Profile evaluation for 2021

[EstherBritoAbrio]

Hi everyone! I have seen that after the end of this application cycle, those planning to reapply has been asking for advice for the next year, and I was hoping to become more active here and ask for your input if possible. I am an international student (Spain), and my profile is:

Type of undergrad institution: European University – Excellent in Spain for business, rarely known outside of it (ICADE Business School -Universidad Pontificia Comillas).

Major/Minor undergrad: Double major Political Science and Business. 

Overall undergrad GPA: 3.4 (tentative GPA conversion) *Note, I had severe health issues during my undergrad and grad degrees. I mentioned this when applying but am not sure it helped.

Special Courses: statistics, advanced statistics, econometrics, research methods (all undergrad – not great performance – didn’t mention much in application). I am stating online quant course to better this section.

Type of grad institution: London School of Economics. Well ranked for political science.  

Major/Minor grad: Political Science (Security)/Gender

Overall grad GPA: 3.6 (tentative GPA conversion)

GRE: 163 verbal, 160 quant, 5.0 writing.

LOR: Two from professors I am currently working for as a research assistant (1 year). Both are well known in their field, but are in the area of strategic management and business, not political science. One from a junior professor that supervised my master’s degree – a political science lecturer. I can ask for additional recommendations from some other grad or undergrad professors, but I’m not sure if that’s useful.

Research: Research Assistant (1 year), Research collaboration with university in Germany (remote) tracking a conflict, and some experience in student research committees (researcher, then vice-chair, then chair).

Teaching: 3 Summer pre-college courses (for middle and high schoolers) at the CTY Johns Hopkins program.

Subfield/Interests: applied this year as International Relations, but might switch to political theory.  Generally interested in ethnic conflict and gender violence.

Other: one presentation at student conference, quite a few published op-eds, 3 papers in journals (not high-impact journals, but peer-reviewed), standard undergrad and grad thesis (not published). Sub-editor at NGO writing program. 2 exchange programs (Us & S.Korea), 1 summer semester (Stanford).

It was my first time applying this year, and I genuinely thought I might have a good shot, but have been rejected by all the universities I applied to. I clearly underestimated how competitive the process was. am reapplying next year to more places but am very nervous that I won’t get in anywhere (I feel that my GPA and GRE are way too low in comparison to what I have seen here). I also think fit was hard for me, as I really wasn’t specific on why each professor might be interesting, beyond a basic alignment of topics of interest. Overall, I think I was unprepared, and probably need to re-work all of my materials again. Still, Im starting to doubt if even that will be enough to get in anywhere. 

I really appreciate those that took the time to read this, and hope not to bother anyone. If I could ask for any input of weaknesses, potential routes of improvement, or any universities you think I could opt for, I world really appreciate it.

 

 

[Sad Politics]

From your profile, I can tell that you are definitely a talented person, so I have no doubt that with adequate preparation you have everything you need to succeed. I see two areas where your application could be improved. The first is the GRE, it would be nice if you improve your scores a bit, especially in the quant section. Your scores were good, so it should not be hard for you to bring them up if you devote more time to studying. Second, it may have been a problem that 2/3 LORs were not from poli sci professors. Perhaps you should consider getting another letter from someone at LSE so that you have 2/3 letters from poli sci/IR professors. Apart from that, it is always useful to review your materials (SOP and sample). Ask your poli sci LORs to read your materials and give you feedback. I wish you good luck in your future applications.  

[EstherBritoAbrio]

On 2/26/2021 at 7:00 PM, Sad Politics said:

From your profile, I can tell that you are definitely a talented person, so I have no doubt that with adequate preparation you have everything you need to succeed. I see two areas where your application could be improved. The first is the GRE, it would be nice if you improve your scores a bit, especially in the quant section. Your scores were good, so it should not be hard for you to bring them up if you devote more time to studying. Second, it may have been a problem that 2/3 LORs were not from poli sci professors. Perhaps you should consider getting another letter from someone at LSE so that you have 2/3 letters from poli sci/IR professors. Apart from that, it is always useful to review your materials (SOP and sample). Ask your poli sci LORs to read your materials and give you feedback. I wish you good luck in your future applications.  

Thank you so much! I really appreciate your reply and advice. You are right, and I definitely think I should retake the GRE to up quant a bit. I’m also going to be taking some online quant courses to try and build those skills, as it seems US programs are generally very interested in that and coding in R. The recommendation letters I had a feeling were a problem, so I will definitely take your advice and reach out to LSE faculty, and review my materials again.

Thank you!  This process has been very challenging, and nerve wracking if I’m honest, and I appreciate you taking the time to help me improve. Have a great day, and best of luck as well.