[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

My impression is that the NYU MA program is not a great stepping stone to PhD programs, for the reason I spell out below. Others should feel free to correct me on this issue, and of course my comments here should not influence your choices unduly.

 

Based on what I know about the MA program, it is not staffed by the faculty from the PhD program, and courses are offered separately. See, for example, this list: http://politics.as.nyu.edu/object/ma.scheduleFall2014 of courses for Fall 2014. None of the folks teaching MA only courses, except Cohen, are regular faculty. Other courses are open to MA students only by permission, and many of the PhD courses are not even listed here as options for MA students. Students in this program won't interact much with the NYU Politics faculty, won't get letters from them for re-applying, and won't get NYU training.

 

All that said, NYU may be the best option for you. But I wanted to put my impressions forward in the interest of starting a conversation that might help you and others make a more informed decision about the program.

I am a master's student at NYU. My experience is that most of the things you have said are right:

- MA program is not staffed by the faculty from the PhD program.

- Courses are offered separately and most of them are more policy-oriented courses than academic-oriented.

- Admission to PhD courses is not granted at all (I know some experiences of professors rejecting MA students from their classes).

Therefore, do not expect the MA at NYU to be an easy way to a high-ranked PhD program. In fact, if you go to the program, take all the classes from the MA program itself, have no contact with full-time faculty and no publications at all, then it is absolutely out of the world of the possibilities to get into a top25 program when you finish the program. 

However... when you get into the dep. of politics at NYU, it is all in your hands. The MA program is not staffed by the faculty from the PhD program, courses are offered separately and admission is not granted, but:

- Access to PhD courses in the MA courses list is very possible if you show certain academic or research background or just an interest in the topic and so convincing PhD professors that you can take the course is not very hard.

- Access to PhD courses not listed as optional for MA students is not impossible either. It is always up to the professor so there are chances that you can convince the professor that you are good enough to take the course and he/she can let you in.

- Access to courses outside the department at MA / PhD level is totally feasible. For instance, you can take any of these courses to improve your methods courses and research training http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/humsocsci/interdepartmental. They are open to all graduate students at NYU.

In this line, it is not very unusual to have LOR's from NYU full-time faculty after the MA, which will improve your chances of admission for a PhD. But, again, this is an easy path, but you have to work hard and choose the right courses.

I don't have sufficient information to provide you with a full list of destinations after the MA, but I know there are some people that were accepted into top10 and top25 PhD programs (including NYU itself) [you can see my list of acceptances to have an idea, although let me warn you that there has been people doing slightly better than me and many more people doing much worse]. 

Hope it helps! With this I don't mean you should get into debt (I would personally not do it), but just give more info about the pros and cons of the MA at NYU.

[Open House Impressions 2014]

Did anyone go to the STONY BROOK visitation? I was wondering if someone could share his / her thoughts about it. 

Thanks!!

[What program will you be attending?]

To increase the usefulness of this thread, I suggest to post:

1) Subfield or area of interest.
2) Universities you have received an acceptance (indicating: funded offers vs. non-funded offers).
3) Chosen university [optional: reasoning of the decision].

[Ranking: American Politics, Political Processes and Behavior]

If there's anybody in this community like me, this thread might attract some interest. To kick it off, how would you rank the following programs in the specific area of American political processes and behavior, based on your knowledge and impression?

UCSD, Northwestern, UNC, Vanderbilt, UW-Madison, Georgetown, UVA, UPenn?

 

Thanks AHL to start this thread. 

 

My problem is that I am not interested in one area but several, and they don't always go together in the options I have. My main area of interest is comparative political behavior / psychology. In other words, I would like to research aspects related to political behavior / psychology in a comparative perspective. Yet, I also consider a good training in methods absolutely essential.

So, how would you rank the following departments as a combination of all these aspects? [Taking into account how important placement is for prospective grad students, off course!]

 

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCSD, OSU, WUSTL, NYU, Vanderbilt, Emory, Rice, Stony Brook, GWU, Oxford, LSE.

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

I claim a Vandy as well. 

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

On 2/8/2014 at 5:27 PM, TakeMyCoffeeBlack said:

Stimulating discussion: Any thoughts about "rising" departments? Which would you say are moving upward?

 

A nice indicator of trends could be the changes in subfield rankings in the USNewsReport since 2008:

 

American Politics (change from 2008):

1 Harvard (+2)

2 Stanford

3 Michigan (-2)

4 Princeton

5 UC Berkeley (+2)

6 Yale (-1)

7 Duke (+2)

8 UC- Los Angeles (+4)

9 Columbia (+5)

10 Ohio State (-2)

10 University of North Carolina (+1)

12 Vanderbilt (Not ranked in 2008)

13 Wisconsin (-3)

14 UC San Diego (-8)

15 Washington University in St. Louis

16 George Washington (Not ranked in 2008)

17 Texas A&M (Not ranked in 2008)

Fallen off: MIT, Rochester, Chicago, Minesota, UC Davis, Stony Brook

International Politics (change from 2008):

1 Harvard (+2)

2 Stanford (-1)

3 Princeton (-2)

4 Columbia

5 UC San Diego (+1)

6 Michigan (-1)

7 NYU (+3)

8 Ohio State (+7)

8 Yale (+1)

10 Wisconsin (+7)

11 Chicago (-4)

12 UC Berkeley (-4)

14 Duke (-2)

15 Cornell (-2)

15 UCLA (-2)

17 Rochester

18 Penn State (not ranked in 2008)

Fallen off: Minnesota, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown

Comparative Politics (change from 2008):

1 Harvard

2 Stanford (+2)

3 Princeton (-1)

3 UC Berkeley

5 Columbia (+3)

6 Yale (-1)

7 Michigan

8 UCLA (+1)

9 Duke (+1)

10 Cornell

11 UC San Diego (-5)

12 MIT (+2)

12 NYU

14 UNC (-2)

15 UC Davis (Not ranked in 2008)

16 WUSTL (Not ranked in 2008)

17 Chicago (-3)

Fallen off: Northwestern, Wisconsin, Washington

Political Methodology (change from 2008):

1 Harvard

2 Stanford

3 NYU (+3)

3 Michigan

5 WUSTL (+2)

6 Princeton (-1)

7 Rochester (-4)

8 UC Berkeley (+1)

9 Columbia (+4)

10 MIT

10 Ohio State (+1)

12 UCLA (+1)

13 Yale (-2)

14 Penn State (Not ranked in 2008)

15 UC Davis (Not ranked in 2008)

Political Theory (compared to 2008)

1 Princeton (+2)

2 Harvard (-1)

3 Chicago (-2)

4 Yale

5 Johns Hopkins (+3)

6 UC Berkeley (-1)

7 Duke (-1)

8 Northwestern (-1)

9 Notre Dame (+1)

10 Columbia (-1)

10 Stanford (+4)

10 UCLA

13 Michigan (-1)

14 Brown (Not ranked in 2008)

14 Cornell (+3)

Fallen off: Minnesota, UPenn, UVA, Cornell

Btw, what's going on in UCSD? Free fall: AP(-8) CP (-5)?

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

On 2/8/2014 at 5:27 PM, TakeMyCoffeeBlack said:

Stimulating discussion: Any thoughts about "rising" departments? Which would you say are moving upward?

WashU? FSU?

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

Congrats everyone!

 

I have a question. Does anyone know if Vanderbilt invites students for a visiting weekend? 

 

Yes, they do.

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

Anybody here that's been through an interview with Vanderbilt? What kind of questions were you asked?

 

Vanderbilt has been the second interview during this cycle. While the first was pretty formal, more like a job interview, with softer and harder questions (research background, inconsistencies in the SoP, etc.), Vanderbilt´s has been more a selling interview when I sometime felt they tried to convince me to go there, so more information than "real questions". I have realized they have some must-do questions such as "are your interests broader than what you said in your SoP" (easy answer: Yes, of course... bla bla). I think it might change across applicants, but I felt like the decision was already 80% made. Good luck with yours!! 

[Welcome to the 2013-2014 Cycle]

Question for the OSU applicants who have been "accepted by email" according to the results search; did you email your POI or the DGS, or did they email you? I am trying to figure out if I should email them and ask my status or just wait. 

 

In my case, I received an email from the Office of Graduate Admissions informing me that the Graduate Studies Committee recommended me for admission to the program. I didn't email my POI. In the application status, it is still "pending" and when clicking on more details it shows the same as mamalik.

[MA programs in Political Science]

Hi guys!! And what about the MA in politics at NYU? Does anyone know how good it is to enhance my chances for a PhD?

After been rejected in the PhD elsewhere... this is the only place where I got accepted so far (also waiting to hear from MA Columbia...). Would you rather MA Columbia to MA NYU? Would you wait or stick to what is sure?

Thanks all !!!