sbidyanta

How did you convince your recommenders to upload so many letters? I had to cycle my professors because none of them would upload more than 5 lol.

Submitted my first application, to USC. 6 more to go!

I had initially thought about applying to 8-9, but have since reduced it to 6. Gonna keep some money for Spring apps.

Undergrad - Political Science - CGPA 9.5/10 (from a state school in India (qs rank 650-700) Masters - International Relations - CGPA 7.3/9 (from a central university in India, qs rank 560) GRE - not given yet, but expecting V165 Q160 Conference presentations - 2 (one in a EU-funded conference, another in a conference organized by a top Canadian University) Formal research experience - none (both my presentations were a result of independent research, I have not worked under any professor). Anything else - I have a fellowship from the Indian government to get funding for a PhD in India, but it's pretty useless abroad. I can speak 3 languages fluently (including English), and I am currently A2 in French (and improving). Also have a working knowledge of R. Universities I'm applying to - Texas A&M University, UC Irvine, University of Southern California, Temple University, University of Cincinnati, Kansas University, Florida International University. My concerns - 1) I have very scant quantitative training. I only took a class in basic statistics during my undergrad (got an A), and that's about it. I am currently doing an online course in Calculus, but I don't know how much it'll help me. 2) Since I have not worked under any professor directly (research culture is very different in India, particularly in non-STEM field), my Letters of Recommendations would be pretty bland. 3) My Masters GPA is pretty low prima facie, but it's actually equivalent to a British First Class with Distinction. But I'm not sure how the admissions committee would convert international GPA. Do I have a chance at getting admits from the universities I mentioned? I have emailed some professors at these universities, but received pretty generic replies so far.

Wow you seem like a really strong candidate, can't believe that you got rejected from all those places last cycle. I'm really worried about my chances now haha, but honestly think you'd be fine this cycle. All those choices should definitely be within reach for you. Have you mailed any faculty members at these unis yet?

Best of luck my friend!

Yep, that should be enough (quite more than enough, actually). Also would help if your writing sample is based on quantitative research.

Slight proof-reading issues aside, one of the best essays. Easily a 5.0

Normally, 162 would be a fine quant score for Poli sci, but since you're looking at Quant heavy programs like NYU and Rochester, I think you would need above 165. It would also be great if you have had some prior training in quantitative methods during your undergrad.

I honestly don't know how you got rejected by schools outside the top-20, you seem a stellar candidate. That being said, have you thought about applying outside? National University of Singapore is really good, as is RSIS (part of Nanyang Technical University). You can also apply to universities in Canada (McGill and UoT) and UK (University of Warwick has a great IR program). UCDublin is also a great choice. Best of luck!!

A really good essay, tackles the issue head on, provides some really good points. I feel the introduction and conclusion could have been written better. This is easily a 4.5 essay, maybe a 5.

This is extremely short, and will not fetch higher than a 2. While length isn't the end all of GRE essays, a certain length is expected of them, and writing very short essays means that no matter how well you write you won't get a high score. A reasonable length is 550 words spread over 4 to 5 paragraphs.

First of all, congratulations on those GRE scores. Also, if you could explain it in your essay, then your GPA shouldn't be an issue at all. Your school seems to have a really weird policy though, did you know about it before taking the courses at other schools? In any case, you should be good to go. Wishing you the best.

Hopefully posting essays for feedback is allowed here. Honest constructive criticism is really much appreciated. Thank you. Prompt - The best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones. Essay - There is perhaps no domain which has been the subject of more intensive study and research than the effect of positive and negative reinforcements for pedagogy. Despite the massive volume of research, or perhaps exactly because of it, there is a lack of consensus on this issue. While a school of thought focuses only on positive reinforcements, i.e., rewarding positive actions while ignoring negative ones, the other school of thought works on negative reinforcement, i.e., punishing negative actions while largely ignoring positive ones. While both schools have their own merit, a mixed approach based on both schools would be the most desirable. Hence, I would disagree with the notion that the best way to teach is to only praise positive actions while ignoring negative ones. The first teachers that any child has are their parents. Parents are tasked with teaching the most basic societal norms and habits, as well as the most fundamental knowledge that a child should possess (how to speak, read, write, etc.). The former would include encouraging certain activities, but also the need to discourage certain activities that a child might unknowingly pick up. If these negative habits (for example, wrong tableside manners, etc.) are not weaned off at an earlier age, the child may face problems later in their life. To ignore such negative habits, thus, could prove to be ultimately harmful for the child’s life, even if done with the best intention of not hurting the child. When a child enters formal schooling, his ambit of knowledge slowly increases. To make sure that the knowledge the child is picking up is accurate, a system of evaluation is used by most schooling systems around the world (although the method of evaluation varies very largely). In such evaluation, the purpose is not only to reward positive actions, but also to discourage negative ones. Such discouragement need not be through harsh methods, merely informing the students of the negative actions is sufficient. But to ignore them would be to imperil the student’s future, since they would be none the wiser about the shortcomings in their knowledge and skills. The main criticism of negative reinforcements has been that they are harsh and cruel upon the learner. But that is more a criticism of the method of negative reinforcement, not reinforcement in itself. There is often a false dichotomy made between ignoring negative actions, and harshly punishing for them. But punishment need not be harsh; it can be gentle and more informative than punishing. The objective is to discourage a certain activity and improve actions in the future. That is possible through subtly bringing to the notice of the learner the mistake which they have made. This can be an alternative to completely ignoring negative actions, or punishing harshly for them. This is not to say that positive reinforcements are not important. In fact, positive reinforcements through praising positive actions should form the bulk of the teaching experience, and would be highly enjoyable and satisfying for the pupil. But to completely ignore negative actions would be an extremity that would be to the detriment of the learner. Teaching, much like life itself, is about balance. Since a pupil would do some rights and some wrongs, the appropriate balance between praising positive actions and discouraging negative actions needs to be applied.