Likelihood of admission as an international student

[Monody]

Hey there,

I am currently preparing everything for my application this December and I am feeling like I am getting completely mad, because I have no idea how my chances are.

First of all, I have no idea how they are going to calculate my GPA based on my grades in the German system. I looked at different calculators online which indicated everything ranging from 3.3 to 4.0 with 3.8 probably being the safest bet (WEI gives me a 4.0). So I reached out to multiple admission offices who told me that they apparently can't tell me how they convert international grades, but that I should include a grading scale with my application which my university (top 1 in my country apparently) doesn't have. It also doesn't help that I read at a couple of places that your chances of getting accepted shrink considerably when you enter 0.0, because the admission committee tends to be confused by it. Also the only grade which really pulls me down is completely unrelated to what I actually intent on doing. It was a course on social structures, cities, and diversities which transferred to my new university. Does anybody know whether such aspects are taken into account by the respective committees?

Further, there is no such thing as research opportunities at my university for undergraduates. The contracts usually last for two years, but they only accept you after your second year which means that you have to do your master there as well. Additionally, for most positions they only accept MA students. I even had two offers, one for a TA job to teach the introductory course to statistics and Stata (wasn't possible since I transferred) and another to work with a researcher at a think tank (wasn't possible because said scholar was unaware that his institute requires an enrolment in graduate studies). I would like to include these things, but on the other hand I suspect that it would raise eye brows if I were to talk about offers I didn't take up. Aside from that issue, I wrote at least 10 independent term papers (6000 words usually) and have plenty of experience in that regard, but I don't know if that is comparable to what undergraduates in the US do and whether it counts for anything.

I would be very glad for some advice and some outside perspectives on my situation. I will try to briefly summarise the other aspects of application so that you can get a better idea. My CV includes two internships at the national parliament, a 9 months voluntary year of social service at a research institute for sustainability studies where I to a degree assisted in their research, extracurricular activities (member of the youth group of the council of foreign relations of my country and organiser of a project to support disadvantaged students before and during their undergraduate studies), practically two scholarship (one for my exchange year and the other for academic achievement [1/2000, long-term funding]), and a very high workload in all terms (finished all required courses after two instead of three years).  I also speak 4 1/2 languages (German, English, French, Italian, Mandarin[1/2]), but I suppose nobody cares for that since everybody speaks English anyway. My LORs will probably be okay. I got one from my first university from the professor above the guy who offered me the TA job but who doesn't really know me. The latter will at least advise him and tell him about me. Another is from a scholar from my current university which will be fine and the third hopefully from my exchange university in Copenhagen but I'll have to see. The GRE will also be alright. I started my preparations 9 days ago and will take the test at the end of August or in mid-September and I am currently at 160/163 (V/Q). At last, my writing sample will feature a hazard analysis with Stata, an overall good research design, and new insights.

The universities I want to apply to include Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, NYC, Duke, UCSD, MIT, Princeton, and maybe Emory. My research interest focus on civil wars, authoritarian regimes, and international interventions. I consider myself strongly on the quant and formal theory side.

I am sorry that I bombard you with so much text, but I would be extremely glad for some insights on my prospects and general advice to improve them. If you can add something to the GPA issue that would already greatly soothe my mind.

[Karoku_valentine]

2 hours ago, Monody said:

Hey there,

I am currently preparing everything for my application this December and I am feeling like I am getting completely mad, because I have no idea how my chances are.

First of all, I have no idea how they are going to calculate my GPA based on my grades in the German system. I looked at different calculators online which indicated everything ranging from 3.3 to 4.0 with 3.8 probably being the safest bet (WEI gives me a 4.0). So I reached out to multiple admission offices who told me that they apparently can't tell me how they convert international grades, but that I should include a grading scale with my application which my university (top 1 in my country apparently) doesn't have. It also doesn't help that I read at a couple of places that your chances of getting accepted shrink considerably when you enter 0.0, because the admission committee tends to be confused by it. Also the only grade which really pulls me down is completely unrelated to what I actually intent on doing. It was a course on social structures, cities, and diversities which transferred to my new university. Does anybody know whether such aspects are taken into account by the respective committees?

Further, there is no such thing as research opportunities at my university for undergraduates. The contracts usually last for two years, but they only accept you after your second year which means that you have to do your master there as well. Additionally, for most positions they only accept MA students. I even had two offers, one for a TA job to teach the introductory course to statistics and Stata (wasn't possible since I transferred) and another to work with a researcher at a think tank (wasn't possible because said scholar was unaware that his institute requires an enrolment in graduate studies). I would like to include these things, but on the other hand I suspect that it would raise eye brows if I were to talk about offers I didn't take up. Aside from that issue, I wrote at least 10 independent term papers (6000 words usually) and have plenty of experience in that regard, but I don't know if that is comparable to what undergraduates in the US do and whether it counts for anything.

I would be very glad for some advice and some outside perspectives on my situation. I will try to briefly summarise the other aspects of application so that you can get a better idea. My CV includes two internships at the national parliament, a 9 months voluntary year of social service at a research institute for sustainability studies where I to a degree assisted in their research, extracurricular activities (member of the youth group of the council of foreign relations of my country and organiser of a project to support disadvantaged students before and during their undergraduate studies), practically two scholarship (one for my exchange year and the other for academic achievement [1/2000, long-term funding]), and a very high workload in all terms (finished all required courses after two instead of three years).  I also speak 4 1/2 languages (German, English, French, Italian, Mandarin[1/2]), but I suppose nobody cares for that since everybody speaks English anyway. My LORs will probably be okay. I got one from my first university from the professor above the guy who offered me the TA job but who doesn't really know me. The latter will at least advise him and tell him about me. Another is from a scholar from my current university which will be fine and the third hopefully from my exchange university in Copenhagen but I'll have to see. The GRE will also be alright. I started my preparations 9 days ago and will take the test at the end of August or in mid-September and I am currently at 160/163 (V/Q). At last, my writing sample will feature a hazard analysis with Stata, an overall good research design, and new insights.

The universities I want to apply to include Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, NYC, Duke, UCSD, MIT, Princeton, and maybe Emory. My research interest focus on civil wars, authoritarian regimes, and international interventions. I consider myself strongly on the quant and formal theory side.

I am sorry that I bombard you with so much text, but I would be extremely glad for some insights on my prospects and general advice to improve them. If you can add something to the GPA issue that would already greatly soothe my mind.

I don't think the grade calculation matters. If you have 9.5 out of 10, just change it to the grading scale of 3'sh, which is 9.5*4/10=3.8, or just leave it as 9.5. I have no idea why Americans have such a weird scale when they could just do 1-100 or 1-10. Anyway, all of my friends were admitted in American universities and their transcripts were like mine: 1-10.

Paragraph 3. They will ask you for writing samples or to write a paper in the application. So, you can show how good you are.

This is what is important:

"My CV includes two internships at the national parliament, a 9 months voluntary year of social service at a research institute for sustainability studies where I to a degree assisted in their research, extracurricular activities (member of the youth group of the council of foreign relations of my country and organiser of a project to support disadvantaged students before and during their undergraduate studies), practically two scholarship (one for my exchange year and the other for academic achievement [1/2000, long-term funding]), and a very high workload in all terms (finished all required courses after two instead of three years).  I also speak 4 1/2 languages (German, English, French, Italian, Mandarin[1/2]), "

I didn't carefully read your whole text, but I am not sure if you are mentioning PhD or Master. If it is a Master, you will probably be admitted in any of those programs. I have met people at SIPA in Columbia and at UCSD with bad CVs and they were still admitted. Even friends with Ok CV's were admitted to Harvard. If it is the PhD, then it will become much more complicated, and you will have to show you have very good analytical skills in the writing samples. Luck!

[Monody]

Thank you for your reply and I am sorry that I didn't mention that but I am indeed applying for PhD programs. If you think that the Americans have a weird scale then you have not seen most of the scales in Europe. Our grading scale in Germany goes from 1.0 (best) over 1.3, 1.7, 2.0, until 4.0 and if your grade is worse you fail. There apparently exists a Europe-wide option to use the ECTS lettering but as I said my university does not have a conversion key or anything like that.

[Karoku_valentine]

Yes. I read your other posts. I have a lot of friends in master programs, but not a lot in PhD's. Specifically, I have just one friend who did her major in Poli-Sci and IR; she worked at PWC doing some lobbying for 3 years (it sounds good, but in reality is just a regular job, nothing out of ordinary) and published a paper in an unknown but peer-reviewed journal (in Spanish). Overall, her profile seems good. However, I have no idea about her writing sample. She is attending OSU and is interested in subnational/province democracy. If I had more friends in PhD programs, I would tell you. Maybe you can search on Linkedin or in google the students at the universities you want to attend and see how your profile compares to theirs.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

When it comes to your GPA, a few of my peers in my MA program came from German universities, and a number of faculty on the admissions committee had taught in Europe and the UK prior to moving to Canada. The one thing I would stress is that if your GPA has no conversion scale, or grading scale offered period (though normally all transcripts have something on the back, even if it's a quintile ranking (where you are relative to peers in a class curve etc.), then your GRE is going to be really really important. Part of the reason its required is to ensure that one element of your profile is comparable to everyone else and is graded on the same scale etc. When it comes to explaining your GPA, have one of your letter writers contextualize your undergrad institution's ranking and workload. They can speak reputably about your university's ability to prepare you for for graduate school, and describe how you fared within this context. I've said this elsewhere, but make sure they know you well and can speak to different components of your profile.

This all said, I wouldn't enter a 0.0. If you have to, use an online conversion tool and reference that in an additional document or as an addendum to your statement. As an aside, I find it really hard to believe that your university doesn't have a grading scale of any kind. How do you know where you sit relative to your peers? Is there any sort of explanation, anywhere, that explains what your grades mean? Because that's likely what they're looking for.

When it comes to your research opportunities, I wouldn't include job offers you didn't take. They don't demonstrate experience, just missed opportunities. Your CV and statements should speak to what makes you qualified and the skills you do possess and want to build on. You should instead stress the work you have done that is research related - independent projects and papers in your coursework - and how that made you want to go to graduate school. You don't need to have held independent RA positions or TAships to have research experience. Perhaps some elements of your internships were really useful in teaching you about policy analysis or the political process? Stress your background in quantitative methods as well - this is a huge plus. It's also a good sign that you have a quantitative writing sample. Writing sample requirements vary across institutions - definitely try your best to keep that model in your sample no matter the page count (some will only accept a 10 page abbreviated portion for example).

I would list your language skills on your CV, perhaps mention how this feeds into the type of work you want to do in your statement, if it's tied to particular regions of interest. It's a great skill to have if you want to do fieldwork or archival work on your topic in non-English speaking host country.

Hope this helps.

[Monody]

@CarefreeWritingsontheWall Thank you for your reply.

I recently was in contact with the admission office at Princeton and they told me that I should enter my average German grade and that during the last season they picked someone from Germany with an average of 2.0 which is relieving since I've a 1.3 (also Princeton has the nicest admission office of all those I already contacted). Do you think that I can use WES to convert my grade? I don't know whether that will make a positive impression since it gives me a GPA of 4.0 which may be inflated. In the last week, I again went to the responsible office multiple times and apparently we do have a grading scale, even though it only says that 1.0-1.5 is very good, 1.5-2.5 is good, and so forth (you fail with anything worse than a 4.0). Funnily enough, WES and foreigncredits use the same scale, but apparently a German "good" is still an American "A" which causes the mentioned 4.0. If you consider a "good" as a "B" my GPA drops to 3.75 which happens if I transfer my grades to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) and then to the GPA. The idiocy of this whole affair is really nerve wracking. On the positive side yesterday, I also practised again for the GRE and reached 165/163 with the Powerprep tool.

The LoR writers are currently one issue. I will have a strong one from the adviser of my undergraduate thesis and with whom I additionally took two courses. She is well versed in the area I want to do research in, but does not represent my scientific approach (post-structuralism [her] vs rational choice [me]). Probably not an issue, but I would just want to note that. The second reviewer is the methodologist at my first university. I only took one lecture with him (5th best out of 200 in the exam, but still my worst grade with a 2.0 ), but I massively impressed his assistant who directed the statistics courses. I was the first one in multiple years who cleared all the required courses with straight A's (1.0 in the German context) and he offered me the TA position multiple times and seemed disappointed when I told him that my transfer was successful. Since the assistant can't write the LoR, he agreed to advise said methodologist with the letter writing who now has my CV, Resumé, transcripts, and so forth.

Number 3 is currently a bit more difficult. I could ask the theorist at my first university which I probably also strongly impressed and who helped me to get my scholarship (countrywide and all levels of education; 1/2000), but with whom I didn't have a course in a year. His scientific advisor with whom I am in good contact, recommended me to look for another, because of that gap. The problem is that most of the faculty with whom I was in contact either only hold a PhD or can't evaluate my scientific research, because I didn't write a term paper in their course. I intended to get a LoR from my exchange university, but the course of the faculty member I intend to ask only starts at the end of November which is well too late. I am currently pondering the question whether I can ask him if there are any opportunities to assist him in his research so that he could actually write a letter and talk about something substantial. I will probably send him an email on Monday on that topic. Related to that I intend to start two group research projects at my exchange universities which will then begin in September and I thought about mentioning this in one sentence or so somewhere, even if we will not have published anything in December. It may also increase my chances with the professor there.

I see your point regarding the opportunities I didn't take and am thinking about stressing the fact that most of the methods I applied in my term papers, I taught myself (e.g. game theory or how to create a directed dyadic data set without loosing half the variables in the process [took some time]). Further I agree that the writing sample will be a plus if it is quantitative and I intend to do some research on what is currently the state of the art when it comes to survival analysis. I will also substantiate it with some formal theory and a few minutes ago in the shower thought about repeating the whole analysis in R (I use Stata) to verify that the results are robust to different statistics software (and to show that I can also use R). Lastly, the page count does not seem to be an issue. I think all of the universities I intend to apply to want 20 to 30 or more double-spaced pages and my undergraduate thesis which I want to submit is only allowed to have so many words. Do you know if these pages includes references, tables, and figures? 

Last question: based on the universities I will apply to and supposing a GPA of 3.8, a GRE of 166/166/5, a strong writing sample, a strong SOP with a clear research statement, prior positive contact with faculty members, and average to good LoR, do you think that I should include more universities to guarantee a place somewhere?

Best regards

Monody

Edited July 9, 2016 by Monody

[kaykaykay]

1. start to prepare for your GRE-s and take them. They matter even more for foreigners than for American students. Without that it is really hard to see whether you have a good profile or not. Just by the grades you really cannot evaluate your profile.

2. make sure you have good LOR-s related to your proposed field of study.

3. make sure that you have a good writing sample related to your proposed field of study.

4. make sure you have a good fit to the universities that you apply to, do not just choose top 10 bc they are top 10 (also try to add safeties)

Do not worry about how grades look like. You cannot do anything about that. Universities have seen a lot, just follow what they tell you to do with them, they will use the conversion rate they want. Especially German grades should not be an issue, I am pretty sure they have GErman applicants every year.  You have to include all your grades. In your application discuss what you did and not what you did not do.

 

 

Edited July 12, 2016 by kaykaykay

[Monody]

@kaykaykay

Thank you four your input. I am currently actively preparing for the GRE and as I said will take it at the end of August. As I wrote I expect at least something akin to 166/166/5-5.5. The prof I wrote to regarding a research assistantship at my exchange university didn't get back to me yet, but after consulting with faculty members at my current university, the alternative of asking my former theory prof seems to be a viable possibility, specifically because he knows me and is himself quite well-known. It is apparently less of a big deal, that I didn't have a course with him in the last year as long as the other LoRs are more recent and good. To the third point, Ive started a while ago on the writing sample and it is directly related to what I want to do and will probably be comparatively advanced considering that they don't teach the statistical knowledge necessary at an undergraduate level. Lastly, the fit overall is at least good and at some very good as my research question touches on work that is currently being done. There are some lower ranked universities at which I didn't look, but could have, but that is mostly a result from either the fact that they don't offer funding or have deficiencies in one of my two main areas. 

As I am currently working on my SOP I will keep your last paragraph in mind. If you have any universities in mind that I should look at, please let me know. I am mainly focused on civil wars, quantitative analysis, and modelling and I didn't have the feeling that there are so many good and funded graduate programs with that combination being at least partially satisfied.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Monody

[Monody]

I yesterday was in contact with a professor who I asked for something like a voluntary research assistantship and he was interested in it, so that we will have a chat in mid-August. That may not be much, but it is at least something presentable and he may be willing to write my third LoR.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

Hi @Monody. Sorry for disappearing.

When it comes to admissions, that's great to hear that you had something helpful. The range you described (very good, good etc.) is still a description of your grade breakdown, and something worth including in an official capacity. I would also check to see if there's something on the back of an official transcript explaining this - is it just blank? I don't know anything about WES, but if you do use it, be sure to say so somewhere in your application so the adcom can figure out how you did it.

I would say the theoretical perspective of your LoR writers is less of an issue, though it would be worth having your first writer contextualize the kind of work you do. I would try to reconnect with that third letter writer via email. You can also forward them papers as an example of your work, while having their letter focus on your character and less your research. Happy to see your updates about potential research opportunities. Definitely keep working on those.

Explaining your methods training in your SOP is useful. Try to substantiate it with some coursework, so there is a grade that represents what you know somewhere. When it comes to replicating results across programs, it's not commonly done and less so demonstrated in a paper's results section beyond a statement saying so. R results tend to be slightly different depending on the package you use, though basically the same. If you're working with panel data, Stata also remains superior. It remains so much easier to employ fixed or random effects, as well as clustered standard errors. Survival analysis is also super clean in Stata. If you're looking to pick up some R, look up John Fox's tutorials and scripts online. He's super helpful and his scripts are so easy to follow.

I would also note, page counts can be remarkably shorter than 20-30. UPenn is under 10, and a number of others prefer 15 (including Colombia which is 15-20). The shorter the better. I was told by my MA supervisor that I should assume that includes tables and appendixes. Admittedly I pushed the limits a little by manipulating margins and spacing myself but it didn't always pay off. Clear tables and graphs will be key - they'll be the first thing to grab someone's attention when they scroll through, but make sure it isn't bogged down by figures.

As for your list of schools, I personally applied to 8. In hindsight, I could have dropped 2 that were a poor fit for what I focus on. Be sure that you know there are a large number of people you can work with. I picked schools based on faculty fit, and whether I could see myself living in that area for 5-6 years. Cost of living and average stipends are also useful things to know, as well as whether schools offer graduate housing options. Check out http://www.phdstipends.com/results to get a sense of average stipends for political science PhDs. The other conditioning factor was rankings: I was willing to apply to universities that had an overall lower ranking if there were 3-4 great people I could work with in subfield (e.g. Georgetown for IPE, even though the program is ranked top 50). I still think this is a safe bet when you pair such application opportunities with where you fit best within the top 10 schools like Harvard etc. Right now you have a decent range, but NYU, UCSD and Emory are still very competitive programs. Without knowing what you do, I'm can't really suggest other places to consider. More generally, I think GWU is really up and coming since they moved to a fully funded program - they have a TON of money and people working on security. UPenn is also a great place and they just landed Beth Simmons from Harvard. UChicago has a lot going on for security as well and UCLA has a lot to offer as well.

There is no means to "guaranteeing" a place per se. But overall I think you have a competitive profile. I mean, I had a CGPA of 3.9 coming out of my MA (3.76 for my BA), a 152Q/158V/6AW GRE score. I compensated for my shit math score with a quantitative writing sample and a grade memo from a summer statistics program, as well as comments by my LOR writers that my test scores don't reflect on my potential (I never test well on standardized tests x_x). There are ways to balance these things out. I'd certainly say you have better raw scores than I do. I'm sure you'll be set. Sounds like you're already up to some really interesting work. Best of luck to you!

[Monody]

@CarefreeWritingsontheWall

First of all, thank you for coming back to me. I checked back with the lady at the responsible office and she now somehow got a signed and stamped sheet of paper which indicates what the grades mean. The LoRs also seems to sort themselves out. I had a discussion with my method prof who studied at Duke and who told me that he will write a great letter. We talked a bit about why I want to study in the US and what kind of general information he should write in the letter. He will also write about the experience his TAs had with me.

I will see whether I will replicate the results in R. It just seemed like most use R in the US so that I assumed that it may make a good impression and I will keep your suggestion with the page number in mind. I supposed that this excluded bibliography, graphs, tables, and such. At least, that's how they deal with it at my university. Otherwise, my general papers would be 30+ pages in length which would be insane.

Do you have any other suggestions regarding universities I might wanna look at? I always have this mantra in mind, that going to a lower-rated program is toxic to future opportunities in academia, so I chose those most close to my interests in the upper ranks. My interests basically encompass insurgent behaviour in civil war. Not COIN, but currently specifically causes and consequences of different kinds of strategic behaviour with specific regards to the changing media environment. Just to add this and it may sound silly, but I decided against UCLA because of the location and against UCB, because of the kind of press and the apparent mindset of the faculty. Not that I would critique anything, it's just not what I am looking for.

I know that a place is not guaranteed even though my current plan is banking on it. I will apply for some exit options, but I may begin praying from December through March. I may have already written this, but I am currently setting up two research groups at my exchange university and am considering to note this in half a sentence or so when something comes from it. I also am thinking about mentioning that I worked for 5 or so years as a private math teacher to 1st and 2nd college students in Mathematics, but I don't know whether anyone really cares.

Again thank you for your help.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

On 2016-07-19 at 2:50 PM, Monody said:

Again thank you for your help.

No problem. These kinds of things certainly do have a way of working out. I wouldn't say that everyone in the US uses R - it really depends on the type of quantitative work you're doing. For IPE, and large-N panel datasets, most people are using Stata or some combination of the two. For data mining, text analysis, web scraping and graphics, R is definitely superior. But the types of models matter. I know that count and MLE people are split between the two. In a way it depends on how young faculty are but even then, certain departments, and even professors within them, have their own preferences. It's a great asset to be proficient in the two (I personally jump back and forth depending on what I'm doing, with a preference for R overall because you can have multiple datasets open at once). If you don't have it going in, I wouldn't worry about it. You'll have more than enough opportunity to pick it up once you're in.

I agree that prestige matters. I had a lot of people feel like the decision was made for me when I was down to considering a top 3 vs. top 50 program based on the "pedigree" I would have coming out. For me, I wasn't certain. I needed to be happy where I was going, and fit mattered a great deal. I found that in my field (IPE), overall rankings didn't necessarily match up with the ranking/prestige of where the top people in my substantive area of focus were working. People have commented elsewhere that this is the case, and the US News subfield rankings are really out of date. E.g. I applied to Harvard. Simmons left for UPenn, leaving just Frieden as the only IPE prof within the department of government...really should have saved myself the money). Ultimately I wouldn't (and didn't) apply to anywhere I wouldn't see myself living or going if it was my only choice. I personally dropped UCSD, UCLA, UCB, UMichigan and NYU from my list of schools to apply to for this reason specifically, despite preferring to be on the West coast

Outside your list and given your interests, options that are worth looking at include GWU, UPenn and UChicago for sure, and maybe UMichigan, Cornell, or OSU depending on faculty fit - read bios and recent publications to get an idea. GWU and UPenn also accept larger cohorts of 20ish people, compared to Stanford's 5-7.

Your mathematics position is well worth having on your CV, as is any form of employment you held related to your interests or field. It shows that you have teaching experience, as well as a solid math background.

Again, I'm by no means an expert. I think the most valuable bits of advice I got throughout my application cycle came from young faculty. Two of my mentors applied to 8-10 programs each, and both were only accepted to one - the program they ultimately went to and they've certainly not put been down by where they went (top 50 programs both of them). Passion for the field is really important, as is being willing to cast a wide net for applications. No matter what you do, whichever program you go to is what you make of it. People can coast through a top-5 program and get beat out in the job market by others from top-50 programs because they put in the work.

[Determinedandnervous]

Just to add to @CarefreeWritingsontheWall's words about R vs. Stata, I really don't think you need to worry about that sort of thing. Where I visited during my application season. most people told me that they didn't know how to use either going in. These were methods-heavy schools, too. The fact that you can use both is frankly amazing (I can't even do that, going from Stata to R has been tough).

In addition to the schools you listed, I would also check out OSU and Penn State (I'm biased on the latter though as that's my program) if you're interested in conflict.

Also, @CarefreeWritingsontheWall, is Stanford's cohort really only 5-7? Wow. For some reason I thought they admitted an exceptionally large cohort since they have an extraordinarily large amount of faculty.

[Monody]

Just to clarify. I am not proficient with R only with Stata, but I don't see why it would be an issue learning it in the next few months to a degree that I am able to replicate the results in the writing sample. Either way, I see the point, that it doesn't add much to the profile since both work fine, even though Ive to say that getting to know that R works with geospatial data was enticing in itself. Alternatively, I am considering to work a bit with Netlogo, because I could incorporate it in my paper for the universities which ask for longer ones (30-50 pages).

I checked out OSU and Penn State, as well as the others @CarefreeWritingsontheWall named. I crossed out Chicago and UCLA based on the location (I don't want to get shot or robbed or at least don't want to risk anything unnecessarily), but some of the others are interesting, specifically UMichigan, GWU and OSU. I will have a second look at Penn tomorrow.

Do you know if it is possible to get a paper under review in the next 4 months? Ive a research question and the data and would only have to divest a bit more time.

As always thanks for the help.

[Determinedandnervous]

The fact that you even know R and Netlogo exists helps your profile. I wouldn't necessarily worry about crime with LA or Chicago, most areas near the universities are fine. However, they may be expensive areas to live in, so that could be an issue worth looking into.

If you have the data and the research question, you're already halfway there. If you have a grasp on the literature you need to use to construct your argument then it's a matter of writing it up. Bonus points if you use LaTeX to write it. In my experience, it's difficult at first and for months I had issues using it but then one day it all just clicked. You could easily get the paper sent out within 4 months if you work at it (maybe not an answer back from the journal but if it's under review that's good still). What journal were you thinking of targeting with it?

[Monody]

 I have to say that I recently - and thereby generalising from my own viewpoint - thought about whether or not universities in crime-ridden cities suffer with regard to the quality of their students. Anyway, I will think about it again in the next few weeks, but a while ago when I read a review of an exchange student to the University of Chicago from my university who wrote about getting robbed as a common experience which one should be accustomed to by carrying nothing too valuable but also not nothing to avoid getting shot, I really became skeptical. 

I just wrote the first 700 words (rough drafting) based on the initial research idea and I will most likely try to work on it to see if I can hand it in early enough. The data should not be an issue; I recently looked up a few datasets, so some merging, tweaking, and testing may take time, but overall it seems to be do-able. The only issue is that I am also currently writing my undergraduate thesis and am preparing for the GRE, as well as moving to another country with all my stuff, so I will have to hone my organization skills a bit. 

Honestly, the question of the specific journal didn't cross my mind so far, but the Journal of Peace Research seems to be in the right direction based on past content and their journal outlook. I am otherwise certainly interested in any suggestions in that regard, but will definitively check out the specific sub-forum for further information and do some more research on other fitting journals. 

As always, thank you.

Edited July 24, 2016 by Monody

[Determinedandnervous]

If the article puts too much on your plate (it sounds like you have quite a lot, I've been there too and having that extra thing can be quite cumbersome), there is no reason why you have to finish the article and put it under review during the application process. I was working on an article during my application season and simply referenced what it was about, who I was working with and where I intended to submit it. It sends a signal that you're already researching and that you're already socialized into the field enough to know a potentially suitable journal for it.

I'm not sure if you use LaTeX, but I would highly recommend it. You could use something like TexStudio so you can get the ropes of it and then switch to something like Gedit or Notepad and write .tex files there. It sends a good signal, but also I've noticed in my own work it's a good productivity hack. Because it's not a word processer with an interface that looks like a page, and I have it open on full screen, when I write it looks like I wrote less material than in it would look like in a word processer. It then tricks my brain into wanting to do more. I've been able to write entire sections so quickly this way. Of course, your mileage may vary, but it's helped me greatly with my conference paper as of late.

[CarefreeWritingsontheWall]

On 2016-07-25 at 0:50 PM, Determinedandnervous said:

If the article puts too much on your plate (it sounds like you have quite a lot, I've been there too and having that extra thing can be quite cumbersome), there is no reason why you have to finish the article and put it under review during the application process. I was working on an article during my application season and simply referenced what it was about, who I was working with and where I intended to submit it. It sends a signal that you're already researching and that you're already socialized into the field enough to know a potentially suitable journal for it.

I'm not sure if you use LaTeX, but I would highly recommend it. You could use something like TexStudio so you can get the ropes of it and then switch to something like Gedit or Notepad and write .tex files there. It sends a good signal, but also I've noticed in my own work it's a good productivity hack. Because it's not a word processer with an interface that looks like a page, and I have it open on full screen, when I write it looks like I wrote less material than in it would look like in a word processer. It then tricks my brain into wanting to do more. I've been able to write entire sections so quickly this way. Of course, your mileage may vary, but it's helped me greatly with my conference paper as of late.

Cannot reiterate this enough. I find that I can write a document so much quicker in LaTex than in Word, especially when dealing with a ton of figures. Compiling a bibliography through BibTex/LaTex is also a huge time saver.

Also, re: my comment about Stanford's cohort size, it's about 12 according to FP in 2012 (see here: http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/01/03/the-top-10-international-relations-ph-d-rankings/) but my sense from talking to people admitted there (at least 6 this year, though likely a few more), and other faculty, is that their cohort is considerably smaller than say Princeton, Harvard or UPenn, who admit 25+ people.

@Monody That you're trying to push an article through is tight. 4 months is next to impossible to move onto an R&R in any major journal of interest. I would sit on it. With everything on your plate, I would suggest keeping it in the pipeline, but don't force it. Moving to another country - huge time suck. Writing your thesis - even larger time suck. Pair that with GRE prep - which in your case, is really important - and you'll have no time if you want to do those first three things well on top of applications and wrapping up your current program on time. I personally screwed up my MA thesis submission by two months because I opted to co-author a paper, teach, move, and write my thesis at the same time which may affect my graduation timelines. For an MA program, this is less important but you'll need your BA to move on. You'll have six to seven years to learn all of these things and write these papers.

 

 

[Determinedandnervous]

Just to add to @CarefreeWritingsontheWall's remarks, don't sweat it if you can't do it. People go on the actual academic job market without a publication or even an R&R, and it's not totally unheard of for them to get jobs (though this is decreasingly the case).

[Monody]

@Determinedandnervous and @CarefreeWritingsontheWall

Thanks for the feedback and sorry for taking my time responding. I am currently on a seminar that is required for my scholarship and the daily program they organised is keeping me busy.

I know that those things Ive to do as well as those I would like to do encompass quite a bit of work, but I am still worried to waste my chances if I don't at least give it my best until the deadline (specifically after reading the stats of the one person who posted a thread a few days ago). For now, I will prep for the GRE to take it in the beginning of September and finalise the theoretical part of my thesis/writing sample until my library has bought the dataset I requested.

In addition, I will continue to work on my SOP so that I can send it to some of my profs for some feedback. I am currently quite happy with it, since it is quite honest, but Ive the feeling that simply reading it gives away the feeling that I had no better idea and just put down something generic. To keep it simple I wrote about my experience at the research institute which against all advice (shitty pay, low job security; I actually named these) ultimately convinced me that I would really like to spend my life reading, learning, developing new ideas, and at last teaching, just because I deeply enjoy doing just this. I further added a paragraph about my path to the study of civil war as a subject area (security as a difference in kind, benefits for the population, increase in civil wars, passion for understanding the strategic choices in the interaction of the rebels and the government by imagining myself in their situation and analysing why they deviate from my expectations). Certainly, I devoted a fifth or more to the fit component and inserted some parts here and there which related to one specific program, but overall and as I said, it is honest but in its first look and without further knowledge about me (the fact that my description actually fits how I live my life), it really sound generic and "boring". Well, Ive got more weeks to work on it.

But, and now arriving at the topic of the paper, if I have the time I think that I can at least give it a try to further improve my chances. I better try, than spend my time elsewhere and even if I don't finished it in time, I will still be able to do so at a later point. Maybe I can also add it on my CV as a something I am currently working on and intending to publish.

Again thanks.  Listening to the ever more lively debate about accents from the basement, I will take a shower and get ready for bed to start fresh early tomorrow morning. I hope that you'll have a nice weekend.

 

Edited July 29, 2016 by Monody

[Determinedandnervous]

I happen to like honesty. However, pure honesty isn't always the best policy when it comes to stuff like your SOP. Leave out the stuff about your choice being against all advice (not necessary and can rub people the wrong way) and how you deeply love research and teaching (everyone does).

Focus more on your interests, your projects, and you can keep in the stuff about how you arrived at your interests. You should tailor your SOP to every program and show why the program is ideal for you. 

[Monody]

@Determinedandnervous

Thanks as always. I will do the GRE at the beginning of September to be done with it and recently did another practice test (162/166), which I probably can still improve upon.

I also took your advise and rewrote my SoP. It now consists of the following elements in that particular order: 1) very short intro ("Hereby, I apply to ... with the intention to ... in the field of ...), 2) recourse of my interests with a short description of my motivation and how it relates to my previous internships (first, interest in the subject; second, focus on academic instead if policy work), 3) brief summary of my undergraduate studies, what I did on the side and a half sentence on how a particular scholarship helped me to spend more time on academic work; I will also added that I am assisting the prof at my exchange university and initiated a research project with a group of students , 4) mention of the paper I am currently preparing with the note that I intend to submit it for review at the end of this year or the beginning of the next, 5) broad outline of the research interest (naming of the field, the factors, the methodology I intend to use, and the reasons why the work is important, 5) paragraph on how the program will help me (specific cooperations with research centres, interesting courses, and PoI; also named how my work relates to theirs), 6) summary paragraph (e.g. program will help me to produce the kind of work that honours the support I will receive). Comparing it to the previous try, I definitely know what you meant. I intend to add the missing information under point 3 and will then send it the profs which said that they were willing to have a look at it. I will otherwise spend the next weeks writing the fit paragraphs for the other programs and will adapt the SoPs to the specific programs more closely once I will have gotten the necessary feedback on the basic one.

Two days ago, I wrote to the first person of interest to ask whether she will accept grad students in 2017 and will write the other ones when I prepare the SoP for the specific program.

Lastly, University of Pennsylvania recently became one of my favourites especially because of Sambanis and Stanton. I am also having a much closer look at the faculties outside of their offering in method courses and NYU is on a good path to drop out of the universities I intend to apply to.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Monody

[Monody]

Maybe as another update and also including a question:

I arrived at my exchange university a while ago and luckily the prof they with whom I wanted to work with was quite happy about it and also happily surprised that I didn't  intend to get paid. In sum, I can help him with his book project, get research experience, and he will write me a letter of recommendation. Couldn't be happier, I guess. I will also take the GRE in three weeks and will send my statement of purpose to the profs who agreed to have a look at it on Monday.

Regarding the question, I am currently finishing my BA thesis that I intend to use as a writing sample. Written in Latex, it builds a formal model, derives hypotheses, and tests them. The issue is that I seemingly have to reject all my hypotheses, because the results are all insignificant. I will see whether I can get some support from descriptive statistics, but for now it is pretty disappointing, especially because the data collection as well as the work with the database took at least a month of my time. Do you think that this may hurt my application when I hand in a writing sample which does not reach any significant results?

[Warelin]

On 7/22/2016 at 4:12 PM, Monody said:

I checked out OSU and Penn State, as well as the others @CarefreeWritingsontheWall named. I crossed out Chicago and UCLA based on the location (I don't want to get shot or robbed or at least don't want to risk anything unnecessarily), but some of the others are interesting, specifically UMichigan, GWU and OSU. I will have a second look at Penn tomorrow.

I live in Philadelphia. I've spent some time in Chicago. Philadelpia's crime rate is 10.22 per 1,000 residents. Chicago's crime rate is 8.87 per 1,000 residents. Chicago's crime rate still suffers from a misconception of the safety. I've never had any problems while traveling alone. A lot of it has to do with being around of your surroundings. I'd hate to see you eliminate colleges based on a lack of information. A lot of cities have really cleaned up the act and most of the crimes tend to focus in on very specific parts of the city. I'd never travel to North Philadelphia but Northwest Philadelphia (which is about 5-15) minutes away from North Philadelphia is a really safe area. I've wondered as late as midnight without any problems.

[Monody]

9 hours ago, Warelin said:

I live in Philadelphia. I've spent some time in Chicago. Philadelpia's crime rate is 10.22 per 1,000 residents. Chicago's crime rate is 8.87 per 1,000 residents. Chicago's crime rate still suffers from a misconception of the safety. I've never had any problems while traveling alone. A lot of it has to do with being around of your surroundings. I'd hate to see you eliminate colleges based on a lack of information. A lot of cities have really cleaned up the act and most of the crimes tend to focus in on very specific parts of the city. I'd never travel to North Philadelphia but Northwest Philadelphia (which is about 5-15) minutes away from North Philadelphia is a really safe area. I've wondered as late as midnight without any problems.

Thanks for that information. Maybe it is just the media attention, but the recent months were rather frightening regarding Chicago, especially to someone who comes from a country where you simply don't have that kind of violence.