Int'l student applying. Advice gratefully received!

[grace246]

Hi all,

I wondered if anyone had any useful thoughts on a number of questions I have! I'm from the UK (where I did my undergrad), though am now teaching at a University in the US. I'm in the process of applying for PhD programmes here (though I'm only just starting the process, which I realise is quite late - do you think its unrealistically late?!).

I haven't taken the GRE yet so not sure how I'll fare on that - which is my first question. How long before an application deadline do you need to take it? Keen to put in as much practice as I can...

I also wondered if anyone had any idea on how schools look at International degrees and how they 'convert' to a GPA? I have a 2.i (67) from Cambridge in Politics. Its hard to know how well this will be looked on and what kind of level school I should be pitching myself at. I guess when I have a GRE score this will be easier. I also have worked for a politician in the UK, but have no publication or research experience (I am teaching at the moment, though not in Political Science).

I also was wondering if anyone had any tips on the best way of narrowing down school choices. So far, I have a list of about 30(!) schools narrowed down - I've eliminated ones in locations I couldn't bring myself to live in, ones without any name recognition at all (which you might think unwise, but I may end up returning to the UK and not working in academia, in which case, however good a Political Science department it is, it will damage my chances of a good job etc.) and ones where I already know their area of specialisation doesn't fit with my interests. In case anyone with lots of experience in all of this is feeling extra generous and wants to recommend some schools: I have fairly broad ranging interests at the moment (is this a problem do you think?), but I'm interested in Democratisation, Political behaviour, Nationalism/ethnicity and its part in politics, and Security & Development issues, China and International politics. Also, how many schools do people generally apply to?

Would really appreciate any help that you can offer!

Grace.

[justanotherperson]

Since you asked if having broad ranging interests would be a problem: I believe you will have to have specific research ideas to base your SOPs on to convince the admission committee you are serious enough about doing phD level research. What is your primary subfield, CP or IR? When you say security, for instance, what kind of questions do you want to ask in your security research? Maybe thinking more about those things could be the first step in narrowing down the focus.