sloth_girl

Tagging onto this; it's nice to have, but not necessary to get in. However, I'd say it's definitely good to know Calc 1/2 going into your math camp/first semester!

I definitely hope so! If not, Tuesday seems most likely based on past years. Stay strong, folks!

That's basically what I've seen, too. The last year especially people will be more remote if desired. My first year was 100% remote, but that was due to the pandemic. With vaccinations, we're all (tentatively) back in person, so that option is gone.

Does anyone know when they came in last year?

People don't usually consider AWA as heavily. My best bet would just be the higher V/Q scores.

Generally speaking, you want to look for placement into tenure track jobs in R1 or R2 universities. Then, for those who do not get those, see what kinds of jobs they do end up in. Think tanks, tech, etc. are all common, and people have their own individual preferences for alt-ac jobs. I personally came from tech and will probably go back to tech if I don't get academic placement (i.e. TT job), so I picked with that in mind. The top 5 programs are known for pretty consistent placement, but some programs definitely punch above their ranking. It's also worth looking at your specific subfield placements and placement by dissertation committee member/dissertation chair.

No worries at all! You might have a better time connecting with similar applicants on that specific forum though. Good luck to you!

Dartmouth doesn't have a PhD in Poli Sci?

Some I'm pretty sure got reclassified as policy/international type programs. Additionally, I think I've heard of a few that aren't ranked here and there. I think the small bump for UCSD and small drop for Yale and Duke were most notable among the Top 10. UNC dropped out of the top 10. WUSTL and Cornell moved up while OSU and UW-M moved down a bit. Also Emory seems to be climbing up. MSU saw a sizable drop -- sexual harassment scandal may have played into that. I'd also say that before, there were more ties (often 3 way) between schools, whereas now that's less common.

Congrats! If you have any questions about Stanford, send my way!

Congrats on the waitlist -- in usual times, this would likely be an acceptance. They are just really being careful with funding this year. Depending on your subfield, it could work out!

Thank you! I'm glad to be of help -- reach out any time! Also yes, I do enjoy the weather!

OSU is probably the best bang for your buck. The DC area does have benefits of course, but I think your preparation, networking, etc. would on average be better at OSU. I'd look closely at placement data -- they report it for non-academic jobs generally as well. JHU may have a slightly better "name brand" than OSU, but I think other data probably put OSU at the top.

I was pretty busy (though I do have 2 kids!). My schedule itself was fairly flexible in what exactly I had to be doing at a specific time of day (other than classes, office hours, etc.), but it was still pretty busy. My program front loads a lot (not all do this), and I was taking two substantive field (CP & AP) as well as Methods and a required social science research course, so we're pretty busy this year. For a lot of weeks, I pulled one all-nighter (or ran on 3-4 hours of sleep) per week getting my reading/Methods homework done. For me, Zoom was really, really tough. We've got two kids + my working spouse in the background all the time, so I constantly was getting interrupted and distracted. I still managed to do pretty well, but I can't wait to have an actual school/learning space and office. I think if I had that, I wouldn't have had to pull so many late nights! I knew a good amount of R before, though of course debugging can take a bit regardless. I'm also a bit of a perfectionist ;). Definitely brush up on this! I also wish I'd brushed up on my math skills beforehand, but the pandemic changed a lot of my plans. Math Camp was like drinking out of a fire house. I also tried to make time to work on some projects in the pipeline -- better to start on publications earlier rather than later! This year is really weird (obviously), so keep that in mind. But overall, it's a really, really busy time, but very rewarding!

Emphasizing this (very few have publications), though with the caveat that I think having an undergraduate publication is a good signal that you can perform well in academia. Usually, the people that get published are people with institutional affiliation who are at least in grad school, but that won't hold you back at an undergrad publication of course. The issue though might be more that you will have limited networks to help you out with the writing, researching, and publication process if you aren't in a well-connected grad school. I'd say work on the paper and present at a conference (you get better feedback at smaller conferences btw). In terms of payoff, having a good draft of a paper pays off for a lot of reasons, namely as a good writing sample and a head start in the research world!

Try to structure your SOP to cover about 3 areas that explain your research. This usually includes something related to a preferred method and a substantive area of interest or two. Feel free to mention faculty and resources at the university that will help, but spend the bulk talking about the kind of research you have done and the research questions you'd like to explore. You should be doing more "showing" than "telling" about fit; the areas you are showing interest in should make how well you fit clear.

I'm not sure if there's much you can do besides show good fit. We have a couple of people who managed to do that in my program.

That's more of a toss up I'd say. I think those scores are fine if you're not trying to be a Methods heavy person?

I'm always willing to share mine with the caveat you use if for guidance only!

We have a few in my program, and I know it's viewed as beneficial in admissions. I unfortunately don't know about specific programs.

I really agree with Mr_Spock2018 here. Continuity isn't an issue if you show interest and can talk clearly in your SOP about your research interests and demonstrate good fit with the department. Submit your best work; a lot of people send in writing samples that aren't related to their area of study, though it's a bit of a plus if you do. As for quant-heavy, I wouldn't worry too much, though I will mention that Rochester and NYU tend to care more about that their than peer institutions. Again, I'd focus on fit first and foremost.

I think this is a competitive profile. Could be worth getting the Verbal up a bit, but this year is odd for the GRE so I understand not doing that. Overall GPA is a tad bit lower than ideal (most programs prefer 3.8+), but the Poli Sci GPA looks good. Really work on polishing/refining your SOP and writing sample and you should get some good acceptances! Good luck!

I'd go with the higher verbal, middle tier (mid 160s) quant personally (that's what I had, and I had pretty good acceptances all around). In general though, those scores, especially this cycle amid COVID, won't likely keep you out anywhere.

Yes, of course. My whole cohort is experiencing this. Especially went the sky literally turned orange last week.

I'd consider getting an MA to up your chances of getting into a good PhD program. That way your MA gpa could be a good signal to counter your undergrad gpa.