International Students and Political Science in the US

[Tarak]

I am currently considering studying in the US for a PhD but I have absolutely no idea what my chances are as most discussions about this topic are obviously focussed on American applicants. My (approximate) profile

Currently studying undergrad political science at a top 10 British University.

Expected Result: "First" (difficult to translate this into a GPA but it might be 3.8-4.0)

No research experience (reading through this forum I have noticed that it seems to be much more common in the US to be involved in research as an undergrad)

No internship/work experience related to political science (just some stuff outside my field)

Not a British national and not a native speaker of English (Went to the UK after finishing high school in Germany, tried to be adventurous). I won't have any problems passing the TOEFL/IELTS but my results in the verbal section of the GRE would probably be weaker than those of native speakers, the quantitative section should be less of a problem.

Spent a semester abroad at a Southeast-Asian university to broaden my horizon.

Extracurricular activities related to Political Science. (President of the University's Model United Nations Society etc.)

After this rather limited description, can anybody tell me where I stand or what I could expect? I have absolutely no idea and would be happy about any suggestions or pieces of information you might come up with. Don't fear being vague, everything helps.

[smellie]

I'm not a poli-sci major, but as an international who applied/admitted to US schools, I can tell you that being internationl should be the least of your worry. They admit enough international students each year, and the funding is usually merit-based, though many external fellowships are limited to citizens.

With GRE, just study, study, study. Even native speakers have difficulties getting good scores in GRE. You may have to put in some extra efforts into it, but it's certainly doable. You may, if circumstance still permits, try writing undergrad thesis or a good research paper. You will need this for your writing sample. A good wiriting smaple and SOP matters far more than GPA+GRE.

That said, there are also many Master's programs in poli-sci that come with funding. You might want to apply both master's and ph.d programs, and see where it takes you. If you end up landing on an master's program, it will be a good steppingstong for your future endeavor in ph.d application.

I am currently considering studying in the US for a PhD but I have absolutely no idea what my chances are as most discussions about this topic are obviously focussed on American applicants. My (approximate) profile

Currently studying undergrad political science at a top 10 British University.

Expected Result: "First" (difficult to translate this into a GPA but it might be 3.8-4.0)

No research experience (reading through this forum I have noticed that it seems to be much more common in the US to be involved in research as an undergrad)

No internship/work experience related to political science (just some stuff outside my field)

Not a British national and not a native speaker of English (Went to the UK after finishing high school in Germany, tried to be adventurous). I won't have any problems passing the TOEFL/IELTS but my results in the verbal section of the GRE would probably be weaker than those of native speakers, the quantitative section should be less of a problem.

Spent a semester abroad at a Southeast-Asian university to broaden my horizon.

Extracurricular activities related to Political Science. (President of the University's Model United Nations Society etc.)

After this rather limited description, can anybody tell me where I stand or what I could expect? I have absolutely no idea and would be happy about any suggestions or pieces of information you might come up with. Don't fear being vague, everything helps.

[Tarak]

Thank you very much for your answer. I am definitely looking into applying for a Master's instead. The writing sample should not be a problem either (I hope ).

However, the questions is: Would it make any sense for me (considering my CV) to apply to PhD programs? I have read that they are extremely competitive and reading some CVs of prospective applicants who frequently have tons of research/work experience (at least that is my impression) I doubt that I would stand a chance. Anybody knows more?

[Tarak]

Nobody else any advice? :|

[smellie]

Thank you very much for your answer. I am definitely looking into applying for a Master's instead. The writing sample should not be a problem either (I hope ).

However, the questions is: Would it make any sense for me (considering my CV) to apply to PhD programs? I have read that they are extremely competitive and reading some CVs of prospective applicants who frequently have tons of research/work experience (at least that is my impression) I doubt that I would stand a chance. Anybody knows more?

After reading a whole bunch of posts, it should also be clear that grad admission is like lottery. Some will get in with not-so-great CV while some with great background gets rejected. Try 1-2 Ph.D programs that you'd be willing to go if accepted. No harm in trying, really.

[Sejla]

This may be something you've thought of already, but having just lived abroad and spoken with students in other countries ... I've come to believe that the application process and the "way" of presenting yourself, your goals, etc. really can be different in different countries. One specific example I've heard is that North American programs expect a lot of detail in letters of recommendation letters (presumably in some countries they are more of a formality).

I'm from the US and five years out of undergrad, and I looked over books on applying to grad school carefully. So I'd recommend not underestimating this. I'd also say, if possible, find someone from your situation (I'm thinking someone from a UK university who went to a PhD program in the US, because that is what you're familiar with) and ask them specifically about the differences. People who have done all their education in one country can certainly give good general advice, but might not be able to address things that we/you take for granted and don't specifically ask about and so on.

I bought a book with examples of and advice on personal statements, and found this useful in identifying what made me unique as a potential student and what I could offer each program. I think in the US today it is still very uncommon for people to do their whole undergrad education in a foreign country, as you have done, so the fact that you have experience of that - actually completing your education in a foreign language and gaining the perspective of living in another country - could be an advantage in applying.

Good luck.

[JordanJames]

Next April you may get angry at me for saying this, but having graduated from a good school with a very good GPA, I'm certain you'll get in somewhere. Just write an (impersonal) personal statement that clearly demonstrates your research interests, do reasonably well on the GRE (especially the quantitative section, which is pretty easy), apply to some backup schools, and get good letters of recommendation and you will get in somewhere. You may not get into 1 of your top choices (I'm not saying you won't, I'm just saying you may not), but you'll get in somewhere.

Don't worry too much about your lack of research experience, the majority of undergraduates who have research experience were doing data entry and grammer checks, or wrote senior theses that will look like dog crap to them after their first year of grad school. I definently didn't reach the pinnacle of graduate application success this year, but I was accepted at a few schools and will be in a political science program next year that I'm very happy with despite not having very much research experience. I have no publications, never tried to publish anything, never wrote a senior thesis, and was an RA for 3 months where I wrote summaries of NAFTA arbitrations and did some editing for a textbook (not very useful or substantive research); and, I know people with even less research experience who were accepted by some very good schools. So, I think if you apply to 7-9 schools that have a number of professors doing research in your area of interest , you'll most likely get in somewhere (and if you kill the GRE, get strong LORs, and write a good personal statement, you'll most likely get in at a very good school).

Anyways, I don't think any of us know very much about the admissions process, although I do know a lot more about it now than I did when I submitted my applications.

N.B. You can also try to gain some research experience now, if it's at all possible.

[superboy]

A little left-field here, but this is something you might want to consider before applying to schools in the US. Unlike most universities in the world, political science in America is very quantitative, very strong in statistical modeling and employs very economics-orientated methodology to study politics and power (assuming you are not doing political philosophy which is another sub-field). There are many political scientists that do qualitative work in America, which I believe is the mainstay of the UK political science departments, but for every qualitative political scientist, there are many more quantitative ones. Although many political scientists argue that they do both qualitative and quantitative work (and numerous books and articles have been geared towards marrying both in America's political science discipline), my experience is that most are actually pretty quantitative.

Thus I would highly suggest you take some statistical classes (regression analysis, modeling software training etc) to show that you can do political science in America. Also, you need to think about which school to apply to and which professor you want to work with. Finding political scientists who do qualitative research is not difficult, but I have heard one too many complains from international students came to America with non-statistical backgrounds in their home countries. Many of them only realized how much they disagree with the prevailing methodology taught in America which are much less emphasized in other countries. Others left the program because they felt the approach they must undertake would be too top-down and elitist.

[Tarak]

@ammar

Thank you for your uplifting words. The application process in the US is really outright scary, a good reason to stay in the UK. :roll:

Are you sure about the importance of research though? Reading many of the posts (and short CVs) posted here I got the impression that it is one of the things which make or break the application. (I will write the equivalent to an American Senior thesis, but it won't be finished before the application deadlines so I guess it wouldn't count much.) You are probably right about the quality of undergrad research experience but does that mean that the schools don't care about it? X month RA is written on your CV and that must make an impression of some kind. An undergrad researching/publishing anything... the idea would make my profs laugh quite hard. Completely unheard of in the UK as far as i know. (maybe I am just completely uninformed in this respect but I doubt it)

But ok, that was enough bashing of my favourite rainy island (hey, I get an Honours degree after three years), the problem is that I have no idea how competitive I am. You said I would probably get in somewhere, but what should I be aiming for? I know that is difficult to gauge but I assume that people who have survived the process are at least slightly more knowledgable than I am at the moment.

@superboy

That is an interesting point I haven't considered so far. Another reason to do a Master focussed on research techniques before applying to US universities. My university doesn't offer much of that stuff on undergrad level, probably for the reasons you mentioned, they just don't believe in it (and its not as if free course choice would exist here in any meaningful way ). I must definitely look into that a bit more but in general I wouldn't mind doing very quantitative work.