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RCD2

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  • Application Season
    2014 Fall
  • Program
    Political Science (Comparative)

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  1. PROFILE: Type of Undergrad Institution: Average Public University in Europe Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science Undergrad GPA: 3.91 Type of Grad: MA International Relations (policy-focused) Grad GPA: 4.00 GRE: 160V 161Q 5.0A Any Special Courses: MA level Microeconomics, Economic Math, Stats and Econometrics; two PhD level Political Science seminars Letters of Recommendation: All three from my MA program (two Assistant profs, one tenured). Research Experience: Some policy work and data-management experience - no publications Teaching Experience Subfield/Research Interests: Comparative/Political Economy Other: RESULTS: Acceptances($$ or no $$): MIT ($$), Harvard ($$) Waitlists: Rejections: Stanford, Berkeley, Yale, Columbia, NYU, Princeton Pending: Going to: Harvard LESSONS LEARNED: - Apply to all top departments, even if you think that fit is not that good. The department may know more than you. I was rejected by the schools I thought I had the best fit with and was accepted by MIT and Harvard which actually turned out to be a great fit (new faculty, profs shifting research agendas). - If you are like me and standardized, timed exams like the GRE don't come easy to you - study hard and prepare to retake it. Try to get at least in the 160s, so you make the cutoff. - Start working on our application early (July/August). The first few drafts of your SoP will be rubbish in retrospect. Get feedback from your professors and people who were admitted to good programs. - If your research interests are broad and you are not quite sure which project you want to pursue - don't state that in your SoP. Focus on one thing. This doesn't mean that you can only pursue this one question/project in grad school, but you don't want to appear unfocused. Admission committees will try to categorize you (especially in Comparative along regions!) and if that's not possible based on your SoP they may put you aside. - Contact professors, but only if you have something substantial to say. In my opinion, "My name is, my research interests are, I am interested in your program" e-mails are a waste of time for both sides. If there is no question in your e-mail, there is no need to reply. - Visit every school you got admitted at. It's fun and you will learn things about the program/faculty that you wouldn't have found online. - Pick a writing sample that shows your ability to do academic work, not one that is similar to the topic of your SoP. Definitely a mistake a made. - Be aware that this is a process that will cost you several hundred dollars (application fees, GRE, TOEFL if you are international). It's ridiculous, but there is little you can do about it. SOP: I'd rather not post it publicly, but here is some advice. - Like I said above, start early. Ask your profs and other PhD students to read it and give you feedback. The first few drafts of my SOP were rubbish, writing a decent one was a 2-3 month process. - Three main components: Your research interests (preferably framed as an empirical/theoretical puzzle), your previous experiences, your fit with the department. The first component should take up more space than the others. - If you have a regional interest, state it. Like I said above, committees will classify you as "Africanist", "European political economy person" etc.
  2. Claiming a harvard acceptance too. Absolutely speechless. And I know this is a luxury problem, but: This is going to be a hard choice (my only other acceptance is from MIT.)
  3. Syracuse admitted students: If you have any questions about the city, he maxwell school and profs, feel free to PM me. I am currently an MA student here.
  4. Fore veryone who is still waiting for MIT: I received my official offer letter today (by fedex, it was sent to my permanent address in Europe), so expect to get your results during the next few days.
  5. One of my POIs. Same person may be the subfield coordinator, I don't know.
  6. I agree that it's rather opaque. I have only received a call, no e-mail so far - looks like they are notifying by old-school mail and it is up to the subfield coordinators (?) to call or not call people. At least I got all the information about funding and visiting days.
  7. Based on past experience, I think we have to take it as a No...
  8. I may not remember this correctly, but I think my POI mentioned in the call that official emails will go out tomorrow. So if you didn't get a call, no worries, other profs may handle this differently.
  9. Claiming an MIT acceptance. It was a call from POI. This is my first acceptance, I feel so relieved!
  10. Current SU MA student here. The bad weather up here is not necessarily a bad thing - it has had a highly positive impact on my productivity
  11. Current Syracuse student here. Although there is not a huge Middle East focus at Maxwell, there are definitely some people who you could work with. Look at the research of Miriam Elman and Mehrzad Boroujerdi. In general, I would not recommend getting an MA if you already know that your ultimate goal is a PhD. Not worth the money (schools usually do not fully fund MA students).
  12. Thank you so much! This was very helpful. I think I will stick to this writing sample and whenever possible upload more than three letters.
  13. I have a writing sample that I feel pretty confident about, however I think that it may have a major weakness: I did not write it under the supervision of any of my three recommenders. Unfortunately none of the papers I wrote in their classes are as strong as the writing sample I would like to chose. There are different reasons for that - in one class I only wrote a preliminary draft that would require a lot of editing, in another one I only wrote a critical response paper and in the third one there was no paper assignment. I could ask the professor in whose class I wrote the writing sample to write me a recommendation - I am pretty sure that he would write me a detailed and positive one. However there is a 'strategic' reason that I chose these three. I have a very good relationship with two of them and think that they would like me excellent letters, and the third one is an economist who would be able to speak about my quantitative/econ skills. What do you think? Does it make a bad impression if your writing sample doesn't come from your recommender?
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