[Law to Political Science]

18 hours ago, irinmn said:

I got my MPhil in POLIS at Clare College, Cambridge. Good news and bad news. The good news is, Cambridge is an awesome place. Great town, breathtakingly beautiful school/campus, and the residential college system there is just fantastic, even for grad students. Also, the MPhil program is significantly easier to get into than the PhD at POLIS at least. The bad news is that the POLIS department puts overwhelming emphasis on undergraduate GPA during the application process. I don't know what their official GPA average is, but for Americans I was told the minimum cutoff to be considered was a 3.7 UGPA. Most of the people I knew in my mphil program who were Americans were closer to 3.9/4.0 UGPA's from US T20 schools, including the a few ivies, Cal/UCLA and Michigan. 

 

How did you feel about the coursework/research in your Cambridge M.Phil? Level of difficulty compared to undergrad, how in depth it was and how much you feel you learned, and how much work was required for your thesis? (I'm interested in the program)

[Cambridge M.Phil in Politics and International Studies]

Has anyone gone through the Cambridge M.Phil in Politics and International Studies (formerly International Relations)? It's a 9-month program -- which seems a little too short to get a whole lot out of ---  but at the same time seems like a great option if you have a lot of exciting stuff happening in your career. Any thoughts on the program or similar programs?

[INT STUDENT: HKS MPP (no funding) vs. PRINCETON MPA (full funding)]

What country are you from? I think the connections you'll make at Princeton will sufficiently make up for the clout that Havard carries in your country. That's not to say you won't make connections at Harvard, but I think you might be overestimating the difference that Harvard would have in your career prospects vis-a-vis Princeton.

[Oxford/Cambridge M.Phil in IR -- What does it take?]

3 minutes ago, billk said:

I studied abroad as a direct enroll student (granted not at the graduate level), but I completely agree with everything that's been said. Oxbridge is the vanilla ice cream of political science. Not engaging, super boring, and unnecessarily laborious. I got my Master's at LSE and loved it. Much more stimulating and a much, much stronger focus on methods that will make you a better researcher/thinker and more competitive on the job market.

Thanks for the great info. I'm interested in cybersecurity policy -- Oxford has great stuff going on for the field, so I wonder if LSE's edge in methods training would outweigh Oxford's advantage in the field in general. 

[Oxford/Cambridge M.Phil in IR -- What does it take?]

1 minute ago, e2e4 said:

Just takes money & often a posh pedigree. Westminster dog show of programs. Some of the dullest minds I've met in person, but spotless on paper.

Really interesting. I have a B.A. from an Ivy and will be self-funded. Does that line up with what you've seen? 

 

 Are the classes not quite rigorous? How do they dull people complete the program? 

[Oxford/Cambridge M.Phil in IR -- What does it take?]

Does anyone have any experience with M.Phils in PoliSci/IR at Oxford and/or Cambridge? I'm an American wondering how competitive I will be for admission. I know they don't only accept Rhodes/Gates scholars, but is basically everyone a rockstar student? Thanks for your help in advance. 

[Profile Evaluation: Comparativist - weak grades but publishing experience and stellar recommendations]

Damn... you have the highest GRE scores in the history of GRE scores

[What GRE quant are top IR M.A. programs looking for?]

Hey all, I've heard lots of talk lately about how PoliSci/IR programs are moving much further towards crunching numbers than doing qualitative analysis. I took the GRE recently and scored a 170V/160Q (AWA TBD, likely 5+). Would a 160Q (73rd percentile) be sufficient for admission to top programs like Stanford, SAIS, SIPA or something similar? I don't have a serious math background, but I'm quite confident with stats, and work a PoliSci-focused job at a major tech company where I do a ton of data analysis.