Advice

[CAPoliSciPhD]

deleted

[flyingwalrus]

Hey Everyone - I've been lurking for awhile now, and I thought I'd ask for some advice. I'm applying for the Fall 09 academic year. I'm having a hard time knowing where to apply because I'm not sure what my chances are to get into any prorgams. I'll most likely apply to many places nonetheless, but I still wish I had a clearer idea.

My undergraduate work was at a state school, and I had serious issues which left me with a horrible ugpa - 3.1

I decided to get my masters (at a big, but no name school- I was funded through GTAships) and have time to get a clearer focus for what I wanted to research. I'm finishing my master's with a 3.96 gpa. I took the GRE twice. First time was crappy (1050 total Analytical: 5.0) and the second time was two months ago V 700 Q 720 Analytical: 5.5

With all this contradictory information does it seem at all likely I could have a shot at a top program? What would you guys suggest I could do to bolster my chances? My field is comparative politics, and I have a list of schools. I'm just not sure how much my undergraduate gpa will hurt me. There is a completely, valid reason (you can pm me if you really care, but i'll spare everyone else) for the ugpa, but I'm not sure if I should mention it beacuse I think it'd be a litle out of place in my SOP. I mean, we should just focus on our research goals in the SOP, right?

Thanks. -CA

Your GRE score is good. I probably wouldn't bother mentioning your ugpa; why does it matter anymore? You've already shown what you're capable of doing in grad school, so your SOP should focus on the research you want to do.

Your chances of getting into a top school depend on a number of things, not the least of which is what you define as a "top" school. Top 5? 10? 20? 40? Your SOP and letters will probably carry a lot more weight than your GRE and GPA, so spend a lot of time defining your research agenda and get letters from the biggest names in your department. Apply to all kinds of departments. It'd be great to get into a top 10, but you have to cover your bases. You don't want to be stuck with nothing because you didn't apply to any lower ranked schools.

[CAPoliSciPhD]

Well, they do WANT your transcripts from undergrad, obviously, so while I won't emphasize the ugpa - it will be there for them to see...

Guess we'll find out. Anyone else nervous about their SOP? It's nerve wracking.

[polisciphd]

As someone who was in the exact same position as you are last cycle, I can say that if there is a valid reason that you have a low ugpa, I would WITHOUT A DOUBT mention it in your SOP. The adcoms are looking for markers to indicate that you are both a good fit with their program and that you can SUCCEED in their program. I would not spend alot of time on this, but a sentence saying that it doesn't reflect your potential cannot hurt.

That being said, you should spend the majority of your time explaining to them your research interests and how, in particular, your current skill set and what you expect to learn in the particular program you are writing about will help you achieve your long-term goals. I spoke to the members of my adcom about this and they said, to a one, that they can tell if you just recycled the same SOP for twenty different schools. They want to see that you are applying to that particular school for a reason (and not that they are ranked 5th, or 12th, or 22nd in some ranking that doesn't mean a whole lot in the long run).

Oh, and research programs as much as you can. You don't want to end up at a BIG 10 school if you don't want to do heavy quant stuff, or you don't want to end up at one of the iveys if you aren't keen on sitting around ruminating about theory for days and years on end.

[Manchild]

Oh, and research programs as much as you can. You don't want to end up at a BIG 10 school if you don't want to do heavy quant stuff, or you don't want to end up at one of the iveys if you aren't keen on sitting around ruminating about theory for days and years on end.

You advise people to research programs and then come up with this? Princeton has one of the top methods faculties in the world, the folks at Harvard are likewise renowned. Any of the major ivy league political science programs will get you cutting edge methods training. If one has heavy quantitative leanings, the only schools that are competitive with the top Ivy League universities (taking into account faculty, overall training, and placement) are Stanford, NYU, Michigan, Rochester, Caltech, and MIT. Having to take one or two theory courses won't kill anyone (and will probably enrich their research). Choosing a lesser institution simply because they don't have a theory requirement would be ludicrous, to say the least.

[polisciphd]

Wow, you are taking what I said way too literally. Yes you will get very good quant training at the iveys, but if ALL you want to do is quant stuff, then a big 10 school is the way to go, or Rochester maybe. If you want to do theory and methods, then by all means go to Princeton or Yale.

[Manchild]

So let me get this straight, you're claiming that if (hypothetically) you wanted to become a methodologist (stats), and you only got into two schools, Harvard and Ohio State, you'd choose Ohio State? Sounds ludicrous to me, especially considering the other resources available to you at Harvard (e.g. economics department, business school and associated faculty, etc.)... The same holds for Princeton, Michigan, Stanford, et al.

[polisciphd]

After visiting the schools, talking to the faculty, listening to what other grad students say the program is REALLY like, yes if Ohio State was a better fit than Harvard, I would not think twice before heading to Columbus. People on these boards make such a big deal of the name of their school, which i have found to be a load of crap. It is all about you and how you apply yourself and the kind of fit you have with your professors. If you come up with a dissertation that significantly adds to the way that we study Poli Sci (IR in my case), it is not going to matter where you go, I guarantee you are still going to get a job.