wish the best for everyone who's waiting. 
And everyone tells me that it's going to be okay as it's told by @Kenga, but my inner thoughts are the same

Hi @DBear
I think it's very questionable that there has been an uptick in hate crimes since Trump's election. See here.
I grew up and went to college in a very liberal city in a very liberal state in the US. I know of dozens of anti-Asian hate crimes committed at or around my college, including one that led to a death (several years ago a young Asian student was chased into the street and hit by a car). 100% of these crimes were committed by black people, 0% by conservative Republicans. I don't think you need to worry about the typical Trump voters.

andrewlavignio, describing Trump as a "living rape whistle" implies that he is a rapist. There are no credible accusations of rape against him. As an aspiring philosopher you should recognize that it is wrong to make unsupported accusations against someone just because you don't like him.

I am Syrian, I knew trump will ban me but still applied.
This is something that I have dedicated my life to. I could not be discouraged.

Talked to my supervisor. 
Supervisor: "You just have to be patient. It will all work out."
Me: "Yes."
Other Me: "I WANT RESULTS!!! I NEED TO KNOW!!!!! NOW!!!!!"