Hey dudes.
I am in my second year in a PhD program in Political Science. My major in International Relations and my minor is Methodology. I do mostly quant conflict stuff, most of the stuff that I am working on now is civil war, but I am not restricted to just that.
At the end of last year, our IR program kind of imploded. We had one of our faculty members die, and our two best (both conflict) leave for other schools. I have been thinking about transferring (applying in the Fall of 2012) to a much higher ranked school. This is because I really want a good job at an R1 school, and I don't have much choice for a dissertation committee, and there is really only 1 tenured faculty member that I like left (who is not really that well connected).
I have a short list of schools I would apply to, which I will list below. Right now my GRE is 6 writing, 680ish verbal, 730 quant. I will retake it, and I think I can notably improve it. I have some grant money on my CV, some research awards, and I expect to have 1 publication, and another 2-3 in R&R by the time I apply. So I am wondering how feasible this plan actually is. I am right now at a school that is mid-50s rankings wise, but who know what we would look like after the faculty exodus.
Schools: Rochester NYU Univ. Michigan Univ. California San Diego Penn State Univ. Illinois CU
Other suggestions are welcome, as well as assessments of whether this is likely to work.