Seeking Advice: Choosing Between PSU & TAMU for PoliSci PhD

[Shawn Sun]

Hi comrades,

Hope your PhD applications are going well! I recently received offers from PSU and TAMU. While I intuitively prefer PSU, I want to make a more informed decision through a thorough comparison. Any advice on how to evaluate the two? 

A bit about me: I studied IR and Econ for undergrad and IR for my master's, both outside the US. My main interest in political economy——topics like economic statecraft, business lobbying, FDI, etc——though I know research interests can evolve. I also hope to strengthen my quant skills in grad school.

For what I've gathered, PSU has stronger placements, more stipends, and ranks higher in IR (17), CP (25), and Methods (15), while TAMU has a higher overall PoliSci ranking (28 vs PSU's 34) and is stronger in AP (21).

Would love to hear your thoughts——any input would be greatly appreciated!

Best,
Shawn

[JPYSD]

Hello Shawn,

Congratulations on your great offers! Sounds like a successful cycle for you 🙂

I don't have much to contribute here, only that I have heard of more decent placements and read more works from PSU scholars. Their department and generally their social sciences seems more well balanced, which is what you want when starting a social science PhD, which can easily shift more interdisciplinary (across subfields and disciplines).

As I am a first year US PhD student myself now, I just wanted to make another point to consider: Especially when your options are more or less similarly ranked, please think of the cities, apartments and campuses you would likely be in (next to the potential PhD cohort). Spending at least 5 years in a place during your late 20s is really foundational for so much in your life, and as especially the first two years of a PhD tend to be extremely hard, you want to be in a city that you are comfortable in and have good cultural connections or the right people at. Just my two cents. Best would be top visit both places, of course! Personally, I would pick PSU here, but everyone views this different.

Stipend (and its use in the specific place) also matters, of course.

An advice: Please contact professors and grad students from both programs and directly speak with them, openly disclosing your options. I have done this and it really helped me and surprised me how open the faculty is to help you.

Best of luck!

Edited February 12 by JPYSD

[Shawn Sun]

19 hours ago, JPYSD said:

Hello Shawn,

Congratulations on your great offers! Sounds like a successful cycle for you 🙂

I don't have much to contribute here, only that I have heard of more decent placements and read more works from PSU scholars. Their department and generally their social sciences seems more well balanced, which is what you want when starting a social science PhD, which can easily shift more interdisciplinary (across subfields and disciplines).

As I am a first year US PhD student myself now, I just wanted to make another point to consider: Especially when your options are more or less similarly ranked, please think of the cities, apartments and campuses you would likely be in (next to the potential PhD cohort). Spending at least 5 years in a place during your late 20s is really foundational for so much in your life, and as especially the first two years of a PhD tend to be extremely hard, you want to be in a city that you are comfortable in and have good cultural connections or the right people at. Just my two cents. Best would be top visit both places, of course! Personally, I would pick PSU here, but everyone views this different.

Stipend (and its use in the specific place) also matters, of course.

An advice: Please contact professors and grad students from both programs and directly speak with them, openly disclosing your options. I have done this and it really helped me and surprised me how open the faculty is to help you.

Best of luck!

Hi Comrade,

Thanks for your thoughtful advice. I really appreciate it. I'll reach out to professors and grad students at both schools as you suggested.

Cheers,
Shawn