2022/23 Cycle Profile/Results/Lessons

[feijoada]

Hi everyone!! In the same spirit of @honeymoow last year, I thought maybe it is already time to start a thread on this year's cycle, where people may post their results and advice for future applicants, once their admissions cycle is over!

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution:  
Major(s)/Minor(s):
Undergrad GPA:  
Type of Grad:  
Grad GPA:  
GRE:  
Any Special Courses:
Letters of Recommendation:
Teaching/Research Experience:
Other:

RESULTS:
Acceptances:
Rejections:
Pending:

Attending:

LESSONS LEARNED:

Also sharing last year's thread for future reference:
 

 

[redaxcx]

Thank you for starting the thread and thanks in advance to everyone who will be sharing their opinion. I'd also like to link to the older threads so that everything is available in one place.

[poliscigradhopeful]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: T-50 US University
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political Science Major / History Minor
Undergrad GPA: 3.98
Type of Grad:  N/A
Grad GPA:  N/A
GRE:  164 Verbal / 161 Quant
Any Special Courses:
Letters of Recommendation: 3 Letters that I am confident are good, 1 of which was from my thesis advisor
Teaching/Research Experience: Summer undegrad research program, honors thesis
Other:

RESULTS:
Acceptances: None that I applied to, acceptance for a referred application to UChicago CIR master's program
Rejections: Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UChicago, Columbia, Berkeley, Stanford, UPenn, UMich, Cornell
Pending: None

Attending: Maybe CIR, not sure if I'll just try and find a job and then reapply

LESSONS LEARNED: This is HARD. Really try to have some actual publications, and a lot of it just comes down to chance. If you don't get it at first, really try to improve your application and re-apply but don't give up

[feijoada]

is it my impression or this year's results topic flopped?

[foxcarnival]

On 3/23/2023 at 10:59 PM, feijoada said:

is it my impression or this year's results topic flopped?

I think a lot of people are still making decisions—a lot of schools just wrapped up their recruitment events. I just accepted an offer and am on the earlier end of things.

[foxcarnival]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution:  Liberal arts college (<4000 students) in the Midwest
Major(s)/Minor(s): Political science/history
Undergrad GPA:  3.89
Type of Grad: PhD program at a Big 10 university in the Midwest
Grad GPA:  3.9
GRE: 168 V, not telling my math, but it is not good, so don't let bad test scores limit where you apply!
Any Special Courses: Two years of coursework in a PhD program
Letters of Recommendation: One full professor (CP), one associate (methods), one assistant (IR/game theory)
Teaching/Research Experience: Two semesters TAing, one semester as instructor of record, one summer doing research with a faculty member in undergrad

RESULTS:
Acceptances: WUSTL, Duke, Rochester
Rejections: Chicago PE, Emory, OSU, Vanderbilt, NYU (assumed), Princeton, Michigan, Stanford GSB, UCSD, Columbia
Attending: Rochester 🥳

LESSONS LEARNED:
I went straight from undergrad to a PhD program two years ago when I was admitted off the waitlist to my current program. At the time, I knew that I loved studying political science and not a whole lot else. Graduate study gave me the chance to narrow my research agenda, develop my technical skills, and build my confidence. Would I do it all again? Absolutely. Would I recommend it to others? Depends. I knew for sure that I wanted to be in grad school and that I eventually wanted to be a professor, but the details were fuzzy. If you're unsure of either of those things, taking an RAship or policy job may well be a better use of your time. 

Edited March 31, 2023 by foxcarnival

[polsc]

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution:  Large public R1 – not state flagship
Major(s)/Minor(s): Public Administration
Undergrad GPA:  3.84
Type of Grad:  NA
Grad GPA:  NA
GRE:  159 (Q), 161 (V), 5.0 (W)
Any Special Courses: 4 graduate-level political science courses (1 PhD, 3 Masters), half-a-dozen quant methods courses, probability theory, research design
Letters of Recommendation: 3 –– a) Undergraduate thesis advisor (asst. prof, methods), b) Undergraduate research supervisor (assoc. prof, American + methods), c) Grad-level research design professor (assoc. prof, comparative)
Teaching/Research Experience: Quant-heavy undergraduate thesis I plan on submitting for publication, national conference presentation (with a second acceptance at time of PhD applications), 2.5 years of RA experience
Other: Strong R, subfields are Methods and American

RESULTS:
Acceptances: WUSTL, OSU
Rejections: Harvard, Princeton, Michigan, MIT, Columbia (MA offer), Duke, UNC, NYU (MA offer), USC
Pending: UVA (Waitlist)

Attending: WUSTL

LESSONS LEARNED: 

• My GRE scores were a) not where I wanted them to be and b) out of line with the rest of the admitted cohort at WUSTL (at least according to the results page). I'm under the notion that my coursework –– which includes grad-level stats and undergrad probability theory, alongside a number of courses in computational methods –– helped make up for this. My writing sample applied many of these computational methods, and I believe my letter-writers emphasized my strengths in quant poli sci. All in, I felt I was building much of my application to make up for this. 
  • The lesson, here, is to spend more time preparing for the GRE. It's hard. I gave myself two weeks to prepare and took it in early October, so I was unable to retake. 
• As soon as I began exploring the possibility of applying to PhD programs as an undergraduate (beginning of junior year), I spoke to (virtually) all of my poli sci professors. I received lots of advice, but the most frequent feedback was to take as many methods courses as possible. Causally, I have no way of knowing the extent to which this played a role in my admission (n = 1, selection on the DV, etc.), but I certainly wouldn't have been able to write the paper I submitted or elaborate my research goals had I not.
• I spent much of my undergrad building relationships with faculty members – both my letter writers and others in the department. When decision season rolls around, and the rejections are coming thick and fast, it's helpful to have a group of people who understand the process rooting for you.
• Again, no way I can attribute a causal effect to this, but my research statement was almost entirely focused on research plans. Of the seven or so paragraphs, one was dedicated to my academic background, and one described my fit for each program. It also exceeded the length limit at (just about) every program to which I applied.

[coffeeman123]

So, after two years of heavy stalking, I am glad to finally be putting my own profile up! GradCafe was super helpful for me and I hope it can be helpful for other people as well. If anyone else is coming to UW-Madison or has similar research interests, please PM me I would be happy to talk! I also want to wish all the future applicants the best of luck with your applications. 
 

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: Community College -> Large public R1 – T40

Major(s)/Minor(s): Poli Sci | Stats and Econ Minor

Undergrad GPA:  3.76 (upper division 3.9, make sure you try in gen eds a few years of lower grades are hard to bring up!)

Research Interests: IPE/IOs/Electoral Regimes

SOP: All business. First paragraph states what I broadly am interested in and how my current training has prepared me for a PhD. Paragraph on my RA work, paragraph on my thesis, paragraph on my coursework, paragraph on my future research ideas and a conclusion/fit paragraph to end it. PM me if you'd like to see it. 

GRE:  161 (Q), 164 (V), 5.5 (W)

Any Special Courses: Regression analysis, couple of courses for data analysis, econometrics, extra poli sci research course. A stats minor typically takes 4 courses, one of which is an intro-type course. If you can pass 3 other stats courses you can put stats minor on your CV and get a pretty significant boost for an insignificant amount of coursework. I highly recommend it and believe that it can help compensate for lower GRE scores (like mine). 

Letters of Recommendation: 3 –– a) Undergraduate thesis advisor, b) Thesis Committee Member c) Professor from the Community College I went to. Two DGSs said that the LORs I have were a key reason for my admission. Don't underestimate the power of a good letter to assuage some Adcom fears. 

Teaching/Research Experience: OLS and probit honors thesis, nothing special. Semi-original data collection. 2 years of RAing mostly for a business school prof. 

RESULTS:
Acceptances: UVA, OSU, UPenn, Rochester, Vanderbilt, and UW-Madison
Rejections: Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Yale, UChicago, MIT, Duke, Cornell, Emory, University of Minnesota, Georgetown, and Brown. 

Attending: UW-Madison

LESSONS LEARNED: 

• My application was very weird. I attended 4 different undergraduate institutions in total and worked multiple years for a professor that I did not receive a rec letter from. Could this have gotten me an immediate trash pile for looking flakey? Possibly, I guess I will never know but a lot of things in my profile looked strange on paper. I recommend really trying to provide context for anything that may be off-putting. Adcomms are looking at hundreds of applications, and the likelihood that they will reach out to clarify the minutia of your profile is highly unlikely. Do it for them, or ask your letter writers to do it for you. 
• Do not stress too much about your applications. It is easy to say that looking back, but it is harder to do during the waiting season. I got a very early rejection from Emory (a school I really thought I had a good shot of getting into), and I was very concerned about how the rest of my applications would go. It all works out, and if it doesn't work for out for you one year just take another year to beef up your GRE scores and writing. 
• I spent about two years altogether getting my profile ready. I took my GRE last year of undergrad and scored poorly on it. I did not leave myself enough time to retake it. I heard from an advisor that it is much easier to move up the rankings on the front end (as an applicant) than it is to move up on the back end (as a graduate). This really stuck with me. My biggest piece of advice is to not downplay the gap year. I had a polished thesis and SOP as well as months to study for the GRE which I am sure worked wonders for my application. My original application probably would have been about normal at a T50 school, one year of dedicated work was able to move me towards T20 acceptances. I cannot recommend it enough, take a year to work, study, and polish your materials! 
• As I am sure you can see, I applied very broadly, mostly because I did not know how my non-traditional profile would sit with admissions committees. A couple of things to consider for future applicants. In my experience, public schools are more likely to admit applicants from public schools than private schools are. I came from one of the top 10 public schools in political science and typically came from the lowest-ranking public school at all of my private school visits. My private school visits consisted overwhelmingly of undergrads from other prestigious, private undergraduate institutions. Of course this was a very small sample size, but this was my experience at least this year. 
• I think finding your niche on where your application will be most competitive is important. I (pretty correctly, luckily) predicted that my application would do best in the 15-20 range. All but 1 of my acceptances came from this range. This gives you the opportunity to negotiate offers and choose between programs based on fit and interest rather than just picking the one school you were admitted to that is higher ranked/in a better location/has a better fit etc. 
• Apply to private schools! Private schools have more money and can generally offer more fellowship years which is a serious help when it comes to negotiating offers. Having (better) competing offers from peer institutions will really help your future stipend by giving you some negotiating power. 
• Visits are very important, find out how many grad students your advisor currently has, what their reputation is, and if they have time to take on any more grad students. Also, ask about how plentiful funding is past the 5th year, PhDs are taking longer and the sixth year may be needed to complete your dissertation. 
• Please decline your offers as soon as you know you are not interested. I declined one offer back in February and a couple in Mid-March. If you know you are not interested in going to the other institutions, please decline so that the dept. can provide offers to individuals who are interested in the school. I was not on any waitlists, but I am sure folks that were on the waitlist would certainly second this. 
• I remember looking at some of these cycles in the past and seeing where people decided and thinking "What, why would they choose that place out of all their acceptances??" When you are admitted and start looking at how the department is organized, how grad students feel, what fellowship/stipends/COL are offered, it becomes a much tougher decision. I chose UW-Madison because it was my best fit and there were multiple people there that could easily advise my dissertation. In some departments, you only realize after meeting faculty that there is not the fit you thought there was when you applied. I am lucky because UW-Madison was also my highest-ranked acceptance, but even if the school was 5 places lower I would still go because I believe it is the institution where I will be supported in writing my best possible dissertation. 

[anonymousvulture]

I'll follow @coffeeman123 because I think the gap year advice is very important, and I did not follow it lol. Luckly for me it all worked out great. But do consider his advice, which I think is right on the money.

 

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution: South American, one of the two institutions in my country that makes those international rankings (which I don't think makes a difference; some people go into t20 US universities from less-known places).
Major(s)/Minor(s): Economics (no major/minor system in my country)
Undergrad GPA:  2.6 (6 out of 10)
Type of Grad:  Master's in Political Science, same institution.
Grad GPA:  4.0 (straight As)
GRE:  157q/162v/5.0w - did not submit where it wasn't required; TOEFL was 115 (30r/30l/29s/26w).

Research interests: Party Systems; electoral systems

SOP: DO NOT follow this template, as I think it was a mistake, but: 1 paragraph general bullshit about why political science, 1 for past research/experience, 1 for future research interest/questions; 1 for fit. 

Any Special Courses: at the undergrad level, with lame grades: single and multivariable calculus; probability and statistics I and II; econometrics (basic, panel, time series); math for economics (basically algebra); public policy analysis (ATE framework). At the graduate level: introductory baysean statistics; qualitative methods; quantitative methods for causal analysis.
Letters of Recommendation: master's advisor; master's professor who is probably the most recognizable name abroad; another master's professor (multiple courses) who supervised me in different RAs. The latter two did their PhDs at US institutions.
Teaching/Research Experience: 3 RAships on methods courses; 3 solo conference presentations (two of them international); 1 RA
Other: worked as a survey analyst for a while and as a campaign officer. 

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Northwestern
Rejections: Brown, Cornell, GWU, Notre Dame, UChicago, Michigan
Pending: none

Attending: Northwestern (Duh)

LESSONS LEARNED: 

some important context: I was in a bit of a hurry to apply, and so I did it in non-ideal conditions. I spent nearly a decade going in and out of undergrad, and only hit my stride by the end of college/beginning of the master's. So I was in a hurry because I did not want to hit the job market at 40 or something. Do take some extra time if that is not a big constraint to you. Being rushed meant that I a) wasn't very clear on my research interests, which was a big problem; b) only took the GRE once, and did so in a hurry, which led me to eliminate a good chunk of my potential list, and include some places I wasn't too keen on attending to begin with. So I learned what not to do more than what to do, which is what I'll share. This advice is probably best for non-USA people.

Choosing a university: check for faculty fit, visit phdstipends.com and the MIT living wage calculator (be mindful that you can live with a few thosand dollars less money than the calculator suggests), and, whenever possible, reach out to graduate students. I reached out to people from my country and some americans and they were always great, I owe a lot to them. They will give you the red flags of the department, tell if your prospective advisor is not taking students, and tell what people are working on - a lot of the time it doesn't show on google. If you have a cogent research agenda, reach out to faculty during the northern hemisphere's summer. Have an elevator pitch of your research ready. This is an art, and one that I absolutely did not master. I did not do it (not successfully, at least lol), but a lot of people did and told me it made a world of difference. ask for fee waivers. Public Unis won't give it to foreigners, but I got waivers from 5 of my 7 universities. Only paid for Michigan (public) and Northwestern (waivers were over when I got to asking). 

if you're not studying american politics, chances are not every department will have a fit for you, because even if they do study your region of interest, the methods or topics might not converge. For instance, I applied to Michigan because I think it is great, but the excellent people who study latin america there do so on topics very distant from my own interests. In a highly competitive department, that's fatal. This gets more important as you go down the rankings because departments get smaller. Also, don't apply to places you wouldn't want to go just because there's a fee waiver or something. For instance, I applied to GWU without having a decent fit because I thought it was worth a flyer - faculty is great, the city is awesome, etc. But it is a short stipend, and I'm married, so it would be tough. They waive the app fee, but then you get rejected and it makes you nervous while waiting other results, and it is always extra work, extra letters to manage, etc. Bottom line: be selective, and not with rankings necessarily, but with what you want. In my particular case, I was focused on Brown, Cornell and Northwestern (the last two in particular), and had no fit at Michigan and GWU. Also, I applied to UChicago at the last minute because a friend who I thought was applying gave up. So basically half my list was me taking a flyer. I would be a little more selective if I went back in time.

 

SOP/Research: This was the weakest part of my application, and it is the most important. I've been studying electoral systems, but want change topics. My SOP ended up being a little vague on most universities. This is a fatal flaw, because it gives away the impression that you have no idea what you are talking about. The only exception was with Northwestern's statement, because I kept it short and to the point, and was more upfront about the fact that I did not have a specific research puzzle, but I was able to show that I knew what I was talking about and connect my past interests with my future ones. But even there, I think I only got accepted because the fit was perfect, even more so than I thought before applying. I did a different version for Cornell (which read like bullshit in retrospect) and Brown (which was a too broad, shoot everything that walks type of statement). I also went with the origin story first paragraph, which I also think it is a bit of a waste of time in most places. In short: know who you are and what you want to do. If you don't have an elevator pitch, don't try to bullshit around it. 

In sum: be upfront. Ideally, take another year and develop your research if you feel you're not there yet. I know a lot of people who did this and strongly recommend. This is what I would've done if I was a little younger lol.

 

GRE: I got admitted without sending it, but I had a lot of math and statistics in my undergrad and master's, so I thought it was best to send and noisy signal than show my hand. Also, I wasn't applying to quant-heavy places. I know of people who were admitted without it, but I still think it is HIGHLY recommended for people with no US academic record. You'll often hear faculty say that they have trouble comparing people with a good (even if not great) GRE to people without one. Some places are moving towards eliminating it altogether, but others are having misgivings about the experience. I don't know where the academic market is going, but I'd assume we'll see more and more situations in which the GRE is fake-optional (like Berkeley, where they tell you it is optional, but highly recommended). Because of work, I only had a little under 3 weeks to prep. I did too much practice tests and study too little of the actual content, and ended up botching time management anyways lol. I do know of people who aced the whole thing under similar conditions (albeit econ master's students), so a lot of it is prior math training and talent (for lack of a better word). That being said, don't fret too much about GRE unless you are at the top-5 or bust level. I was gunning for T-15 to T-30. If you're over 330 I think there is no point in retaking it, and even 320 will give you a puncher's chance and it will be enough if the rest of your file is strong. It doesn't get you in, so just score enough so it does not block you out. One very important caveat: if you want to do formal theory or very heavily quant work, or go to a field like political economy, you may want to actually try to ace the quant part.

waiting: if you're anxious, it is going to be awful. It was much worse than I thought. no advices here, except: do not refresh portals. admits always get e-mails. You'll only find out (with a small number of hours in advance) that you were rejected. Try to cold turkey your ass out of the internet as much as possible.

negotiating: ask for help, either from older graduate students or other people. americans negotiate a lot, and a lot of people from my backgroud do not. We think it is all excellent and infinitely better than what we would have back home (which is true), but it can always improve. In my case I didn't get much because I had no other offers, but I did get some help with moving expenses. Luckily I got into a place with excellent funding.

 

final thoughts: job market in academia isn't great, but remember it is not always about the money. if you are into academia, there are worse ways to spending five years than doing a PhD, and you'll learn skills that translate to the broader job market (programming, stats, writing, etc). take into account quality of life, location, etc. I hope you all get as many lucky breaks as I did!

[WarStudent]

In light of the national deadline having now passed, I too wanted to post a reflection on here about my cycle applying to Political Science PhDs.

PROFILE:
Type of Undergrad Institution:  UK University (generally well regarded in the country - however, I think what stood me apart in my application was my unique degree)
Major(s)/Minor(s): War Studies
Undergrad GPA:  UK GPA - High 2:1, US GPA (Study Abroad Year) - 3.94 [all this equaled out to be around 3.8 approximately on conversion].
Type of Grad:  N/A
Grad GPA:  N/A
GRE:  I didn't take the GRE and so only applied to schools which didn't require the GRE or had it as optional.
Any Special Courses: I worked as a research apprentice for class credit which appeared on my transcript, I was also a research fellow for my university which also appeared on my transcript. Apart from that, there were no particularly special courses I took part in.
Letters of Recommendation: 3 –– a) Undergraduate dissertation supervisor who was also my personal tutor and taught a few of my classes (full professor), b) Research fellow supervisor who also taught a few of my classes (full professor), c) Research apprentice supervisor (postdoctoral fellow)
Teaching/Research Experience: I have experience working as a tutor which was featured in my CV (but got no attention in my SoP), A thesis which was more qualitative in nature but featured some quant signals, conference presentation and grant won for attending said conference (with a second acceptance pending at time of PhD applications), 1.5 years of RA experience.
Other: Subfields are IR/World Politics and Comparative

RESULTS:
Acceptances: Michigan
Rejections: UC Berkeley, Chicago, UCSD, UW-Madison, Georgetown

Attending: Michigan

LESSONS LEARNED: 

• For international students who did not go to a US university or have any affiliation with a US university - having an insight into the system is necessary! Through my study abroad year, I was able to cultivate relationships which gave me good advice, allowed me to see example statements of purpose and helped me to understand what committees are looking for in recommendation letters. Without this, I doubt I would have been able to produce an application which met the requirements of committees.
• Coming from a country which doesn't do standardised testing, I underestimated the importance of the GRE. I thought that because schools had the GRE as optional/not required, then it would not be a detriment to my application. However, through Gradcafe, I learnt that wasn't the case and it was too late for my application. If you don't have any opportunities to display quant skills in your degree, the GRE will help with this, otherwise, heavily signal what you have done in previous research experience to show competency. Despite this reflection, I was able to get into Michigan which is a heavy methods program.
• For your statement of purpose, be clear on your research interests - these are not set in stone, but tell a compelling story about what you hope to research and what you have done which makes you a good person to research them. Also, elaborate on your research experience and talk up your skills (but make sure it is connected to your research experience and interests). For school fit, think about research centres you might be interested in connecting with to help bolster that section or any languages they offer etc. NB: If you would like to see a copy of my SoP, please PM me. 
• Apply widely - I was told to apply only to top 20 programs and because I am from a country which limits how many schools you can apply to, I only applied to six schools. Whilst I was fortunate to get an offer, PhD admissions is also a bit of a numbers game so don't be afraid to look outside of the top programs. There are some universities which now on reflection might have been a really good fit that I didn't consider.
• Gradcafe: I only found this site after my applications were already submitted and I went into a major panic about what I had done and concerned that I wouldn't be able to compete. A compelling application is a sales pitch about why you are a good person to add to their program, but also remember that admissions are capricious. Sometimes rejections are the best thing for your journey and will lead you to a better place. At Michigan, there were over 500 applications with 16 admits (who knows how many will enrol) - these are not fun numbers, so don't let this define your worth.