IRToni

My rule usually is: I keep an unmarked copy around if I could have trouble obtaining the unmarked pdf in the future. That means that I usually don't keep an unmarked copy around for journal articles, as I'm likely to have access to them later on relatively easy. Stuff that I downloaded off TT websites etc. is similar. Stuff that I got from professors, draft papers from conferences etc. I keep an unmarked copy around. Also note, however, that it's not super difficult to delete your mark-ups from pdfs, if need be, so I wouldn't worry about it that much.

I don't remember having this problem. My tips: Try different times. Look up what time it is in Europe, and try at night, e.g. 3 AM. If it still doesn't work, see if you can upload an empty document, just for trouble-shooting. If you can upload the empty doc, try reducing the size of your documents. If you can't, contact IHEID again, tell them the problem, and ask if you can send them your documents via mail. Does IHEID use their own system, or does it use applyweb or some such? If it uses applyweb or something like this, contact the people there! Be persistent! Hope everything works out, and good luck with your apps.

I got accepted two years ago, and wrote about what the rise of China means for my country. SInce I was in China at that point, working for a journalist, in touch with the embassy etc., I was able to relate it to my life, analyze it etc. It was both broad and narrow, related to what I wanted to study, as well as my career plans, and at least doesn't seem to have kicked me out of the running. Note that my country is not the US, though, and studies on China's rise and its impact on my country are not nearly as overwrought and omnipresent.

This forum (Political Science) deals with academic political science, mostly PhD programs. Your question probably fits better into the "Government Affairs" forum, which deals with terminal, professional M.A.s in Public Policy and IR.

I talked about teaching in one of my SOPs. One school specifically wrote on their website that they have an emphasis on teaching, offers courses that students have to take before TAing etc. I did not mention my teaching interests in all my other SOPs, also because I don't have a ton of teaching experience, and am much more interested in research.

I assume OP's not a native speaker, though. Some schools emphasize that they're more lenient with non-NS with their verbal. I would say, however, that your verbal, in addition to your "relatively low" TOEFL and AWA might be a problem for political science research. What are your TOEFL scores in reading/writing etc. I saw some schools in the US that have a cut-off of 110, and others with specific cut-offs for the different skills. Your UG GPA might be a problem, especially for funding and the Graduate School, but there's no way to know for sure. cooper: You can study CPE with ME qualitatively as well, though, especially if you understand CPE substantially, and not methodologically. However, with the OP's profile, emphasizing quant might be a good idea, since the Quant score is really good. I will say that Cornell is not the best place to do quant stuff, since they still are quite heterodox, and qualitative in general, that's my impression anyway.

I've been living home since November 8th because of a medical condition, so I've been kinda saving some for my application fees (international as well). In addition, I managed to score amazing funding packages from my school this year, lived in cheap India for the last couple of months, and decided at the get-go, after talking to one professor that spending 100 US$ won't lower my quality of life substantially at this point, but might make the difference between getting in somewhere with funding, and not getting in at all. I am not applying to schools that aren't a good fit, though, and decided not to apply to any schools I would not be absolutely thrilled to attend (decided not to apply to Wisconsin-Madison). It's crazy. I applied to MA programs two year back, and spent tons of money then, and now I'm doing it again. Last time, it paid off, I managed to have pretty amazing options. Hopefully this time will also work out, and with better funding. For those of you also looking into MAs in case the PhD thing doesn't work out, I can highly recommend doing one. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do a PhD, so decided to do a (non-terminal) MA first.

As a current student in another department, I only know what I heard from people. However, the curriculum is completely online, as is the syllabus for the methods classes. My understanding is that it's quite focused on anthropology, with very few sociologists, though they're trying to hire more. It's one of the smallest programs, which can be good, but it's also kind of a niche, and less connected with other programs (except, of course, MDev) than the other disciplinary masters. It's probably the most French-leaning course at IHEID, so if you already speak decent French, and wish to improve it, this might be a good opportunity for you. I don't know anyone doing ANSO who specifically wants to go into policy, partly because the ANSO department is relatively critical, and the outlook on development (aid) you'll get is much more critican than e.g. in the MDev. Going in, you should be aware that it's not a place where you'll learn to do impact analysis, but is more theoretical in its nature. Hope this already helps! I thing the Graduate Institute Student Association (GISA) has a list with people who volunteered to be contacted by prospective students, if you're interested, look it up online!

I think for MPH program, this is a lot less problematic than for PhD programs. However, I would still go with someone with a PhD, if possible.

I didn't apply to your school, but I'd also say b is your best bet. Speaking from experience, it can be nice to have these semi-official things happen on weekdays instead of taking up all the weekends. Also, having the visits then might make it possible ofr students to actually see how classes are being taught, how the campus works etc., all of which usually doesn't happen on weekends. I find the february visit problematic, mainly because many schools only notify people in march, so chances are you'd have much more people attending the weekend than otherwise, since people that haven't heard from their dream school might just attend anyway. This can be useful, but might make expenses etc. for you guys really high. Just my 2 cents, though!

Well, from what I hear from current students and my professors, Berkeley's problem is that they often only give out funding for one year, and then you have to recompete. At UCSD, funding for internationals is problematic, but, I hear, if you get funding, you're in and have funding for the full 5 years (usually). For someone as risk- and debt-averse as I am, this is definitely much better. I'm also applying for external fellowships that could help me make up the difference to in-state tuition, and according to UCSD's website, everyone they admit is fully-funded for in-state tuition at least. Anyway, now it's too late, but in addition to funding, UCSD is also a much better fit in terms of research interests, methodology etc. for me than Berkeley.

Nope, Berkeley... Sorry to scare you! UCSD is 10th, I'm working on this one as well. UCSD also is actually one of my top choices, honestly. Also, typos are part of life. I usually try not to check my apps again after I've submitted them, which isn't possible, because I'm using the same general SOP draft and WS draft...

So... I just realized that I had one deadline wrong, and it has now passed. Luckily, it wasn't one of my top choices, and I would probably prefer most of the other schools over it, also because funding is a real issue at this school, but I'm still a little pissed at myself. Learn from my mistakes, guys, doublecheck the deadlines, because they do change. I've had three other schools change their deadlines, luckily all except this one to later, but still. I made a master list in September/October, and haven't really checked since for most schools, since I was not expecting the deadlines to change...

My GRE percentiles were adjusted down for Q and V, kind of annoyed. Instead of 94 Q, 94 V and 96 AW, I now have 93Q, 93 V and 97 AW. I know, I know, overthinking. I'm currently home with a broken foot, but I'm really excited for January when I'll be doing a 40-hour internship, and working on my MA thesis, so I hopefully won't have any time to commisserate and worry. I have been watching lots of trashy tv to get my mind off things, which has been a change for me. What are y'all's strategies to forget some of the stress of applications?

I'm not exactly feeling like my applications are a disaster, so that's good. I'm also feeling that I did/am doing the best I can, so I'm hopeful and terrified at the same time.The worst thing about not getting in anywhere, to me, would be to disappoint/waste my letter writers, who have overall been great, super on top of things, and extremely helpful in general. My SOP has been read by different people, including three professors, who gave me good critiques. I'm a little worried about not tailoring it too much to all the different programs, as the basic body stays the same for most, and I so far just changed the order around, and added PoIs where it fit. I don't have a fit paragraph, but talk about the schools and professors when I talk about different aspects of my interest, i.e. Aspect 1: Region/country, school resources, professor(s), which seems to be unorthodox, but kind of made my SOP flow better, I felt (hopefully, I'm right). I changed my writing sample relatively last minute, because the one I was originally thinking of using seemed too much of a mess, and too complicated, and hard to read for people without tons of math BG etc. I'm submitting all the material by next Tuesday, I told my LoR writers, and then the waiting can begin...

What I found quite useful was to look at which subfields the professor I wanna work with are affiliated with? For you, it might also be political theory, or even methods as first field (where possible). Also look at the coursework offered in the different departments, and possible, where available, the comps. Some schools have them online, so that might give you some idea of where the stuff that you're interested in is located at a specific school. Edited for clarity!

I'm getting all of them in the day of the deadline, or a day before. Even if everything is done, I just can't get myself to press submit if I don't actually have to. I could still have that SPARK of inspiration/find a typo etc...

Well, it sounds like Comparative to me. If you ask me( as a non-American), AP is just CP with America, so if you wanna do stuff with other countries (even one), you should put CP.

One of my LoR writers actually mentioned that himself, because he is also a notoriously hard grader. He said that he himself writes in his letters that he's a hard grader, which might alleviate the effect of his grades on the committee, because his grades tend to be the worst grades on my transcript, but in his classes, they were still pretty stellar. I also think that professors will be able to glean whether someone is exaggorating or not, and will put this into context. If he's writing you a letter strongly recommending you for a PhD, it should be fine, as it's his ass on the line, ultimately. I have to (and do) believe that adcoms know how different profs are, and that some are just less willing to play the game, but might rethink after I get my results... At least I'll have something to blame ;-).

Thanks, I'm actually applying to Princeton PE, but through the PoliSci department, since it is my understanding that at Princeton you have to apply for the PE program within Poli Sci. Did I massively misunderstand the procedure?

So I'm just narrowing down my final list of schools. I contacted some professors at different schools, and have heard back from one that he's retired, and therefore doesn't take on new advisees. One of the schools that I'm thinking of applying to only has junior faculty in the subfields I am interested in (the senior guy doing the kind of research I'm doing retired in 2011). Would it be unwise to apply to this school? My current list is: Princeton Stanford Harvard Harvard PEG UCSD UC Berkeley NYU Columbia University of British Columbia Michigan is the school that only has junior people (think assistant professors) that I'd be interested in working with. I ruled out Wisconsin because my PoI there retired in 2012, and as an international, Wisconsin doesn't really seem like my kind of environment for 5 years (not to mention a ridiculously low stipend). Because I'm also applying in Europe (though less widely), I would like to narrow down my list of schools as much as possible. Any tips on narrowing down my list of schools in general, and more specifically regarding seniority of faculty? Thanks in advance, IRToni

Basically, IPE is a subfield of IR. Say IR and CP as secondary, and then mention political economy, I would say!

Take what I say with a grain of salt, but from what I hear, having a political economy PhD can also be beneficial to you, especially if/when you also have an IR and/or CP major/minor. The programs I referred to above either have specific Political Economy PhDs (Harvard and to some degree Stanford, though the latter is much more about formal methods than about substantive political economy), or have a specific field Political Economy within the PoliSci PhD (Princeton, NYU). It is my understanding, corraborated by profs, that such a degree can make you more marketable in academia, especially with the right topic, by opening up doors that are otherwise closed (teaching at a B school, e.g.). I also heard that many of the policy schools prefer you to have more of a technical/econ education, but that's purely anecdotal. For me, I'm also thinking of what happens if academia/think tank work doesn't work out, and feel I'd get more transferable skills in a interdisciplinary setting. I have heard the advice (I think even on here) that your actual subfield (IR/CP) is more important than an "artificial one" like (PE), which is why I'm choosing schools that are strong in IR as well as PE (and IPE and CPE, and CP). coachrjc is certainly right to point out there's different ways to understand political economy. Depending on how you understand it, some places might be better than others. You seem to understand it more substantively, same as I am, although I do want to do some formal theory. Because of that, I'm not applying to pure formal places (like Stanford GSB and Rochester).

In general, IR and CP at this point have a lot of overlap, and I know people who did their PhD in CP and methods, but went on to teach and "research" IR and the other way around. For your topic, I would say that if you want to focus on the aid-giving state, majoring in IR might make sense, as foreign aid is a traditional IR and IPE topic. At the same time, a minor (2nd major) in CP might be necessary/good for your topic, because most of the civil war literature is in CP. Interstate war literature is usually in IR, though. If you want to employ quantitative methods, having a methods minor field might also make sense. I personally feel that CP has much more of a focus on methods, which is why it often employs more advanced quant and formal methods, while IR, while also employing more and more of these methods, isn't as methods-centric. A traditional distinction that is very blurred by now was that IR is more concerned with overarching grand theories, while CP is more concerned with middle-level and micro theories. CP still has no (or almost no) grand theories (as a prof of mine likes to say: messy, eclectic core of CP), but IR research has, IMO, moved away from (pure) grand theorizing since the big theory debates of the 1990s. Traditionally, also, a regional focus was not very common in IR, but it is becoming more and more common, I would say. With your topic, you could also look at schools that offer a political economy field, and choose this as your primary field, IMO. Good advise that I've got is to look at where your potential advisors are. While a lot of them are cross-listed in different fields, this (and the courses they teach) might give you at least a point of reference. Ultimately, however, I believe that the distinction between IR and CP is becoming more and more blurred, and having one or the other declared your primary field won't make or break anything.

So I've basically decided to go for POlitical Science at Stanford and UCSD (where, if I really feel it's not the right fit, I could also switch to the IR/PS joint program). I'm currently considering applying to both Government and PEG at Harvard, but can't seem to open two application on the Harvard GSAS. Does anyone have any tips? I could probably submit one, and then do the other, but don't want to inconvenience my letter writers with that!