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Posted

Lonestarflag, I'm with you on that. Harvard is my last school, so I'm just thinking as if I'll be going to my top choice acceptance now. It will be over soon enough!

Posted

In which case a UK PhD wouldn't be so bad, especially as the overwhelming majority of people are done within 3-4 years. 

 

I'm not sure when it comes to Canada. I think UBC, Toronto and McGill can place their students well, but others will be able to offer better advice. Generally though a US PhD is undoubtedly best for the US market..

 

If you want to work in the US, go to a US program. While the top Canadian programs can be quite good, they aren't necessarily viewed the same way in the US as they are in Canada or in other countries. They also tend to have considerably less methods training than top 25 programs in the US, though that's often supplemented with summer schools and informal training through research assistantships.

 

If you want to work in Canada, it depends. If you want to get a job at McGill or UBC or some other top departments in Canada, you'd probably be better off going in the US, as well. A majority of tenure and tenure-track faculty at both places have PhDs from the U.S., at least as of last year. (McGill, in particular, has a predilection for hiring Princeton PhDs.) Otherwise, your best options are (depending on your interests) McGill, Montreal, Toronto, UBC and Queen's. Queen's probably won't be paid much attention to outside Canada but has historically done very well in placement with a small department. Montreal has very good faculty, but it's tended not to do particularly well in placement, save under certain advisors. Part of the issue may be that their language of instruction is French, which restricts the applicant pool and may attract students who want to say in Quebec and work in French, which would limit academic job prospects a fair bit. Toronto accounts for the largest share of tenure/tenure-track Canadian political science professors, but it also has the largest department, and once you adjust for department size other places, like McGill and UBC do better. It varies a bit across subfield, though. (There's also York, if you're into poststructuralist work. They have limited placement options in political science, since Canadian programs tend to be fairly/implicitly positivist, with some exceptions, so York tends to have a bit of an issue with hiring their own students.)

 

If you want to work outside both countries, a Canadian PhD can work, especially if your interest is in working in Australia or New Zealand.

My account may be slightly biased from using qualitative information obtained from people at the departments in Montreal, but I have a project in progress on where tenure and tenure-track Canadian political science professors obtain their PhDs, systematically collecting it from every Canadian university website, so this should be a fair description in quantitative terms.

Posted (edited)

If you want to work in the US, go to a US program. While the top Canadian programs can be quite good, they aren't necessarily viewed the same way in the US as they are in Canada or in other countries. They also tend to have considerably less methods training than top 25 programs in the US, though that's often supplemented with summer schools and informal training through research assistantships.

 

If you want to work in Canada, it depends. If you want to get a job at McGill or UBC or some other top departments in Canada, you'd probably be better off going in the US, as well. A majority of tenure and tenure-track faculty at both places have PhDs from the U.S., at least as of last year. (McGill, in particular, has a predilection for hiring Princeton PhDs.) Otherwise, your best options are (depending on your interests) McGill, Montreal, Toronto, UBC and Queen's. Queen's probably won't be paid much attention to outside Canada but has historically done very well in placement with a small department. Montreal has very good faculty, but it's tended not to do particularly well in placement, save under certain advisors. Part of the issue may be that their language of instruction is French, which restricts the applicant pool and may attract students who want to say in Quebec and work in French, which would limit academic job prospects a fair bit. Toronto accounts for the largest share of tenure/tenure-track Canadian political science professors, but it also has the largest department, and once you adjust for department size other places, like McGill and UBC do better. It varies a bit across subfield, though. (There's also York, if you're into poststructuralist work. They have limited placement options in political science, since Canadian programs tend to be fairly/implicitly positivist, with some exceptions, so York tends to have a bit of an issue with hiring their own students.)

 

If you want to work outside both countries, a Canadian PhD can work, especially if your interest is in working in Australia or New Zealand.

My account may be slightly biased from using qualitative information obtained from people at the departments in Montreal, but I have a project in progress on where tenure and tenure-track Canadian political science professors obtain their PhDs, systematically collecting it from every Canadian university website, so this should be a fair description in quantitative terms.

 

Wow, thanks! I knew a good bit about the perception of UK programs in the US from prior experience, but I'm not sure anyone's ever said a word to me about Canadian programs, except to recommend one of them (McGill) to me, based on my research interests. There are relatively fewer programs in the US that deal heavily in those interests (compared to Canada or the UK--or probably a few other universities in Europe, but my only passable second language is German, and not strong enough to study in it). Not that there are none, but I get the impression that post-conflict and peace studies aren't as sexy to the field here in the US, so I've started to wonder if I shouldn't expand beyond US programs in order to secure the training I'd benefit most from.

 

If I stay in the US, and I very likely will (previously mentioned personal ties), I may have to contort my research interests to get them to fit in a program that may have one or two people (at most) with any interest in my very specific topic.

Edited by cupofnimbus
Posted

My second reject. This time from Indiana Bloomington. It wasn't even painful. 8 to go

 

My condolences :( 

 

Rejections aren't even logical--if they were, you could prepare for it. I was fine for my first two rejections, but the third one sent me into a six-hour fit of self-pity on the couch. Then the next two were okay, if a bit stinging! It is weird.

Posted

My condolences :(

 

Rejections aren't even logical--if they were, you could prepare for it. I was fine for my first two rejections, but the third one sent me into a six-hour fit of self-pity on the couch. Then the next two were okay, if a bit stinging! It is weird.

Completely agree. The worst is an onset of obsessive email checking. I usually don't do it but a few UCLA rejections went up and I am still left in the shadows......

Posted

Does anybody have any inside information on Georgetown? are they done admitting? what's the deal with these trickling out of both acceptances and rejections... it doesn't seem to follow any previous years patterns. also, subfield info at all?

Posted

The worst is an onset of obsessive email checking. 

 

Ha. Ha. Ha ha ha. :( 

 

Yes. Whenever one of my programs moves, I feel this wash of adrenaline that doesn't go away. I think Maryland is all finished now, but as soon as rejections start going up there, I'll be an anxious mess. And at least Penn has been totally silent, so I can maintain hope that they'll do like Michigan and get it done in one day, to prevent me from hanging onto hope.

Posted

If we don't hear from Penn today then in all liklihood that means we'll have to wait until March.

 

Why not tomorrow?

Posted (edited)

Why not tomorrow?

Agreed!

Like me, Cazorla, your hopes hang entirely on UPenn at this point, correct? What subfield are you? Even if we're vying for the same spot, we might as well be allies in anticipation. You can PM me if you want and we can talk some more.

Edited by Sluggo57
Posted

Does anybody have any inside information on Georgetown? are they done admitting? what's the deal with these trickling out of both acceptances and rejections... it doesn't seem to follow any previous years patterns. also, subfield info at all?

I have no idea what their deal is. I got an email yesterday directing me to the website to view my rejection letter. I'm comparative if it helps at all.

Posted

Agreed!

Like me, Cazorla, your hopes hang entirely on UPenn at this point, correct? What subfield are you? Even if we're vying for the same spot, we might as well be allies in anticipation. You can PM me if you want and we can talk some more.

 

Yup. I think at least another three or four people on this forum are in the same situation. Will PM you.

Posted

Its Friday.no one works on fridays!

 

I have a two-week streak of receiving rejections on Friday afternoon/evening. So, at the very least, I might reasonably expect that they will quickly dash them off before running out of the office to avoid the crush of sadly disappointed applicants.

Posted

Does anybody have any inside information on Georgetown? are they done admitting? what's the deal with these trickling out of both acceptances and rejections... it doesn't seem to follow any previous years patterns. also, subfield info at all?

 

I'm also very confused about Georgetown. I emailed the department yesterday asking about the remaining decisions, but haven't heard back from them yet--will update here if I do though.

Posted

Ha. Ha. Ha ha ha. :(

I don't think there's been more than ten minutes I haven't grabbed my iphone and refreshed my emails while at work. Even though I know it's like 3am US time lol
Posted

Anyone have any reason to believe there's still hope for UNC applicants who haven't heard from the department?? 

Posted

Can anyone claim Harvard Govt admit? Would also be interested to know your POI and Subfield...

 

I was doing so well with my anxiety right until now. 

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