Profile Evaluation & School Suggestions – Political Economy

[Miyavmiyavkedy]

Hi everyone,

I’m planning to apply for PhD programs starting in Fall 2025 and I’d really appreciate your thoughts on two things:

1. Which programs (Econ or Political Science) might be a good fit for my research interests.
2. My realistic chances of admission at different tiers.

 

 Research Interests

• Political economy (especially governance, state capacity, and public spending).
• Development economics (infrastructure, electoral behavior, and intergenerational mobility).
• Empirical, quant-heavy approaches (DiD, IV, RCTs) rather than qualitative methods.
• Preference for faculty who combine political science and economics perspectives.

My Profile

Education:

• M.A. in Economics, one of the best universities in Turkey) – GPA: 4.0/4.0 (current student)
• B.A. in Economics & Political Science (Double Major), one of the other best universities in Turkey,  – GPA: 3.66/4.0, 9th in 100 students

Research Experience:

• Master’s thesis likely using Difference-in-Differences on infrastructure and voting behavior.
• Some empirical course projects using R, Stata.
• Past research assistantships in summer undergrad research projects in economics and political science, at undergrad level, nothing too fancy.

Test Scores:

• GRE: 170Q / 155V / 4.5AW
• TOEFL: 111

Extracurriculars:

1) one of the board members of my university’s debate club during my undergrad studies, for four consecutive years

2) one of the board members of my university’s effective altruism group

Letters of Recommendation (expected):

• 2 senior faculty from my master’s program (PhD from top-30 Econ programs, strong publication records).

Skills:

• R (intermediate), Stata, econometrics, applied micro methods.

 

 Current Draft School List:

Political Science (U.S.):

Yale, Stanford, Harvard (Gov), UC Berkeley, MIT, Princeton, NYU, University of Chicago.

Political Science (Europe):

LSE Government, Oxford DPIR, Cambridge POLIS, UCL Political Science.

Economics (Europe):

University of Zurich, Paris School of Economics, UPF Barcelona GSE, EUI Florence, Stockholm School of Economics, Bocconi, Tinbergen Institute, Mannheim, LMU Munich, Bonn, Warwick, CEMFI, Carlos III Madrid. (Since I am based in Turkey, a PhD in Europe is much more logistically feasible for me.)

 

Questions for you:

1) Based on my profile, what tier of schools in my list are realistic targets? For UK and other European programs, what are my chances of securing funding?

2)Which programs (especially in Europe) are particularly strong for quant-heavy political economy?

3)Are there other programs I should consider, especially in Europe, that align with my interests?

4)Any advice for strengthening my profile before December 2025 applications? Is the Verbal and writing scores of my GRE a problem?

Thanks in advance — I’d be grateful for any feedback on both fit and chances.

[A Dalek]

I'm based in the US, so my advice about European universities is limited. I'd suggest looking into places like Essex, Aarhus, etc. in Europe. In terms of methods training, I have not been impressed with the students I've interacted with from Oxford/Cambridge. There are exceptions, but between the US vs Europe, the former is clearly dominant for quantitative political science.

I can't give you any meaningful feedback on likelihood of getting into a program. Admissions are heavily dependent on the applicant pool in a given year. I think you meet the bar for admission, but without seeing who else is applying, I can't say much about your -relative- likelihood.

Based on your interest, I would suggest you consider looking at WashU and Rochester. I'd expand your range to include a few programs in the 30-50 range to increase your likelihood of admission. Illinois, TAMU, Indiana, etc.

A better verbal score would help. A perennial concern with admitting international students is whether they are proficient enough to TA.

[Senochka]

Hey there,

Fellow Turkish national here. Although I am not doing political Econ., I have completed a degree in the U.S. and am very familiar with the system and the current state of the U.S. higher education, as well as how Turkish profiles are assessed here. If your institutions are any two of Bilkent, BOUN, Koc, you are lucky. There is a well-established network of graduates of these institutions in American higher education. Both former admits and possibly faculty will help shedding positive light on your profile. Your GPAs are near-perfect and your GRE score is very solid, making you competitive for top tier programs. However, I am afraid your school list will limit the return on your six-year investment. First and foremost, PhD admissions are not like undergraduate admissions. There is no concept of a "safety school", "outcome predictability", and hence, there is no such thing as a "top candidate" unless you are Malala Yousafzai or Timothé Chalamalameimammamia. What I mean is, your excellent stats make you a "realistic" candidate for these schools, but there will be loads of applicants in the prospective pools of them like you. Some candidates will even be the recent grads of these schools, and thus will be better connected than you are.  Some will be seasoned policy professionals who want to pivot to academia after years long work in prominent think tanks or the U.S. government, some will have publications etc. Long story short, range is important. Also, your European list stands in stark contrast with its many modest choices to your U.S. list. If you ask me, many mid-tier U.S. schools will provide you with a better education and better credentials than some of these European schools. So, my humble advice to you would be expand your U.S. range. Choose two to three top-notch schools at most, four if you are really keen on trying your hand at these. Then add slightly lower-ranked but still very respectable schools. For example, why isn't Duke on your list? Both Timur Kuran and Dani Rodrik are there, and both are doing PE. Also, instead of applying to Harvard Gov't, apply to the Political Economy program that is co-designed with the Gov't department and HKS, and is run by HKS. In that case, you would need to apply through HKS, which is tiniest bit less competitive. As I said, I am not doing PE, so I cannot recommend specific schools, but Michigan, NYU, UCSD, UCLA are known for their quantitative rigor. Still, if you ask me, do three of the HYPSM, three of these other schools I mentioned, and six schools ranked even lower. The competition is UNREAL. Nearly all of the schools in your current list and the ones I mentioned here were subjected to BRUTAL funding cuts. Plus, when the current administration wants a school to cave in, their first instinct is to go after the said school's visa sponsorship privileges. Thus, the game is harder for int'l students. I know that George Mason has a good political economy stream and so do UIC and Vanderbilt. You can try GWU, Georgetown, UNC Chapel Hill, Virginia etc. but def. expand your range. For UK,  on the other hand, please note that the application process is much more cumbersome. As you also noted in your post, funding at many European institutions is not guaranteed, so, you need to follow the ESRC and DTP open competition deadlines and send in an initial application. Also, when you are applying to Oxford DPIR and Cambridge POLS, you need to fill additional external scholarship forms for the funding schemes that suit your profile (e.g. The Leverhulme Trust PhD fund). UK schools have their own funding as well, but these are limited in coverage, and the full coverage ones are awarded to 3-6 incoming students at most. Moreover, some of these internal and external funding schemes have residency & citizenship reqs (e.g. Commonwealth, EUEA etc.). So, choose frugally and wisely when it comes to the UK. For Europe, EUI and Mannheim are excellent choices. The former offers unconditional full funding and the latter does not have fees associated with a much more generous stipend & expenses scheme. I would suggest that you add Sciences Po. Paris, HEC Paris, IHEID, and CEU to your list for the very same reason. However, you can expand your scope here as well. Look at Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands for some excellent options. Now, IHEID, CEU, and Sciences Po have deadlines and admission styles that mimic the US system. HEC Paris has a final app. deadline in late March/early May. When it comes to VRJE Amsterdam, UvA, Lund, KU Leuven, on the other hand, much like UZH on your list, these treat PhD admissions like hiring rounds and mostly hire by project. The good thing is, their cycles start around Feb., by that time, you will be mostly done with your US and core European apps and will likely have an idea of what you need to do. So, follow sites like FindAPhD and Academic Positions for structured PhD calls. You can also sign up to receive notifications whenever a PhD position is open at these universities on their websites (most use Verbi, check dept. pages for more info.) Last, but not least, when it comes to fit, think narrower. Think professors, not schools. Of course, some schools are clearly better at something than others. For example, UNC Chapel Hill and UIUC are behavior and comparative-heavy schools whereas UW Madison and Georgetown have an edge in IR. Still, if you find a perfect PE match at a CP-heavy school, apply there, if you find only some generic matches at a PE-forward school, pass. Find professors whose work you cite or would cite in your own work. As a final note you might want to look into policy schools as well. Most of them are not as cut throat as traditional poli sci departments and are especially strong in PE. Suggestions; McCourt, LBJ, Ford, Scharr, Harris, Batten. Oh, and, these applications are hard to complete with lots of components, concurrent timelines, so choose wisely, not widely. I saw some people apply to 20 schools, DO NOT do that. Build your timeline and when you will do each application before September ends, it will help you streamline. Apply to 12-15 US & UK  & Core European schools, and once they are done, apply to the other European schools if need be. Best of luck!

Edited 3 hours ago by Senochka