grantman

I would take a look at two schools that I know off the top of my head. Penn State has James Piazza, Douglas Lemke, and Zaryab Iqbal. Arizona State has Cameron Thies, David Siroky, and Will Moore joining in the fall from Florida State. Hope this helps.

Good Day Trossier, I would say given your background I doubt your undergraduate g.p.a. would be much of an issue. I would try to ensure that you get as high as graduate gpa as possible as well as cultivating a relationship with the professors whose research goals most align with your own, these people will be the ones who will write your letters when it comes time to apply for PhD programs. Your legal experience I think will help you stand out given the fact you have been a practitioner of the law. Continue to work on your GRE's and what you are doing now I think is the best way , I wish I knew someone with a PhD in math because it has been a long time for me as well. An option to consider is given your legal background maybe to try to get a adjunct position at a school that houses a great doctoral program and gain entry that way. While it is a ninja move if you prove to the school housing the doctoral program you wish to gain entry by taking some classes on the side. If my response is a little chaotic I am currently at a baseball game with kids screaming right behind me.

I would agree that some of the universities listed are decent ones, Mannheim FU Berlin, Konstanz are all solid schools. Another school to look at would be European University Institute or maybe Central European University. While neither are located in Germany, they are still schools with a decent name to them and have solid reputation in the social sciences.

No worries whatsoever. I enjoyed you input. Sometimes one sided views are wrought with issues so I was glad you brought up a differing point of view.

Firstly, I am not trying to defame Iowa whatsoever. I am glad that you had great dialogue with the faculty there. Second, the professor that I knew said that one of his colleagues who worked there was denied tenure, he went on to say that others were also denied tenure, only from CP and IR as I recall. His explanation was that the old guard at Iowa, who were Americanists he stated, were the ones who denied his colleagues tenure. Now the situation may not be as bleak as that and I am not saying it is a horrible university or department, but that is what I heard, so take it with a grain of salt. It could be possible that there were other extenuation circumstances that I was unaware of that may have led to this decision. Again, I am sorry if I came off poorly I did not mean to do so, all I can say is that is what I was told.

I would be careful about Iowa. One professor who I know and trust has told me that the Americanists at Iowa run that department and they have a bad reputation in denying tenure to CP and IR professors so they may have a lot of turnover.

I kind we should give bad news like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VL4Mp53GOdg

Way to ruin that good feeling, just kidding. At least we won't be seeing a mass immigration of angry and spiteful individuals.

What it seems like to me is that they are offering conditional admission, rather than full admission. Why they did this I am unsure, but conditional admission tends to be offered to applicants who have something in their background that worries the faculty or the school, but I could be mistaken in this case.

So it looks like PSJR website is down. Website states that they have not renewed their domain name. Hopefully, their regular posters do not descend onto this forum.

I see you are drinking an AnchorSteam. While I do not drink, some of my colleagues in my department love it, which means you have some good taste.

I am sorry to hear that this cycle has not gone well for you. Believe me I understand what you are going through and your attitude is the right one. I hope your next cycle goes well and I wish you the very best.

In honor of President's Day I present the following:

Congrats to all the new admits. The admissions I have seen thus far are really impressive and you should all be very proud of yourself. To those who have not heard anything or have been greeted with rejections all I can say is that I emphasis with your situation and that while you have not heard good new thus far should not discount the possibility that you will gain admittance later in this cycle. I hope all of you are having a good week and I wish the best for you all. Best, P

Good Day Everyone, The first order of the day is my deep sorrow for those who have received rejects for the past couple of weeks. For those who have received more positive news all I can say is congratulations and I wish you the best of luck as you begin the next chapter of your life. To note the numbers of those viewing this post I find it sad that I check this forum every hour even though I did not apply anywhere. I think that speaks plenty about my life and how much time I have about my life. I hope everything goes well for all of you as you patiently wait to hear any news. All my best, -P

Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, Firstly, I want to congratulate those individuals who have received good news. I am sure you all will become great scholars and academics in your own time. Secondly, for those who have not heard good news yet all I can is draw strength from those around you. As someone who did not gain admission anywhere last cycle, and still have not found a means of employment since graduating back in May, I know how these cycles can be taxing on our physical, mental, and emotional capacities. The best you can do is too be happy for those around you and do not become cynical like those individuals on PSJR. While my advice may not be applicable to some of you I thought I would let some of you know that you are not alone during this process, and from what I saw thus far this community has been as supportive this cycle as it was for me last cycle. Again, I wish you all the best of luck in all your endeavors. -P

Christine, Here is a book that might help you in your studies. It is called, "Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons: Why Secondary States Support, Follow or Challenge." Its authors are Kristen P. Williams, Steven E. Lobell, and Neal G. Jesse. Whit is its a edited volume it may contain some information that may be helpful to you in your research. All the best in your studies! Sincerely, P

I know the University of Minnesota has a number of scholars in this area: Joe Soss, Dara Strolovitch, Kathryn Pearson, and Kathryn Sikkink. The first three are all american politics and Kathryn Sikkink is really big in international and comparative studies. It might be worth looking into, but I am not an expert in this field.

Good Day Everyone, I just wanted to inform those who may have an interest the Midwest Political Science Associate has extended it deadline for proposal submissions to October 12th. As a past participant in this conference I can personally claim that this conference is a great way for networking with fellow faculty and students that have interests in your study area. I know that there have been other members who have attended this and can attest to what I am saying. If you have any questions PM me and I can give you details. -Grantman

Well first I think you need to really focus your research interests. I feel some individuals on the admissions committee may feel that you do not have an actionable research plan when you list all of your interests. I would concentrate on subject matters that are more close to your heart and have a real passion because towards the end of your graduate career your dissertation will be your entire life over the course of 2 to 3 years if not more. In terms of school choices if you are not going to go anywhere you are not receiving aid then I would probably get rid of Georgetown and GW. Based on what I have seen I think both those institutions rarely give out any aid. The other school I would probably advise you to get rid of is American, I know there placement record is not exactly the best. I do notice however your lack of interest in state schools with your list. I would suggest maybe looking to some state programs other than just UT and UCB. You may want to look at schools like UCLA, UCSD, UNC, University of Michigan, and University of Wisconsin. I know Michigan has a great political economy program, the others may as well. To help you refine your list I would look up articles and books that meet with your research interests and see where these individuals work, you might be surprised by the results. Sorry to load on this crap on you I just want to help in anyway I can.

Based on your credentials as they stand, I would say you will be able to gain admittance into a decent school, possibly a Top Ten institution. However, it is hard to narrow down your list without some more detailed information about your research interests as they relate to comparative politics. While you do not have a great deal of training in heavy quantitative research your apparent professional development, i.e. your language training and research abroad could help your application where there might be weaknesses. One piece of advice would be to start crafting your statement of purpose. RWBG just brought up a topic which would be, I believe, a valuable resource as your start writing them. I wish you the best of luck from one CP person to another.

Good Day Everyone, I just wanted to send my best wishes to all of you who are entering into your respective Ph.D programs as well as those who are preparing to apply for the upcoming cycle. I know all of you individuals will become excellent academics and add greatly to your respective disciplines. Sincerely, grantman

Sorry for the late reply but there are a few things I may like to add if everyone will permit me. After an unfortunate year in the application cycle I have begun to look at Canadian schools given the fact that they, with the exception of UBC, does not require GRE scores. Since I did not do well on my GRE scores, a 1040 as a general reminder of my idiocy since I have not been online here in awhile, I do not think I can garner admittance into a top 25 school despite my academic credentials.With that said, sorry to disagree with FleetFoxes, both Toronto and McGill have faculty that meet with my research interests and from what I see both school have decent placement in the states and tend to offer good financial packages. So to cut a story short Canadian schools are not bad but just be careful and carefully research each schools before applying.

I do apologize for not specifying my research interests. To put it broadly, I am interested in post-conflict reconstruction and international development. More specifically, I have some interest in certain aspects of Consociationalism (i.e. O'Leary, Wolff, Lijphart, and McGarry) as well as the institution building, with a particular interest in the state's bureaucracy, and constitution writing. To Mr. Brent09, I thank you for your contribution. To address some of your comments, while I am not too familiar with Binghamton placement in terms of American and Judicial, they do have a number of IR people. Furthermore, Andrew Enterline at UNT received his doctorate at Binghamton, but as far as UNT's department goes Enterline is the only one I can see has similar research interests. To address your concern regarding future placement, I completely agree with you. The reason why I am looking lower is that given my horrible GRE scores and my unsuccessful round this year, if I cannot gain entrance to schools in the 20-30 range, then I feel I must begin to look at the 40-50 range. As I previously stated, I am also looking at Canadian schools, namely Toronto and McGill.

Good Day Everyone, I hope everything is going well with you all as you begin to make plans for the continuation of your studies, whatever they may be. I am still mulling over whether I am going to apply to the 2012-2013 admissions cycle and I wanted to gauge thoughts on the following schools: Syracuse, Uni. of Florida, Rutgers, Arizona State and SUNY-Binghamton. Thanks for any comments that you may be willing to give.