Luckige

MSU will start sending acceptance letters tomorrow!

As an international applicant, I must not only provide an official transcript, but translate it and, as Blanche Dubois, depend on the kindness of strangers in university bureaucracies to sign, seal, and return it to me, so I can ship both documents. For my grad school transcripts I had to come look for my course director in three different days. He just needed to say 'ok'. The process is so tiresome that I actually gave up on applying to one school since for that I needed to go over the martyrdom all over again. If a transcript had been lost in mail, I would probably say 'the hell with it'. Why they just don't accept scanned transcripts? I would provide official copies if admitted, believe me. Some say it is a way to increase the opportunity cost of applying, but I find this view nonsensical. GRE's, TOEFL's, begging for LOR's, SoP, and more is a price no one would pay unless he/she is willing to get their PhDs.

At least we have a scapegoat if we fail! I am scared in a way I did not forecast.

I heard about Emory conducting interviews.

I would start with this book:http://www.amazon.com/Functions-Mathematical-Association-America-Textbooks/dp/088385029X I read it on my own and found it very useful. Proofs (Heine-Borel, Bolzano, etc) are really well explained. Do not skip the exercises!

My MA thesis was on voting behavior, and right now I feel more inclined to tackle empirical problems. I guess we are not competing directly, certainly not in Umich I also fear that I'll lag behind at first on some of the core courses due to my lack of training in PoliSci per se. But hopefully my quantitative skills will cover at least one of the program's fronts :roll:

They are old in econometrics, but if you check this: https://polisci.wustl.edu/research#faculty-bookshelf you'll see it's rising in polisci articles. That's what I meant with avante-garde.

My aim is to specialize in political economy, with a heavy hand in avant-garde methods, such as randomization, change-in-changes or IV's. What about you?

That's good to know. Someone told me that story and I believed.

Duke is particularly sadistic. They send an "application status" email every week, telling which docs have arrived. It is always the same mail, but i get fooled every single time.

Hello, I've been reading this forum constantly since I decided to apply, and it has been very useful. I thought I might share my experience with you all. So, I have a BA and MA in Economics from two of the most prestigious schools from where I am from. My GRE turned out great for the quant section (800) and not so well for verbal (530). Since my SOP makes the case for a econometrics/methods-oriented PhD, I hope the places I am applying to make some kind of allowance for the low GRE-Verbal. In any case, I have a decent TOEFL (109/120) and my writing sample was published in a top-ranked peer reviewed journal of my country. There's no such thing as GPA because the evaluation systems are very diverse, and any comparison is arbitrary. I hope my LORs make a good case for me. My LOR's are good, I guess. Unfortunately, most of them are from econ profs, which is an obvious handicap. The reason so is that the evaluators will not recognize the names on the letters. At least one of my letters is from a poli.sci. prof. I am aiming high, I know: UCLA UC Berkeley Stanford (Political Economy, not Poli Sci) NYU Columbia Duke UIUC Mich St WUSTL Rochester Ohio State Yale Princeton (Political Economy) I regret I haven't chosen a few more middle-ranked schools, but that's over. Good luck to you, and let me know what you think. PS: what do we have? Four weeks before decisions?

Thanks all for swift and useful responses. More on the subject: what about political economics field? I know Princeton has a first rate program at Woodrow Wilson Institute, Rochester has one of its own as well, so MIT. However, reality brings me down to search another departments. Is there anywhere else I am missing as a top political economics dep? Is it in the same group as quant departments, meaning once you have strong quant you do good in pol economics?

The problem is for me, international applicant (from http://polisci.ucsd.edu/grad/finaid.htm): INTERNATIONAL APPLICANTS: You should be aware that non-U.S. citizens are responsible for tuition and fee payments that total close to $15,000 per year for every year in residence. Unlike many other state universities, this tuition is not waived for students receiving teaching assistantships, which is the primary source of graduate student funding in the Department of Political Science. In almost all cases neither the University nor the Department of Political Science has the funds to cover these payments.

I have a BA and MA in Economics, some serious empirical research (econometrics), and I plan to follow the quantitative approach in political science, reason why I will apply for it this fall. My questions are: 1. Is it a caveat that I have never had strong training in polisci? I mean, I had one or to courses, but can't say much about the field beyond educated common-sense. I do have good skills in stat, math and microeconomics. I have letter of recommendation from economists and political scientists. 2. GRE: I have not taken the test yet, and I wonder if I score above the 95% percentile (above 770) in the quantitative section will it compensate for a lower percentile in the verbal. I am not a native speaker, and it would cost me a lot of time to get a really good GRE verbal score. 3. Schools: which are the best schools in quantitative research? I am looking for 'that' school that isn't high overall ranked, but get to the top 10 in quantitative. I know UCSD is really good in what I am looking for, but they offer lousy funding. Also, does anyone know if the MSU poli.sci. program is strong in comparative politics? I have good contacts over there, and if I get a decent GRE score, that would be my safe bet. UIUC is also a good prospect. thanks,