PhD Chances

[Benefactor]

Hi guys,

I'm currently in a top MPP program and will be graduating in May 2013. I just wanted to know what my chances would be to get into some of the more prominent political science PhD programs.

Specifically, I was thinking: Stanford, MIT, Duke (I'm at Duke now), UVA, Yale, Princeton, UT Austin, Rice and maybe Caltech (not sure if my math skills are good enough).

My undergrad GPA was 3.43 in international business at a so so state school, and I'm expecting my GPA from Duke to end up somewhere around 3.3 or so (our program doesn't really give out a lot of A's...so some gaudy GPA isn't really possible). My area of interest is security studies and terrorism/anti-terrorism. My GRE score was 1530 (750V, 780Q), with a 5.5 on the AWA.

If you guys need any more information from me to get an idea of my chances, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[Zahar Berkut]

That's a stellar GRE score, and it is definitely what you want to get into a top program. The GPA may or may not cause issues, but the best you can do to overcome that is write a stellar statement, possibly include some note about grading standards in your program (hopefully someone else can comment more on that), and show in your writing sample that you're good at the kind of work you want to do. Good luck!

[Benefactor]

That's a stellar GRE score, and it is definitely what you want to get into a top program. The GPA may or may not cause issues, but the best you can do to overcome that is write a stellar statement, possibly include some note about grading standards in your program (hopefully someone else can comment more on that), and show in your writing sample that you're good at the kind of work you want to do. Good luck!

Thanks! I could def. address that in the PS; I'd just want to make sure it didn't sound like I was making excuses.

[RWBG]

If one of your letter writers can comment on that, it would be better than you mentioning it in the PS. Doing so tends to break up the flow of the statement, and does sound a bit like you're making excuses. At least it's seemed so from my experience (my UGPA is relatively low.)

[catchermiscount]

Don't shoot yourself in the foot. There are plenty of people in the business happy to do that for you. You're your own best advocate.

[Benefactor]

Don't shoot yourself in the foot. There are plenty of people in the business happy to do that for you. You're your own best advocate.

Care to be more specific as to what you mean?

[catchermiscount]

I mean don't spend time with extended attempts at rationalizing what you perceive to be your weaknesses. It's a short statement, and you should use the scarce space you have highlighting strengths, commonalities, and intended direction. As has been noted, it'd be better to use other parts of your packet (letters, an addendum) for this kind of thing.

[Benefactor]

I see, thanks.

Did anybody else have any thoughts?

Oh, by the way...to what extent do PhD programs generally value GPAs obtained in other masters programs? Just kind of a random question...if they're not super, super important, maybe it's not even worth having the grading scale brought up in a LOR.

[blaspheming]

Oh, by the way...to what extent do PhD programs generally value GPAs obtained in other masters programs? Just kind of a random question...if they're not super, super important, maybe it's not even worth having the grading scale brought up in a LOR.

I always assumed my master's GPA would be unimportant in the application process. I was talking to a professor from a top-20 university who said, and I quote, "Your master's GPA is what matters for this application. The fact that you completed your master's program with a 4.0 means you are fully capable of doing graduate-level work, and I wouldn't give your undergrad grades much weight."

I'm not sure if that's a common view among different institutions. Hope this helps a bit.

[Benefactor]

I always assumed my master's GPA would be unimportant in the application process. I was talking to a professor from a top-20 university who said, and I quote, "Your master's GPA is what matters for this application. The fact that you completed your master's program with a 4.0 means you are fully capable of doing graduate-level work, and I wouldn't give your undergrad grades much weight."

I'm not sure if that's a common view among different institutions. Hope this helps a bit.

Aren't you kind of contradicting yourself? You said you thought your masters gpa was unimportant but then said a professor from a prominent school said the masters gpa was important. I dunno.

Why did you think the masters gpa was unimportant?

[Mearsheimer]

Aren't you kind of contradicting yourself? You said you thought your masters gpa was unimportant but then said a professor from a prominent school said the masters gpa was important. I dunno.

Why did you think the masters gpa was unimportant?

He is not contradicting himself. He believes in something which is not true and his professor unveiled it.

Masters gpa is important for sure. While I believe this assertion to be valid, one caveat is in order. SOP should be paramount in your application.