kestrel18
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Posts posted by kestrel18
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On 3/31/2021 at 12:24 PM, BunniesInSpace said:
fwiw nyu and rochester are more boutique than full-service departments, which will hurt them in aggregate rankings. they each do a couple of things really good (and they largely recruit students in those areas so placement is fine), but they're not great once you move outside of those strengths. like in the top 10 schools you could do nearly whatever, from political theory to APD to formal theory to political economy and turn out okay, while the same cannot be said for nyu or rochester (or wustl or sorta emory for that matter).
NY admits 20-25 students every year. They demonstrate an outstanding placement (who is better, actually?) record across various subfields, not only in formal methods/stats. For instance, their Comparative placement is also rock-solid. NY does not appear to be a boutique program. At the same time, say WUSTL (an outstanding program, accepts much fewer people. Like NY, it is also heavy-quant oriented). However, WUSTL is quite-significantly higher in the ranking.
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It seems there is some politics involved in this ranking: in my humble opinion, research output and the placement record are to be considered first and foremost. New York's Political Science Department placed 15th? Rochester is at 19th?...well, compare how many New York and Rochester alumni were hired as faculty by elite schools with some other higher-ranked programs.
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Guys, really, do not be afraid of Quant stuff. - It is challenging, right. At times, Quant classes even resemble a survival game. But they teach you a specific way of thinking and highly beneficial skills.
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18 hours ago, Prof2B said:
Hi everyone! So I am lucky to have been accepted at a few programs this year and I am now working on collecting information to help me make a decision.
To give a bit of background, I went to Chicago for both my undergrad and masters. I needed a change lol so didn't apply there for my Ph.D. I am interested in studying IR, specifically international security, conflict, and interventions.
My main goal is a TT position after (and will be working hard towards that), but I am not delusional not to know how crappy that market is. So I am interested in slowly plugging myself while in grad school in the policy arena - you know, writing for MonkeyCage, networking with think-tank peeps, writing a few Op-Eds on breaking news, etc. I have work experience that will help towards that end. If academia doesn't work, will be equally happy as a fellow at a think-tank or research center - in the U.S or abroad.
In each of these programs, there are scholars I will happily work with, so fit is there. Of course, Ohio State seems to be of better fit due to number of top IR scholars working there.
So a few questions I have:
1) Besides the rankings of these programs, how important does name brand of the university as a whole hold? Both for TT track jobs but especially in the policy world. Ohio State (#8 in IR and #15 in overall PoliSci) is the top ranked political science program out of my admits, but Rice (#33) and John Hopkins (#49) have better name brands overall. Same thing with the two programs in the greater DC area: Maryland (ranked #29) vs JHU (#49). Asking this because I don't think people outside academia know or care about the ranking of political science programs.
2) How detrimental will it be to pick the DC area - by choosing MD over Ohio - in pursuit of TT positions? I know it would probably help for policy jobs being in the DC area but not sure how that will impact TT competitiveness. Would love to hear thoughts on these.
Any other thoughts from current or former students of these programs in general also welcomed. Thanks!
Hello,
First and foremost, congrats on being admitted into such great schools!
I'd say the crucial thing to consider while choosing is the placement (recent!) record. In this sense, Maryland seems to be more successful.
The attrition rate is the second essential factor: some (great!) schools admit, say, 10 persons, and only 3-4 out of them graduate. - It speaks a lot about the Department's culture and the overall well-being of the students. And about your odds of succeeding, of course.
Third, the cohorts' size is vitally-important too: it is easy to get lost among hundreds of colleagues. Furthermore, in overcrowded departments, students struggle for face-time with their advisors.
Fourth, the average graduation timing is very telling too.
Fifth, funding opportunities for the summer workshops (like ICPSR) are another factor to consider.
Hope it helps. -
12 minutes ago, BrownSugar said:
You are right. I won’t make a rushed decision
Meanwhile, your problem of choice is, in fact, a beautiful thing
Enjoy the moment! -
After reading the previous discussion, guys, here my 5 cents: Academia is not about money. No. It is about love-love to science, to the breathtaking feeling of discoveries and understanding that one is developing, doing something noble. It is about a fit between an inner (often innate) avid desire to learn and accumulating something that will always be with you. It is about a permanent journey and the spirit of the eternal youth.
I'm not preaching, do not get me wrong: While having challenging stats classes, I'm asking myself quite often: " should I have swapped my highly paid job and quite relaxed way of life for the sleepless nights of a Ph.D. program?..." - But, when "that" paper is finally done, the semester is over, and I'm drinking a cup of coffee with a few sips of cognac, I feel fabulous. I feel I was right when I made a decision. And I understand that otherwise, I would be self-flagellating until the rest of the life if I did not try the taste of Academia.
Academia is tough, transformative, and quite often painful, but the majority of you, I believe, will love it too.
And yes, money...- In short: Be a good scholar, and you will have a well-paid job. -
Guys, those of you who were accepted to MSU, congrats!
Our DGS told us there was an absolutely insane competition this year, and you made it!
Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the program-current MSU Ph.D. student
- ovejal, gradpumpkin, NeedaMormon and 3 others
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I recalled tremendous nervousness at this point one year ago: I was hectically checking my mailbox every 5...well, at times every two minutes. It was really, really torturous...
So, hang in, guys!- I'm sure, next year, in hindsight, the majority of you will be remembering these days with a smile while learning the bedrocks of theory building and examining linear regressions -
34 minutes ago, NeedaMormon said:
I think it's interesting that many of the acceptances here (whether Northwestern or some other school) have been in Comparative or International. There have been very few American, Theory, or even Methods acceptances so far.
I wonder if that's due to differences in candidate pool size for these different sub-fields. If the Comparative or International applicants are far fewer in number it would make sense that their decisions are made faster.
I'm not saying I think the claimed acceptances are false though. I find the decision pacing interesting, and there are a lot of different factors to take into account for this "adventure" of an admissions cycle.
The whole admission process depends on many variables: the structure and size of the Admission Committee, the size of the applicants' pool, specifics of bureaucratic procedures, etc.
I do not exclude that some applicants might have already received offers from NW. Though, in my (subjective!) opinion, this probability is relatively low. -
1 hour ago, nivy25 said:
I believe a few people on here claimed them... NW is probably my dream school atm.
NW is one of the favorite targets among habitual trolls on this forum. So, at least at this point, do not be disheartened regarding your chances to get into NW!
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13 minutes ago, mypolisciguy said:
It kind of annoys me when people think that because x program released results on y date in the past z year, that they will undoubtedly release them at the exact time the next year(s).
Northwestern released results last year on Jan. 20th. In what world is it it 'too early?'
You know how I know you are wrong though? Because of the acceptance in my inbox.
Well...What can I say? - Congrats! I wish you success in your studies in such a great program!
22 minutes ago, mypolisciguy said:You know how I know you are wrong though? Because of the acceptance in my inbox.
This part is quite arrogant. I'd recommend you to be less condescending towards future colleagues, though.
- AHD, OttoTheOrange and Crossed_fingers
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13 minutes ago, nivy25 said:
I guess I am panicking a little bit because NW and OSU were my top "fits" and if I don't hear from them probably by this week then it is safe to assume my chances are a little dim...
I highly doubt those Northwestern acceptances were real. I may be mistaken, of course. But it is too early for them. -
Just now, nivy25 said:
Any specific suggestions?
U of T, McGill, UBC, Queens, McMaster, Western Ontario, Calgary...-the most prominent. But I'd say that any out of the top-20 Canadian Universities will make you a very competitive applicant. For instance, I graduated from U of Guelph (somewhere top-15), and now, in hindsight, I can say our MA program was simply excellent! (well, I may be slightly biased, consider it :))
But there is an important caveat regarding Canadian MA programs: some of them can kill your GPA, notably those located in Ontario. -
And yes, regarding MA, I would strongly suggest considering Canadian schools for these purposes: they provide excellent funding, in most cases completely covering tuition, and provide excellent training.
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Guys, I intend to offend nobody, but to me, all that jazz around UCLA decisions seems too suspicious. I'd bet these "decisions" are the products of the regular trolls who, apparently, became especially acrimonious this year in the conditions of the ongoing pandemics
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Based on my experience, it is definitely time for the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University (OSU). In this respect, it is even strange we have not heard from OSU yet...- too many applicants?
Who else might be at this point? - North Carolina, Pittsburgh probably - but these programs do not accept Ph.D. students this year, as far as I know.
So, it is too early to panic- Sad Politics and icemanyeo
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Last year I was interviewed before I got accepted to my current Ph.D. program:
It was a serious discussion for about 40 minutes with two faculty members, including the Admission Committee Chair and the Professor whom I had mentioned in my Statement. They asked me about my previous academic and professional background, motivation for Ph.D. studies, and why I had chosen their particular program. A significant part involved discussing the research puzzle that I had posited and how (in terms of methods and regional focus) I would tackle it. In the end, I had a chance to ask questions and was told they would recommend to Grad Studies to accept me to the program. Everything went in an amicable but professional atmosphere.
Do not stress too much, and good luck to all of you! -
Guys, regarding Princeton on the results page:
It is a habitual "Princeton troll" lurking here for many years. Usually, it awakens somewhere on 7th-8th January, claims an acceptance to Princeton, and then disappears for another year. This year it reemerged almost a week later than usual (why?). - Do not take it seriously, even better - do not pay attention at all.
But, seriously, it is way too early for Princeton, do not drive yourself crazy!- Sad Politics, verschiedene, BrownSugar and 4 others
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8 hours ago, Paulcg87 said:
I just finished the first term/semester of the first year of my political science PhD. Just a few things for next year's incoming cohort:
Learn how to code in R. Don't fight the inevitable, just learn it.
- This is the most important advice I can give to anyone entering a PhD program next year who doesn't have a strong computer programming/coding background. In the past, users on here have emphasized how important quant methods are ad nauseam, and this is true and I don't want to take away from it. You do need to understand undergraduate algebra based statistics. You do need to know basic concepts like hypothesis testing, linear regression and p values, ordinary least squares, t-tests and average treatment effects. What you also need to know that is as important as a basic knowledge of stats is a basic knowledge of coding in the 'R' language. R is a computer coding language similar to Python but a bit more customizable and complex. It has become the gold standard for a lot of social science PhD programs. Python is also important and used more than R outside of polisci specifically so try to learn that too if you can.
Polisci PhD students (in North America at least) are no longer doing stats on paper or in Stata or in SPSS; almost everything is being done in R. My entire first year PhD quant methods framework uses the R language, as did my master's degree quant courses. It's no longer enough to have a basic intro to stats; you need to know how to do those stats in R. If you aren't familiar yet with R or with coding in general, take an online class and download R Studio and learn how to code in R markdown and then practice applying quant analysis to sample datasets/data frames. Learn how to code functions, plots and tables. It will make the first year of your PhD so much easier. You can learn R during your first year and some in my cohort are doing that right now, but they are struggling because of the extra workload. It's enough to be dealing with all of the other pressures of the first year and the required coursework; also learning how to code from scratch simultaneously is just one extra thing that you don't need. And for those who are thinking "It's ok, I plan on doing mostly qualitative/ethnographic etc research and I don't need to know R", trust me, unless you are a theory student, you will be using R. It isn't possible anymore to avoid R or computer coding in the majority of North American polisci PhD programs if you are a non-theory student. So much of the field has moved from observational to experimental and from qualitative to quantitative that even if it isn't what you plan to do professionally, ever, you still have to learn how to do it. I think the logic is that if you're going to be competitive in applying for academic/TT jobs some day, you at least need to know enough about quant methods and coding in particular to be able to explain it to your students even if you avoid doing it yourself.
Don't stress if you don't like your field(s)/subfield(s)
What most North American polisci PhD programs have in common is that you have to choose one or two fields/subfields (comparative, IR, theory, development, policy, American, etc). Some people, including myself, go into a polisci PhD sure of the field we are interested in studying and then change our minds a few weeks or months in. Sometimes it even happens after the first year. Fields are NOT set in stone when you are starting out and it's ok if you want to change. The tradeoff is that if you change fields after you start your PhD, depending on how long you wait, you could be adding an extra term or an entire extra year to your PhD that might not be funded if you received a fixed amount of funding. I, for example, received 5 years of guaranteed funding, so if I stay past that for whatever reason, I'm on my own when it comes to money. It is what it is, but don't stress about being locked into a field/subfield. Also note that changing fields/subfields within a political science PhD program is different from changing your PI/advisor/supervisor. The size, culture, funding and other attributes of your PhD program will determine how much flexibility, or lack thereof, you'll have, but nothing is usually impossible if you have a change of heart after starting.
Don't stress about online education
My department/school started off this past fall semester in a hybrid with in-person and online courses and then switched to entirely online for everything once the second wave started a few months ago. Yes, online classes are not as good as in-person classes in just about every way, including networking with your cohort and in-person learning. I found it so much harder to do the weekly labs for my stats/coding course when everything went online because we were not together in the computer lab and I couldn't just ask the TA what a line of code meant in person. Personally, I'm not a fan of online education and I don't like Zoom. When we switched over to online only, one of my classes was in Zoom, one was in an Adobe program, one was in Microsoft Teams and a lab was in Blackboard Collaborate. Literally, every single one of my classes/labs used a different online learning program/method and it was very frustrating. It was a lot harder to do do these things this way, but it was not the end of the world. We got through it as a cohort, we commiserated over Zoom study sessions and on our cohort facebook page/group, and life went on. I'm happy to say that we didn't have any of the first term curriculum delayed because of COVID, and you won't either, whether everyone is vaccinated and everything is in-person in the fall of 2021 or it is still online. Hopefully it's the former, but if it's the latter, your department will make it work.
If anyone who is still on here from last year is also just finishing the first term and has anything to add, please do. The single biggest piece of advice I have is to learn R as soon as possible. Even if you can't take a class on it, try some of the free online learning modules, download R Studio, use the sample datasets and start practicing with the mean function in R markdown. Also, I highly recommend one of the interactive texts we are using this year for our 3-course stats/R coding sequence, which is available in paper, PDF and Kindle formats: Kosuke Imai. Quantitative Social Science: An Introduction. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017.
Good advice!
And yeah...-R is a really cool research tool!
I would also mention some knowledge about random variables distributions (e.g., Poisson, Bernoulli) would make life much easier at the end of the semester
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On 10/28/2020 at 3:27 PM, jjiffy said:
I am hoping to specialize in international relations with a focus on international security.
Undergrad GPA: 3.7. Major in International Affairs and minor in History. Private school, around #50-60, but top 10 in IR.
GRE: 168V/160Q/5.5AWA (My first attempt was 166/159/4.5)
LORs: Three strong letters. One is from my thesis advisor who is a major senior professor in the field. The second is from a pretty well known professor in security studies who I had in the past and is teaching my grad-level independent study. My last letter is from the director of my fellowship program who I know really well and has taught me for three semesters.
Writing Sample: I'm planning to use a final paper I wrote for a research seminar at the end of Junior year. I'm still working on my thesis so its not ready, and my research seminar paper is more aligned with my grad school interests anyway. I explain my shift in research interests in my SOP so it makes a little more sense.
Statement of Purpose: I think it is very strong. I've had multiple professors and peers look over it and have received good responses.
Research Experience: Two year research program/fellowship. Junior/Senior level research seminar (paper currently under review, was supposed to present at a conference at my school but was cancelled due to COVID). Awarded Undergrad Research Award at my institution.
Schools (PhD): Stanford, UChicago, MIT, Berkeley, UCSD, UCLA, UW Madison, Ohio State, Duke, Georgetown, Cornell. I think the first couple are more of long shots but I'm expecting it to be rough this year for every school. Thought's on if they are in reach?
Looks good.
Fit is a key. -
4 hours ago, Interpretivist said:
Took the GRE for the first time today and ended up with 169V and 159Q as my unofficial scores. Verbal was a pleasant surprise, though with the quant section nerves got the best of me and I ended up blanking on some questions, running out of time and having to guess... I already have a second attempt booked for the end of this month (had figured I might need to take it twice as I haven't taken math apart from statistics since high school!), but I'm wondering whether it's worth spending the time and effort getting the quant score up versus working on other components of my PhD applications.
For some context - I have a Canadian (T5 university but not as well known internationally) undergrad degree in politics (GPA would likely be 3.94-3.98 on the American scale depending on how you convert, departmental medalist) and a (T2) UK MPhil in politics, distinction on thesis and merit overall. Some undergrad summer research experience, undergrad and master's theses around 100 pages each. Intended sub-field is international relations (transitioning from comparative) with a minor in theory (though there's a couple departments where I'm considering applying to theory based on their orientation) and I tend toward the qualitative/interpretive side of things in terms of epistemology and methodology. Looking at programs in Canada and the US due to the better funding prospects than the UK/Europe - none of the so-called 'CHYMPS' as I don't really vibe with what they do there, but some of the lower ranked (say top 20-30?) departments where there's at least some people with a more critical bent.
So now I'm trying to decide what to prioritize - I could continue to practice on timing and strategy to get the quant score up a few more points as I realize it could be higher for admissions in general, though at risk of taking away from the time I have left to work on my statement and writing sample, which had been back-burnered more than they should have while I was relearning geometry and combinatorics... Most of the schools I'm looking at have made it optional this year with the pandemic except my top choice (though they haven't updated their admissions page so not too sure what's happening there) and two of the Canadian schools I'm considering - though with the pandemic I'm prepared to potentially have to re-apply a year from now given cuts to incoming cohort sizes and some programs cancelling their 2021 intake altogether. Thoughts?
In my view, no need to retake. Focus on other parts of your file instead.
Yet, throw your net as broad as you can: the competition this year will be hellish! -
Hello guys,
Michigan State University granted its foreign Ph.D. students an opportunity to study and receive stipend remotely during the Fall 2020 semester.
2021-2022 Application Thread
in Political Science Forum
Posted
Hello, guys!
Those admitted to Michigan State University, huge congrats! Feel free to message me questions about the program. :)
Current MSU Ph.D. student