Andrejez

Hi everybody. I need some planning advice for the next couple of years in college. To not disclose too much, I am a sophomore at a top 20 university in the US. I also transferred into this college from a small college close to home. I have been heavily looking into doing a PhD in political science after graduation, though I am deeply confused as to the steps to getting into a program. I would greatly appreciate any help in figuring this out. First of all, this is probably an odd question, but do I actually have to get a standard political science BA to be competitive for a top 20 graduate school? My college offers a joint stats-poli sci major. I was thinking this is a good idea for better methods training and also in case I want to do something besides a PhD. Is this major a good idea for graduate schools? I figure the extra quantitative training is helpful just in general too. Also how much research is needed and to what extent? I am going to be volunteering for a professor next semester, but I assume I need to do more than that. More so, does the research I do in undergrad need to be very similar to what I want to do in graduate school? I am still exploring topics so I am not sure what sub-field I would specialize in grad school. I have been looking into hopefully being a paid research assistant next year as well and looking into summer research programs. Do professional internships matter at all also? Also what is a good GPA for a top 20 graduate program? I have been scouring their websites and seem to not find a consistent answer or much data on average incoming GPAs. I assume higher is better, but to what extent? I am mostly asking since I am wondering if it is more important to have very extensive research background or a really high GPA. Obviously the goal is have both, but if I need to prioritize improving one over the other, which should it be? I am a transfer student so I know they will look at my GPA from my old institution, but I have a clean slate for my new college. Also are very any other factors I should take into account for setting myself up to get a PhD that I didn't list? I don't know anybody here who is even interested in doing a PhD so that hasn't been helpful. Would love any help y'all can offer, thanks!