UCSD and UCD Political Science Ph.D Admits, Please Share your Research Experience etc.

[notatomato]

Hi folks: for people who got in to UCSD or UCD, would you mind sharing what sort of research experience, LORs, GPAs and GRE scores you had?  I am going for a reapplication next cycle and want to strengthen my app. 

Thanks! 

[sloth_girl]

This thread will be useful in the upcoming month: 

 

[adidas]

Here is my profile. I honestly feel that the research fit is extremely important and research experience is also very pivotal in increasing your chance. As you can see, my GRE is not amazing, which is really telling with the school that I got into...

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution:   Top 20 in US
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science
Undergrad GPA: 3.9
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: V156/Q154/AWA5
Any Special Courses: 
Letters of Recommendation: Faculty mentor for (RA work, summer fellowship, and honors thesis), 2 faculty I've only taken classes with once. Final is a writing lecturer who I am very close with. 
Research Experience: Summer research experience, 1 year of qualitative data collection for mentor. 
Teaching Experience: N/A
Subfield/Research Interests: IR
Other: CP

RESULTS:
Acceptances($$ or no $$): UCSD $$$, UCD $$, UW-Seattle $$, UW-Madison ($? - idk yet)
Waitlists:
Rejections: Berkeley, Emory, WashU. 
Pending: Stanford, UChicago, UPenn, Notre Dame, LSE. 
Going to: Probably UCSD. 

 

LESSONS LEARNED:

Get started one year early. If applications are due December of 2020, start january of 2020. Start working on research, SoP, Diversity Statement, and study for the GRE. GRE really don't mean anything in the long haul, it is to filter applicants. If you get below 50%, you should try to get above 60%tile. SOP is all about concision but also descriptive of your research interest, agenda, and it should outline your preparation for graduate work (it's going to be hard, are you ready?). Refine your SOP, DS, and Writing Sample because those MATTERs the most. I ended up with over 20 drafts of SOP, 10 drafts of DS, and 13 drafts of my writing sample. Work hard, and your effort will be rewarded.