Profiles and Results 2009

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Just made my decision so here goes:

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad Institution: International unknown

Major(s)/Minor(s): Philosophy and History

Undergrad GPA: 3.9

Type of Grad: US top 10 (MA in IR)

Grad GPA: 3.9

GRE: 610Q 670V 5.0AW

Any Special Courses: micro and macro econ prior to starting my MA, but that's all.

Letters of Recommendation: All from top 10 grad school (two tenure track, one associate)

Research Experience: summer fellowships and one publication (book chapter)

Teaching Experience: 4 semesters as a TA

Subfield/Research Interests: IR with security focus

SOP: standard - outlined area of interest, my background, and why the department would be a good fit for me.

Other: two years related work experience in the government sector.

RESULTS:

Acceptances($$ or no $$): Rutgers, UT Austin, McGill, GWU (all funded), UVA (unfunded).

Waitlists:

Rejections: Princeton, Cornell, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Georgetown

Pending:

Going to: GWU!

What would you have done differently? A lot of things, but mainly 1) retaken my GRE to get the quant score higher, 2) spent more than a couple of days on my SOP, 3) not tried to move countries in the middle of the application process. Thankfully I am very pleased with the outcome but it could easily have been a different story. Good luck everyone!

[waterline]

PROFILE:

Type of Undergrad Institution: HYP

Major(s)/Minor(s): History of Art

Undergrad GPA: 3.58

Type of Grad: Area Studies

Grad GPA: 4.0

GRE: 750v 710q 6.0

Any Special Courses:

Letters of Recommendation: 2 strong from well-known poli sci Professors; 1 so-so, non poli sci

Research Experience: Journalist in-country.

Teaching Experience: Some

Subfield/Research Interests: Comparative Politics, Political Economy, Quantitative Methods

SOP: Half decently written -- but it was a little unfocused. I should have learned more about the discipline before sending it off, and tailored it to schools.

RESULTS:

Acceptances($$ or no $$): Berkeley, MIT, Columbia, all funded, Oxford (MPhil - unfunded)

Waitlists: None

Rejections: Harvard, Princeton, UCSD

What would you have done differently?

(1) Applied to places (like Yale and Stanford -- not that I would have gotten in to either) where there was no tenured person doing my area, but whose interests intersected with mine. You don't need to apply, or chose, based on area studies interests!

(2) Learned more about the currents of the discipline before writing my SOP. I should have given my SOP to two people, rather than one person, in the discipline.