PhD Political Science Profile Eval. Please

[iracuvucari]

Hi,

I am an applicant in the 2016-2017 cycle for a PhD in Political Science. I chose my programs by faculty interest (nationalism studies/ethnosymbolism/Russian studies). If anyone can evaluate my profile and give some advice, I'd really appreciate it. 

Undergrad: Top 50 National -- Public school in the South

Major: BA in Government/Russian Studies

Undergrad GPA: 3.3-3.4 from a community college; 3.83 (probably higher when my marks come out) from my main institution. Gov GPA: 3.9 Russian GPA: 3.8

GRE: 161 V/147 Q/ 5.0 (I know the Q is bad--my biggest concern)

Experience: President/founder of a polisci club, editor of an undergrad law review (weird), RA for arch. engineering (studying Russian buildings in Russian [for the language skills]), study abroad in Moscow for a summer, and an understudy to a Political Theory PhD student (have frequented conferences and such). I have proficiency in Russian 

SOP:  It is pretty decent. 2 pages, covers all of my interests and motivations. 

Writing sample: I have one quantitative piece on the rise of the far-right and anti-Romani violence (I submitted it for a poster presentation at MPSA and some symposium and am waiting to hear back).  and/or a qualitative piece on my actual ethnosymbolist interests. Both are around 20 pages. 

Recommendations: 1 professor of Russian, 1 applied-research methods in polisci professor, 1 from my over-study (mentor?), 1 well-known Russian studies professor. All of the know me very well and can attest to my proficiency in the subject matter. 

Publication: none

Presentations: none but pending acceptance to those two stated above...

Programs: BU, BC, Georgetown (PhD Gov/MA Russian), UMich (Reach), GW, and UPenn

Field: Political Science -> Comparative Politics -> Nationalism Studies -> Ethnosymbolism | Modern Political Theory | Russian/East European/ Eurasian studies

I am mainly concerned about my low Q on the GRE (But it also must be said that the range of my research is all qualitative), lack of presentations/publications, and my community college GPA.  So, I'd love some feedback. Thanks in advance

 

 

[Determinedandnervous]

It seems like you're equal parts comparative and theorist. If the department sees you more as a theorist, then your low quant score, while a red flag, may not be a deal-breaker (at least with most of the departments you're applying to). If they see you as a comparativist, it's likely to hurt you. However, the rest of your file is up to speed and interesting, so you do have that going for you.