One year out- best steps forward to improve application and help with fit

[Ellie75]

Hi all,

After careful consideration, I've decided that it likely makes way more sense for me to apply for PhD programs next year rather than in this upcoming cycle. Given that I have one year to improve my application, I was hoping someone could give me recommendations on what to do to improve my chances.  

I'm currently researching programs for fit, so any help in that department would be great as well!

Here's where I stand currently:

Type of Undergrad Institution: High ranking for international affairs, but low ranking otherwise
Major(s)/Minor(s): BA International Affairs, BS Economics dual major
Undergrad GPA: 3.85 (summa cum laude + PBK)
Type of Grad: N/A
Grad GPA: N/A
GRE: V169 / Q160 / A 5.5
Any Special Courses: Summer econometrics at an Ivy, year abroad at Oxford with good 'grades'/feedback, coursework in command and transition economies, development econ, political theory, and politics of Russia and the FSU
Letters of Recommendation: 1 from a professor I've worked with for a few years now, I've continued working with him especially from a data analysis angle while pursuing my career, should be a very strong letter

1 probably from a work supervisor who has seen me in a research, presentation, and analytics capacity

1 TBD - could ask a professor from undergrad, but it would probably be a meh letter, could also ask an adviser who is not a tenured professor for a LOR, which would likely be a great letter but not as research-based
Research Experience: Co-authoring a paper, possibly two with my first LOR professor, hopefully will have them under review this winter, co-organized and presented at a research workshop last year, hopefully 1-2 conference presentations this winter (having those done and the paper(s) under review is the main reason I'm postponing applying until next year)

Also, a bunch of op-eds/news-level research coverage... don't know if that helps
Teaching Experience: Only in terms of organizing/leading trainings for work
Subfield/Research Interests: IR + IPE, regionally very interested in Russia and FSU, but have a background in terrorism study, super fascinated by ties between political economy, corruption, and terrorism
Other: I currently work at a big 4 firm in consulting on a research-oriented counter-terrorism project. On the one hand it's not publishable research, but on the other hand my work in the private sector has vastly expanded my understanding of quantitative modeling and helped me gain skills I had no exposure to in undergrad, like presenting, training others, and programming.

 

My big concerns are figuring out my last LOR (would love to get an MA to solve that, but not keen on the price tag), figuring out how to pitch my years in the private sector, and possibly retaking the GRE if it's worth it.  I'm trying to get more involved with research opportunities in the private sector while I'm here, but I'm not sure how that will be seen, since it will still be more policy-oriented than strictly academic.

Any advice on improvements, program fit, and the application process in general will be greatly appreciated.

Edited July 8, 2016 by ellenel

[PizzaCat93]

Can't help with fit because I'm not in IR, but you have a very solid application, imho. You should definitely apply to several top-10s and then some top-20s and 30s. It's a real drag and time suck, but you really just have to sit down and look through the faculty at the schools you're interested in and then make a list of who you'd like to work with. 

Why are you waiting another year exactly? If it's just because you think your application isn't strong enough, I think you'd be perfectly fine applying this year. If it's for personal reasons, then by all means, wait. 

[Ellie75]

Thanks for your help!

I mostly was thinking I'd wait a year so the paper and the conferences would be for sure finished. We haven't submitted the paper yet so I'm not positive when it'll actually be under review (the prof seems pretty confident we can get it in somewhere this winter). I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes between a soon-to-be submitted paper and a verified and under-review paper though. The preliminary findings have already been published in some blogs/non-peer reviewed form, but about half the interesting bits are in the methodology sections.

The idea of trying to escape consulting a year earlier is pretty tempting though...

[Determinedandnervous]

Considering the vast majority of people only have a thesis, the fact that you have something either under review or forthcoming puts you way ahead of most of the competition. If you can use it as a writing sample this year, that would be great.

EDIT: I just remembered - if it's co-authored you can't use it as a writing sample. However, you can link to it in your CV if you upload it somewhere like SSRN.

Edited July 9, 2016 by Determinedandnervous

[Ellie75]

Yeah, I'm hoping to link to some of the initial coverage/op-eds we wrote based on it as well + we're hoping to put our dataset online in a fun navigable format because it's way more fun to play with and more insightful when you can mess with it in an interactive way rather than in a static graph form like will have to be in the paper.