Worth Applying?

[jule]

Hi,

The opportunity costs to applying are high, in my opinion, and would really appreciate any input on whether to apply this season.

I'm currently a senior from a top20 university in the US, double majoring in political science and economics. I have at 3.8+ GPA for both majors and overall, and am writing honors theses in both departments this year. My GRE scores are V158, Q164, AWA 4.5. I've been involved in public service internships in local and state government, worked as a research assistant on campus on and off since freshman year, and have a relatively strong quantitative background. 

 

I wanted to continue my studies in Political Science through a Ph.d program but know this will be a lot of work to apply during the semester.  I also don't think I can retake the GREs, as much as I would like to, for this application season. How does everyone see it being worth it to apply to a couple programs I'm interested with such low GRE scores, not such a perfect GPA, and lack of experience (since I am still just a senior in my undergraduate studies). 

 

Please let me know what you think!

[PoliticalOrder]

The fact that you are asking leads me to believe you are not ready to apply. If you have doubts you can put in the effort, then you probably won't get much results.

Secondly, you seem to not really know exactly what you are doing. Your GRE and GPA are both excellent. Secondly, admission committees don't care about 'experience.' They care about research experience. 

[makingtheleap.back]

I agree withat everything PoliticalOrder said with maybe one exception: withough any published research, the GRE becomes even more important, and from what I've seen in terms of 25-75 percentiles, your verbal is a tad low for the very best programs. 

That said, if you don't think you can put in the work of the applications, you probably can't put in the work of actually completing a PhD. In a world where doctoral completion rates mirror the divorce rate, that's definitely something to consider. Why not get a paid research oriented position for a year or two and take it from there? You'll be older, wiser, and probably better for it. 

[doubledyno]

I agree with what everyone else has said. You're still fairly competitive. Your GRE scores aren't amazing, but they're solid, a 3.8 GPA in your majors is good, and the 2 senior honors theses look good on an application. However, with the GRE scores not being amazing and little research experience, the other parts of your application become very important and you'll have to put in a lot of work on them. I was in a similar boat (My GRE was 99% verbal, 60% quant, and 99%writing), and I think the main reason I was successful was that I spent more time on my SOP than I did on my senior honors thesis.

If you don't think you can put in the work on other parts of your application to make up for your weaknesses or retake the GRE this semester, I think you'd be better off applying further down the line, when you can either get some more experience or improve your GRE. Which is a totally fair option by the way - applying the fall of my senior year was incredibly stressful. It worked out for me in the end, but I think it would've been better for my mental health to apply this year.