Personal Advice about PhD programs

[buckinghamubadger]

I am currently entering my second year of a Masters program in Political Science, and I am debating whether or not to do the PhD. I keep going back and forth on the subject. On the one hand, I love academia, beoming a tenured professor at a university is my dream job and I know that I am qualified to do it, and that I could be a good talent for whichever school gave me the opportunity to teach and research. On the other, graduate school is quite taxing, I am unsure of what types of schools I could get in to, it is far from certain that I would be able to obtain an academic job, and its another five years of my life. I am also considering trying to get a teaching job at a community college after graduating or, if that fails, attempting to go into policy work. 

My acadmic resume could probably get me into a program that is at least decent. A professor at a conference I presented at, at a mid teir UC, seemed interested in me. Here is my resume to this point

BA from a top poli sci program: 3.1 overall, 3.4 in major, but my second half was much stronger: 3.5 overall, 3.8 in major.

MA in progress at a decent lower tiered school: 3.8 GPA to this point.

I would be able to get letters of rec from famous professors at my undergrad and would also be able to get very strong letters from professors in my Masters program.

I have no idea what I would get on the GRE. 

I have two confrence presentations under my belt, and will likely present at more confrences.

I am working on three papers for publication this summer. I know that at least one of them has a very strong chance. The other two, I am not as sure.

I also have teaching experience that may or may not be relevant to PhD programs, but would certainly be relevant to community colleges. I taught a class last semester, and am currently a TA. I am also currently a TA at the community college level, and may get some classroom experience there as well.

 

So my questions, I suppose, are simple: what kind of programs could I get into? I know my undergrad GPA was low, but the rest of my resume is strong. Do I have enough there to get into top programs such as Stanford, UChicago, Michigan, ect.? Or would I more likely end up at a midteir program like Arizona, LSU, Michigan State ect.? Or would I maybe even have to settle for lower tiered programs like Buffalo, Missouri- St. Louis, Hawaii, ect.?

I love political science more than anyone, but is the fact that I find graduate school taxing (as much as I love it) a troubling sign if I intend to get a PhD?

 

Would it even be worth it for me to assume the risk of going through a PhD program that may not improving my job prospects when I seem to have a good chance at getting a community college job?

Is everyone in our whole field just screwed?

If you've made it to here, thanks for reading, and I would really appreciate your advice.

[buckinghamubadger]

I also have some work experience in politics and a tiny bit of research experience as an undergrad that shouldn't matter too much, but might

 

[Atypicalgirl]

Maybe you should take a break and refresh yourself before trying for a Phd program. If you're finishing up masters that could be sufficient for some community colleges  (I live in Tennessee and the community colleges here only require a masters) especially since you have teaching experience. I don't think you should commit to another 5-7 years of school if you're not looking forward to the experience at least a little. Just my two cents, good luck with your decision. 

[Determinedandnervous]

Graduate school is an endeavor that is inevitably taxing, so if you are feeling that it means you're working hard as you should.  If you find you don't like political science, then you should bow out, but this doesn't appear to be the case.

Your undergrad is irrelevant since you have a master's with a really good GPA. The fact that you have presentations and teaching under your belt sends unambiguous positive signals which will give you a leg up on virtually all of the competition. Having papers under review (suggest writing the names of the journals they were sent to in your CV) is a strong signal of research potential.

A master's degree may be enough to teach at community colleges, but a PhD will be preferred at most jobs unless you have some connections at a specific institution. Besides, you may find your career goals change. A PhD from a reasonably good school widens your options and makes you more competitive for your goal jobs as well.

With your record, you should apply to any top or mid tier school that has people in your field. Without knowing your research interests, I can't suggest any particular schools or people to look at, but if you give some information about that I can help you with the application process if you choose to go through with it.

[buckinghamubadger]

I am interested in a very wide variety of things, but as far as specific topics go, I am probably most interested in race, elections and constitutional law. For my MA I am an American major, Comparative minor, my undergrad was heavy in American and Theory (and even though my GPA might not show it, I actually got a lot out of it). So all things considered, American will probably be my major, and I'd be open to minor in any of the other traditional subfields, though IR is probably where I have the least educational background (not that I don't like it, but that's just the way things have shaped out). I don't want to minor in research methods, because, the way I see it, that's not political science. 

[buckinghamubadger]

Also, I haven't sent any papers out, I'm finishing up the drafting stage this summer, but one has major findings that should make it publishable.

[Determinedandnervous]

Well the good news is that when it comes to those topics you have a lot of places to choose from. For American elections, you can basically go anywhere.

For racial politics, you should check out Harvard (Claudine Gay, Jennifer Hochschild, Theda Skocpol), Stanford (Lauren D. Davenport, Gary Segura, Paul Sniderman), Princeton (LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, Dara Strolovich, Ali Valenzuela, Omar Wasow), Michigan (Vincent Hutchings, Donald Kinder, Robert Mickey, Mara Cecilia Ostfeld, Nicholas Valentino), Yale (Vesla Weaver), UC Berkeley (Rodney Hero, Taeku Lee), Columbia (Rodolfo de la Garza, Frederick Cornelius Harris, Jeffrey Henig, Kenneth Prewitt), MIT (Melissa Nobles, Ariel White), UC San Diego (Marisa A. Abrajano, Steven P. Erie, Zoltan L. Hajnal), Duke (Kerry L. Haynie, Ashley E. Jardina, Paula D. McClain), UCLA (Matt A. Barreto, Laurie Frasure-Yokley, Raymond Rocco, Melvin Rogers, Mark Q. Sawyer), Chicago (Cathy Cohen, Michael Dawson, Eric Oliver), UNC-Chapel Hill (Andrea Benjamin, Christopher Clark), WUSTL (Clarissa Wyle Hayward, Sunita Parikh), NYU (Jonathan Nagler), UW-Madison (Katherine Cramer, Keisha Lindsay, Benjamin Marquez, Byron Shafer), Cornell (David Bateman, Sergio Garcia-Rios, Joseph Marguiles, Jamila Michener), Northwestern (Traci Burch, Anthony S. Chen, Jaime Dominguez, Julie Lee Merseth, Thomas Ogorzalek, Reuel Rogers, Larry Steupnegel, Chloe Thurston, Alvin Bernard Tillery Jr.), UT-Austin (Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto, David Leal, Eric McDaniel, Tasha Philpot, Michael Rivera), UC Davis (Bradford Jones), UIUC (Cara J. Wong), Emory (Merle Black, Michael Giles, Andra Gillespie, Michael Owens, Beth Reingold), Indiana-Bloomington (Edward G. Carmines, Christopher DeSante, Bernard L. Fraga, Matthew Hayes), Texas A&M (Diego Alejando von Vacano Camara, Francisco Pedraza), Penn State (Susan Welch), Maryland (Antoine Banks, Irwin Morris, Stella Rouse), UPenn (Daniel Gillion, Marie Gottschalk, Amy Guttman, Dan Hopkins, Anne Norton, Adolph Reed), Washington (Megan Ming Francis, Sophia Jordan Wallace), Michigan State (Paul Abramson, Richard C. Hula, Sarah Reckhow), SUNY Stony Brook (Stanley Feldman, Yanna Krupnikov, Charles Taber), Iowa (Rene Rocha), George Washington (Corrine McConnaughy, Ismail White, Ingrid Creppell), Notre Dame (Darren Davis, Luis Ricardo Fraca, Dianne Pinderhughes, Ricardo Ramirez), Virginia (Lawrie Balfour, Lynn Sanders, Nicholas Winter), Vanderbilt (Allison Anoll, Cindy Kam, Efren Perez, Carol Swain), Johns Hopkins (Lester Spence), and UC Irvine (Louis DiSipio, Sara Goodman, Claire Kim, Davin Phoenix, Michael Tesler)

For constitutional law, you should check out Harvard (Daniel Carpenter), Stanford (Jack Rakove), Princeton (Paul Frymer, Stephen Macedo, Keith Whittington), Michigan (Jenna Bednar, Pamela Brandwein), Yale (Bruce Ackerman, Helene Landemore, Stephen Skowronek), MIT (Chris Warshaw), Chicago (Gerald Rosenberg, James Lindsay Wilson), UNC-Chapel Hill (Kevin McGuire), WUSTL (Randall Calvert, Lee Epstein), NYU (Christine Harrington, Melissa Schwartzberg), Ohio State (Rachel Bowen), UW-Madison (Howard Schweber), Cornell (Anne Marie Smith), UT-Austin (Gary Jacobson, H.W. Perry Jr., Jeffrey Tulis), Emory (Thomas G. Walker), Indiana-Bloomington (Eileen Braman, Judy Failer, Russell L. Hanson), Texas A&M (Judith A. Baer, Diego Alejando von Vacano Camara), Penn State (Michael Nelson), UPenn (Rogers Smith), Washington (George Lovell, Jack Turner), Michigan State (Richard C. Hula), Iowa (Paul Gowder), Notre Dame (Sotiros A. Barber, Anthony Bellia Jr., Patrick DeNeen, Richard Garnett, Matthew E. K. Hall, Vincent Phillip Muñoz, Michael Zuckert), Virginia (Sydney Milkis, David M. O'Brien), Vanderbilt (Edward Rubin, Carol Swain), Florida State (Carol S. Weissert), Georgetown (Douglas S. Reed), Johns Hopkins (Steven Teles, Emily Zackin), and UC Irvine (Charles Smith).

Princeton, Columbia, UCLA, Cornell, Northwestern, UT-Austin, Emory, Indiana-Bloomington, UPenn, SUNY Stony Brook (if you're into political psychology at all), Notre Dame, Virginia, Vanderbilt, and UC Irvine are your best bets in terms of schools to look into.

[buckinghamubadger]

Thank you so much!