AmericanQuant

There are a number of other schools that I might attend if I didn't get in anywhere else. For instance, I'd almost certainly go to Ohio State or UW Madison if admitted, but I'd be less likely to attend those school than anywhere else on the list above, so by "safety school" what I really mean is "places to which I'd be almost certainly be admitted and happy to attend." I was thinking that UNC would be such a place, but if my list was aiming too high, there could be others. -Q P.S. @currentpsstudent I plan on walking to "School." I hear it's uphill both ways.

Quick update... I took the GRE this weekend (the pair of 164's I mentioned earlier was from a practice test) and I ended up with a 170Q 168V. I'm interested in studying American Politics and Empirical Methodology; my particular interests are campaigns and elections, political behavior, causal inference, networks and experiments. I'm sure that list will change while I'm in grad school, but that's where my interests lie now. Here's my preliminary list of places to apply, should there be some safer schools on this list? Are there top departments that I'm missing out on? Advice is much appreciated. Berkeley Columbia Harvard Michigan Princeton Rochester School Stanford UCLA UCSD UNC Yale -Q

Hey guys, I'm starting to think about what level of grad programs I should be thinking about and wanted some help calibrating my expectations. I went to a top-10 SLAC and graduated in '11 with a 3.6 gpa and majors in Physics (3.8 gpa) and Poli Sci (4.0). I'm working for as an analyst for a pollster now, but am hoping to start a PhD in Poli Sci in 2011. My GRE's are 166Q and 162V and a 5.5 analytical. Does it make sense to apply to the very top tier CHYMPS programs, or am I going to be excluded from those because of my GPA? Are there some programs that put more weight on GRE than GPA in admissions? Thanks! -Quantard