Question - RST Chances

[sleepingdogmatist]

Hi all - I posted this same message in the "Applications" forum, and I hope I'm not violating any sort of forum rule by reposting it here (moderator, I apologize if so). Here's the original query:

<

Here are my stats:

GRE: V 700 (97%), Q 620 (53%), AW 6.0 (96%)

GPA: 3.93 -- BA in philosophy, also in honors program, Marshall University (West Virginia)

Other: University department top graduating senior, statewide political science writing winner, have done some graduate-level coursework and received high marks. I also submitted four letters, all of which should be quite good (hopefully, unless they secretly hate me). Finally, one of my recommenders received his Ph.D. from the department.

Possible problems: My statement of purpose was not as polished as the work I generally turn out, mostly because I didn't think that it would be possible for me to do graduate study in the upcoming year up until right before the deadline. Although not atrocious, there are some problems with the document, most all in simple things like formatting.

Does anybody have any guesses as to what kind of chances I might have at Santa Barbara? Any kind of word or guess from informed folk should calm me down a bit, hopefully.>>

One reply to the original post stated that I'll probably get shot down because of my undergraduate institution and I'll have to do a MA in order to have some credibility in the application process (I've been afraid of this being the case for while now). Is that sentiment correct?

[religionstudent]

After having attended the interview at Emory, I felt a lot more optimistic about the whole admissions process. What I discovered is that there were a bunch of the professors interested of working with me because of my academic interests and intended course of study. My GRE scores weren't that great, but I did have several years studying abroad and other important extra-curricular work. When I was there, the professors were really nice to me and engaged me in conversations about my work and theirs and were fascinated with what I am currently working on. More than my grades, GRE or other number, they seemed concerned with my "fit" in the program. So if you think that you "fit" well at UCSB and your interests coincide with at least two professors and hopefully more, than you probably have a decent chance of being accepted.

Keep your hopes up and good luck.