PDCU

Hi, everyone! It's been a while since I last applied to PhD programs so I wanted to ask your advice. If you could bear with me a bit and hear me out, I would greatly appreciate it! I graduated college with a BA (w/ Hon) in International Relations. I applied to a bunch of PhD programs in my senior year of college, but I went on to complete an academically focused MA in IR. During that time, my MA thesis advisor suggested that I should work for a bit before applying again to PhD programs because it will give me more experience and maturity. And so I went on become a commissioned officer in the US Navy. Now that my service obligation is almost up, I am starting to look into applying to PhD programs once again since now I am certain that PhD in IR is what I want to do. I am afraid, however, that I've been away from the academia during my stint in the navy. With your help/advice, I want to get a feel for where the IR community is going and how I can best prepare for my application. In my training and interest, I am more drawn towards qualitative methodology while having only limited proficiency in high level mathematics. I've taken one Statistics course for my MA, but that's about it. My research interest is in East Asian security and politics with emphasis in maritime disputes, and I can speak Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. First thing I'll do is studying for the GRE. Then, I'll think deeply about specifying my research topic in coherent form on paper. Few questions, though. My commanding officer (the captain of my ship) suggested to me that I should apply for PhD without me even telling him my plans, so I think that means he will write me a great recommendation. Do you think his letter would be helpful? Or should I just stick to academic letters? Which schools do you think will fit my interests? Do you think my experience with the military help or hurt my application? What else can I do to bolster my application while I wait for my service obligation to be up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

I got a rejection letter from Harvard RSEA today. Snail mail dated March 15 from GSAS. I ain't even mad. See you at Stanford.

That's just what I think, but I could be wrong! Let's hope I am... for both our sakes. haha

I think those are rejections based on the survey results...

Okay, Harvard RSEA people, I took one for the team and called the program administrator to find out what is going on just now. She said, "All the letters have been sent out sometime last week. But I didn't send them so I'm not sure." According to her, the department doesn't notify applicants through phone calls or emails, and "anything you will receive will be from the GSAS." I'm going to cling to hope until end of this week, but if I don't hear anything by next week, then I'm going to assume rejection. Hope this helps.

They want "advanced" level of language proficiency, but I will translate that as having completed 2nd year or beyond. This is not a hard cut-off by no means, but that's my estimate (for whatever it's worth). Anything beyond should be seen as more of a bonus than as a pre-requisite.

Yeah. I saw one about POI email, one just email without further information, and one saying there is notification on website. Based on past results it seems like postal service is the norm. I won't go so far to call those as troll posts, but I have my doubts until someone claims them in this thread.

Someone in the results survey posted an admission to Harvard's RSEA. Can someone claim this admission? And what website? I checked my ApplyYourself account, but I don't see anything... Should I freak out?

Just received email from Stanford. I'm in!

So uhm... when can we expect Harvard and Stanford Masters to report back?

Ah, I see. Well, if you do decide to go to UCI, let me know!

I got into the Political Science PhD program, and the department told me when it was with the acceptance letter. I'm guessing you got into PhD program in East Asian studies?

Hey I'm a Koreanist too! High five! I also got into UCI for PhD... When is your visit day?

Claiming Columbia... totally unexpected...

Yeah. I did exactly that, but still got admitted to the MA anyways.