PHD Political Science Profile Evaluation (Low GREs, strong research Interests)

[swanblack]

Hi all,

I am a non-native English speaker and GREs are my major concern when it comes to applying to reasonably reputable programs in the US. Although I have read somewhere on university websites and on this forum that professors tend to frown less upon Verbal scores from non-natives than they generally do from natives, it is not clear if they really are lenient and how far that can go for a non-native PHD applicant. To be more precise, I have the following profile. 

Undergrad: An internationally obscure but locally reputable university in my country (South East Asia).

Major: Bachelors of arts and law

Undergrad GPA: 3.4/4.0

Grad School: same as undergrad

Grad Program: LLM

Grad GPA: 4.0/4.0

Grad school: Top 5 university in UK

Grad program: MSc. IR

Grad GPA: 3.4/4.0

Quant Prep: Stat & Probability (A+); Linear Algebra (A); Calculus up to multi-variable (A); Economics, micro-macro (B)

GREs: 1st attempt: 155V, 161Q, 4.0W; 2nd attempt: 158V, 158Q, 4.0W

Letters of Recommendation: Mixed from law and IR faculty.

SOP: Hoping it to be good one

Writing Sample: MS. Thesis

Publication: Couple of op-eds in an online magazine-although no journal article published yet.

Presentations: one presentation in UK while another in USA

Teaching: 1 year as lecturer at a public sector university in my country. 

Fellowships/Scholarship: British Government scholarship to study MSc. IR at a UK university; Couple of grants to participate in short course/conferences in 2-3 countries. 

Programs I'm Looking At: Tentative list (Stanford, Yale, Princeton, USC, SUNY-Albany, CU-Boulder, GMU, Georgetown, Emory, UMD, Minnesota)

Field: IR theory and nuclear proliferation

Questions: In response to my email, a few POI at top programs said, "they are not on admission committee but look forward to working with me after I get into their program".  Should I regard their comments as a positive sign and send applications to these top-tier programs even if I know my profile is not as competitive as their admitted cohort normally have? What programs  o you suggest I should strike down or add in the list that could be more compatible with my profile and worth the investment of time and resources? Anything I missed?

I w'd appreciate your comments and suggestions

Edited November 9, 2016 by swanblack
typo

[resDQ]

You should regard their responses as being professional. They don't want to be negative in case you are admitted, but they don't want to bring your hopes up in case you are rejected. The Cubs won and Trump won...I think you should apply to a wide range of programs as you never know.

[swanblack]

@resDQ thank you for the comments. Yes, I agree. Perhaps that's the only way to maximize the odds of admission and F aid.