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OneTrueBoo

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Michigan
  • Interests
    AOI: Law, political philosophy, philosophy of law, marxism, anarchism, nihilism
  • Application Season
    2020 Fall
  • Program
    Political Science

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  1. Hello, Second-year law student here. I'm considering a PhD in Political Science because through the course of my studies and practical work I find that I enjoy researching and writing about the law much more than the practical side and that a career researching, writing, and teaching in academia would suit me much better than legal practice. I flirted with the idea of doing a JD PhD around the time I entered law school but thought it would just be more expedient career-wise to just have the J.D. (and my GPA was not good enough to be competitive for a PhD program regardless). I understand what the costs and drawbacks of trying to enter academia through this route would be and I'm trying to gauge whether the effort to get accepted to a decent program will be worth it. Any advice would be helpful. Schools Applying To: Michigan, Ohio State, Maryland, Penn State, Johns Hopkins, Rutgers, Brown, Georgetown, open to others/suggestionsUndergraduate institution: Dickinson College (not very well known but top-50 LAC)Undergraduate GPA: 3.33Undergraduate Major: Political Science, minors in English and Philosophy, with a certificate in National Security StudiesGRE Scores: Not yet taken.Years Out of Undergrad (if applicable): 3 (by Fall 2021)Years of Work Experience: 0 full-time, some part time research and legal practice.Describe Relevant Work Experience: Research intern at the U.S. Army War College during fall of senior year of undergrad, tax law clinic in the spring of 2020, summer 2020 legal work (not sure where yet). Strength of SOP (be honest, describe the process, etc): Will elaborate on my shift from pursuing a career in law to one in academia and the reasons why.Strength of LOR's (be honest, describe the process, etc): Plan on requesting letters from my poli sci advisor from undergrad (Columbia PhD, former judicial fellow at SCOTUS), an undergrad philosophy professor whom I know well (Hopkins M.A., UVA PhD, has published quite a bit of political (and other) philosophy), and one of my law professors whom I know pretty well and have taken multiple classes with (Duke JD & LLM, publishes law review articles frequently).Other: Current 2L at a mid-tier (Top-100) law school with decent grades (3.5, top 20% of class). Will publish a student note in a law journal next year (not flagship law review, but another school-sponsored peer-reviewed journal). I'm also an Associate Editor for the journal in which I'll be publishing.
  2. Hi and thanks so much for your response! I'm going up on March 9 and 10 for an admitted students day to get a feel for the campus. I come from a very small private LAC so MSU would be a huge change in scenery for me, but I'm excited about the possibility. As far as admission to the master's goes, I assume they would probably be inclined to admit people who are already MSU grad/law students, but who knows. I'm comfortably above their GPA requirement and I can get LORs from at least two relatively well-known members of my school's philosophy faculty, so I've got my fingers crossed. I've scoured the law school's dual degree information and can't find anyone to contact, so maybe going through admissions would be the next best thing? Or maybe even the philosophy department itself? I'll be applying in my 1L year so I should be able to get info about the workings of the dual degree process as time goes on. In terms of law school admissions, since you managed to get into the Ph.D. program you'd more than likely be a shoe-in for the law school, as long as your LSAT score is in the ballpark of their range. I think a 157 is their 75th percentile, which is a bit low among the top-100 law schools, so it shouldn't be too hard for someone of your caliber to manage. The principle thing to worry about is cost, which can be astronomical without good scholarships. I'm above their 75th percentile in LSAT but was only able to negotiate them up to a $102k merit scholarship (about 80% of tuition, and that was even with using a full-tuition offer from a higher-ranked school as a bargaining chip), so I'll still be taking about $60k worth of loans, barring any more need or merit-based grants. But then again they may look upon you favorably since you're already in the PhD program and give you a great offer. It's also best to apply as early as possible, because schools have more scholarship money to give out than later in the cycle. You can look at their ABA 509 report to get a feel for what numbers you should aim for and how much money they give out. When it comes to writing a personal statement, I think the main strategy people use is writing a story about an experience that inspired them to pursue a law degree. I wrote about a spring break service trip to Detroit that I went on in my sophomore year of undergrad and how that inspired me to get involved in service organizations and to try and make a positive impact on the world through law. I hope the application process goes well for you! I'm more than happy to chat via pm or text if you'd like.
  3. Hello! I'm quite new to this forum but after reading some other threads I thought this might be a great place to get the information I'm after. First a bit of backstory: I've been admitted to Michigan State's law school and I am interested pursuing graduate work in philosophy alongside that degree. I'm not a philosophy major (just a minor) so I would have to go through the master's program before starting on the Ph.D. I'm interested in MSU's program because their faculty seems to be very much focused on social and political philosophy, along with philosophy of law, which are areas of the discipline that I love working with. I've combed over the philosophy department's and the law school's website but I still have a few lingering questions. Here are my biggest questions: How hard is it to gain admittance to the master's/Ph.D. program? I meet all of the M.A.'s numbers requirements in the graduate handbook on their website but I haven't been able to find any admissions statistics. Also, what is the MSU philosophy department's reputation? And how easy would it be to gain admittance to the Ph.D. program from the master's? Any help would be greatly appreciated! I'm deciding between a couple of law schools and the ability to pursue a philosophy degree at MSU is a big draw for me over the other options that I have.
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