TheBunny

I totally agree with @eggsalad14 on the last point. There are some hot topics currently which are very valuable in the industry such as machine learning, big data, data mining, AI, and other math/science related topics. They are valuable for consultancy companies which are dealing with big data or estimations.

Oh, I am sorry. I think it should have an effect on the student's decision to attend universities at the same level. If you are admitted into two T20, equally ranked universities with at least a professor in each to work with, I believe being able to have a specialization opportunity, or a certificate opportunity should be considered. I know that I would consider it for myself. However, if the universities are very different than each other (such as one is T10 but other is T40, or in one of them there is a great professor to work with, but in the other, there is no one to work with), the certificate/specialization should not be a deciding factor.

I am not sure about the admission decisions, but if I were on the admission committee, I would notice the certificates and specializations in a positive way. First of all, if you have any specialization in undergraduate and follow that into the Ph.D. program (such as you had specialization on EU politics and mentioned you wanna work on EU in your SOP to Ph.D. program), it shows that you are determined to follow the topic since undergraduate. Also, other tracks and certificates on related topics signal well, too as they show extra capabilities and abilities. For instance, if you have a track/certification on international business management and you want to work on EU Free Trade Deals with non-EU countries such as South Korea or Ukraine, it will be supportive of your application. Edit: All examples are from my real life. I have certificates and specializations on several areas.

I believe they are useful in both academia and industry. I can say that if you have track/certificate on a topic that is hot, you have more edge in the industry. I had a friend in graduate school, and she found a job for herself just only because she had a certificate on a topic which is trendy at that time. For academia, it shows that you took extra classes and passed them because generally speaking certificates and specializations offer different classes than the main program. In my opinion, it shows academic prowess, and in the future, it can give you a competitive edge for academia.

Hello, I am currently on an F-1 visa in America and I am from a European country. I am currently finishing my master program and I have an F-1 visa which was given 2 years ago. The visa is a 5-year student visa. I will be starting my Ph.D. program in the US in Fall 2019 semester, probably in a different school than my master school. I do not want to go back to my country as it is semi-problematic and the plane tickets are super expensive. Can I transfer my SEVIS record directly to my Ph.D. school when I am in America? Can I renew my visa later, like in 2 years? Or should I go back my country this summer and get a new visa?

For masters, I believe that Harris in Chicago gives you tuition waiver or scholarship according to your merit and your profile. If you have okay to great GREs, relatable work experience, and interested in public policy master, you may think to apply to Harris in Chicago. I do not have a very informed opinion about the other departments. I am singling out Harris among the others because based on my GRE scores, they e-mailed me like five times, and also sent so many snail mail documents and invitations even though I was not thinking to apply to UChicago, at all. My GREs are by no means great, but they were okay. Harris in Chicago created a very positive image in my mind. If the application season were not over, I would have applied to Harris.

Public policy is considered mostly a professional degree such as medical degree (MD) or law degree (JD). It is more interdisciplinary which I like. Also, there is a high probability that, not all of us will end up in a T5, T10, or T20 schools which will constrain our chances in the academia because inherently academia is a super elite place. I am not trying to be negative, just realistic. I do not think that I can even get into a T50 school in political science because of the excess competition. On the other hand, except HKS, nearly all other public policy departments have less competition because the admitted size of people compared to political science is fairly similar, but the application to public policy departments is less than the applications to a political science department. I believe that public policy is more fitting to real life. Political science is more fitting to academia. However, as public policy is considered a professional degree, they look for a different profile than the classic academic Ph.D. programs. For example, for academia, if you have published or presented in conferences, it has a great effect on your application. In public policy, if you have prestigious internships or better, a full-time, meaningful work experience it is better. My experience with public policy is a bit different. I like the public policy subfield a lot, but you can get a public policy subfield in your political science Ph.D. program, as well. For instance, as far as I remember, UMass Amherst has a public policy/law specialization. Northeastern is good at policy-related topics.

I applied for several programs, and I am a current international student in the US. I am super worried about my applications to 2 different departments. Even though I have a good balance of programs, I feel extremely anxious and I am getting psychologic support for it from my university's health department. I am very afraid of the results because I applied for the 2016 - 2017 cycle, as well and got rejected from 20+ programs for the Ph.D. That created a tremendous amount of insecurity for me.

I got an e-mail from a professional, international relations Ph.D. program in Massachusetts, which asked my Fall 2018 transcript which also shows the classes that I will be taking for the Spring 2019 semester. I had checked their website before, and in the admission documents section, it did not say that they expect people to send their newest transcript. As the admission officer e-mailed to me and asked this document, does that mean that they are considering me seriously or is this a common procedure?

Does anyone apply BU and know that when are they releasing the results? They had the earliest deadline in my list (December 1), so I am waiting to hear back from them firstly. There are some Sociology programs which people started to hear back in the sociology group, and those programs had the December 1 deadline, as well. I did not see the name of the BU in the list above but it is one of my top choices, and I am super excited.

Boston University has a 2-week math camp before the semester starts as far as I remember.

In other majors, I saw that many departments (psychology, sometimes sociology) are interviewing the prospective students before admitting them to the Ph.D. program. In political science, is this a common practice? Have you ever been interviewed before by an admission officer or by your POI?

It generally has no effect. Especially, if your POI is in a good school, such as Ivies, they basically do not answer any e-mail. The best they say is I am not in the committee and I cannot effect the committee’s decisions. I tried to contact the administrative people and they told me not to contact any professors because apparently they are all so ‘busy’.

Oh, I am sorry. I did not mean that people should take classes for GRE. I am personally against taking classes because of its prices, and I believe they are not very effective. The evidence I presented above is only anecdotal, based on only one person. I know many people whose main language is not English and got great AWA scores without taking classes and only studying by themselves. Sorry for the confusion.

My first GRE was super low on Verbal as I am not coming from an English-speaking country. I improved my verbal significantly, from 142 to 158. My quant was always high, I have so much love for math. My AWA never changes and tbh I did not have money to spend on classes. I had one friend who improved her AWA from 4 to 6 in a month with private classes but those classes were like crazy expensive. The only big change is Verbal.

Thank you for your answer. My husband is also a Ph.D. student in a 40-50 ranked university in Boston Area. Unfortunately, because of the financial constraints (living on a stipend, being international students), we need to stay in the same household during our Ph.D. studies this is why I was not able to apply better (10-30 rankings) schools. Also, before my master program, when I was straight out of undergraduate, I applied for many programs and got rejected from all of them, not even waitlisted. It created a very negative mindset and put me in severe depression. As far as I remember, I got rejected from all 20 Ph.D.s that I applied for 2017 cycle, and it broke me terribly. Again, thank you for your insights. I am just expecting my application results now and very much excited.

I am still desperately seeking help for the evaluation of my profile.

TOEFL: 108 (not important tbh as I will be having an MA degree from an American university, most schools waive this) GRE: 158 (V) - 166 (Q) - 3.5 (AWA) Publishing: 1 single author conference paper & presentation in my undergrad university (non-American), 1 co-authored conference paper in America, 2 single author papers under review in 2 journals, 1 co-authored paper under review in a journal LORs: 3 LORs all from American professors in my Master granting university, kinda known in their areas Undergrad GPA: 3.7/4.00 Grad GPA: 3.8/4.00 Undergrad Major: International Relations - lots of math classes (from the best university in my country) Grad Major: International Affairs - many math classes Grad School: Not in first 40, between 40-50 maybe 60 in America Aiming: MIT, Harvard, Brown, Boston University, Boston College, UMass Amherst

Program: Ph.D. in Sociology Applying To: Harvard University, Boston College, Boston University, UMass Amherst, Brown University. Interests: Gender, Political Sociology, Quantitative Methods Graduate Institution: Private University in America, Top 50. Graduate Major/Degree: MA in International Affairs Graduate GPA: 3.8/4.00 Undergraduate Major: International Relations and Sociology, double degree. Includes high-level math classes. Undergraduate School: Turkey's best university, well-ranked in the world, known to American professors. Undergraduate GPA: 3.7/4.00 GRE: Verbal: 158, Quant: 166, AWA: 3.5. TOEFL: 108 but I may not report it as I have an undergrad and grad degree from English-speaking institutions. Age: 24 Languages: English, French, Turkish. Research Experience: 1 co-authored paper in sociology second name under review, 5 years of an undergraduate research assistant, 2 papers single author under review one in political science, the other in sociology, 2 papers will be submitted for review in the following months. 2 conference papers and presentations. No thesis in master or undergrad as it was not an option. Teaching Experience: Teaching assistant to a political science professor. LORs: 1 sociology professor who is known in the area, 1 political science professor, and 1 development economics professor. Work Experience: 7 internships (nearly every summer) which includes international work experience, as well. I also have some research experience in a non-profit in America. My concern: I took GRE 5 times and this is as high as I can do, I am very afraid that it will hinder my chances.

For family reasons, I need to stay in the New England area. Also, MIT offers the most math-related IR program which I really enjoy. I like doing quantitative/statistical work. There are also several professors that I wanna work with in MIT.

I personally think that the US News Rankings are pretty flawed from nearly all of the aspects. For example, they rank Brown University always pretty low compared to other state schools and private schools. I believe Brown is 40th in the list. However, when you look at the placements and the quality of the professors from Brown University, it is mostly way better than some of the schools ranked above it in the US News Rankings.

Northeastern has a fully funded Ph.D. in Sociology as far as I know. Below the website, it says that all Ph.D. students in Sociology offered RA or TA positions which includes health plan and tuition remission.

TOEFL: 108 (not important tbh as I will be having an MA degree from an American university, most schools waive this) GRE: 158 (V) - 166 (Q) - 3.5 (AWA) Publishing: 1 single author conference paper & presentation in my undergrad university (non-American), 1 co-authored conference paper in America, 2 single author papers under review in 2 journals, 1 co-authored paper under review in a journal LORs: 3 LORs all from American professors in my Master granting university, kinda known in their areas Undergrad GPA: 3.7/4.00 Grad GPA: 3.8/4.00 Undergrad Major: International Relations - lots of math classes (from the best university in my country) Grad Major: International Affairs - many math classes Grad School: Not in first 40, between 40-50 maybe 60 in America Aiming: MIT, Harvard, Brown, Boston University, Boston College, UMass Amherst

I am happy that they accepted your changes. I tried my chances for some Ivies that I am applying, and they said that they never do changes. It was a bit upsetting for me.

Hello, everyone. This is my first post. I am applying the schools below in political science: Harvard University MIT Brown University UMass Amherst Tufts Fletcher School Northeastern University Brandeis University Boston University Boston College My UGrad GPA is 3.7, and my Master GPA will be around 3.8 - 3.85. I have some grad and Ugrad research experience. My GRE is over 80% percentile in Quant and Verbal. I am interested in international relations. I am good at maths and took several grad/ugrad statistics, calculus and advanced calculus classes.