Please rate my chances! In return, I will donate to a charity of your choice.

[adverbly]

This sort of thread seems to crop up a lot around here, so in an effort to make this slightly more worthwhile, I will donate a small sum to a charity* (of your choosing) for each response I receive.

I am planning to apply for the Fall 2012 cycle. My intended subfield is American, and I am primarily interested in political psychology and political communication. I'm also potentially interested in comparative as a third field. I am currently planning to apply to SUNY Stony Brook, Northwestern, Minnesota, Ohio State, Wisconsin-Madison, Berkeley (reach), and Stanford (dream). I would love to hear your thoughts on my chances at any of these schools (and I'm also wondering if there are others I should be considering, given my general interests).

My profile:

Undergrad: Top-tier liberal arts college

Major: Double major in Political Science and English

GPA: 3.86 overall, 3.98 major. I've only had one A- in political science, and that was my first semester freshmen year.

GRE: 770 V, 720 Q

Quant background: two calculus courses, one stats/methods course

Research Experience: two summers as a research assistant for a political science professor

Publications: co-authored a national survey + study that was self-published by my school's political science research center. The study was subsequently mentioned in USA Today and The New York Times, among other venues.

Other:

• 2011-12 Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in SE Asia
• Phi Beta Kappa
• Pi Sigma Alpha
• selected as best political science student in my graduating class
• selected as best English major in my graduating class
• graduated top 5%
• honors thesis, award for best thesis

Your insights are appreciated!

*Some restrictions apply. Limit one donation per user. I reserve the right to refuse to donate to particular groups (e.g. hate groups, extremist organizations, etc.). I'd also like to keep this politically neutral, as well, so no candidates, parties, or PACs. Finally, unhelpful or one-word responses will not garner donations.

[hbgrad]

Why do you lack so much confidence? Stanford is not a dream school, you are competitive! These stats are great! I do not know a lot about your field to recommend other schools but I do recommend applying to other top schools than Berkeley and Stanford like Ivy leagues (im assuming they have excellent programs in your field). One thing you did not mention is what do you want to apply for: a master's or PhD. In any case you are competitive in both and I know you think you are being modest by sounding like you are not impressed with your stats but you are not doing people with lower ones any favor by doing so.

I did not seem as much competent in my field when I applied but I got into my dream school .

Good luck!

You could always donate to green peace unless you think they are a political group.

cheers!

[lyonessrampant]

I feel like all of us here try to be as helpful and supportive as possible, and I also know that when I was going through this application process, well, still now, I didn't have a lot of extra cash, but if you find anything helpful here and are so inclined, any animal activism group like ASPCA, Humane Society, or WWF would be great; don't feel obligated, though Overall, you look like a very strong candidate and competitive for Stanford and Berkeley as well as all the schools on your list. What matters most is that you have a killer personal statement. The objective factors of your application (GRE, GPA, CV) are all very strong, so what is really going to need to be good is the subjective factor (personal statement and writing sample). If you have been published, that speaks to your ability as a writer. However, if your publication is not in a research area that you want to go into, I would recommend using a different sample that shows your research interests more clearly. On your personal statement, work hard to be as specific as possible about your research interests and why each school is a good fit. If you are comfortable with it, emailing some POIs (people/professors of interest) to see what they're current work is might be helpful. You can get general idea about current work from professor profiles and class offerings as well. Make sure not to fall into the lure of sharing too much of the awesome anecdotal stuff in your PS. Share some but just to frame your research interests and fit for the school. The PS should be more about your work and less about you, if that makes sense. Anyway, if you nail the personal statement and have a strong writing sample, I think you'll be very competitive at top 10 programs. Best of luck!

[cunninlynguist]

Seriously, while I admire your self-effacing tone, you need to consider Stanford as a top option and not merely a reach. Even based on the quantitative factors alone, you're in a great position for consideration. From the department's website: Admitted students typically have GRE scores of 700+ on both the Verbal and Quantitative sections, and a score of 5.5 in the Analytical section. Admitted students typically have a GPA of at least 3.8 in their previous studies.

I'll echo what lyonessrampant and hbgrad said: Ensure that your writing sample and SOP are strong and reflect your excellent credentials. If I were you, I'd revisit your list of potential schools and aim higher. There's no conceivable reason you should be applying to safety schools - apply to the best schools that align with your research interests. Actually, you should ask around, or do some online research, to find the absolute best programs in political psychology and political communication. Then, if need be, cull the less desirable ones in terms of faculty fit and make sure their admissions standards aren't beyond your reach (and I'd be shocked if you encounter any problems in that regard). Obviously you've narrowed down your choices and done a good amount of searching already; however, you should operate under the assumption you'll be a good candidate for virtually any program and go from there. You've clearly worked very hard to achieve your academic record, and that puts you in position to seek admission at top-tier schools, even in a competitive field.

You even seem to possess some clarity about the areas of study you wish to pursue, which will help immeasurably when composing your SOP. Overall, you'll be an impressive and focused applicant - please keep us updated.

If you feel generous enough to make a donation, I'd appreciate one to the Animal Welfare Institute.

[Zahar Berkut]

You are absolutely competitive at any top-ranked institution. Your quant is on the lower range of Stanford's average (770), but it is most definitely in range, and your other stats are impressive. Pick another top 10 institution or three that would fit well with you-- it's often as much about dumb luck in terms of who a school wants at a moment as your stellar stats.

If you're so inclined, I pick the Red Cross.

[expatbayern]

The advice you've received to apply to more top-tier programs is good. Your file is conceivably good enough to get you into the Stanford/Berkeley-level programs, but there's such a large stochastic element that you want multiple draws. Add the other elite full-service departments (ie Harvard/Michigan/Princeton, etc.) to your list.

The advice not to apply to the other programs on your list is NOT good. You've listed a great set of choices for top-30ish programs with strengths in your areas of interest (there are not any that immediately come to mind for me as missing). While you could certainly end up getting into some/all of the top-10 schools, you could also very well get into none of them (you might also get into one or two top-5 schools while being rejected from multiple schools ranked 20-30). Your list consists of other places you could do very well, though. I would just add a few schools at the top end and consider that a good starting point.

Always note, however, that no one here can give you a very good idea of your chances anywhere. The information observable to us is much less important overall than your writing sample, statement, and letters. If you took all of the information on this message board about GRE/GPA and admissions results, you'd probably find the numbers to be moderately predictive at a very coarse level (above/below 700/3.7) but not strongly predictive for any finer-grained differences.

If you're really interested in contributing something in return for these responses, I'd point you to this list. That's Charity Navigator's top-10 for efficiency, sound financial management, accountability, and transparency. There are a lot of charities out there that give you pretty poor bang for your buck, but a contribution to anything on that list is pretty much sure to actually go toward the ostensible cause. Or browse around their site for information on others (you can sort by cause and then order by their ratings, etc.).

[catchermiscount]

Among better departments, Michigan (top 5), Duke (top 10), and UNC (top 15) seem like smart additions to the list. Duke isn't necessarily thought of as a political psychology/communication place, but they've re-tweaked their major fields and might provide a nice fit, particularly with the blend of identity and behavior given your flirtation with comparative.

The CoachRJC Graduate School Lifestyle Fund accepts PayPal ;-).

[adverbly]

Thank you all for the helpful advice and encouragement! I've added a few more upper-end schools to my list, and made the donations you requested (except for the coachrjc's, I get the feeling that wouldn't be tax deductible).