gradcafe26

2012，I'm wondering about the same question. For SOP, they all want 2 pages single spaced, but I'm not sure about writing sample. Any citing format should be ok, as long as it's consistent.

Poor funding is something that a program wants to hide, just like poor placement record. If they make it explicit and official like that, I don't think it's even worth trying

Hey, Fell4Ever, Sorry, I just saw your response to my post in Sept! Thanks a lot man!

cafejc, that sounds very smart, thanks!

I would like to trade SOP with people who are also considering comparative politics. I'm graduating with a BA from a mediocre big public school, with some research experience but no publication. PM me if anyone is interested

People always say that the role of GRE in the admission process has been diminishing in recent years. Is it possible that the revised exam would (partially) reverse this trend? If so, how do you compare applicants with old and new GRE scores?

Thanks man!

I have never used it before, but if it affects my chance of admission I will definitely learn to convert my writing sample and SOP into LaTex. Do you think the adcom would think PDF files are informal?

"Indiana has one critical scholar, IIRC" Which one?

Generally speaking, there are much more Canadian, British and continental European programs like that. I am applying for a few Canadian institutions as well, but not York. York seems purely Marxist if you check their faculty. McGill, Carleton, McMaster, and Waterloo are critical as well, but probably more comprehensive than York. I don't know much about schools in the UK, but you may want to check out Sussex. The only two far-left wing American programs that I know are the New School in NYC and UMass-Amherst, but the New School does a terrible job in funding graduate students. Also, I have heard that you should be able to find all kinds of scholars at the very top programs (like top 5) in the US.

Wow, congratulations!

balderdash you are done so early, are most of your schools' admissions under rolling basis? This is my first year, and I just hope that I could finish everything by the deadline...

Thanks a lot Penelope Higgins, these are great advices, and my concern is resolved.

balderdash, if you don’t mind, I would appreciate it if you could elaborate a little bit on how to list POIs in your SOP. As I understand, first of all, as pointed out by Penelope Higgins, you should make sure that you know their recent works, and they match your interest. Secondly, I am not sure about this, but it seems that you cannot just list one or two profs, since you are applying to the department, rather than an individual faculty. Thirdly, put down full professors before associates. Also, say, if I want to do CP with a concentration on Russia, I may want to list the name of the Russian specialist in the department first, followed by a Latin Americanist whose research method could be applied to Russia. But do you actually have to explain these reasons in the SOP, or just leave it as “I want to work with Professors A, B, C, and D” as long as those names are consistent with other parts of your SOP? Thanks!

Thanks alphazeta, but I did not intend to list them as my only nor primary POI. Also, I am rethinking about whether I should apply to that school...

I have noticed that some professors that I want to work with are emeritus professors or adjunct professors of PoliSci from other departments like international schools or MPA programs of the same university. I will contact them directly and make sure that they will be willing to work with new graduate students next year. However, since it is the admission committee who makes the admission decision, is it uncommon, or even unacceptable, to list an emeritus or adjunct prof as ONE of my faculty fits in the SOP? Does it make a difference if the prof is offering courses in PoliSci? My gut instinct is that it might be a problem in the admission process, but once you get in, you will have much more freedom. Any thoughts on this? Many thanks!

I agree with Balderdash on the insanely intense competition in PS, but aren't the numbers you listed a little bit exaggerating? According to the NRC ranking, only 4 schools have GRE-Q average higher than 750, not to mention average V.

But NRC does not have rankings for subfields, does it?

@RWGB Could you elaborate a little bit more about computer skills, like proficiency in Excel? Also, what is the role of a CV/resume in the admission process, I mean if I am already including information like conference presentation, research assistance experience in the SOP? Thanks!

My first year grades are horrible are as well, but the good thing is that those courses are irrelevant to poli sci. So I have the same concern too, how do you address it in the SOP and how is your letter writer going to mention this aspect?

Penelope Higgins, speaking of popularity, what do you think of the NRC ranking system? I was surprised to see a lot of schools within the top 30 range are not that well known. For instance, the rankings of Indiana, UIUC and Arizona are all higher than that of Wisconsin-Madison. If this ranking system is reliable, would it be a good strategy to apply to those with high quality (based on NRC ranking) but relatively low popularity? Of course, there are other more important aspects to take into consideration like fit and subfield strength, and the nrc ranking is based on stats from a few years ago. http://graduate-school.phds.org/rankings/political-science/rank/__M_____________________________________________________________U

It seems to me that the most common method in this area is comparative historical analysis. CHA should be mainly qualitative, but maybe there are people quantifying it? It will be helpful if someone can name a few existing political science (not economics) works on China (or other regions) that deploy quant method, then you can trace the authors and their respective institutions from there.

tp470, did you take one of them or are you re-applying this year?

Big thanks to Penelope Higgins and Helix, both of you offered great suggestions. I guess if I knew these one year ago, I would have a bigger chance in this cycle. But anyways, there are still three months left, I will just try my best

Hi, all I am applying to East Asian Studies MA programs and poli sci PhD programs in this cycle. PS: Does anyone know if there is a ranking for MA programs in East Asian Studies, and which schools give more generous funding package to MA students? Thanks!