bishbashbosh

Hello everyone, I've done a little forum search but can't find much info relating to my questions- so either they haven't been answered much before, or I'm an idiot. Anyway, I'm looking at Political Science PhDs in the US (not for this application year, but the next) and I'm feeling a bit clueless about the whole thing. I'm British and went to a British university so I basically have no clue about the application process. So, my questions: 1. I have a BA in History from Cambridge- I've tried to convert my degree classification to a GPA but got wildly differing results. I got a very high 2:1 if that means anything. By the end of this year I'll also have an MLitt in Security Studies from St Andrews, and I hope to do pretty well. Would this be the kind of background that you need for, say, the top 20ish PhD programs? (I understand that letters of recommendation etc are more important- but wondered if I'd be laughed out the door immediately.) 2. I'm reasonably confident that, given some time to relearn maths, I could score well on the GREs. Has anyone used a good study guide thing for the GRE (esp the maths) that they'd recommend? 3. I've only got basic maths- I gave it up after my GCSEs when I was 16. I was quite good at it, but have no advanced maths. Is this likely to really sink my app? I'm not averse to quantitive methods, but I hear there are some very quantitive schools- if anyone could suggest schools to maybe avoid based on this, that would be great. 4. As an international student with zero cash, I'll need funding. Is it therefore sensible to apply to more private schools for a greater chance of getting $$$? If it makes a difference, I'm interested in comparative politics and IR. Schools I'd be interested in (interesting faculty, places look cool, funding sounds promising): Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, Cornell, Duke. I haven't looked into schools much yet, as I have no idea where to aim. Thanks for any help/advice at all!