dobiegerl

It's been a while since I've been on here, apologies if questions like this aren't allowed. I’m in the process of applying to grad school right now (political science phd programs) and I’m considering applying to Harvard. I know that no matter what I could always apply and if I don’t get in, I don’t get in but I want to be realistic about the schools I’m applying to. I’m limiting myself to six applications (because applications are expensive and if I don’t put a limit I’ll just end up applying to every school that looks like it’s remotely a good fit, plus I don’t want to ask my recommenders to send letters to a dozen schools). I don’t want to waste time and money applying to a school that just isn’t even remotely realistic when I could have applied to another good program that’s more in my league. I’m wondering now, if Harvard should even be a consideration for me. Some background about me: I went to a top 12 poli sci undergrad school and graduated with a 3.65 and honors To graduate with honors I had to complete an honors thesis I have several semesters experience as a ULA (similar role as a TA but undergraduate) I have strong quantitative skills (several years experience with coding and advanced regression techniques I used in my thesis, I’d like to think teaching myself what ordered logit regression is counts for something) I have research experience in economics at a dc think tank I know my three lor will be strong and one of the recommenders teaches at Harvard in their econ department Some of my weak points: I had to withdraw from a couple classes in undergrad due to schedule mishaps (my advisor telling me I needed a class when I already had credit for it) and some rearranging (switching one class for another after the add/drop period) I can technically account for these withdrawals but I’m not sure how I would do that without making it seems like it’s a bigger deal than it is and I’m worried two Ws on a transcript won’t look good I did pretty bad on the gre. I’m not great with standardized tests and even though I took it twice I just couldn’t bring my score up that much. Anyway, based on this, do you think I should even bother applying to Harvard? If I should, what kind of chance do you think I’d stand on getting in? Thanks in advance!

So this is my last semester of undergrad and I'm planning on applying to grad school next fall. I really want to finish with a strong gpa and my school is offering students the ability to p/f any class and it will still count towards graduation requirements. I'm having a really tough time in a couple classes and I'm really considering p/f them but I'm not sure how that will look to grad schools? I know it's during a pandemic but do you think it will affect my chances of getting in? Edit for context: I'm planning on applying for a PhD in political science. The two courses I'm thinking about p/f are a music gen ed and an upper level econ course (econ is my second major). I'm extra concerned because I already have two Ws (both were for legitimate reasons - an advisor told me to take a course I had actually already received credit for and the other is when I decided to extend my thesis work so I switched the class but it shows up as a W) and I know that already doesn't look good.

I have two semester left of school but I only have four classes that I need to graduate. Because of how strenuous some of the classes are I wanted to spread them out over two semesters. Because of this I have a lot of extra space on my schedule. My GPA is okay but I'm really trying to pull it up as much as I can (3.62). I have 12 hours of regularly graded classwork but I'm worried that only taking 12 hours may look bad especially since 6 of those hours are independent study courses (ULA position and honors thesis research) so I was thinking about picking a class that looks fun but I might not normally take if it were graded on the letter scale and pass/fail it so that I will have a standard courseload (15 hrs) and can focus on the other classes to try to pull up my GPA. However, I'm planning on applying to poli sci phd programs next fall and I'm concerned how pass/failing a course would look. I'm thinking about taking either a history or classics course so not in my major but somewhat adjacent to my major. Will this be a red flag on grad school applications? TIA

Okay, so I know this is a rather vague question that has a lot of factors involved but I would appreciate any input you can offer! I'm currently an undergrad Political Science and Economics major at UNC Chapel Hill and I will be applying to graduate programs (PhD political science) next fall. I'm trying to decide on what schools to apply to now and I am finding it very overwhelming as it's difficult to determine what programs might best suite me and to find statistics on each program (GPA, GRE, et.). I was hoping that you might have recommendations on what programs/schools I should consider? Again I know it's difficult to recommend programs with only a very minimal amount of info about me but I am so lost right now anything is helpful. A little bit about me: As I said poli sci/econ double major at UNC CH, my overall GPA is 3.65 (I know not spectacular but I'm hoping to pull it up some next year) and my poli major GPA is around the same as my overall. I'm in the honors program so I'm in the midst of writing an honors thesis and will (hopefully) be graduating with honors. I'm also hoping this will result in a good writing sample to submit to schools. I have several professors in mind that I believe will be able to write me strong LOR (two of whom are UMichigan grads). I will be a ULA for a quantitative political science course next semester. In addition to this i have several extra curriculars in clubs that relate to political science. I haven't taken the GRE yet and I know that plays a big role in your application but I've started studying for it so hopefully I can score decently on it. I'm particularly interested in american government (my thesis is on the Supreme Court). What schools would you recommend I look into based on this info? I'm also struggling to determine what schools are reaches and what are good safety schools, so if you could offer advice on where how competitive I may be that would be very helpful as well, thank you!