Harvard Kennedy School, PhD Public Policy

[gatech3]

In the writing sample, I was wondering if it could be any paper written by the candidate, even if it doesn't deal with the policy issues ? Would policy related write-up be a better substitute of it? Are they interested in our writing ability or the idea we are writing on or both?

[Sparky]

Call or e-mail the department and ask. This is a fairly common issue, I think, especially for people who are crossing subject lines between degrees.

All of my best work is from religious studies classes, so when applying to history programs I have had to make sure that a paper from another subject was acceptable. Some places specify on their website whether they allow a paper from a cognate field; others I have e-mailed the director of graduate studies and asked. Note, however, that you probably want to be staying at least *relatively* close to your field. I am submitting a paper on medieval theology to programs in medieval history; it would probably not do me many favors to provide a queer theory-based analysis of Battlestar Galactica. Do you have something vaguely poli sci- or historical-ish that you are thinking of submitting?

I have the impression that they want to see (a) analytical writing ability ( use of primary source material/hard data to analyze the problem, i.e. not just comparing other people's interpretations.

But again, we are in rather different fields, so paper procedure could be different as well. Contact the school and ask.

[gatech3]

Call or e-mail the department and ask. This is a fairly common issue, I think, especially for people who are crossing subject lines between degrees.

All of my best work is from religious studies classes, so when applying to history programs I have had to make sure that a paper from another subject was acceptable. Some places specify on their website whether they allow a paper from a cognate field; others I have e-mailed the director of graduate studies and asked. Note, however, that you probably want to be staying at least *relatively* close to your field. I am submitting a paper on medieval theology to programs in medieval history; it would probably not do me many favors to provide a queer theory-based analysis of Battlestar Galactica. Do you have something vaguely poli sci- or historical-ish that you are thinking of submitting?

I have the impression that they want to see (a) analytical writing ability ( use of primary source material/hard data to analyze the problem, i.e. not just comparing other people's interpretations.

But again, we are in rather different fields, so paper procedure could be different as well. Contact the school and ask.

Thanks very much for your input. Your analysis makes perfect sense to me.

Thanks again.