Chances of making it to the Woodrow Wilson School

[ridersonthestorm]

Im going to apply for a PhD this December. Plan A is the security studies cluster at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton.

I finished my masters in international security and terrorism from U. Nottingham, UK. I've done two internships since then (one at a think tank in New Delhi, and one at Nanyang Technological uni. (The S. Rajaratnam School of int'l studies more specifically) in Singapore). I also worked with the Guardian for a bit, and did some field research in Bhutan. I should have one (hopefully 2) publications in reasonably respectable journals by the time I apply (both papers are on Chinese military modernization). I also did some work on a couple of books on Islamist extremism. My GRE score is ~1350 (730 for math, 620 verbal). I speak a fair bit of Urdu, and fluent Hindi. My recommenders are fairly reputed counter-terrorism/security and Chinese military experts.

Do you think I have a reasonable shot of getting in to a good school for security studies?

Appreciate any input!

[balderdash]

How were your marks at Nottingham, and where was your BA from/what did you study?

Provided the answers to both are reasonable, I'd say you have as decent a chance as anyone else.

[ridersonthestorm]

Thanks for that Balderdash. My grades at Nottingham weren't fantastic. Around a 3.5 GPA. I'm hoping my research after the MA would help the reviewers overlook this!

I'm wondering, would you know of other schools apart from Princeton and MIT that have a security focused PhD?

Thanks again!

[Penelope Higgins]

Lots of political science departments have a security focus in their international relations groups. I'm not clear exactly on the difference between that and 'security studies' though my sense is that the former would be more theoretical and less applied/case-specific/policy-centered. Look, for example, at Jacob Shapiro's work at Princeton (since you mention WWS) - how different is that from the stuff you're interested in?

[ridersonthestorm]

Thanks Penelope! I find the work he's done pretty interesting, but think it's only tangentially related to the stuff i've done so far.

[Helix]

Are you more interested in the policy angle of things or did you want programs with just an especially strong focus on security? If it's the former, I would check out the Rand Graduate School; if it's the latter, maybe also consider looking into Columbia. SIPA has a security focus for their master's and doesn't have a PhD program in policy, but their department (to my understanding) has several strong folks working on security related issues, and you could also easily draw from the SIPA crew.

[ridersonthestorm]

Thanks for that Helix. I'm keen on a program that focuses on policy stuff. Didn't realize RAND had a graduate school. their program looks pretty solid. Shame the SIPA only offers a PhD in sustainable development.

Sorry or the later response btw!