Am I Completely Screwed?

[nybrian]

I Withdrawed from a Calculus class, then took it again and failed, then I took it again and again I failed.

What are my options? I wanted to go to Stony Brook for a PHD in political psychology, or a international relations PHD program. What should I do next? What are my options?

[brent09]

Well, first you'll need to figure out what you want to study. Poli psych is very different from IR, unless you're talking about Foreign Policy Analysis, but I would suggest avoiding that.

Second, you need to know why Stony Brook. I get it for Psych, but not for IR. Get your field sorted out, and then figure out which programs bet suit you.

Third, the Calc grade isn't good -- it's one of those topics that is very helpful for probability and statistics. You'll want something else to show you're capable of quantitative thinking -- particularly for a quant-heavy department like SUNY-SB.

But yea... you seem a bit fuzzy in your interest. Figure out of you want to go to graduate school, and if so what you want to study. Then worry about the grade.

[nybrian]

I only want to go to Stony Brook for Political Psychology. I want to go for IR because I am very interested in the ME, and I want to go for Poli Psych because I'm very interested in the media. I am more interested in IR.

Could a good score on the quant part of the GRE make up for the calc grade.

Also, what range of IR phd programs am I looking at, and I'm guessing I don't have a shot at SB Poli Psych?

[jeffster]

I'm not sure there are any fields in the social sciences you can go into without even a grasp of basic calculus - virtually everything in social sciences involves some degree of statistical analysis. And it seems to me the trend is leaning even more heavily in that direction over time.

You might try taking it again and doing well with it, but you're still stuck with explaining away three failed attempts. Maybe you can go back and take a trig class and/or a pre-calc class, then go on to calc... work on that foundation a little before trying yet again. Not to discourage you from trying - by all means give applying to grad school a go! But don't hang all your hopes on a PhD in a social sciences field if the quant side isn't for you.