Dwar

I took it twice, the first time last summer, and after a failed cycle I took it a second time this past summer. Did so much worse the second time. Honestly I think my decent score the first time was a fluke or a miracle, regardless I realized that it is mostly likely the one thing from my profile that I cannot change. To compensate i've made changes on other aspects, selected new/better LOR writers, completely rewrote my SOP, and selected a new set of five schools that have much better fit, as well as schools that are for the most part much more realistic given my GRE score. Although, I am including a one reach school just for the hell of it. My advice for you is to take it once and see how you do, then go from there. No point in speculating on needing to take it a second time. I would also suggest you look at the schools you want to get into and then set your target GRE scores based on that. ALSO, fun fact, when you buy the test with ETS they give you two free practice exams that you can use to study.

Sure thing! One of the professors on here once said that rank ultimately doesn't matter, what matters is outcome. If you find a department/school that you like, then you should take a look at their student outcomes, can you see yourself in that type of outcome, working that type of job? if you can then go for it! If you can't, then regardless of rank, it may not be the school for you.

So looking at your profile I would say that in order to get into a top 20 program you really need to increase your GRE. A minimum of 160+ Verbal and 157+ Q is probably a safe bet for top 20. But I would also heavily recommend looking outside of the top 20. Check random universities in the 20-65 range and see if you can work with any professors. if a PhD is really your goal then you may have to apply to schools lower on the ranks. Another note, admissions to many of the top 20 schools, and even some of the more well known top 30 ones, can be really random and arbitrary. Sometimes an applicant with amazing scores gets rejected, while another time a candidate with average scores gets in. Many times it can come down to things that us as applicants have no control over. So I would recommend that you apply to multiple schools both within and outside of the top 20. There are some really great schools with decent placements in the 20-65 range.

I would recommend applying to around 5 schools, assuming that you can find great fit with them. I would also advise you to maybe expand your search perimeters to the top 30 or so? Often times those schools have similar placements and great professors.

The programs that you mentioned are professional policy MA programs geared at getting students into the industry and working. They are not meant to send students to PhD or JD programs, or academia. So yes, they would help you and are often times a requirement for getting a good paying government or industry job. But that isn't what the OP is asking. They are asking about Political Science MA programs from schools which are known for being cash cows. a public policy MA and a political science MA are two different things. One (Public Policy) is meant to prepare students for work, while the other (political science) is generally meant to prepare students for a PhD or academia. With that being said, most of the time a political science MA is generally not worth the money one puts into it. As most political science PhD programs offer MA degrees to their students along the way (and are hopefully funded) going into massive debt for a political science MA in order to boost a PhD application is simply not a good investment. Now obviously if one gets a lot of scholarship or funding (which while rare isn't unheard of for a political science MA) then it might be worth the time. But I would strongly caution against anyone going into debt for a MA in political science. there simply isn't money in this line of work that will pay off the debt in the long run.

Hey! Congrats on getting into those schools! I personally don't know a-lot about Columbias MA program specifically, but I would just caution you against going to an unfunded MA program in this field. Unless offered significant scholarships I would discourage anyone from going to them. I have heard, on this forum and elsewhere, that the humanities/social science MA programs are really just cash cows for schools like Columbia and Chicago meant to support the funded PhD programs. Now that's not saying that they aren't good programs where someone can thrive and become a better scholar/policy maker, but they are super expensive and in this field we simply do not make enough to support the loans that would come out of it. Now i'm not sure how law school would play into it, in theory a lawyer would be making more than people in the political science field, but even so I think that the above thinking still holds true. That unless offered significant funding they aren't really worth the debt.

First off, congrats! those are some amazing schools! Also, you might want to check out the "government affairs" sub-forum, they are more equipped to answer these types of questions, with many posters going through similar situations. But to try and answer your question, I would say that the rule of thumb is to not go into debt for an MA degree, especially in the IR/government affairs field. Unfortunately those types of careers do not pull in the six figures that are required to pay off significant debt early on, so while you could eventually end up making that much, it won't happen during the early part of your career. A large amount of debt hanging over you can stop you from getting a car or home loan, not allow you to build up savings, and can limit the cities you can move to. Now to answer your GW v American debate, those schools are pretty similar in both location and prestige, while I am personally more into GW, thats only because of a positive personal experience with the Elliot school over there, while a more negative/neutral experience with the SIS over at AU. But ultimately you'll have to make that decision yourself. I suggest visiting and talking to faculty or students, also, looking at the specific degrees. I know that the Elliot school offers a wide variety of degrees, some regionally specific and some more general to IR, I am sure that AU offers something similar. Were you admitted to just the general IR programs? or more regional/career specific? Hope this helps! but congrats again on some amazing admissions!

If anyone does go over to PoliSciRumors, just know that like a good 99% of the posts are trolls. When I first went over there I kinda started loosing faith in humanity.

True that

Does the funding include a stipend? and if not, would you be able to cover those living expenses? or would you need to take out loans to cover that? If you can either pay your own way, or if they give you a stipend, then I think this is a good option. But, if you would have to take out loans or go into debt to pay for it then I would caution against it. It isn't like people in this field make a massive amount of money, especially right out of grad school. So a large debt would probably hurt you financially for years to come. If UVA is your dream school then I would suggest you do this regardless of which of the first two decisions you make, it can never hurt to wait, although be sure to give yourself enough time to accept another offer before the deadline. I am a personal advocate of not looking a gift horse in its mouth. U of Florida looks like a good program, and while it isn't as highly ranked as others, it seems to have some nice placements. I guess you have to ask yourself if you like their placements, can you see yourself working where their grads end up? would that satisfy your career goals? Also, just putting this out there, if you try next cycle, even with a higher GRE score and new LOR, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will get in anywhere, much less someplace higher then Florida. These applications are such a crap shoot that absolutely nothing is guaranteed, so I would think long and hard before turning down a fully funded offer.

welp, just got rejected from an unofficial waitlist. Now i'm just waiting on that last official waitlist, seeing as how all the other decisions have been rejections, i'm really hoping with this one.

Gotcha, my bad. I thought you meant that the department had recommended you for admissions to the grad school. In most cases that means that you are about to get accepted and serves as a sort of unofficial acceptance. On another note, I am sure that its good news to get recommended by a professor at the school! It sure sounds like you are in the running, I hope you hear good news soon!

hey can you ask your wife to give me some "help" with getting into USC? I hear Aunt Becky is familiar with how that all works

I would disagree with a part of this. I do agree that MA programs have become cash cows for schools, including LSE, I would disagree however, with your assertion that Chicago is any different. From what I've read, both on here and on other forums, the MA programs at Chicago are essentially cash machines to fund the various grad programs within the social sciences. Now obviously that doesn't mean that they aren't worth your time/energy, and if offered scholarship then they do seem like a good option, but I would just caution against going there and paying full sticker price for them on the assumption that they will land a great PhD admissions offer.

Wait, were you recommended for admissions by the department?

I'm not sure if there is a master list of all the placement records, but generally each department should post their placement records on their website. if they don't have them there then i'm sure you can email their grad team and they will probably send them your way.

Of course! I totally get wanting to be sure and the nagging anxiety voices in your head questioning every choice. Hope you enjoy Davis!!!!

UC-Davis for sure. They are a top 20 program so congrats on getting in there! While I do understand the urge to go to the absolute best program, UC-Davis is a top program and has some great placement, so definitely not something to turn down lightly. PhD admissions is a massive crapshoot, so honestly even with a Chicago or LSE MA degree there is no guarantee that you could get into somewhere higher ranked them Davis, or even somewhere ranked similarly to Davis next cycle.

Hey y'all, Since most of you have gotten your decisions back by now I figured i'd start this thread. Basically it's for people to say where they are turning down, that way those of us still on waitlists will have a better idea about when/if we should be hearing from schools. ALSO, this thread is NOT meant to be a place to harass or attack people with multiple offers on the table who are still deciding. This is obviously a huge decision and some people do need to take more time than others, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

can relate 100%

oh man, im really sorry about that. I can totally relate to the emotions bubbling over at weird times thing. I hope you hear back positive things from the other programs that you are waiting on! and I would totally suggest you start to look for things to do incase you don't get in this year. The jobs that I am looking at are just year long things, so it would work out for reapplying, maybe look into stuff like that?

While I definitely agree that you should only apply to schools that you would actually want to and enjoy attending, I would caution against only applying to one or two highly ranked programs. IMO admissions into the top 10 or even top 20 programs is really a crapshoot, you could have a 4.0 GPA, a 340 GRE, and a few publications and still get rejected from a top 20. It often seems like admissions to them are so random and nonsensical, so I would urge you to not put all of your eggs into one or two highly ranked schools. Many many schools not ranked in the top 20 have wonderful programs and great placements, and while I do totally urge you to apply to top 20 schools if you think you have a shot at them, look outside of those programs too. It never hurts to have a backup plan or two.

Can totally relate. The stress now while sitting on the waitlists is so much bigger than earlier in the cycle.

Can totally relate. And I hope you hear good news from the waitlists soon! honestly the most difficult part for me is not bombarding the DGS with emails asking for updates. I found out that one program should have their AdCom meeting again either before or on the 15th, so hopefully i'll hear from them this week. I also found out that the visit day for the other program is late march, so I guess I'll wait until after the visit day to shoot the DGS an email again asking for any updates. Honestly this is probably worse then the initial waiting, I just want an answer already! I get that, I am actually moving forward with a job interview this week, its really cool and honestly I would probably love the experience. But I'm not sure what to do if they make an offer and demand an answer before the waitlists respond. Have you reached out to the programs you still haven't hear from? I have found that often times reaching out to either the Grad cordnator or the DGS has led to more information, not much, but more than nothing.

Hey! Just wanted to say that I really resonated with your post. When I applied I thought that my SOP was great, and that my writing sample was a good paper, and finally that my GRE while not terrible wouldn't really be holding me back. After getting through most of this cycle (I have two waitlists) I was able to look back on my profile and identify my weaknesses. My SOP really wasn't tailored to a PhD program and talked more about policy work, something that I have since been told is a major red flag. My original writing sample has been replaced, it was more of a history paper, with something that is far more within my field, and actually nicely shows my proficiency of the specific topic that I am interested in studying. And while I still think that GRE's don't make or break applications, I have resigned myself to redoing them over the summer, and am planning on paying a small fortune in tutoring to get those scores up. Honestly this whole thing has been very humbling and has changed my outlook on both the field, and grad schools as a whole.