Political Theory Chances

[camcgee97]

First of all, thanks to anyone willing to spend the time to offer some advice. I realize most of the people in here are fellow prospectives and may not know much more than I do, but I thought I might try anyway.

I am planning to apply to Political Science programs this fall, but am only looking at programs with strong political theory faculty. 

I've whittled my options down to a few places where I think I would do well, and where faculty match my interests: Chicago, UVA, Brown, Texas, WashU, Georgetown, and Johns Hopkins. With a 3.61 GPA from a top 25 public school (where I took enough credits for a BS in Psychology and a BA in Philosophy), 700 V and 710 Q on the GRE, and 3 years of experience working in politics (as Congressional staff), what do you think my chances would be at the above schools?

What are your thoughts? Where are you applying?

[adaptations]

My two cents is that you'll be competitive at each of them. There are no guarantees in this process and a great deal depends on non-quantitative factors such as your LORs and SOP. There are no "red flags" in your numbers, so you don't have to worry about that. Your GPA may be slightly on the lower side of the generally admitted group at some of the schools, but certainly not a problem. (To place my comment in context, everything else I would say would be the exact same if you had a 4.0 gpa. You're competitive, but there are no guarantees.)

Best of luck!

[wannabee]

I am no good on guessing anyone's chances since I am having trouble guessing my own! But I do know Georgetown is a longshot for money. Only about a third of admitted students have funding. Also, despite Brown's "lower" rating, their admittance percent is less than 10%, probably because of location and the fact it's an ivie.

[GopherGrad]

I think your numbers will get you looked at just about everywhere and the rest will depend upon your letters and statement of purpose. Probably no one will toss you out on stats, so if you are confident in the intangibles, shoot for the moon.