Political science v public policy

[mv0027]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum for this, but there is no public policy forum for PhD

I love the idea of doing a pol sci phd. Those programs sound a lot more interesting to me. However, I also care about institutions. I don’t need to go to Harvard but I also don’t want to do to Southeastern Texas State University, with zero employment prospects.

When I apply to PhD programs I’ll be a little older, around 27-28. I also don’t have great GPAs (3.2 undergrad, 3.4 grad), but I have what is nowadays considered very good work experience. Two-years at a Big 4 accounting firms as a consultant and two-years (at time of application) at one of the best think-tanks in the world. I think this means I have a much better shot at admissions into a public policy program than a pol sci program, because they seem to value work experience more.

Does anyone know if that assumption is correct? In other words, do experienced candidates have a better chance at public policy programs? Also, there seem to be a lot less public policy programs. Are these programs much more competitive?

Again, sorry if this is the wrong forum, but I appreciate any insight.

[flyers29]

What are your research interests? Are they things you could frame within public policy vice political science?

[mv0027]

eh. not totally sure yet. I plan to write an SOP that gets me into a school, not one that relates to my actual research interests, because I really want to take the first two years to flesh that out. all my research experience has been related to international trade. So, yea, pretty easy to come up with something that fits well within public policy.