In need of IR Application Advice

[PDCU]

Hi, everyone! It's been a while since I last applied to PhD programs so I wanted to ask your advice. If you could bear with me a bit and hear me out, I would greatly appreciate it!

I graduated college with a BA (w/ Hon) in International Relations. I applied to a bunch of PhD programs in my senior year of college, but I went on to complete an academically focused MA in IR. During that time, my MA thesis advisor suggested that I should work for a bit before applying again to PhD programs because it will give me more experience and maturity. And so I went on become a commissioned officer in the US Navy. Now that my service obligation is almost up, I am starting to look into applying to PhD programs once again since now I am certain that PhD in IR is what I want to do. I am afraid, however, that I've been away from the academia during my stint in the navy. With your help/advice, I want to get a feel for where the IR community is going and how I can best prepare for my application.

In my training and interest, I am more drawn towards qualitative methodology while having only limited proficiency in high level mathematics. I've taken one Statistics course for my MA, but that's about it. My research interest is in East Asian security and politics with emphasis in maritime disputes, and I can speak Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. First thing I'll do is studying for the GRE. Then, I'll think deeply about specifying my research topic in coherent form on paper.

Few questions, though. My commanding officer (the captain of my ship) suggested to me that I should apply for PhD without me even telling him my plans, so I think that means he will write me a great recommendation. Do you think his letter would be helpful? Or should I just stick to academic letters? Which schools do you think will fit my interests? Do you think my experience with the military help or hurt my application? What else can I do to bolster my application while I wait for my service obligation to be up? Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

[Rockerika]

It sounds like you are off to a great start for doing qualitative work while being able to do enough math to get by in the obligatory quantitative classes required at most departments. Speaking 3 languages will be a great help as well. How much rankings matter depends on your career goals. What are you looking to do with your PhD?

I'm currently looking for qualitative/open minded programs as well, so I will share some of my picks:

Northwestern University

U of Minnesota

UC Berkeley

Arizona State (they have Richard K. Ashley for IR Theory work, but aren't ranked high at all)

 

Every school will have different letter guidelines, some only want three academic letters, some will require 2 letters but accept a third, etc. I would definitely recommend academic letters only if you have enough former professors to write them. You might be able to get away with your CO being the third, but a third glowing academic letter would be better.

I don't have any particular recommendations for schools for East Asia studies, because that isn't my area of focus. Maybe check out University of Washington? I would recommend finding out who the experts of that particular field are and applying to the schools they are teaching at.

I can't tell you much as to what military experience will do for/against you, but whatever your experience is, find ways to use it to your advantage. A PhD program requires a lot of discipline and determination to complete. I'm sure military experience can only help on that front. It might take some time to adapt to the less structured environment of academia again, but whatever you bring with you from your service experience, find ways to make it into an advantage. Certainly no one is going to hold your military experience against you for admissions, etc.

To bolster your applications, study for the GRE,.Get back in touch with your Master's advisers and professors to ask for advice and letters of recommendation. They might be able to recommend programs to apply to. Catch up on the current state of East Asian IR literature. Decide what your second subfield will be, most programs require 2 (American, Comparative, Theory...). Take notes/write drafts for your statements of purpose Generally just try to get yourself back into the mindset of being a scholar and student.

Hope this rambling helps! A lot of this depends on what your goals are after the PhD.