Pointers for a non-poli sci major?

[Otherworlder]

I am just curious, are most people who apply to poli sci PhD programs poli sci major in their undergrad as well? I did my undergrad in econ and sociology, but want to go into poli sci because I believe it is a better fit for my research interest (which is legitimacy of governing institutions). Only one of my letter writers will be a poli sci prof, and the extent of my education in poli sci would consist of one game theory course, and some research in political economy. How should I work around lacking undergrad poli sci courses? And what kind of things should I really look out for? Finally, are there any kind of primer texts that I should consider reading? Thanks a lot for the help!

[orst11]

Hopefully one of the older members, without an undergraduate background in poli sci will comment on this, but for the time being I will post a few things.

First off, typically poli sci draws a number of candidates for admission from various fields in the social sciences and some in the humanities..Typically, economics majors bring strong quantitative skills to poli sci programs, so this is a plus I think for you. In the field of IPE, an economics background is especially useful, so I think you will be fine if you take that route. I did see you posted in the GRE section and you have superior GRE scores, so really you have as good a chance as any other top candidate. At top programs it really is about your research interests matching the faculties.

Also, you mentioned you have done some research in political economy, I think I would make a note of this in your SOP.

[IRdreams]

So we have an ex-sociologist in our program, so I think they are somewhat amenable. You might have the best luck targeting schools that already have a commitment to a sociological approach to political science. In IPE, this means schools with a strong constructivist contingent There are some schools that are even focused on constructivist IPE (Corenll).

Economics is trickier and the success had with that major entering polisci can vary a lot depending on the nature of the econ major. If your version was quite math intensive, this should help. If you do not have a solid number of math courses though, I imagine the econ major will help less. Gary King published an aritcle on Harvard's admission process a number of years ago, and he basically said any strong indication of math skills is what they were looking for. He argues that mathematics ability and intelligence are highly correlated and figures that those with a solid math background can be taught anything else. I don't know that I hold entirely with this view. However, there is evidence of a number of math majors making it big within this field currently as well as historically. For example, James Marrow and several other game theorists. If you have actual math to back up the econ and polisci game theory work, this could be appealing at Stanford and Rochester.

From the sound of your research question, it seems more sociologically motivated. Have you looked into economic sociology as subfield of sociology at all? I gather that economic sociology has been having a resurgence of late and your background would be uniquely qualified for programs of this nature I would imagine.