Torgam

Oh, I didn't see your comment as an attempt to devalue European PhDs. It was more of a general rant. I completely agree with what you said, that is what I have heard too. I am still open for more suggestions from the general public btw.

If you really want to do poststructuralist IR then your employment prospects in the US are limited anyway, so it wouldn't matter whether you do it over here. On the other hand, are they really that limited? Der Derian is at Brown for example, he must have gotten there somehow, right? The training is a bit different but I think looking down upon European PhD is simply snobbish. Fair enough, it is only three years long but at least in the social sciences it requires a masters so effectively it is four year. And that masters is usually loaded with research/methodology classes which are compulsory if you want to get funding for the PhD afterwards (which contains even more methodology/statistics etc). The only difference is that you have less coursework outside your major. The extent to which that is bad is debatable.

I am sure it is not incidental that those school are not among the most highly ranked ones. Having employment prospects in mind it might not be such a smart choice then? (I am asking not stating, don't know that much about the situation in the US yet) I am sure you would also find people at LSE and some other British universities who are less overworked. I will be in Cambridge for my Masters, so maybe I will just stay there. We will see... I am still open for more suggestions.

Not that I would suggest that constructivism is necessarily anti-quantitative but my impression from what I have read was that Rochester is quite formal modelling heavy. Wouldn't that contradict that? I know that some of the big names are spread out over the whole top tier, however, does that mean they generally accept people interested in constructivism? They might be only a few. Thank you. I would assume that most really critical IR is actually done over here in the UK and Europe in general, its not just a few scattered profs. Any reason why you wouldn't want to cross the pond? Employment prospects?

Hello everybody, I am currently in my senior year at a British university, was admitted for a Masters in IR and I am toying with the thought of doing my PhD in the US instead of Britain. I am primarily interested in the application of social constructivism to IR, like so many, but I have heard that many US universities are quite sceptical about it because it is less quantitative than rational choice and similarly dull theories. (Not that I would write that in a SOP ) I would like to know whether there are certain universities that are outright hostile towards or uninterested in people who would do that kind of work, I could safe myself the trouble of applying. I am aiming at grades that are pretty close to a 4.0 GPA, I will have a summer of relevant research experience when I apply, I wrote a senior thesis and will have written a masters thesis and my GRE result according to the ETS Powerprep thingy might end up being 1500. All suggestions are welcome.