Profile Evaluation - PhD Political Science

[CactiCactus]

Hi all,

I've been poring over this forum in recent weeks trying to glean as much insight as I can, and I figured I'd post my profile to see people's thoughts on my admissions chances. I'm shooting for top 15 if possible but of course top 25 would be wonderful as well. I'm hoping my analytical skills detailed below will help make me stand out/counteract my lack of research experience. Any input/advice would be wonderful! Thanks in advance.

Profile:

School: Top 40 overall, top 10 public, primarily STEM focused

Major: Double major in Business Administration and Applied Spanish. Certificate in Latin American studies.

Subfield: IR/Comparative (interested in US-LatAm relations, effects of US interventionism on current policies/politics in region, and the social-political effects of soccer)

GRE: 167 V, 167 Q, 5.5 AW

Graduate School: N/A

GPA: 4.00/4.00

Letters of rec: 1 from associate chair of IR program (also chaired professor), 1 from tenured IR professor, 1 from tenured Spanish professor. Very good relationship with first two, expecting third to be strong as well

Research experience: Not too much, wrote ~20 page senior research paper

Other experience/info: Will have ~2 degrees work experience in data analytics at Fortune 100 company by time of potential matriculation. I also have several classes of statistics/math from undergrad. Lastly, I received the premier merit scholarship at my school, awarded to 10 incoming freshmen each year.

 

[CactiCactus]

Whoops, meant to say I'll have ~2 years work experience, not 2 degrees.

[NCPolPsych]

Im at a T10 and your profile compares favorably to many in my cohort. Best of luck! No small part of admissions is just a crapshoot, but you seem to have covered everything you can control superbly. The only thing I will say is to be sure you clearly communicate how your research interests are a good fit with faculty. I have been told multiple times this was the most important factor in my admission.

[CactiCactus]

Thanks for your response, and that's great to hear! Beyond mentioning specific professors and their research that is directly relevant, and perhaps centers/labs that the university has that mesh well with my interests, is there anything else I can do to communicate fit? I plan to particularly focus on the ongoing research that professors mention on their profiles if it is a good match.