How did you choose where to apply?

[Scalia]

My advisor wants me to bring him a list of schools that I want apply to broken down into groups of reaches, targets, and somewhat safeties. How did you comprise a list of schools you applied to and how should I start researching schools that might be good fits without a gre score?

Any advice for the noob is appreciated.

-Scalia

[curufinwe]

My system was the following:

I have taken out the US News Ranking and separated it into 4 tiers: 1-12 as first tier, 13-25 as the second tier, 26-50 as the third tier and the 50+ as the last tier. I wanted to apply one from the first, three from the 2nd and 3rd and 2 from the last tier as a safety.

-p.s.: do not use US News rankings. Use the Chingos article as a tier reference. I would have done that if I was aware of the fact that US News did reputational surveys as their methodology.

Then, I checked every school according to their environment and their fit. For the location, I gave them a score over 5. (NYC got 5 whereas Indiana Bloomington got 1 because the city has 70.000 inhabitants whereas the school as 40.000 students!!!! I like big cities )

For the fit of the faculty to my research interests, I gave a score over 10.

Then, after I was done, I eliminated schools that got below 5 from the "fit" and below 3 from the "location". Then the highest ranking schools from my tiers (according to the number I would choose) made it to my list of applications

DO NOT just look at the website and choose your fit. Try to e-mail schools and the professors you choose about whether what you study is OK for them and if you should really apply. Sometimes, what is on that website is not the reflection of what is really going on there.

Yeah, I had to invent a methodology to apply! Gotta remind you, been getting rejected one by one.

[carrar]

I went to the APSA website:

http://www.apsanet.org/content_6947.cfm

Then I customized a spreadsheet with my primary fields, subfields, and special interests, as well as city, funding, and other notes. Then I had a drop down menu next to each with Yes/No/Maybe. I visited every website (seriously, every one)--some are easy to say yes or no to. Then with all the maybes, I checked program descriptions and faculty bios if they had all or most of what I wanted to study and narrowed them down further. Lots of winnowing, but I ended up with an okay list.

Additionally, for books or articles that were particularly interesting or influential, I looked at the authors'/editors' bios to also help me find if I overlooked a school. I think I added one to my list this way.

Here's an example of a VERY detailed spreadsheet: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mooreks/downloads.html I didn't go this detailed, but it is a good example.

[DJ_CA]

My biggest piece of advice (that I wish I knew when I started the process) is to consider subfields rather than departments at large when you're looking at programs and considering their reputations. Sure, a Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc. degree is probably going to put you in a good position in the job market regardless of your subfield, but beyond that, it gets more complex. The US News subfield rankings (posted generously on the polisci forum here by APGradApplicant) are not a bad place to start, but do be sure to investigate and consider the research being done at those programs and how they match up with your interests. The point about considering placement is also very important.

Another piece of advice a professor gave me that seems like it was really helpful was to pick out a few of the top ranked, but bigger, programs at public universities because they tend to have more spots to offer. (He suggested looking at schools in the Big 10 conference in particular, because their departments are big but often regarded just as highly, if not more so, than a lot of pre-eminent private schools.) I'm not sure where you're going to undergrad right now, but for most of us who aren't/weren't lucky enough to go to Ivy League schools, this is more important than you might initially think. Consider that a program at a private university might only offer 20 acceptances for an incoming class, then break that down by subfield... Meaning that on average, only 4 acceptances will be given for applicants of your subfield. Then consider that applicants from Ivy/Ivy+ schools will have a number of significant advantages over you... I'm not telling you that you don't have a chance at those programs, but rather that you might have a significantly better chance at a Top-10 public program than at a sub-Top-10 private one just because of the numbers.

Case in point (for both of my suggestions): I'm excited to be in at three top ten programs for my subfield for next year. They are all larger departments at public universities. I seem to have been rejected from NYU and Penn, which are good programs, but not as highly regarded for my subfield. And, had I followed my first piece of advice, I wouldn't have spent the $90 app fee to NYU anyway, because it wasn't a great fit to begin with. (Location is important, but don't let it get too far in the way of other factors.)

Good luck!

[glasses]

My advisor wants me to bring him a list of schools that I want apply to broken down into groups of reaches, targets, and somewhat safeties. How did you comprise a list of schools you applied to and how should I start researching schools that might be good fits without a gre score?

Any advice for the noob is appreciated.

-Scalia

I started with a list of authors of books and articles that I admired and then I found out where they worked. Thus began the list. Good luck!

[poli90]

I focused on subfield ranking, placement, and who I wanted to work with. Theory is different than most programs in that the faculty is much smaller and departments can have verry different approaches. I applied broadly without consideration of the more intangible factors like location, as I think its best to make that decision after you have offers and not before (assuming paying for the applications isn't a problem).

[anxiousapplicant]

I'm geographically limited for a variety of reasons, so I just chose a radius for the greater metropolitan area I live in, found all the schools within it, and then applied only to those that offered what I wanted.

Edited February 17, 2010 by anxiousapplicant

[ladedodaday]

I did the same thing as Rossiya; I looked through the top 25 programs and selected all programs that had relevant faculty members. Then, I narrowed down the list, removing schools in bad locations/inconsistent funding. After this, I added a couple schools outside the top 25 because they had extremely strong programs in my specialty.

DJ_CA makes a very important point though. The rankings say absolutely nothing about how difficult a program is to get into. For example, it is much easier to get accepted to UCSD (over 20% acceptance rate and ranked 7th) than Brown (less than 5% acceptance rate, but ranked 46th). So, when deciding which schools are safeties/reaches/etc., make sure to pay attention to acceptance rates (or size of program/number of applicants), not ranking.

As a final point, I disagree with curufinwe. All rankings have their purpose: the USNWR rankings are the best indicator of a department is perceived by its peers, while the Chingos ranking is the best representation of how schools place at R1s. Neither tells you which department is better for you, but both are useful for looking at a department in greater depth.

[catchermiscount]

My current officemate once made a great suggestion on here. I don't know whether he thought it up or heard it from somebody else who's really smart, but here goes:

Consider the political science scholarship that you like, particularly the work by people that are still active in the business. If they're assistant professors or youngish associate professors, find out where they got their PhDs, and add them to your list for consideration. If they're more advanced associates or fulls, add the places where they currently work to your list for consideration. That's a great way to get a good first cut.

[gsams]

I read a lot of papers over the past two years doing thesis research. I marked where I was hearing good stuff from. I looked at where they got PhD's. Then I looked at where they are. That established a few contacts (GWU, Berkeley, Nebraska, Princeton, WashU, UMSL). I have a really mixed variety of schools, but I have my reasons for every one of them. The schools I have had the least in common with are the ones that rejected me. This is what I was told to do. My advisor is an emeritus here (IU) and has been incredibly helpful. He has given me his pick for the future and why (I won't list it for obvious reason). My other reader for my thesis has a colleague at another university that was interested in what I was doing, too. I am just really hoping that ONE accepts me. I have EXCELLENT LOR's, my GRE could be better, and my GPA is almost a 4.0, so that helps. I have extensive abroad experience and conference experience, too. Which also is to my benefit.

I just hope one takes me!

[tomorrows verse]

Talk to any profs you know already (particularly if they are within the subfield you want to study), tell them your research interests and ask if they know anyone who works on similar topics. I think one of the most useful things to do is just look up journal articles and books about topics you like, glance over them (unless you have incredible amounts of free time and can read all of them) and make note of some professors who are writing about things you want to write about and find out where they are.

I (and most of the folks on here) cannot stress enough the importance of applying to top ranked schools, both overall and within your subfield. Look at placements--not just the placements listed on the website, email the department and ask if you can have a detailed list of placements from the past few years.

I'll probably be doing this all over again next fall (I'm 0/3 so far, and not very optimistic about my chances at the rest), and I wish I had some of the advice from this site before I applied last fall. There are a lot of helpful folks around here, and I'm grateful for all of them.

[qazwerty]

wow, everyone was so thorough. I just told my professors what I was looking for and they gave me a list of schools off the top of their heads.

[tomorrows verse]

I did pretty much the same qazwerty, I'm just telling the OP to do what I wish I had done.

Another thing to consider: check out potential professors' websites (if they have one) or email them to find out what type of research they are doing now and also if they are planning to stay at the institution they are currently at. I had very compatible research interests with a professor at Syracuse, sent him an email only to find out that he was leaving for American Univ next fall. Also, just because a professor did work on something once in their career does not necessarily mean they are still pursuing that topic today, so check what their current projects are to find the best fits for you.

[curufinwe]

Haha, seems like you guys were lucky. When I asked my professor as to where I should apply since I study this and that, "well, go and check the websites of the schools". Great help!

[Scalia]

I'm still trying to comprise a list of schools to apply to and I was wondering what is more important, the overall rank of the institution or how well the faculty's research interests align with my own. For example, although Georgetown or Rice is ranked much lower than WUSTL or Cornell, they have quite a few faculty members that I would like to work. Also, when you click on Georgetown's website they don't have any Americanists looking for jobs. I guess I'm having a hard time measuring the strength of programs.

[curufinwe]

On 2/23/2010 at 11:48 PM, Scalia said:

I'm still trying to comprise a list of schools to apply to and I was wondering what is more important, the overall rank of the institution or how well the faculty's research interests align with my own. For example, although Georgetown or Rice is ranked much lower than the WUSTL or Cornell, they have quite a few faculty members that I would like to work. Also, when you click on Georgetown's website they don't have any Americanists looking for jobs. I guess I'm having a hard time measuring the strength of programs.

DO NOT do that. FIRST, have a list of the fit schools for you. Even if you were a genius, a school will not accept you if you are not a good fit for them. So that's number one.

Number two, DO NOT really listen to the rankings A LOT. Just make a list of school your research interests fit, and try to factor in other issues like funding, or location (if you care about this). In the end, you can eliminate few by saying "whoa, I probably don't even have a shot at X" or "what would I even do with a phd from Y???". You know, the obvious ones. It has been said over and over again on this website. Brown and Georgetown (the two schools I stupidly applied to) have VERY VERY VERY bad acceptance rates and are very hard to get in. So it does not really matter if they are at the bottom of the list.

[natofone]

Here's an example of a VERY detailed spreadsheet: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mooreks/downloads.html I didn't go this detailed, but it is a good example.

Ha, I used the spreadsheet approach too, but mine is insanely more detailed than the one you linked. It really helps to organize things.

[curiousgeorge84]

Because my husband makes the money that will support us while I do my PhD, I was confined to commuting distance, which unfortunately only allowed my to apply to some of the top 7 and then 48 and up. No medium ranked schools, which I probably could have gotten into = ( I couldn't apply to NYU or Stonybrook because the programs were too far from anything I wanted to study. I then found schools that had professors focusing on my region and chose 6, the number of applications I could afford. However, if you aren't confined to an area, I suggest choosing reach, level, and safety schools that have professors focusing on the same topics or regions in which you are interested. Also, check out their placement rates and where they are placing.

[readeatsleep]

I focused on subfield ranking, placement, and who I wanted to work with. Theory is different than most programs in that the faculty is much smaller and departments can have verry different approaches. I applied broadly without consideration of the more intangible factors like location, as I think its best to make that decision after you have offers and not before (assuming paying for the applications isn't a problem).

I agree with Foucault that one should apply broadly in terms if things like location, but I wish I had not applied to broadly over all. There are a few schools I should not have applied to because they are a bad fit (Princeton is the most obvious in my case, but also Columbia and Cornell).

I would start with the top 10-15 institutions in your subfield, then take rossiya's advice and make sure you can find at least two professors you would want to work with. And be honest with yourself - if you find yourself stretching to find a second compatible interest, chances are the school isn't a great fit. Ideally, you would have 3+ professors who fit your research, not one and a half.

Edited February 27, 2010 by readeatsleep