Law student considering poli sci grad school

[antoniusblock]

Hi everybody. I am currently a law student and will be graduating in May. I will be doing a judicial clerkship for the next year and I hope to do another one for a year after that, after which I hope to get into a poli sci PhD program. I had a couple of questions about my competitiveness in applying:

1) is it okay to have law professors as opposed to poli sci professor write letters of recommendation? I am currently taking a seminar cross-listed w/ poli sci so I should have at least one good recommendation. However, all of the other professors I know very well are from law school. Will this hurt me?

2) To what extent would a job like a judicial clerkship be helpful in my application? I hope to get some insight into the operations of courts and would like to pursue this area in my research.

3) Finally, I had a student article published in the school's law review. It is a relatively well-known law review, but it is my understanding that in non-legal academic circles law reviews are generally not considered to be very prestigious. How does having this publication compare to having written an undergraduate thesis (which I did not do) or being published in a peer-reviewed journal?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[historygirl]

1) Absolutely fine.

2) Relevant experience is always helpful.

3) It probably won't weigh as much as a thesis or peer-reviewed article. On the other hand, not all applicants to grad school have even done a thesis, and most have no peer-reviewed articles. Certainly reference your article and any other research you've done. They will want to see that you have done research with primary sources, and they will prefer an academic written sample. Do you possibly have any old term papers from undergrad you can brush off and polish?

Just make sure your SOP is focused and your LORs are terrific. Good luck with the process!

[silencio1982]

Hi everybody. I am currently a law student and will be graduating in May. I will be doing a judicial clerkship for the next year and I hope to do another one for a year after that, after which I hope to get into a poli sci PhD program. I had a couple of questions about my competitiveness in applying:

1) is it okay to have law professors as opposed to poli sci professor write letters of recommendation? I am currently taking a seminar cross-listed w/ poli sci so I should have at least one good recommendation. However, all of the other professors I know very well are from law school. Will this hurt me?

2) To what extent would a job like a judicial clerkship be helpful in my application? I hope to get some insight into the operations of courts and would like to pursue this area in my research.

3) Finally, I had a student article published in the school's law review. It is a relatively well-known law review, but it is my understanding that in non-legal academic circles law reviews are generally not considered to be very prestigious. How does having this publication compare to having written an undergraduate thesis (which I did not do) or being published in a peer-reviewed journal?

Thanks in advance for your help.

hey- come on over to the poli sci topic (under social sciences) and ask your question there- there are several in that forum who went to law school and now are applying to poli sci PhDs. (i'm going to be getting a poli sci PhD myself but didn't do the law school thing so don't feel qualified to answer...)

[antoniusblock]

Thanks a lot for the replies. I do have a good term paper from undergrad that I could try and brush off. I will hop over to the poli sci board and see what people say. Thanks!