Hey, everyone. So it’s looking like my second straight admission cycle shutout. I’m feeling pretty dejected because while my GRE scores aren’t amazing, I did work hard to improve my scores over the past year. I took a Kaplan course online for 2 months and was able to obtain a 160 verbal 145 quant and 6 on my writing sample. Again, not the best, but after prepping for a year and considering where I started I was feeling ok.
Did my research and looked for professors with whom I shared research interests(Japanese comparative politics), obviously due to the niche nature of my field there aren’t a whole lot of options and those tend to be the higher ranked schools, sadly.
I had one of my former professors from USC(applied and rejected) who works on the political science admissions board write me a letter of recommendation, got it all in early.. and still nothing.
Obviously the most glaring thing I could improve would be my quant score, I really struggle with math, but I fought very hard to raise it from where it was initially. But part of me wonders with how competitive PhD spots are right now, is it even worth it. Just really lost rn. If anyone has been in a similar position or has any advice I’d appreciate it. This has been a lifelong goal of mine and it just looks bleak at the moment. Did my master’s in 2020 and it’s just been trying to get into PhD since then.. I’m only 24, but I still feel like life is passing me by.
Edit: totally neglected to mention my background, was so upset I forgot. Have a M.A Linguistics from Glasgow Uni(3.6 GPA) did my master’s in international public policy and management at USC(3.5 GPA) who also rejected me today.
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Natesmith1016
Hey, everyone. So it’s looking like my second straight admission cycle shutout. I’m feeling pretty dejected because while my GRE scores aren’t amazing, I did work hard to improve my scores over the past year. I took a Kaplan course online for 2 months and was able to obtain a 160 verbal 145 quant and 6 on my writing sample. Again, not the best, but after prepping for a year and considering where I started I was feeling ok.
Did my research and looked for professors with whom I shared research interests(Japanese comparative politics), obviously due to the niche nature of my field there aren’t a whole lot of options and those tend to be the higher ranked schools, sadly.
I had one of my former professors from USC(applied and rejected) who works on the political science admissions board write me a letter of recommendation, got it all in early.. and still nothing.
Obviously the most glaring thing I could improve would be my quant score, I really struggle with math, but I fought very hard to raise it from where it was initially. But part of me wonders with how competitive PhD spots are right now, is it even worth it. Just really lost rn. If anyone has been in a similar position or has any advice I’d appreciate it. This has been a lifelong goal of mine and it just looks bleak at the moment. Did my master’s in 2020 and it’s just been trying to get into PhD since then.. I’m only 24, but I still feel like life is passing me by.
Edit: totally neglected to mention my background, was so upset I forgot. Have a M.A Linguistics from Glasgow Uni(3.6 GPA) did my master’s in international public policy and management at USC(3.5 GPA) who also rejected me today.
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