Dwar

Hey! Ive only seen that on one program that I applied to, and it seems like they are generally a week or two in length. For the Oregon program they say that the math camp is about two weeks before classes start. Now what that actually entails within those two weeks, like what time commitment within the day, im not sure. I guess after admittance they'll talk more about it? Also, and this may only be the case for Oregon, but it seems like there is an option to get out of the math camp if you take a test and receive high enough scores on it. not sure what those scores are, or if this is a universal thing, but you should definitely check if there is some way to test out of the math camp requirement.

It certainly can't hurt to reach out to their admissions contact and let them know! You can ask if you should send a revised Resume or CV with the updated information, the worst they can do is tell you "no". I'm sure that two papers at conferences will help out any application!

Within my personal research about schools i've only ever found one school that clearly stated that they did in fact have an official interview process. Northeastern said that they send out interview requests to their top candidates, and invite them to their Boston campus for the interview and a sort of meet and greet. Im not sure if they have this on their website. I had emailed their program about a time-frame to hear back about applications, so that's how I found out.

Thats what I'd figured. thanks for the confirmation though!

Hey all, Does contacting faculty members, specifically those that you would want to work with, have any effect on the admissions process? I know that for hard sciences when the faculty member actually has the students in their lab it matters a whole lot, but what about in social science? In each of the universities that I've applied to I've identified one or two faculty members that id love to work with, but I haven't emailed them. I read somewhere that faculty members don't like to get flooded with emails, especially when they can't influence the admissions decision. So what do y'all recommend? Email the faculty member or not? Thanks in advance BTW one of the articles I was referring to that said not to contact faculty members is https://chrisblattman.com/about/contact/gradschool/

Thanks for the advice! I think i'll do just that. I applied to six programs, and id probably turn down any job for 5/6 of them. so I think ill wait until after I know before I start to apply for jobs.

Hey all, So I'm still waiting to hear back from the six schools that I applied. I am fairly confident that I will get into at least one program (I applied to two safety schools and two match schools), but the nerves and anxiety are getting to me. My question is, should I be applying for jobs in the meantime? In theory I won't start to hear back form the schools until at least the end of January, and decisions should come in until the April 15th deadline. A little background on me, I am a college senior applying to political science PhD programs, if I don't get into a school this time around my plan is to reapply in a couple years. I found a few really cool research orientated jobs that would look awesome on any application, and honestly they look really interesting as well. My only hesitation with applying for jobs now is what if I do get into grad school, and get the job? would it be acceptable to let the employer know that I have to turn them down to go to school? or would that burn bridges? the groups that I am looking to apply to are really cool groups and who id want to work with once I am finished with the graduate degree, so burning those bridges would be a costly action. Any advice?

I applied to five Schools. Over the summer I spent months looking through both ratings of schools and various rankings. I went from like 35 schools down to five. I picked only schools that I can actually see myself attending, and that I have a shot at getting into. So in the end I applied to two reach schools (Top 20) two match schools (20-50) and a safety school (50-100). The costs for applications do add up, so if you don't have a lot of money to spend on those I suggest limiting your applications!

Mind if I ask why you selected those schools? For example, why MIT? and why only Harvard and Brown from the Ivy League? Thanks!

Oh man, that's the worst! Guess I've just been lucky that all of the admissions councilors that i've spoken with. They have all been very helpful and nice.

I agree with you on that, US News does randomly place some Schools. For example the University of Denver isn't even ranked at all, while they do have a fairly prominent IR school which does offer PhD and Masters programs.

It varies by school, so there is not answer that will cover all of them. But from what I've heard from the various programs I contacted, most of them begin reviewing applications staring after the holiday season/beginning of the new semester. Some of the programs may not like it that application material was submitted after the deadline. Did you reach out to the programs and ask if late letters are okay? If not, maybe it would be a good idea to reach out to the individual programs and explain the situation.

Hey! So don't think that its too late, especially at this stage. from what I gather most departments don't meet until the after the new semester begins, so there still may be some time to contact them and fix things! For example a couple weeks ago I discovered that i'd uploaded an older copy of my writing sample, I immediately emailed all of the programs and told them that what had happened. All of the program contacts were VERY nice and understanding, they all allowed me to either re-upload the writing sample through their application website, or send it to them directly and they did it themselves. A similar thing happened with my transcripts. I finished the semester and was able to raise my GPA (only by .05 but hey, everything helps) and I emailed all of the programs and told them that id received new transcripts. Again all of the contacts were VERY helpful and allowed me to either re-submit the transcripts or send it to them directly. So I guess what i'm saying is that up until the point that the committee actually sits down and reviews your application, there is always time to change things! all you have to do is ask, and be polite and apologetic about it!

Hey y'all, so I guess the name says it all, in your opinion what schools are the best in the IR sub-field? And any idea on more middle-tier programs and schools? Thanks!

Gotcha, thanks for all your help! To be honest, I don't really take the rankings to mean all that much, I mainly used them as a launch pad to look at the various schools and programs that I ended up applying. Also, thanks for talking with me on two different forums! I appreciate it!

Lol ya, the grading scheme tripped me up during my first year. And ya, that's what i'm afraid of. So for schools that I applied, using the US News ranking, are one top 20 school, two top 50 schools, and two top 100 schools. The top 20 school is the reach one for me, with the two top 50 schools as the ones that I am hoping to get into as they are more realistic.

Nope, I was just also interested in applying to DC based schools, so I did a bunch of research and visits to a bunch of schools in the area. In the end I ended up only applying to one DC based school, American. Wish you the best of luck though! Georgetown has an AMAZING campus, hope you get in!

Thats what I had thought as well, but they do have an entire section devoted to academic careers titled "Top Ph.D. Programs for Academic Career in International Relations". Would you still consider them to be mainly career oriented, and less academic?

Hey! Did you consider applying to George Mason? I think its in the metro DC area

Thanks for the reply! Wouldn't the 3.5 in the methods course show that I understand the material? in my school a 3.5 is the second highest grade you can get in a class, they round the grades so it lands on a .0 or .5 grade

Hey Guys, I wanted to get your opinion on university ranking systems. For this I am specifically talking about the International Relations field. The two main ranking systems that I am talking about are those complied by Foreign Policy Magazine, "The Best International Relations Schools in the World", and US News and their list of the top political science schools. (Links at the end). While the rankings do have some similarities, like the obvious choices at the top, there are some major differences. Mainly the placement of the DC based schools at the top of the Foreign Policy list, and their placement in the middle or bottom of the US News list. Another oddity that I found was the complete exclusion of the University of Denver from the US News list, which I thought was odd considering they have a highly regarded IR school. I do understand that the US News ranking takes all of the political science subfields into account, but it still seems like the ranking systems are very different with some schools near the top of one ranking while sitting at the bottom of another. So I guess I am wondering which ranking do you guys think is correct, or more correct than the other? which one should a applicant place more weight when looking at potential grad schools? Links: US News: https://www.usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/political-science-rankings Foreign Policy Magazine: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/20/top-fifty-schools-international-relations-foreign-policy/ Side Note: I understand that ranking systems re inherently flawed, and that they should be taken with a grain of salt for ultimately deciding a grad school, but they are often a place to start for someone interested in graduate school within the field.

Hey all, I have a question about the GRE. so I know that fewer programs are caring about those scores, but do exceptionally low scores still have a negative effect on admissions decisions? For context, I took the GRE this past summer and received 162 (91%) V, 4.5 (82%) AW, but I only got a 147 (26%) Q. During my undergrad I have taken two methods courses, got a 3 on the first tier course and a 3.5 on the second tier one. So I guess im asking if y'all think that my dismal Quant score will effect my admissions, or if the methods courses and Verbal score will negate the negative impacts? Thanks so much for all your help!