Welcome to the 2011-2012 Cycle

[CairoKid]

Thanks everyone!

[grantman]

Good Day Everyone,

I hope everything is going well with you all as you begin to make plans for the continuation of your studies, whatever they may be.

I am still mulling over whether I am going to apply to the 2012-2013 admissions cycle and I wanted to gauge thoughts on the following schools: Syracuse, Uni. of Florida, Rutgers, Arizona State and SUNY-Binghamton.

Thanks for any comments that you may be willing to give.

[brent09]

As in you're considering applying to those?

I've known faculty who came from ASU, Binghamton and Florida, and they're all great academics. My inclination is that Binghamton is more American-Judicial, but maybe they're good at Comp/IR too. Rutgers is good from what I understand (but again, not sure about Comp/IR). I've been told by more than a few faculty to avoid Syracuse.

In general, though, I'd say that these should be the backup schools. If you want to do Comp/IR quantitatively, I would also consider Mich. State and Fla. State, and for a safer (but strong and rapidly improving) option, Univ. of North Texas. MSU and FSU both produce great Comp/IR people, and UNT just got the APSR and has been improving funding lately.

Of course, you'll always want to be careful with your choice. Don't do too far down the rankings because placement will be tough. FSU and MSU have good placement records, UNT is okay. Binghamton, ASU and Fla. also do alright, but like I said, I think Binghamton places better in judicial.

[catchermiscount]

Comparative and IR are two distinct subfields. MSU political science proper has two IR people: Mike Colaresi (tenured) and Cristina Bodea (not yet tenured). Mohammed Ayoob does almost all of his teaching at James Madison College across campus and rarely visits South Kedzie Hall. In comparative, on the other hand, MSU has Eric Chang (tenured), Brian Silver (tenured), Michael Bratton (tenured, though I don't know if he's still actively engaged), Ani Sarkissian (untenured), and Jeff Conroy-Krutz (untenured), along with some people in related fields (Reggie Sheehan does comparative courts, and Paul Abramson dabbles in French/Israeli politics). That's a really big difference in faculty between comparative and IR.

If we can get a better sense of what grantman wants to study, maybe there's more specific advice to be given.

[grantman]

Comparative and IR are two distinct subfields. MSU political science proper has two IR people: Mike Colaresi (tenured) and Cristina Bodea (not yet tenured). Mohammed Ayoob does almost all of his teaching at James Madison College across campus and rarely visits South Kedzie Hall. In comparative, on the other hand, MSU has Eric Chang (tenured), Brian Silver (tenured), Michael Bratton (tenured, though I don't know if he's still actively engaged), Ani Sarkissian (untenured), and Jeff Conroy-Krutz (untenured), along with some people in related fields (Reggie Sheehan does comparative courts, and Paul Abramson dabbles in French/Israeli politics). That's a really big difference in faculty between comparative and IR.

If we can get a better sense of what grantman wants to study, maybe there's more specific advice to be given.

I do apologize for not specifying my research interests.

To put it broadly, I am interested in post-conflict reconstruction and international development. More specifically, I have some interest in certain aspects of Consociationalism (i.e. O'Leary, Wolff, Lijphart, and McGarry) as well as the institution building, with a particular interest in the state's bureaucracy, and constitution writing.

To Mr. Brent09, I thank you for your contribution. To address some of your comments, while I am not too familiar with Binghamton placement in terms of American and Judicial, they do have a number of IR people. Furthermore, Andrew Enterline at UNT received his doctorate at Binghamton, but as far as UNT's department goes Enterline is the only one I can see has similar research interests.

To address your concern regarding future placement, I completely agree with you. The reason why I am looking lower is that given my horrible GRE scores and my unsuccessful round this year, if I cannot gain entrance to schools in the 20-30 range, then I feel I must begin to look at the 40-50 range. As I previously stated, I am also looking at Canadian schools, namely Toronto and McGill.

[kaykaykay]

I just wanted to suggest Toronto. They have some serious people who study consociationalism (well it is Canada after all) and they do not ask for GRE scores.

[brent09]

Andrew Enterline is a top-notch guy to work with. It's something to think about. PM me if you're ever interested in talking with Andrew. That said, he's not a comparative guy -- he's definitely IR -- and doesn't do anything like Lijphart. I would say Ishiyama would be a better fit. Like I said, PM if you wanna talk about/to UNT people.

Otherwise, just keep in mind that the lower you go, the tougher placement can be. If that's a hurdle you're willing to jump over down the road, I'd say your picks are pretty decent. But your better bet is to get those GREs up and aim for a top-20 program.