Am I competitive?

[ADaLe]

Hello, I'm sending out my applications in the general field of political philosophy soon and would appreciate any input regarding whether the schools I chose are too difficult to get into and what chance I should be giving myself / how far I should branch out with second-tier preferences.

Applying to: UCL: MA Legal and Political Theory, Philosophy; KCL: MA Political Economy, Philosophy; LSE: MSc Philosophy and Public Policy, Political Theory; Oxford: BPhil Philosophy, MA Political Theory.

Undergrad: BA Philosophy / Sociology from a strong, but not excellent university in germany (4 years, would've been 3 without covid). Won a small award for my BA thesis in philosophy.

Years out of undergrad: n/a

Relevant Work Experience: Three to four internship in relevant political institutions in germany, one to two of them only prospective, but confirmed. Also three years of on the side non-profit work for roughly 10-20h/week in relatively high positions.

GPA: At time of the application: Roughly 3.6, at completion: Approximately 3.8-3.9

GRE: n/a (not required by the programs)

International experience: Sadly none other than a year in the US in high school.

Strength of SOP: I think that, based on my extracurricular activities, I have good storytelling especially for the more explicitly political programmes; my academic profile and experiences fit the thematic strong points of the respective faculties relatively well, but I don't think I have the strongest arguments for pure academic ability other than grades and LoRs.

Strength of LoRs: Three letters from Professors at my uni that seem to be very interested in writing strong letters and have asked me for material / input / my SoPs to write as good of a LoR as possible.

Thank you very much for any feedback, I'd really appreciate it!

[PolPhil]

There's not a lot to go on here. Without any distinguishing characteristics, you look like 1000 other European applicants

[ADaLe]

I mean that is of course disheartening to hear - do you mean by that the chances are very low or the information is very unspecific?

[PolPhil]

2 hours ago, ADaLe said:

I mean that is of course disheartening to hear - do you mean by that the chances are very low or the information is very unspecific?

I mean that the information is very unspecific. With no distinguishing information, every applicant looks the same.

[Marcus_Aurelius]

To echo many posts on this forum: writing sample writing sample writing sample. That's what will largely determine your fate.